> The problem went away when I rebooted (for another reason), but this is the
> third time I've encountered this situation. Basically, a task bar button is
> the icon that appears in the task bar for each of the running programs. This
> morning, the task bar had duplicate buttons for each my running programs.

If you right-click on the taskbar and select "Properties" then the Taskbar and
Start Menu Properties dialog box should show up. Select the "Taskbar" tab and
make sure "Group similar taskbar buttons" is checked.

Hth,

Mike