Control Alt Delete problem

[Gardener]

I used to be able to view what programs were running, and therefore shut down any that were not responding, by using control alt delete. Now whenever I press control alt delete, nothing happens. I read somewhere that control shift and escape works in Windows XP, but not for me. Can anyone please give me guidance? Many thanks.

[Miz]

If also you cannot open Task Manager by right clicking on the Taskbar, left clicking on Task Manager, the most likely culprits are viruses and/or spyware. Neither one wants you to be able to open Task Manager, as well as Add/Remove Programs and Registry Editor, because they are where viruses and spyware can be disabled/eliminated.

Do a full system scan with at least one, preferably two, up-to-date antivirus program(s) and at least one, preferably two or three, up-to-date antispyware programs.

For the "second opinion" antivirus, or if you don't have an up-to-date AV program installed, good, free online scans are available at Bit Defender (http://www.bitdefender.com/scan/licence.php), Panda (http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/activescan.asp?language=2&Country=63&Partner=1&Ref=EN-PR-AS-107) and Housecall (http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_pcc.asp).

Good, free antispyware programs are Windows AntiSpyware (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx), Spybot (http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10289035.html?tag=lst-0-1) Ad-Aware (http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button) and Ewido (http://www.ewido.net/en/download/).

[Gardener]

Thanks for the advise Miz. I posted a problem about a trojan virus at the same time in the security forum. That appears to have been resolved now and low and behold control alt delete is working OK again. I have Windows anti-spyware on my PC and have just downloaded and run Spybot. This picked up and blocked an additional 7000 bad products. Thanks very much indeed for your kind help.