right click on the toolbar and goto properties.
make sure "auto-hide the taskbar" is unchecked. This will stop the task bar from disappering when the mouse is not hovering over it.
if that option is unchecked already, make sure the option "always on top" is checked so the taskbar remains on top of every other window.
Edited, Sat Dec 24 10:42:20 2005 by Frakkor