Taskmanager not working. . .

[Darksaber11]

This is one of the weirdest problems I've encountered yet, and I've done everything I cuold think of, so I'm comming here to ask for help.

When I hit ctrl+alt+del on my ACER Aspire 3613 WLCi Laptop (Windows XP Home) nothing happens. After encountering this problem a few times I got annoyed and tracked down the TASKMAN.exe file and attempted to run it directly, this produced and hourglass icon next to my mouse, but nothing more.

I let the problem sit for a while, but just today a got fed up with it and downloaded a new TASKMAN.exe, this did not fix the problem either.

Does anyone have any ideas what the heck is going on, honestly I'm at a complete loss.

 

[meatologist]

um.

spyware running in the explorer shell?

download and scan that sucker!

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Does the problem persist after a restart? Sometimes this used to happen on my old PC and it used to get fixed after a reboot. Either its that or its spyware/adware. Scan the PC with spybot & ad-aware and get it out.

 

[agronick]

Yea I had the same thing. It turned out it was a virus. It came with an illegitimate internet explorer 7 I was trying to download from a peer to peer file sharing network. (Yea I know that was stupid) It was stopping some other things too. I could not open regedit. They put these things into the virus so you can not disable it.

 

[IronDuke]

I just wonder why you're trying to run 'taskman'

Read the Stickies by RealBlackStuff
How to remove Begin2Search / CoolWebSearch and other Nasties.

How to remove Trojans and its ilk!

 

[Darksaber11]

I just wonder why you're trying to run 'taskman'

. . . because that's the name of the .exe for the taskmanager, am I missing someting here?

Thanks for the links though.

I kinda doubt that it's spyware since I use Firefox, but on the other hand I do use LimeWire rather excessively. . .

Thanks for the help everybody.

 

[IronDuke]

. . . because that's the name of the .exe for the taskmanager, am I missing someting here?

You are indeed the real taskmanger is called taskmgr.exe

 

[Darksaber11]

Well I feel a little stupid now. Not to mention a little annoyed that no one mentioned this before. . .

So, would it be safe to assume the taskman.exe is a fake created by whatever spyware/adware/virus I have?

Also, where would I put the real .exe if I download a new one?

Edit: Okay I got the real Task Manager .exe, and I can run it now, only ctrl+alt+del still doesn't do anything. I'm assuming this is because it is looking for the .exe in its' appropriate home and that is not where I have it. Where does the taskmgr.exe usually exist?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Oops missed that little thingy. LOL

 

[meatologist]

I dont really get what alley you're travelling down and no one really seems to be helping much. Which isnt very FESTIVE!

Anywho;

taskman is not a spyware file:

http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/taskman.exe.html

The 'REAL' taskmgr.exe sits in c:\windows\system32

The 'REAL' taskman.exe sits in c:\windows\system32 and also in c:\windows

Any malware can be named anything - so you should check where the files of the running processes are located on your disk. If a "non-Microsoft" .exe file is located in the C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32 folder, then there is a high risk for a virus, spyware, trojan or worm infection.

Search for taskmgr.exe and see if it's in c:\windows\system32. If not, then download one.

If you cant one to download for free. Let me know and I will send you one.

I suggest you download FileMon from SysInternals:

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Filemon.html

This is a cool application that shows you what files are running, where they are running from, when they are being accessed and what is accessing them in real-time.

Anyway, all the info is on that site. Take a look.

 

[agronick]

Go to start > run and type msconfig. Under the services and startup tabs uncheck anything that looks bad. Usually stuff like that can be stopped there.

 

[Samstoned]

are you confused enough yet
maybe IronDuke was not clear go to the link he provided
you have been hijacked

 

[Darksaber11]

are you confused enough yet
maybe IronDuke was not clear go to the link he provided
you have been hijacked

Yes, yes, I'm very confused right now.

Sorry I've been gone, my ISP has been having issues lately, so no internet for me untill now.

Anyway, I'm not too comfortable messing around with msconfic stuff, and I've already determined where the taskman and taskmgr .exes belong by looking at my desktop. Unfortunately, this does not solve my problem, I still do not produce any result when I press ctrl+alt+del. WTF is going on? Can anyone help.

 

[Peddant]

Download,update and run this http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx in SAFE MODE ( http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml ) then try this http://www.trendmicro.com/spyware-scan/ and if necessary this http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ There`s a useful link here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/ToolsQuit.htm Between us we can fix this thing.