please help... little tray arrow annoyance

[npfanz]

Recently whenever I click on the arrow to display hidden icons in the tray a dotted line box remains around the arrow until I click on something else (see screenshot). I think all desktop icons are like this, when you click on them once they keep that stupid dotted line outline so that you know what you clicked on last (for those of us with incredibly short memories?!?!). I personally don't like that those ugly little outlines appear on anything (like hyperlinks, after I click on them, again maybe a subtle reminder of which page my lightning fast 56k is in the process of loading in case I can't remember where it is I wanted to go). I think the icons and hyperlinks are supposed to get those dotted outlines, but not my little arrow. That is just annoying, it looks stupid to click on it and have it immediately highlighted with a box of periods. If anyone has any suggestions on how to change this please let me know. I don't know what it is I could have done that would make it do this, It never has in the past, it just started today. I have changed to a slew of different visual styels, and the box remains even with the ms luna theme. The only theme it doesn't seem to have an effect on is watercolor/windows classic because those arrows change color when you click on them.

Please help even though this sounds like a stupid little thing, it just gets really annoying.

 

[Iceman]

lock the taskbar

right click the taskbar, choose lock the taskbar

 

[npfanz]

It is locked, it does it whether or not its locked. And I just notieced it makes my stupid start button get that outline too! What happened to my xp???

 

[Iceman]

reboot, and see if it goes away, have u installed anything recently?

 

[npfanz]

Thanks for all your quick replies, thats what makes these forums so cool, I really appreciate it. I did reboot a bunch of times, and that never fixed it (nor have I installed anything recently). I did fix it though, but I can't understand why.

In the appearance tab of Display Properties under effects there is an option that lets you "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key." Well I prefer old windows style so I unchecked that to get those underlines back. Apparently if you want those underlines its like you are always pressing Alt and therefore something always has to have that stupid bullet highlighting. I should have realized the two were related, but they don't really seem to have anything to do with each other.

Oh well, maybe someone else will run into this problem and I'll be able to help them.

Thanks for the suggestions Iceman!

 

[Iceman]

yes glad you replied with the correct answer, maybe somebody else will have the same problem down the road.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Looks like you are using some sort of hacker to alter the task bar colour. Try resetting to default & see what happens.