Windows 7: Stuck Again

Win task mgr wont run.

Attachment 123153

Scanned with MSE, Kapersky (offline) and MBAM. No results. Tried installing the exe from a backup didn't work. Installed full image from a week ago, no luck. Deleted indexing catalogs and redid them with a retart, no luck. Check sec policies file is not restricted.
Oh Yeah SFC /Scannow find no violations

Try this
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Are we sure you don't have an image file execution option inadvertently set for taskmgr? Does this registry key exist on your system?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\taskmgr.exe

If this is an x64 install of Windows, also check:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\taskmgr.exe


If a key called "taskmgr.exe" exists in either location, delete the "taskmgr.exe" key.

Cluberti! Excellent!

Found the key at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\taskmgr.exe

Deleted same, task manager now comes up. I think win 7 writes to the registry whenever and whatever it wants. Thank You. Now I'll have to check things out and see what I destroyed while working on it.

I wonder if I clicked somewhere that wrote that key.

I was using process monitor and some of sys internals from MS. May be that was the cause.

Very likely.

I deleted key. Problem solved. Thank you very much