Task Manager Disappears

Name: Tausif

When I Hit ctrl,alt,delete to bring up task manager, it starts up, flashes onto the screen and then disappears leaving the icon down in the task bar. So I then run my cursor over it and it disappears. I reinstalled xp and run virus checkers adware remover spyware remover. Nothing works and I’ve still not cured it. Same thing happens when I try to initiate Task manager to pop up utilizing the right click on the task bar. This problem is driving me freakin’ crazy. Has anybody got any ideas to whats happening and how I can cure it.

The task manager suddenly disappearing is almost always a virus. Were the virus and adware/spyware programs that you used updated all the way? Also, you mention that you reinstalled Windows, but if you didn’t format the drive (which wipes all data) and reinstalled Windows using the repair method, then it will inherit all of the old installs issues.

If you try booting to safe mode and to CTRL+ALT+DEL there, does the task manager still disappear?

I assume since you’re using the task manager that you may be familiar with what should be starting up on your machine. Try using HijackThis to look at what’s loading on Windows startup and make sure everything is kosher. Any random looking .EXE’s are almost always bad (EG: msdfg8u.exe).

It being an XP policy is almost definitely not the case, because if the taskmanager restriction were set, it wouldn’t pop up at all.