Is my computer compromised?

[tye stik]

When I open up the Task Manager on my computer it will no longer allow me to select or even see other options other than the live applications screen... i cant even 'end task'. I've scanned for malicious software and found none.

I've checked the Add/Remove program list... went into 'msconfig' and all was well. Any ideas as to what the problem could be?

 

[Doomulation]

Did you by any chance double-click on the task manager's borders? If you did, then do it again.
On the picture. To the left is normal Task Manager. After double-clicking on the border, it looks like to the right. When double-clicking on the border again, it returns to the left image.

 

[tye stik]

arty:

Awesome... it wasn't me who clicked the borders... must have been my brother when I went on vacation (for like 2 months).

BTW... nice theme you got goin there... what did u use to make it look so snazy?

 

[Doomulation]

I'm using Vista.

 

[tye stik]

Is the beta fully functional? Like, can you install games on it and what not?

 

[ScottJC]

what we're using is Vista Pre-RC1, its pretty stable and functional, only game i've tested so far is Hitman blood money, worked great indeed. Most stuff does in fact.

Edit: Tested prince of persia, sands of time and it also works perfectly and out of the box too.

 

[legend of zelda]

what we're using is Vista Pre-RC1, its pretty stable and functional, only game i've tested so far is Hitman blood money, worked great indeed. Most stuff does in fact.

Edit: Tested prince of persia, sands of time and it also works perfectly and out of the box too.

hehe, i've got vista beta also on a seperate partition. It's pretty stable, but i prefer using xp for now cause alot of games won't work for it(especially the 64-bit version) and games that do work run slower on vista, and with my budget pc, i need all the performance i can get out of it. Also, my 512MB of ram just won't cut it for vista, i mean you can use it with 512 but you should have at least a gig, my pagefile or virtual memory or whatever you wanna call it was up to over a gig just when running the os and nothing else and that doesn't give for a very good performance. So i guess it's ok, i just don't use it cause my hardware sucks.

 

[ScottJC]

hehe, i've got vista beta also on a seperate partition. It's pretty stable, but i prefer using xp for now cause alot of games won't work for it(especially the 64-bit version) and games that do work run slower on vista, and with my budget pc, i need all the performance i can get out of it. Also, my 512MB of ram just won't cut it for vista, i mean you can use it with 512 but you should have at least a gig, my pagefile or virtual memory or whatever you wanna call it was up to over a gig just when running the os and nothing else and that doesn't give for a very good performance. So i guess it's ok, i just don't use it cause my hardware sucks.

You just need more ram is all, otherwise your hardware is pretty good. Hitman for instance believe it or not runs faster on vista for me on this machine.

 

[legend of zelda]

Yeah, that's so true and i've known that forever, but i don't wanna do it cause i'm saving up for a whole new system. i wanna get a socket am2 mobo with either an athlon64 X2 or FX, probably X2 cause FX's are definitely not cheap. then i'm gonna hook it up with a nice ati video card so i can play games with the setting on high and actually get a playable framerate. i'm gonna wait till dx10 video cards are out though, and besides, i don't have anywhere near enough money right now anyways. it should do nicely with my new x-fi fatal1ty sound card though. As for RAM, i'm gonna get at least a gig, hopefully 2, don't know what kind though, probably corsair xms.

 

[SlimickGamer]

Can you get skins for Windows that looks just like Vista?

 

[legend of zelda]

yes.

 

[SlimickGamer]

Oh cool I'll check it out thanks.

 

[Zoomer]

To the first poster, you may want to backup your files, reformat & reinstall windows if its not too much trouble. Usually only takes me an hour or 2. And your computer will run like new.

 

[ScottJC]

Problem was solved Zoomer, if you had bothered to read the thread properly. There is no need to do what you suggest.

 

[Doomulation]

Those Vista-like themes are nothing compared to Real Vista. I'd stay away from them. They can bug your system (happened to me), and are usually buggy in some way.

 

[legend of zelda]

Yeah, they aren't that great. That's why i didn't link to them or say anything about them. If you want your desktop to look like vista, just get vista.

 

[ScottJC]

Vista Pre-RC1 and above is now useable as a primary os, thats my opinion - this thing rocks so much that i've been using it for over a day and i'm still happy with it. Tested Four of my favourite games on it - Hitman blood money, Prince of Persia sands of time and psychonauts (act of war works too). I've noticed that these load a bit quicker on vista than they do on XP but performance is the same on both in-game except i'd swear hitman runs better.

Going to try to keep my vista as up to date as possible now because i'm more or less ditched XP in favor of it (Yes i'm a bit mad but meh, XP is still available as a secondary os). Need to get my hands on build 5550 or whatever it is, its a step above mine. Btw the features of vista rock (the ability to silence paticular apps in volume mixer, searching the current folder you're in quickly, the built in games are awesome etc) i'm well impressed.

 

[Doomulation]

5536 is the latest I believe. Haven't heard otherwise. If there was a never build available, I would have it right now
Need to love Vista. Even though it isn't much more than an upgrade of XP, it is indeed sweet.

 

[ScottJC]

No 5552 is the latest build, trust me on that and if you don't believe me here's a screenshot of my desktop: It's more than an upgrade to XP - the whole experience is refreshing to me.

 

[Miretank]

It's not true that Vista skins are buggy. The only thing they can't do is the transparent explorer toolbar.

Btw, you guys are getting me to buy a new GPU and install Vista...
Should I make that sacrifice? I mean, will it worth?