Lost bits

[Suff]

Is it worth doing a winver and seeing if the machine is stuck on an old version of Windows?

Press the windows key and r at the same time.

In the dialogue box enter winver and press enter.

Tell us what the version number is.

This kind of stuff tends to happen when Windows updates are partially installed and pending completion. Constant failure like this is not really normal and Windows updates messes with the icon cache.

[JanB]

You lost me on the second line WM, sorry.

It seems to come and go when I get this weird msn news thingy, which appeared out of nowhere.
~
I'll manage it

[Workingman]

Aha, now you're talking - MSN eh?

Some time ago this was added to the taskbar and also Edge and Chrome. When it is active it can scrunch up your taskbar icons.

Right click an empty space on the Taskbar and look for News and Interests. Click on the expand arrowhead and in the new pop-up opt to Turn Off.

Now go to settings and click Apps. Show All and scroll to Microsoft News and toggle it to off, or in the search bar try Notifications and play with those settings.

If it is in Edge or Chrome it will be somewhere in their settings but I am not sure where as I do not use them.

[JanB]

Done the first bit and it's gorn, thank you.

[Suff]

Just as a question here, did the Taskbar double up? I've noticed when I overlaod the taskbar it starts to double up. Not that it happens much and you can scroll it up and down, but I have seen it on other machines where there are a zillion apps open/pinned and the taskbar is full. Or the screen resolution is so poor that there is virtually no icon space.

I put my taskbar on the side as there is always more space width wise than height wise. I also add quick launch as a toolbar and keep an absolute minimum of apps running and therefore on the taskbar.

Also Search, TaskView, People and News and interests are OFF. Always.

As you can see it is how I like to work. Then again my screen is HUGE. But it also works fine on smaller screens, I've been using it like that for more than a decade.

[JanB]

I've got file explorer, lenovo and windows on mine, on the left and date, time, signal strength, battery and a couple of other things on my right. It's never doubled up.

Thanks both xx