Taskbar won't autohide

Rt click Start > Properties > Taskbar
Autohide is ticked
Taskbar on top is ticked

These should work in concert, but not today.
Then when I untick and retick them it rearranges my desktop icons.
In the end the taskbar locks.
I've made no changes, and this has never occurred before?
I could restart, but that's the lazy fix.

What's the deal?

 

Hello chas berlin,

Use quicklaunch by any chance? Try this trick as miz explains it has worked more than once for many:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-xp/30497-windows-xp-taskbar-wont-hide.html#post156802

 

Thx Ann,
I'm on another machine right now. Will try it later.
CB

 

Ann,
Strangely the problem corrected itself.
Appears that one of the open windows was causing the taskbar to hang. Ever heard of this happening before?
I did go ahead and enable and then disable quick launch. (Never use the thing. Just an MS gimmick to me.)

 

Hi chas berlin,

Actually I have. It is usually caused by a fight between a program window that has an option set or defaulted to stay on top and toolbar's struggle to also stay on top. If such a struggle occurs a fix around was to reduce the window size and use the arrow key to resize it as large as you wished making sure to leave enough space for the toolbar to rise should it need to.

(A snippet quote from a post from the archives (Thank you jdii1215 )

As for the your magic fix, windows does this a lot just to keep you on on your toes. The quicklauch trick was just a way of forcing a slow or fussy user setting to refresh. It makes windows look, see and set/reset your preference ie; your toolbar preference. Sometimes windows gets alzheimers.

 

Thx Ann, Now I have the rest of the story, as they say.