Sidebar/Task manager not working

When I boot up my notebook, the sidebar doesn't appear, the network icon
in the taskbar has a red X on it (but I'm still connected to a network),
and the task manager won't appear after pressing ctrl-shift-esc or right
clicking on the taskbar. When I try to bring up the task manager, all I
get is a green grid icon in the taskbar which cannot be accessed. If I
try to initiate task manager multiple times, I get multiple green grids
in the taskbar. The missing sidebar is kind of grayed out with
inaccessible menu buttons at the top, and when the cursor is placed in
that area I get the "thinking" cursor. If anyone can help, I would
certainly appreciate it. Thanks.

Appearance and Personalization?

Try here:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/...arance/threads

I don't think this is an appearance issue. Now that its been a few days
into the problem, I'm thinking I'm hijacked or something. I can't
perform a windows update or any adobe updates, I can't access system
restore or task manager, safe mode doesn't work, and the computer can't
successfully shutdown...I have to manually turn the computer off.
Whatever virus or malware it is, it certainly guards from typical means
of getting rid of it. Any suggestions? Thanks for the reply.

You're probably right in your suspicions, it's likely malware. Task Manager
is the biggest clue. I would suggest that you start be booting to Safe mode
to do some formal scanning with the anit-malware products of your choice.
Trying to do it from normal mode is difficult at best since the bugs are
loaded and will resist being detected or removed. If your antivirus software
has the capability, also schedule it to scan the system at startup (so it
can catch and remove the bugs before they are loaded).

I recommend downloading and installing
MalwareBytes' Antimalware (MBAM) and
SUPERAntiSpywaяe (SAS).

Do a full scan with MalwaяeBytes' and
SUPERAntiSpywaяe.

<http://www.superantispyware.com/>

Reboot
-=-

<http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php>
Reboot
-=-
The programs are free. (There is a paid version but
you don't need to buy it to remove malware.)
-=-

Did you ever solve this issue? I encountered the same exact problem two
days ago. Sure seems like a hijack but nothing is found in scans.

I have the same exact problem. Did you find a solution?

Did you do both an antivirus scan and an antispyware scan?
A few programs automatically do both, but many more
programs do one or the other, but not both.

Yes. I had to format the computer and reinstall.

My task manager is just gone. I got a virus, cleaned it, but the
program for task manager seems gone. None of the files assoicated with
it are there. When I try to open it just nothing happens, no boxes, no
errors, nothing. The virus also turned off and erased the restore
points. I fixed that but there is nothing for me to go back to to try
and fix the task manager. Is there anywhere that I can download it
again?

More likely that it's blocked, not that it's missing. Set Folder
Options/View in the Control Panel to see hidden and system files, then check
under C:\Windows\system32 for taskmgr.exe. If it's there, then some part of
the bug is likely still active and blocking Task Manager from loading.

If it's missing, then open an elevated command prompt (start/search CMD,
right click the link and choose 'run as administrator') and run "sfc
/scannow" from the prompt.

If it's not, you need to revisit the cleanup steps you took.

Type

sfc /scannow

in a command prompt or Start Run

Tried that. It found and repaired two corrupt files but not my task
manager.