techsupport @lemmy.world Moonrise2473 @feddit.it 9 mo. ago

On the work computer task manager is protected by password. I'm local admin, how can i revert this?

Because i am local admin and i'm authorized to do whatever i want, i can use process explorer.

But i want to use taskmgr.exe

The exe is signed by microsoft

17 comments

That's not a standard Windows prompt, looks like some third-party application is intercepting the call.

Check the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options - for a key named taskmgr.exe. If it exists, see if the taskmgr.exe key has a value called Debugger. If so, delete the Debugger value, or rename the taskmgr.exe key to e.g. taskmgr.exe.old.

Then try launching Task Manager again.

If there's nothing in the registry, you could monitor the process tree in Process Explorer and watch what happens when you execute taskmgr.exe. You could also use Process Monitor if you want to dig deeper and find out exactly what's happening - you can filter out Microsoft processes to make it easier to see all thirdparty software interactions.
- Yes! Thanks It intercepted the call and launched taskmanagerlauncher.exe
  
  Which tells me that the actual executable may have been unprotected. I'd be curious if you run the exe directly if it would give you the same prompt.
- Doing something like this on a work pc is a good way to get written up.
I’ve never really understood this approach. If my work laptop prevents me from doing work, I open a ticket, cc my boss, and move on with my life. I’ve got enough other stuff to do and why take on the risk associated with circumventing company security controls just to get that TPS report in on time? I’ve got documentation showing that I tried and couldn’t complete the work because of the security control.
- This is the right way to do it. Make it clear this IT process is causing reduced performance. Especially if you're a profit centre you will likely see the problem solved soon enough.
  
  This specific thing. A password on task manager is really dumb though. I assume they have some spyware they don't want users to be able to stop. But, most of this kind of software (think antivirus) generally have other ways to prevent tasks being closed. They don't need to remove task manager. Task manager is an important and needed tool for any windows user.
Task manager can have a password?

Anyway, it looks suspicious. Resolution of that window is not quite right, it's fuzzy. Though I now see you said the .exe is signed, so I guess it's just some scaling bug.
- It's a screenshot from Intel amt remote admin session so it's scaled& compressed
  
  But indeed now that I notice, it's weird that the text "enter password" is out of focus compared to the other crispy text.
  
  But maybe it's because everything is scaled 150% and that window doesn't support scaling
  
  No, that's not what I meant. The window and text around looks fine. I meant the content of the window, that prompt itself.
Alternative: Download sysinternals tools from Microsoft, procmon is way better anyways and portable.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/
Find a new job
- Oh, come on. Nobody knows everything. This is similar to many other questions on stackexchange.
  
  I only checked quickly, but I also didn't find a mention about taskmgr password.
  
  They criticized your place of employment, not you.
Try upgrading to Windows 11. Quite likely they haven't yet managed to restrict the newer Task Manager.

You've viewed 17 comments.