How to fix "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator"

[Charlton]

Many times when working on a computer that has been infected with a virus, trojan, or piece of spyware I find myself with the Task Manager being disabled. Malware creators like to disable Task Manager so it makes solving the problem and removing the issue difficult.

The following article will help you to resolve the error message "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator" when you try to use Task Manager.


Symptoms

The symptoms that you experience when your windows task manager has been disabled are usually comparable to the situations described below.

The symptoms are:

Task manager grayed out when you right-click your windows task bar




Or, when you try to manually launch your windows task manager (by entering taskmgr.exe in the run box), the "task manager disabled by administrator" message appears





The reason that you cannot access Task Manager can be following:

1. You use account that was blocked via the "Local Group Policy" or "Domain Group Policy"
   
   
2. Some registry settings block you from using Task Manager.

[Charlton]

You use account that was blocked via the "Local Group Policy" or "Domain Group Policy"


Verity that the "Local Group Policy" or "Domain Group Policy" doesn’t block you from using Task Manager.

• Local Group Policy
  
  
  1. Go to Start -> Run -> Write "Gpedit.msc" and press on Enter button.
     
     
  2. Navigate to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates-> System -> Ctrl+Alt+Del Options
     
     
  3. In the right side of the screen verity that "Remove Task Manager"" option set to Disable or Not Configured.
     
     
  4. Close Gpedit.msc MMC.
     
     
  5. Go to Start -> Run -> Write "gpupdate /force" and press on Enter button.
  
  
  
• Domain Group Policy
  
  
  • Contact you local IT support team.

[Charlton]

Some registry settings block you from using Task Manager

1. Verity correct registry settings:
   Go to Start -> Run -> Write "regedit" and press on Enter button.
   
   

   Warning: Modifying your registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system.
   
   Always backup your files before doing this registry hack.

   
   
2. Navigate to the following registry keys and verity that following settings set to default:
   
   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
   "DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000
   
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\LocalUser\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
   "DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system\]
   "DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
   "DisableCAD"=dword:00000000
   
   
   
3. Reboot the computer.

[Charlton]

Other methods to re-enable Task Manager


Method 1 - Change the Task Manager Option through the Run line

Click Start, Run and type this command exactly as given below: (better - Copy & paste)

REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Method 2 - Delete the restriction in the registry manually

1. Click Start -> Run and type "Regedit.exe"
   
   
2. Navigate to the following branch:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies\ System

3. In the right-pane, delete the value named DisableTaskMgr
   
   
4. Close Regedit.exe

Method 3 - Through FixTaskManager program

1. Click on the following links and download the program FixTaskManager to your Desktop
   
   
2. Double-click on the file FixTaskManager on your desktop and run it.