ghost boxes in task bar

I need help to get rid of blank boxes that accumulate on the left side of my task bar. When you click them they disappear; then they accumulate again. Any help appreciated.

 

They seem to be left-overs of Start-Apps that should go to the tray. Can you restore a registry from before the problem arose ?
regards

 

Thanks for the reply merlin but I am not sure what you mean by restoring a registry.

 

Those "ghost" icons on the taskbar in Win98 is a common, known problem and Microsoft seems to be unconcerned about fixing it.

Microsoft is now saying it has something to do with a Win98 hotfix made available in 2000 (in March of that year...I think) and that uninstalling that hotfix will get rid of the blank icons. However, I had ghost icons appearing long before the year 2000, so I find their explanation a little too convenient.

At any rate, while I was searching the MS Knowledge Base for the exact hotfix they say you can remove to get rid of the ghost icon problem, the MS KB search page suddenly became unavailable.

If you can get to the ;kbhowto]MS KB Search Page, do a search for "taskbar icon "...which is how I found out about the hotfix solution.

 

Thanks Miz I think that will fix it.

 

wmfrench--Please give us the URL for the fix. I saw nothing in the MSKB's.

 

I found a resolution in MSKB article 280722. Also check article 180478.