Task Manager greyed out
I am unable to access Task Manager from the task bar in XP Pro, it is “greyed out”
Can you help please?
It sounds like you are logging in as a Limited User or your profile has restrictions added to it. The first thing to try is holding down the Control, Alt and Delete keys together to see if the Task Manager starts. If it does there is a problem with the shortcut.
The next thing to check is User privileges. Open the Control Panel, click Users and check that your profile has Administrative rights. If it doesn’t, you need to logon as an Administrator to run MSConfig.
If you have account limitations on your machine, it may be this has been set as part of an office installation. This is one reason why we recommend avoiding second hand computers. To overcome this, you will have to remove the restrictions and it may be easier to reinstall Windows.
Fiddling with these settings can be risky. We recommend calling a technician to look at it if you are not computer savvy.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Ok, I don’t think the issue is how to enable the taskmanager but what is causing the problem. As a user with admin privileges you should have default access to the task manager but then you don’t. In my case, I have several PC’s with the same issue and to fix the problem I have had to re-built from scratch. Here is what I have figured out so far. All of the systems have been infected by some marketing spyware that somehow was able to get past Norton anti virus, spyware terminator and adsgone popup-blocker all with spyware and virus protection features. The same spyware was able to disable taskmanager and few other things that prevents the user from tracking and eliminating the pesky spyware, in all cases the spyware also changs the desktop image to a hyperlink image that requires the user to download a spyware remover that can fix the fucking problem that they started in the first place. Even if I deleted the related files in normal windows, safe mode or even in dos mode in a few seconds the files return and change the background image. Anyone has a tool that can REALLY remove this kind of crap. Let me know. Thanks.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:21 am
The problem you have there Jack is a serious spyware infection.
In those sort of cases you have no choice but to backup your data, wipe the computer and start again.
I’d also strongly recommend anyone who has used such a badly infected computer to change all their passwords as there’s no telling what might have been on the system.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:24 am
Desktop Hijack Fix.
This tool can be used to fix most problems in which your normal background is not displayed. Usually in the backgrounds place there is another image or website which has hijacked the desktop. This form of hijacking involves reconfiguring your Active Desktop to display something other than your default configuration. You can use Desktop Hijack fix to restore Microsoft Windows default settings for Active Desktop and remove any changes that had been made. It can also be used to backup your current Active Desktop configuration to be restored later if you choose to not restore Microsoft default settings. During running operation this tool has been designed to alert you if you active desktop settings have been hijacked based off your previous configuration.
http://www.rhythmengineering.com/desktophijackfix.htm
November 7th, 2011 at 2:22 am
playstation 3 parts…
[...]Task Manager greyed out | IT Queries: Computer problems answered[...]…