Task Manager Disabled

when I try to open Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) I get the message "Task
Manager has been Disabled by your Administrator. I am the only one on this
computer with Admin rights. It's XP Home and the other user is my son on a
limited account. How could it have been disabled? How can I restart the
service?
Thanks

I have managed to restart the service using a small file I found in this
forum. I still don't know how it was stopped though? When i open Task Manager
I see a strange file kernels64.exe which never used to be there before. Maybe
this is a virus? Maybe something to do with losing task manager?

"Don" wrote:

> when I try to open Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) I get the message "Task
> Manager has been Disabled by your Administrator. I am the only one on this
> computer with Admin rights. It's XP Home and the other user is my son on a
> limited account. How could it have been disabled? How can I restart the
> service?
> Thanks

Quite likely, its a virus or some other type of malware. They often set these types of restrictions and forcibly terminate applications that could be used to help shut the malware down. Ensure that your antivirus software is up to date, boot your computer in Safe Mode and run the scan from there. Ensure that you note the name of any malware it finds, and check your antivirus vendor's web site for specific information on it. Your AV software may remove infected files, but it will not remove registry entries, and the like, that may be associated with the virus/malware.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Don" <Don@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:999C5866-B48E-4F1F-AFC7-7FE3CF519794@microsoft.com...
>I have managed to restart the service using a small file I found in this
> forum. I still don't know how it was stopped though? When i open Task Manager
> I see a strange file kernels64.exe which never used to be there before. Maybe
> this is a virus? Maybe something to do with losing task manager?
>
> "Don" wrote:
>
>> when I try to open Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) I get the message "Task
>> Manager has been Disabled by your Administrator. I am the only one on this
>> computer with Admin rights. It's XP Home and the other user is my son on a
>> limited account. How could it have been disabled? How can I restart the
>> service?
>> Thanks