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Summary: Task manager can be disabled manually, but more commonly it's disabled by a virus. It's easy to re-enable once you're virus-free.
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My task manager has a "task manager has been disabled by the administrator" message. How did this happen and how can I correct this? |
Why: if you didn't do it yourself, the news isn't good.
How to fix it: there are a couple of ways.
Let's look at this more closely.
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The situation's pretty simple. If you right click on the clock in the Windows taskbar, the Task Manager item is grayed out:
Or, if you try to run taskmgr.exe manually, you get this message:
So, how did this happen?
As we'll see in a moment, there are settings you can access as an administrator that would allow you to disable and enable Task Manager in this way.
You didn't do that, you say?
Then a virus probably did.
Disabling Task Manager is one way viruses try to make it harder for you to deal with their infections. Before proceeding any further, you should run a complete and up-to-date anti-virus scan of your machine. It's possible, perhaps even likely, that you've been infected.
Once you come back virus-free, you can proceed with the fix.
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If you have Windows XP Pro, there's a nifty user interface to directly edit the setting you want to repair. Click Start, then click Run and type in gpedit.msc:
And press OK. This runs the Group Policy Editor.
Once in the Group Policy Editor, expand in turn:
User Configuration
Administrative Templates
System
Ctrl+Alt+Del Options
You should see something much like this:
Double click on Remove Task Manager to change its setting:
It should be enough to click on Not Configured and then OK and Task Manager is available once again.
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If you don't have Windows XP Pro, then you'll need to edit the registry manually.
Click Start, then click Run, type in regedit, and click on OK.
Expand these registry keys in turn:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Policies
System
You should see something similar to this:
Right Click on the DisableTaskMgr item:
Click on Delete, confirm that you want to delete, and Task Manager should be available once again.
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One thing to note is that it's quite possible that if you're in an environment managed by a centralized policy, these settings may have no effect. Your IT administrator may set things up so as to disable Task Manager, and other things as well at the domain level. You'll need to ask them if this is the case.
Related:
Where is Task Manager? Task Manager can be found or started in a couple different places in Windows.
Why does Task Manager suddenly have no Menu or Tabs? If Windows Task Manager doesn't have Menu or Tabs, then it is probably running in what's called "Tiny Footprint Mode".
What's the best registry cleaner? Registry cleaners are widely available. When do you need one? Why? In general, a registry cleaner isn't needed and when it is it shouldn't be used frequently.
Microsoft - "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator" error message Knowledgebase article
Article C3088 - July 16, 2007
I have dled the freeware AVG and scan my disk C and i found a trajan and i have already healed and removed it. But all yr above methods don;t work for me. Mine is windows XP. I've tried both methods but it didnt work. The 2nd method when i typed in regedit and enter. it said registry editing has been disabled by the adminstrator. SO how do i solve this prob? Yr help will be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Posted by: Pong at June 1, 2009 8:57 AMsry for the comment i made earlier, i've found a solution on this site http://www.technize.com/2007/07/02/registry-editing-has-been-disabled-by-your-administrator/ and i've used this tweak that they gave which i don't know whether its gd or bad, do u mind explaining a bit on this, REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableRegistryTools /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
Posted by: Pong at June 1, 2009 9:18 AMWell, Thanks a lot lori,this information really worked for me.I had been getting this problem from couples of days,after seeing this forum ..... I hv got my task manager back with a bang.......thnqq........lolzz........
Posted by: Neha at June 4, 2009 9:56 AMI just can't access my registry editor yet.
Posted by: Bibie at June 11, 2009 12:06 AMWhat best AntiVirus free in this world??
Would you mine to tell me, via email??
Thank you so much..........
THANK YOU!!!!
that helped sooo much,other web sites have told me to set the disable tsk mngr file to 0,and that didnt help at all!
but ow i am runing again thanks too your help
I will deff be using this site again and tell my friends about it
Thank you,Ian Baker
Posted by: Ian Baker at June 15, 2009 12:50 PMThis was immensly useful. Having bitten by the Autorun worm I was trying to get the machine to come back to normal. Even the Regedit wasn't launching.. so where's what I did...
To enable Regedit
A-1) Start -> Run
REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableRegistryTools /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
Launch Regedit now and delete the Taskmanager registry entry as Leo explained
Posted by: LS at June 15, 2009 10:41 PMi've tried the above mentioned methods. nothing is wrking. neither is my regedit working. wat do i do? i have avira. after scanning it shows d reports but no way to delete d virus........ help me out
Posted by: naveen at June 16, 2009 10:28 PMMy system (Win Xp Pro) was affected by a virus or malware, I Use Avast (It has real time protection) and malwarebytes (no real time protection) I do not think that my comp is still clean even though Malwarebytes detected some malware and removed them b'coz my comp is still very slow and I think it may have some trojan in it as well . but never the less with this article i was able to reactivate my task manager and regedit was as well disabled and one of the comment on this site helped me so again thank u LS for your comment. Here are the details of the infected file. 1.Worm.Autorun (registry value)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current version\Run\MSN Messenger,
Posted by: Tobi at June 18, 2009 4:57 PM2.Worm Auto Run(File) c:\Windows\system32\SVRCHOst.exe,
3. Hijack.System.Hidden (Registry Data) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current version\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL\Checked Value,
4.Hijack.Regedit (Registary data)HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current version\Policies\System\DisableRegsirtyTools, 5. HijackTask manager (Registry data) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current version\Policies\System\Disabletaskmgr, 6. Hijack Folder Options (Registtry Data) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current version\Policies\Explorer\NoFolderoptions. As I told u earlier I do not think that my comp is clean and i had to delete the Disable Task manager manaually and i can still find Disable Regisrty tools, No folder options for the Hijack Malware in my registry and a tool from Malware bytes called as File Assasin can locate SVRCHOST.exe in the sytem 32, can i delete them and can I as well delete Disable Regisrty tools, No folder options from the registry as I did to enable the task manager
ctrl+alt+del.is not come under the system row...still the problem is stand
Posted by: Rohit at June 21, 2009 4:49 AMI have dled the freeware AVG and scan my disk C and i found a trajan and i have already healed and removed it. But all yr above methods don;t work for me. Mine is windows XP. I've tried both methods but it didnt work. The 2nd method when i typed in regedit and enter. it said registry editing has been disabled by the adminstrator. SO how do i solve this prob? Yr help will be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Posted by: Rajat at June 30, 2009 2:57 AM