Windows Task Manager problem

Please help me with a windows task manager problem. My task manager won't open because of a spyware called Windows Security Center.TaskManager. I get an error message that says it's been disabled by the administrator and it keeps coming back after a reboot (after I had deleted it with Spybot). Also, even though I try deleting it, my task manager doesn't work anymore. I can't shut down programs with it and I can't view the performance bar, (cpu usage is shown at 0 %). These problems may or may not be linked, either way, please help me if you can...

Check your registry:

Start, then Run. Type regedit and click OK.

Browse through the following tree:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Software
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Run

In the right pane, see if there is any suspicious looking programs loading up. See if you can uninstall them using the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. If not, try using Windows Explorer and browsing to the path and removing that program.

Funny thing, I get another error message saying that modification to the registry has been deactivated by the administrator, which I am. I just know windows has something to do with this and not another spyware, because it's the Windows Security Center.TaskManager that caused the same kind of error message when I tried to open the task manager. And that comes from windows.

Check this:

Click "Start",
Click "Run",
Type "gpedit.msc"
Under "User Configuration" select "Administrative Templates",
Select "System"
Select "CTRL+ALT+DEL options"
In the right pane, double-click "Remove Task Manager" and ensure this is disabled.

Hopefully this helps you out.

JMH

Cool, it seems to work, I can use it again. Thanks a lot... The memory usage bar still doesn't work and I can't shut down programs, but that's another thing. The error message says that the operation is not valid for that process.

Actually, deactivating it with the gpedit.msc doesn't work... It worked once, but strangely not anymore.

When removing nasty spyware such as this, you should do so from Safe Mode. Try making your registry edits from Safe Mode as well and see if they don't stick.

Did it stop working again after a logoff or reboot or after you were able to successfully open the Task Manager? Sounds like something is resetting it back to enable. Do as Dngrsone says in Safe Mode and see if that won't help.

Thanks for the tip Dngrsone, I'll try that.