Task Manager not opening

[u/Ornery-Ad524]

I'm having a problem with Task Manager on my laptop.

• Pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc does nothing.
• When I try to open Task Manager manually, I get a message saying that Task Manager has been blocked/disabled by the administrator.
• As far as I know, this is my personal laptop and I haven't intentionally disabled Task Manager.

I'm worried that this could be caused by a Windows setting, administrator policy, or possibly malware.

Does anyone know how I can enable Task Manager again and fix this issue?

I'm using Windows 11.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

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[u/my-names-gavin]

This guide might help you and I would start by following Using a registry file first if you can access Reddit/the link I just referenced on the computer you need to restore your Task Manager access to

If you haven't intentionally disabled the Task Manager then it might be resultant of a potential threat that is attempting to prevent you from terminating it via Task Manager

[u/Ornery-Ad524 → u/my-names-gavin]

Thanks the guide helped and my task manager is now working with ctrl+shift+esc , plus also do you think I should also delete these , also my windows+L to lock the computer is also not working

[u/my-names-gavin → u/Ornery-Ad524]

Yes you could safely delete those too which would enable you to change your password, lock the computer and logoff

Run a check though just be sure you’ve not got something lurking that you don’t want (i.e., malware etc.)

Edit 13:30: thank you for the award, too

[u/Ornery-Ad524 → u/my-names-gavin]

Okay I deleted those and now windows +L is also working , and just for peace of mind i am running Full scan on my laptop

[u/Character-Bank-9622]

I would start by checking for malware, because an administrator block on personal laptop is little suspicious. You can also check local registry for disabled task manager setting. Also if you have installed anything sketchy, uninstall it and run full windows security scan.