Windows 10: Taskmgr.exe missing

Friends

I have a Win 10 Pro 64 bit system that was upgraded from Win 7 Pro 64 bit. It has been working well for a couple of months now, but now recently I ran into a strange problem.

When I chose the Taskmanager from the "Start" menu (right-click) it said it cannot find the ...system32/taskmgr.ext file.

Then when I clicked on the OK button the system asked if I am ok to run udefrag.exe. If I said Yes, then it opened a CMD window and it did some short defrag. That program is the Ultimate Defrag program that I installed some time ago. I then uninstalled that program. But it did not bring the taskmanager back.

So next I did CTRL-ALT-DEL and chose Taskmanager, but nothing happens when I click Task Manager in the list!
Next I went to the system32 and looking for Taskmgr.exe but it is not there! No wonder it cannot run. :-(

So next I got out the install media, my DVD for Win 10 Pro 64 bit and looked for install.wim. I can open it using 7-zip but I cannot even find that .exe file in there under the system32 folder.

I also ran the sfc /scannow but it did not find that file either and reported no errors.

So how can I get the taskmgr.exe file re-installed onto my system? Is it available somewhere on the MS sites or elsewhere? Or is it hiding somwhere else in the install.wim file outside the system32 folder? Or has MS changed the location of the file or changed it's name or what??

Thanks for any help with this.

Carl

:)

 

Power Icon Does Not Work and Task Manager is Missing

Thank for the quick reply.

I am using Malwarebytes and it seems to have quarantined one of the issues. I have run the scan several times but there are no detectable issues.

I am just missing the taskmgr.exe program.

Is there a way to just download taskmgr.exe for Windows 10?

 

Can't find file "C:/WINDOWS/system32/taskmgr.exe",but taskmgr.exe is overthere...

Hi,

This is most likely caused by a malware attaching to Taskmgr.exe (adding the "Debugger" registry value). Running a MalwareBytes scan should help. Linney's post above has the link to MalwareBytes.

To quickly determine if a program is attached to Taskmgr.exe using "debugger" registry value, press WinKey + R and type the following command:

cmd /k reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\Taskmgr.exe" /s

Post back the output here.

 

Ok, solved, but not sure why and how. *Think

I downloaded the Sysinternals suite and ran the Process Explorer program. That works nicely.
Then I chose the option in Process Explorer that causes it to replace the Windows built-in Taskmanager.

Next I pressed CTRL-ALT-DEL and suddenly the Windows 10 built-in Taskmanager works again!
But still the taskmgr.exe is not in the system32 folder. So i am really confused.

But at least it works again. So thanks for listening.

Calle

 

No taskmgr.exe in System32.

This is where it's found on my Win 10 Pro X64 Laptop.