Self Widened Taskbar?

Hi. I have 2 friends with laptops with XP Pro on them and the taskbar has doubled it's width by itself???, or some one has clicked some thing & not saying.
One was away on holiday's and he said it just happened & the other was loading programs on the one he just got & it has done the same .
Any help with instructions how to get it back to normal would be great, you can't just drag it down and it is unlocked.
They are both Acer's
Thanks Guru's . Cheers Des.

 

Thanks Steve will give it a try this arvo, Cheers Des.

 

Hi, Just let you know we fixed the taskbar, it would not let you drag it down only up. so I unchecked Quick Launch and it went smaller, then rechecked it and locked it, seems Ok,
also hid unused icons on the righthand side,
thanks again, Des.