Task Manager

[baron]

Today is not my day. Can some one explain how to restore Task Manager in Windows XP. I went to a couple of sites but had no luck. Every time I hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete it tells me Task manager has been disabled by your administrator. Now I'm the administrator and I did not disable it.

 

[Skyler]

Question. Did you disable it, or did it suddenly disable itself? If so, you probably have a virus and should run a thorough virus scan--if your anti-virus isn't catching anything, try Malwarebytes.

Then, follow the directions here:

Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator

 

[ooguyx]

Question. Did you disable it, or did it suddenly disable itself? If so, you probably have a virus and should run a thorough virus scan--if your anti-virus isn't catching anything, try Malwarebytes.

Then, follow the directions here:

Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator

Yeah, that's generally a virus issue; especially if you didn't do it. I've found that it's the rootkits that do this and Malwarebytes will have varying success on removing it. Good Luck!

 

[O'GodHowGreatThouArt]

Smels lke a virus. The more-developed brands of Trojan Horses will have safeguards to prevent you from physically disabling them (much less run any other programs).

Shut down your computer, reboot it into safe mode, then throw every malware/spyware/antivirus software you have at it. Take about 4-5 hours and run multiple scans of each. That should take care of the problem.

 

[Berean]

Download, install, and run free Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - at CNET Downloads

 

[Edward]

Have you tried right clicking on a vacant space on the task bar to the right of the start button? Mine quit working with CtrAltDel for a while,but I could manually load it by that method.

 

[baron]

Thank you all for your replies. I have tried everything with no success. I do not know if the police did or played with my computer. But when I went on after they left I had no Task Manager, recent documents, system tools, my wallpaper was gone, plus some other things. I have even tried to restore my computer 3 or 4 times, scanned my computer with AVG 2011, Windows Defender, Norton, Advanced System Care. These are free copies should I just buy a copy of one of the above?

 

[Berean]

It's too bad you didn't have a recent disk/partition image that you could restore. Made with something like Acronis True Image. You could have been right back where you started before anyone "played" with it. Why don't you ask them what they did to it?

 

[Skyler]

Wow. You really did get hammered.

Without physical access to your computer, I'm going to say that your best bet in this case is probably going to be to copy any important files off onto an external hard drive/flash drive/CDs/DVDs and completely reinstall your operating system. I don't think this is a problem we can walk you through over the Internet. Unless you have a very technically-inclined friend locally that would be willing to take a look at it, you're pretty much out of luck.

Sorry.

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

Today is not my day. Can some one explain how to restore Task Manager in Windows XP. I went to a couple of sites but had no luck. Every time I hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete it tells me Task manager has been disabled by your administrator. Now I'm the administrator and I did not disable it.

Try the Run... command from the Start Menu and paste the following:

REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Then see if you get it back. This won't solve your possible virus issue, however.

See also:
Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator

AMR

 

[baron]

Well I restored my computer 3 more times, pasted the commands in the Run box 4 times and now I have my Task Manager back.

Also checked my computer for virus again and found nothing.

Thank you all for the advice and if it happens again I will take my computer in for a professional to look at. I hate to do that though I would have to leave it for about a week.