Task manager not appearing
 

Help me! I have a problem. Whenever I hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, my task manager doesn't show up anymore. At first I thought maybe one of the buttons wasn't working, but I've tested them all individually and they are responsive. So I went to Run and typed in taskman.exe and still nothing happened, not even an error message. I've even gone straight to the taskman.exe file and double-clicked it -- with absolutely no response.

I've done virus scans and spyware scans and adware scans and no matter what I delete off my computer, my task manager still does not show up when I call it.

Any ideas? :(

Try going into the system32 folder, and copying the Task Manager program. Paste it into another folder, and then rename it whatever the hell you want. "Manager" is fine.
Then double click it.
If the Task Manager starts up again, you have one of those evil AIM-propagating virii which I totally forget how to get rid of.
I will ponder on that as you try that copy paste thing.

I have encountered such a situation before, when all antivirus and task manager processes were being killed on initiation. I think the best solution is to backup and reformat.

I just tried copying the file and renaming it, and still nothing. I double-click it and nothing happens, not even an error message.

Is it significant that my "taskman.exe" file is in the "WINDOWS" folder, and that I don't have a "system32" folder, just a "system" one? :(

Are you running 3.1 or something?

Yes, because system32 is a system-critical folder, and I don't even know if it's possible for Windows to be functioning without it.

Am I running 3.1 what? I'm sorry, I don't know much about how computers work.

What is your operating system?

3.1 refers to Windows 3.1, which was designed for 16-bit processors(A.K.A. old-ass computer), and thus does not have a system32 folder, which I think is a 32-bit extension of the old Windows OS.

Are you able to view hidden folders?

I am able to view hidden folders, and I just got this laptop a year ago, so I'm running Windows XP Home Edition 2002.

I just did a search for the "system32" folder and it came up with two results -- one in C:\WINDOWS\I386 and one in my Microsoft Works folder. Maybe the first one's the real one? (However, it only contains two files: NTDLL.DLL and SMSS.EXE.)

Where is pom with his "it is a mystery" gif???

Ok, I have no clue how the hell you can have a working system.
Does this computer shut down and boot just fine? Where/who did you get it from?

You might just want to try backing up all of your files, and then reinstalling Windows fresh.

Yeah, I'm considering reformatting it . . .

My computer works great except for the mysteriously vanished task manager. It's fast, it runs programs well, it shuts down and boots up like normal. I bought it new at Best Buy last summer. So . . . yeah.

Thanks for all the help, guys. Reformatting seems to be the only answer.

System32 is a hidden folder. Open My Documents, and on the top bar, go to Tools/Folder Options/View and check "show all the hidden files/folders". In the same tab, uncheck "hide protected and system files" and click on apply. Proceed to look for the System32 folder under C:\WINDOWS. The names of the options might be different to what I said, but I'm sure you get the idea.

C:\WINDOWS\System32

Type that in on the explorer bar and it will take to you to it, if it is hidden it will still take you to the folder but you won't be able to see the files inside till you unhide it.

I upload reg file,try it and I hope is Task manager will working for you.

I did have Hidden Files visible, but for some reason my system32 folder still wasn't showing up, even when I did searches. However, through some complicated file-jumping, I did end up finding it -- in the WINDOWS folder. Yeah, I don't know either.

Once I finally accessed the (correct) system32 folder, I found the taskmgr.exe file (NOT taskman.exe like in the WINDOWS folder), and double-clicking that brought up my task manager. Yay! However, Ctrl+Alt+Del still doesn't work. But, ah well. I put a shortcut to taskmgr.exe in my Start menu for whenever I need it next.

Thanks for everyone's help. I don't have to reformat my computer after all, and I consider this matter closed! :)