ctrl+alt+del Strange Behavior

Recently I have experienced random freezing/cursor jumping/dropped wi-fi and ethernet connections, similar to a virus. I've run updated virus scanners, however, and found nothing.

I have also noticed that pressing ctrl+alt+del doesn't bring up the normal window with tabs for tasks, processes, etc.... Instead, I get the task manager window, which lists any open tasks, but nothing else. There is no tab for the Process Viewer, nor is there any way to close the Task Manager window except "alt+F4." There is no "X" button in the top right corner; the top boundary of the box is just the top of the Task Manager frame. Right-clicking the task-manager icon in the toolbar does nothing.

I have also noticed that if I can get the TM to run while the PC is displaying the freezing/jumping behavior, the CPU usage listed in the quicklaunch bar shoots way up and back down repeatedly.

I have now run SFC and got no report of any corrupted files, and have run Adaware to remove spyware etc..., but the problem has not gone away. Does anyone have any thoughts on other diagnoses or fixes? Thanks.

 

Sounds like the Task Manager is running in "small footprint "mode. Just open it and double-click on any empty space in its window's border. That will give you all the tabs and buttons back.