taskbar IE toolbar went crazy!

Out of the clear blue, my taskbar went crazy...

by defaut it was in the "always on top" mode. Now it is "always on top" ONLY while viewing the desktop. When I go to IE then it will disappear. I go to start/settings/taskbar & Start Menu/ the box for always on top is checked...

the other thing is that the IE toolbar changed....the appearance and icons all changed.....not the symbals for home/favorites, etc all appear. Before I had it spelled out in letters....what's going on?

I shut down & restarted..didn't help...

 

found some things...

played around some more with it, somehow under the view button the "full screen" and "hide status bar" became enabled...
now it looks close to how it was....

 

You may have been hit by a rogue cookie from a **** or advertising site which changed your IE settings to force a full screen. By getting rid of the buttons and toolbar, they also make it harder for you to close the windows.