Disappearing windows

[NewShoes]

New to Compiz Fusion so I'm probably missing something obvious, but when I minimize a window it vanishes and I see no way to maximize it.

[Fyda]

You mean "unminimize" or "restore", not "maximize". Maximising means making it enlarge to fill the screen (subtracting the area of any panels/docks).

Do you have a taskbar app of some sort? You haven't told us which distro you are running, nor which desktop environment (GNOME? KDE? XFCE?).