Thanks, Bob. I do see dots - but not near the notification area. It's in the quick launch area and task bar (which shows I have firefox opened) - just to the right of the start menu. So thanks to you instructions, I was able to drag it all back to the bottom. Good to know that keep task bar on top means showing. Now I'm down to just one problem. the notification icons are displaying in three rows. These rows are taking up 2 regular sized bars. I can get the start, firefox open browser tab and quick launch icons on the top line - but I can't make the bottom line disappear because the notifcation icons are taking up 3 small rows. There are no dots there - and I can't find a way to collapse them into a single line. Also - interestingly, the whole reason i started this venture was to get the safely remove hardware icon back. Even though I went to properties - and selected customize, and always show safely remove hardware icon, the icon is still not showing. And the clock is now displaying on three lines as well. Thanks. Lynn.

Unfortunately, DA's solution didn't work... zep, I read the information at your link; and I officially have information overload. : ) Can't... do... it... I'm not really sure what to do. Is it because of the network connection? I see it happened to cg, too. I believe the icon didn't disappear until about a week after I set up the network. And I don't know if this is related; but my internet connection keeps getting cut off constantly when I'm using my laptop (this started a few days ago). Grrr. I think I may try something I read (about the cut-off internet connection) - and that is - shut off both computers; and unpower the modem and router, and repower them up in order of modem, then router (I have to read the instructions again : P )... That probably has nothing to do with the volume icon on the desktop (which ran like a charm for more than 5 years until I set up my network : / )

Kudzu and Ravencajun, I just went to the forum to find your reply and answer it, and I don't even see my question let alone anyone's reply. Cannot figure what's going on except NOW I see that the replies on the forum are dated October 15th which was 2 days ago, just like my clock which is 2 hours ago. I opened the time adjust and DID see it was set in the wrong time zone, but when I set it for Pacific it said the time was now 10:10. I now see something else on that same adjustment site that may be wrong, but since I have no idea what it means, I'm afraid to change it. It has to do with Internet time. It's set for Time-n.w.-nist.gov. This seems to be getting very complicated. Update, now I see the current forum posts/replies so maybe things are correcting themselves??? Thanks, BarbB

lotodig- Just so you're more confident, I've re-booted my computer many times over the years using the technique I've described. Several times, for example, my cursor has frozen so I couldn't navigate to do anything, such as re-boot normally. I didn't always know why some problem was happening, but I did know that the power button re-boot would not make anything worse. Usually the only time you can have a problem is if you decide to do a re-boot/re-start of any kind in the middle of some major activity where you are making changes to the computer, such as installing updates or doing a defragmentation. However, in the other 99.9% of cases, all you're doing is cleaning out the RAM of some unexplained little problem and starting fresh.