So i cant afford to renew license and I tried uninstalling it but it keeps telling me it running in background and i have checked start up and services and not seeing it. Also when i exit outta winstep my start bar is gone and i cant figure out how to get it back, i do not want winstep anymore. I tried restoring all setting on winstep and that did nothing. can someone help me get this fixed??

Basically, your licence is still valid for the last version of Winstep released before your licence expired. Given that there hasn't been any new release in quite some time, you're ok to use the latest version for as long as you want.

About the hidden task bar, you have to go into the settings of the NextStart and de-select the "Allow NextSTART to replace the Windows taskbar" setting. Also, selecting the "Keep the Windows taskbar visible" might also help.