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#1
Windows 7 hangs after login/bootup; Task Manager not available
I have had multiple instances now where Windows 7 hung after I started up and
logged into an account. It seems to happen when I try to start a program by
double-clicking on it. For example, it has hung when I tried to start CCleaner
or Firefox. When I get into this state, Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing. In some
cases, I can right-click on the Taskbar and choose "Task Manager," but it
won't run (I just get the hourglass cursor). Today I tried to start Firefox
and nothing happened, and the hourglass cursor shows in the Taskbar, so
I can't even see the menu for the Task Manager.
This is happening on a Toshiba laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium
64-bit. It seems to occur when I don't wait long enough for the login to
finish. When it happens, the only way out is to hold down the power key
until it shuts off the system. Of course Windows is too stupid to tell me when
it is done loading stuff into memory and starting its services; why can't they
simply tell me when the login process is done and the system is ready to use?
I find it infuriating that a supposedly multi-threaded, multi-tasking operating
system can be so flaky. But enough of my rant; on to the possible cause:
I strongly suspect that my problems may be caused by SpySweeper, since it
seems to be the last program that loads at login. (Or at least it's the last one
to put up an annoying splash screen.) I use the following programs on my machine:
Windows Defender
Avast! Antivirus
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
SuperAntiSpyware
Spybot Search & Destroy
SpySweeper
I have read that SpySweeper sometimes conflicts with other programs,
so I turned off real-time protection for Windows Defender. I have read
conflicting opinions on whether SpySweeper conflicts with Spybot's
TeaTimer program. Do I need to somehow turn off TeaTimer too?
Even if SpySweeper is the cause of my problems, I find it very disturbing
that misbehaving or even deadlocked application programs should be able
to prevent the Task Manager from running. If you have any other ideas
on what might be happening, I'd love to hear them.