I run XP. In the good old days I could position my cursor over an icon in the  
quick launch toolbar and a bit of text would pop up and tell me which
program was associated with that icon.  The text would float over the
toolbar.  Recently something happened and now the text pops up behind
the toolbar which of course makes it impossible to read.  I will pay
$4 to be told what went wrong and how to fix it.

easy, right click on the taskbar, and click "properties", then check
the box that says "keep the taskbar on top of other windows" if it
isnt already checked. if that dosnt work or the box is already checked
i hav no idea how to fix it

It was checked, but in an experimental frame of mind I *unchecked* it
and that worked.  Thanks.