On the bottom right hand corner of the screen there are a bunch of icons whic you can hide/display by using the little double chevron. Somehow I managed to make this disappear so that this feature can't be used anymore. What have I done wrong ??????
Uh.. are you saying that you lost the little button that expands and contracts the active/inactive icons?... If you are just right click on the task bar and select properties. A window should appear and check off the "Hide Inactive Icons" box.