Restore Task Manager

Restore Task Manager is a straightforward application that can enable your Windows Task Manager. It performs this action automatically, without your intervention.

Why Task Manager doesn't work

If this system utility is turned off, it appears greyed out when opening the right-click menu on the taskbar, and you get an error dialog saying that "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator" when trying to launch the tool from Run (taskmgr.exe). It's possible for a malware agent to have infiltrated your computer to block it.

Enable Task Manager with admin rights

There's really no big mystery to how Restore Task Manager works, since all it does is a simple tweak in the Windows registry. You should also keep in mind that it works even if your Registry Editor is disabled.
However, you need administrative privileges when launching this app. This essential aspect is not indicated in the Readme text included in the downloaded package.
On task completion, it displays a small notification window to let you know that you that the job was successful. However, according to our tests, it shows this message even if failed to carry out the task. In our case, this happened when we didn't run it as admin.

No installation necessary

The software program is made from single executable file that can be saved anywhere on the hard disk and just double-clicked to re-enable Task Manager. Because it's lightweight, you can keep it stored in your emergency toolbox with portable apps.

Conclusion

There are workarounds for restoring Task Manager, which imply following guides released by Microsoft Support to edit system policies. Restore Task Manager is the simpler solution, since it takes care of all these steps automatically. The only issues are that it doesn't mention it needs elevation rights and says the restoration job is successful even when it isn't.