Computer question - Task Manager has been disabled?

Factual Questions
1

I have Windows XP. Whenever I try to do the ctr-alt-delete thing, which happens rather quite often because this computer is pretty screwy, a message pops up saying “Task Manager has been disabled by the Administrator”. We have three different User Profiles and they are all set as “Computer Administrator”. The error pops up no matter which profile we are using.

How do I get Task Manager back?

2

I suspect that being administrator means nothing to a normal login. To use administrator privilages in XP you have to login in administrator mode, and I forget how to do that (I’ve done it before. it involves holding down a certain key on startup I think)

Try holding F8 at some point in your computer’s boot sequence, and then login in safe mode. I am sure another doper will give you a less guess-based reply.

3

There are several viruses with this symptom, so update your anti-virus and do a complete scan.

This page has a number of fixes to try, scroll down to Task Manager - Control/Alt/Delete - Doesn’t work

4

I think administrators are all the same. There is a special “Administrator” account, but that’s no different than any other account with administrator status.

But it sure sounds like a virus… I’d do what Fear Itself said.

5

Thanks a ton! I will try some of the things on that website and see if I can’t get it working again.

6
      • Semi-related: there are also viruses that disable the [search] feature as well. So if you read about the filenames online and then try using the Windows search for them, they will not show up. Usually you can tell because they only allow searching a portion of your hard-drive (even though it says that it’s searching the whole thing) and so the “entire search” goes by WAY faster than normal.
        ~
7

Maybe one of the other users set up a local Group Policy which disables task manager. Do a Star>Run> gpedit.msc

User Configuration>Administrative Templates>System>Ctrl+Alt+Del Options and change the setting for Remove Task Manager to either Not Configured or Disabled.

8

I’ve done a few searches on that error message, it seems to indicate that it’s a setting that can be switched by an administrator, but that affects ALL logins on that machine. There is a complicated command line that you can use to set it right if the setting got activated accidentally (or mysteriously) or a couple free tools that might work. (But be careful to make sure they’re not trojan horses or anything.)

Lobsang: I’ve done an awful lot of administration work on three windows XP machines, two XP professional and one XP home. I’ve never heard of ‘logging into administrator mode’ by holding down a certain key on startup. If you’re in the administrators group, then you have admin privileges when you login. That’s pretty much it.

9

Log off the current user/users and at the Welcome Screen you press Control Atl Del Del - delete key two times and it brings up the Windows login that’s familiar with NT and 2000. Then you can type in Administrator with the password (if the machine was setup with one, usually it is blank). If there is an admin password you can clear it by right click on My Computer and go to Manager. Then Local Users and Group, open Users, right click Administrator and set password. It’ll warn you about crap but just click Proceed and set it to whatever.

10

Yeah, that Administrator account is just the default admin account. But functionally it’s no different from any other account with admin status.