Task Manager is a system utility that ships by default with Windows Vista. The tool is not new to Microsoft's latest operating system, having survived from older versions of Windows. Task Manager will essentially enable users to force exit a program that is no longer responsive, connect a process with the associated application, and monitor the performance of the operating system and the hardware resources. Task Manager is system management and monitoring utility critical in some very basic scenarios where Windows Vista is confronted with functionality issues. Therefore, sometimes, it is vital for the tool to be enabled.

Simply enter "regedit" in the Search box under the Start menu and press Crtl + Shift + Enter or right-click and choose Run as administrator from the contextual menu that pops up, in order to run the registry editor with elevated privileges.

Next navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPolicies. Here open System, DisableTaskMgr, and change Value data to 0, in order to enable Task Manager, or to 1 in order to disable the tool. Nothing could be simpler, revealed David Overton, ISV Partner Account Manager at Microsoft.