Well, part of the mystery is solved, I think. A little brother of a friend, said little brother in classes at college learning how to do all of this stuff, appears to have helped himself and created a user account for himself on that laptop. I am sure, in the process, he accidentally deleted or hid a bunch of files, etc. which my dau. cannot find, including the start button and task bar. I'll bet anything, Bill, he ticked that auto-hide button.

I had her log off, in task manager, under his user name, then boot up. The start button and task bar flashed before her very eyes and then went away again. She is calling the little brother as I type to give him a piece of her mind, my mind and pick his brain to figure out what in the aitch he did. And, my family wonders why I am SO picky about who uses my computer!

Anyone have any idea how we can find the control panel without using the start button/menu? Is there a way to force the computer into C:etc. and find it that way? We need to get in there and redo the user accounts and check on the task bar auto-hide, etc.

Thanks!!