Disable Access to Task Manager in Windows

The task manager in Windows XP and Windows Vista can be disabled in two ways. You can disable the task manager either by making a registry entry or by using the Group Policy Manager. I would prefer the latter since it is much more convenient and you don't have to worry about backing up the registry in case something goes wrong.

Note: Before making any changes to the Windows registry, make sure you do a backup, in case something is messed up and so that you can restore things to normal. For any help, read How to safely edit, backup, and restore Windows registry.

Disable the Task Manager using Windows Registry

• Start Registry Editor. (Start->Run->"regedit")
• To disable Task Manager for current user logged in, go to
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system
• or
• To disable Task Manager for the whole system, go to
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system
• Create a new DWORD value named "DisableTaskMgr".
• Set its value to 1 do disable Task Manager or 0 to enable Task Manager. (see below figure)

(click on image for larger preview)

You may need to restart your system for this setting to take effect.

Disable the Task Manager using Group Policy Editor

• Start Group Policy Editor. (Start->Run->"gpedit.msc")
• On the left, go to User Configuration->Administrative Templates->System->Ctrl+Alt+Del Options.
• On the right, enable this setting "Remove Task Manager".

If this setting is enabled and users try to start Task Manager, a message appears explaining that the Task Manager has been disable by the Administrator.

by thegrchet