I have re posted the problem below in the hope smeone new migh have an idea.
I have just got two new, to me, PC's, both with XP professional but two different CD's, one for the Dell and one for the Compaq.
The Dell system works perfectly, my applications when I run them appear in the task bar at the bottom next to the quick launch items, and stay there when I minimise them.
On the Compaq system I can not get the applications to show in the taskbar unless I switch off the quick launch toolbar and in adition I can not see all the items that are in the right hand corner of the task bar, I have to unlock it and expand it upwards to see them all.
Presumably I am doing something stupid but would appreciate some advice.
