Make Taskbar opaque

Hello Walt now this is quite simple unless you are meaning something else.

You just need to go into the Control Panel > Personlization > click on the window colour > it will bring up a screen that shows the colour palette > pick the colour you like > choose the colour intensity (the slider) (you can choose to turn off the transparency here if you like) > use the down button to show colour mixer (again use the sliders to adjust the colour) - Advanced appearance settings is for setting the opened window and in my experience best left alone.
See my pics to see where to go

Edit: When done go to save changes and don't tick the transparency box

No worries mate and just a little something that will make your machine a little faster and more efficient is this Optimize Windows 7
It is my bible when installing an OS on my machines and also when I am fixing friends and family machines too.
Now if you go through it slowly you will find lots of tweaks and they are all really thoroughly done by the authour Brink a fellow who is in my mind brilliant and if you need to ask questions he is just the most obliging person around.
The other thing is that you may lose some of the "bling" such as transparency (you don't have to I find it unnecessary) and all the tweaks are reversible.
If you do get stuck just post back in that tutorial and you will get help. Another bonus using this tutorial is that it helps you find your way around your machine and Windows 7!
Just one tip I would say you start with is do this Registry - Backup and Restore do this and it will save you a lot of grief if you are ever doing things in the registry and even if you don't it is a good back up to have if your system ever gets corrupted.
Anyway glad you got the fix you wanted - have fun because doing stuff like that is fun:)
John