Scroll bars are turned off and have an empty face, yet still display?

Question

Note this image of my customize settings:

You can clearly see what appears to be a scroll bar there along the left (is also on right of screen), despite the indicated settings. Further, I have this in my .emacs:

(custom-set-variables
 ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(blink-cursor-mode nil)
 '(custom-enabled-themes (quote (solarized-light)))
 '(custom-safe-themes (quote ("fc5fcb6f1f1c1bc01305694c59a1a861b008c534cae8d0e48e4d5e81ad718bc6" "e16a771a13a202ee6e276d06098bc77f008b73bbac4d526f160faa2d76c1dd0e" "1e7e097ec8cb1f8c3a912d7e1e0331caeed49fef6cff220be63bd2a6ba4cc365" default)))
 '(menu-bar-mode t)
 '(package-archives (quote (("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/") ("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/"))))
 '(scroll-bar-mode nil)
 '(tool-bar-mode nil))

Note the line where scroll bar mode is set to nil.

Why is that ugly bar there on the left?

Answer 1

That is not a scroll bar, that is the fringe. You can control it by customizing the fringe-mode variable. If you don't want to do that manually, do M-x customize-variable RET fringe-mode RET, choose "No fringes" from the Value Menu and save.

More info about window fringes here.