WM 6.5 Custom Taskbar

[Trident]

I'm using a different TB because I was having the issue that I now continue to have... Every time I open any window or change any setting, I end up getting the clock back in place of the battery icon. If I tap on the clock and then again when the next appt bubble opens, it disappears and I get my battery icon back. It's happening with every taskbar I've tried.
I just tried changing shellres.192.dll for a different one, and nothing changed. That was even stranger.

Any idea how to get rid of the clock in the TB? I've tried both settings for showing the clock and it makes no difference.