The Incredible Shrinking Task Bar

I position my taskbar on the right of the screen
(vertically) and widen it to allow a better view of the
quick launch and tray items. The problem is that every
time I restart the task bar narrows until it is once
again the default width. I suspect the language bar
being minimized to the task bar might play a part. I
want my task bar to stay the way I set and lock it.
Locking the task bar is no help.