Desktop Nuisance

During the last few days, without any recollection of what I may have been
doing to bring this on, icons of 'My Computer's' primary contents plus the
ones for Printers, Control Panel and more show up in a greyed out bar across
the top of the viewing screen. If I move the mouse to the far left, a similar
bar shows up vertically on the left side of the screen. If I move the pointer
away from the left screen margin, the bar disappear. The top bar is still
visible. I could have restored the Registry, but I hesitated, thinking that
the nuisance, sooner or later would go away, but not so. Is there a way to
eliminate this nuisance without restoring the Registry?