Taskmgr vs Procexp (Vista)

[dturnidge]

I have downloaded Process Explorer by Sysinternals (now owned by M$FT) and took the option to have it replace the task manager. It worked fine for a while, but now when I right click on the taskbar and select task manager, I get a dialog that says, "C:Windowssystem32taskmgr.exe; The requested operation requires elevation." However, I am an administrator, and have done the "secpol.msc" trick to "Elevate without prompting." What secret am I missing??

[DaveA]

"I am an administrator" but you are NOT "THE Administrator" which is a higher permission group. You will need to run this program "As Administrator". To do this, "Right Click" the exe file related to the program you want to run, and then select "Run As Administrator". If you look at the properties of the same exe file, then the "Compatibility" tab and you can select the option to always "Run as administrator" which is located near the bottom of the pane.

[dturnidge]

Well, yeah, but, maybe your taskmgr.exe properties are set up different than mine. When I search for taskmgr.exe, and right click and run as administrator, it works. but if I right click on the taskbar and select Task Manager it doesn't. There is no "right click" at that point. If I select taskmgr.exe properties, even when set up as an (and I understand "an") administrator, I am unable to access any of the security properties. The compatibility tab doesn't let me "run this program as an administrator." The security tab lets me look, but not change ANY of the settings. The administrators group is set up with "Read & execute" and "Read" rights, but I cannot change them. When I go in under Edit, everything is disabled.

I consider not being able to right click on the task bar, clicking Task Manager and having it not come up, to be a good thing. As I said before, this happened when I installed the process explorer and selected the option to "replace task manager".

Newsflash: When I UNSELECT the option to replace task manager, I CAN run task manager with a right click on the task bar. When I SELECT that option, I have the security issues. However, it has been nice, with XP, to be able to have the process explorer come up in place of the task manager. Any ideas why it isn't working with Vista?

[DaveA]

Vista is designed NOT to allow another program to run any program that has access to the system settings. This is part of the security. These third party programs are going to have to be redone so that they comply with the REQUIREMENTS of Vista.

Has this program that you are trying to use, been updated FOR Vista?

[dturnidge]

Sysinternals has been purchased by Microsoft - so I guess they don't rate as "third party" - However, continuing to search for an answer I found on THEIR forum that the question had been asked many times - and hadn't been answered... Ain't that special...So, maybe something will show up someday...

[DaveA]

"Sysinternals has been purchased by Microsoft "
Yes, but that has been a short while ago, so they are still the "New Kids on the block", and are trying to catch up with the rest of the company (Microsoft). It takes time for these "Buy outs" to be absorbed within the mother company. Having gone through a few (the mother company), there is a lot of internal updating and changes that have to be made. <img src=/S/smile.gif border=0 alt=smile width=15 height=15>

Also there are a lot of MS programs that will NOT run on Vista, without the "Run as administrator".

[Pilgrim]

Right you are, Dave. When Microsoft bought out "Giant Antispyware" and offered it for free (Beta) under the "Defender" name, it was a little rough around the edges. But now, it is even better than the original, which was touted as one of the best. But you know as well as I do that if anything has the name "Microsoft" on it, then it has to be junk, overpriced, buggy, etc. <IMG SRC=http://www.the-highway.com/Smileys/haha2.gif>

Jeff