Missing icons on XP

[Cetti]

My new machine is working well except it's a bit annoying minimizing windows to access the task bar and system tray. Everything is there on startup, they just disappear when I go online.Is this just peculiar to XP Home, or is there something I can do to make them stay at the bottom  permanently? Thank you.

[hertz]

Put the cursor in an empty part of the Taskbar and right-click. Select Properties. Ensure the option "Keep the Taskbar on top of other Windows" is ticked. Also ensure "Auto-Hide the Taskbar" is not ticked

[Cetti]

Thank you so much hertz - it's appeared! I've clicked everywhere else except the Taskbar - I would never have thought of that :-)

[Cetti]

Sorry. forgot your stars!