Hello Again David,
Shift tab hides palettes, pressing it again will bring them back.
That panel you have highlighted is a series of palettes in icon view, if hover over the left most edge you can increase this or reduce this just to icons. You'll see double arrows up the top of this panel. Clicking on these will bring back the palettes in their true form.
Below this is 2 dark dotted lines clicking and holding on this allows you to drag this panel out and move it somewhere else. Which will also give you the ability to remove them.
You'll notice that there are 3 of them in this panel. So if you want them removed you'll have to do this 3 times.
Recommendation:
Once you have a workspace you are happy with I recommend saving it. Go to Windows > Workspace > New Workspace.