windows task manager nuetered to the max

[skyking]

I was looking at a futzed up computer at my sisters, and while investigating and preparing to kill/remove the things I knew were bad, I gave the three-finger salute and was met with a really wierd thing.
Task manager came up sorta, but hosed.
I had the processes window, with the 'show processes from all users' checkbox and the 'end process' button, and nothing else.
no process count on the bottom, no commit charge, no cpu usage.
no tabs for apps, performance, networking, users.
no top menu.
no nav bar with the handy little "x" for closing the bastige down.

Anybody see this before?

the computer will most likely get nuked from high orbit, but it has two grandkid's itunes archives on it, documents, countless downloaded games, and it will take a while to save all the potentially good crap out of the useless crap before that happens.
I know the proper procedures or securing it, but the barn door's been left open a long long time on this one.

 

[bsobel]

Thats normal, double click on the frame to return to full mode.

 

[gsellis]

If you are using Task Manager to find malware, don't bother. Tasks can hid themselves from it. Try Process Explorer instead.

http://technet.microsoft.com/e...nternals/bb896653.aspx

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: bsobel
Thats normal, double click on the frame to return to full mode.

LOL!
I'd never seen that mode before, or had a reason to double click the frame itself. Thanks man!
Thank you for the linkage, gsellis.
It had another issue from a botched install of an HP printer application that would not go away. I used task manager to get that stopped.