The chevron only appears if something active is hidden. Only running
programs appear next to the time. So no chevron means they are all showing.

Start - Control Panel - Taskbar & Start Menu - Taskbar - Customise
"Louise" wrote in message
...
I need help with XP. Yesterday the little "chevron"
button in the taskbar disappeared and it would no longer
minimize and move back and forth. I gave up trying to fix
it last night and it was still missing this morning when
I turned the computer on. Two hours later it magically
reappeared and started working again.

Just a short time ago I adjusted the volume in the task
bar and the 'chevron' button went missing again and the
icons appear to be locked into place again.

I've gone into appearance, themes, customize and when I
click on the arrow to get a 'drop down menu' there IS no
drop down menu. The drop down menu should say something
like "always hide", "hide when inactive" but there's no
drop down menu there!!!! Can anyone help?