Ok, I found the culprit to this notch in the skins. I narrowed it down to the theme I was using on my PC's. If I switch back to the standard XP theme, I can put the checkmark back in the translucent effects, and the skins display just fine. I am using the XtremeXP theme.
Also, I can use all my themes from LightStar, and the Avast skins display just fine. As soon as I load the XtremeXP theme, the notch returns when translucent effects is turned on. No big deal though......turning them off fixes the problem with that paticular theme.
Douglas