Vista - 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


Good luck
-=-

"Mako" wrote:

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.

Hi Mako:

I recommend downloading and installing
MalwareBytes' Antimalware (MBAM) and
SUPERAntiSpywa�e (SAS).

Do a full scan with Malwa�eBytes' and
SUPERAntiSpywa�e.

<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.)
-=-



Good luck


"Mako" wrote:

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

"bobarc" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:e0287e8c8147ed6ee734f8e2b6f7562b@xxxxxx-gateway.com.....
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.

Robert Miles

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?

Type

sfc /scannow

in a command prompt or Start Run

--
..
--
"HoundMom" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:4f46d31b3d6156a7e8dc68f73555fcd2@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

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