Q: I just had major work on my Dell XP computer, and the Windows Task Manager no longer displays and control-alt-delete does not work. How do I turn both back on?
A: Hopefully, you didn’t pay for the major work you got done.
If that’s the case, take your computer back and get whoever messed it up to fix the problem.
It’s hard to diagnose exactly what happened to your machine, but here are three alternatives to launch the Task Manager.
• Go to your Windows “Start” button, select “Run” and type in “taskmgr.exe” — this should pull up the familiar window so you can see what programs are running on your computer.
• Hit control (ctrl), shift and escape key (esc) for the Task Manager.
• In the Windows Notification area — a.k.a. System Tray, or the blue bar at the bottom of the screen that shows you all the programs you are using — get to a clear spot, right click your mouse and a menu pops up. Select “Task Manager.”
Technical challenge
Now, there are a few other things you can do to try to fix a broken ctrl+alt+del. But if you’re reading this, I’m assuming you’re not one who wants to mess with the Windows registry. I’d leave that to the true geek, or one who gets paid to fix technical issues.
But if you’re up for a technical challenge, here’s a site that takes you through the steps: www.kellys-korner-xp.com/ xp_t.htm. Go there and search for the words “doesn’t work.”
The main site, Kelly’s Korner, is full of ways to tweak Windows XP, sorted from A to Z.
