For some reason, my laptop seems to think I have multiple monitors, or it's a virus. Whenever I open a program, if it's not maximized, it automatically moves offscreen to the left and you cannot see it, but it's there. Once you maximize that program, it comes back into view.
Many laptops do support multiple screens: both the built-in LCd panel as well as an external video through VGA or S-video plugin. You can extend your monitor onto the second screen, and use both simultaneously. It's possible that this accidentally got activated on your system.
check the following:
Control Panel -> Display Properties -> Settings tab
You should see a screen with your monitor. Most likely you'll see two screens, labeled 1 and 2.
Click the 'identify' button, and you should see a large '1' or '2' or your display, telling you which screen is which.
If you see a '1', it means that the mystery screen is #2. Click on monitor #2, and uncheck the 'extend my windows desktop onto this monitor.
The 2nd screen should now be greyed out in the overview. Programs should then no longer detect the 2nd screen and locate their windows accordingly.
(Ony catch: some programs may have saved windows locations in their preferences, and may continue to attempt to draw the windows at the bad locations, rather than reset to the default location. You may have to address that at an application level for some problematic programs)