i meant to put this one as the link help me out peeps http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/jeff104/taskbar.jpg
Don't know why it would be like that, but right click on the task bar, and uncheck "Lock taskbar" to see if it makes a difference.
If you wanna hide those icons then right click on your task bar/properties/then check the box that says "Hide inactive icons" at the bottom. I really don't know what else your looking for but hope that helps.
its not the icons but its that gap betweeen the power ican and the notebook looking thing on this link http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/jeff104/taskbar.jpg
Not had much use of Vista. Has the icon always been like this or has it happend recently? If it has been like it for a while it could be the Icon it self that wasn't cropped properly when it was put forward for use by the Designer. You could also check with friends to see if their icons do the same. Other than that, i'm not quite sure. Good Luck!
I'm not to sure, i'm sorry to say. However if it is annoying you could hide inactive icons like GrandpaBW said. But when you do look to see if a customise button highlights, if so click it and it should bring up a box of all the icons in the task tray. Look through the list and find the icon causing the gap and click on it. it should then give you a drop down bar that you can scroll through and select always hide. Click ok and apply and that should hide the icon and hopefully the gap.