right click on the dock.
depending on exactly where, the options are slightly different, but they all contain a "settings..." option.
select "settings..."
then nothing (well, OK, the pointer changes to include the hourglass for a few minutes, then becomes normal again).
did the uninstall/ezcleaner (don't have ccleaner)/reinstall - no change
to reiterate - this happened, apparently, by itself. I haven't touched object dock for quite some time.
can support tell us *WHERE* the settings are stored so I can go check them manually???