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Yeah there is.  Control-Alt-Del and then click Task Manager.  The processes tab is like the Activity Monitor.

My first throught was "not enough memory."  My uncle has a low end eMachine, much more than a year old though, that had only 128MB of RAM.  Upgrading memory was a major help.

I would not be surprised at a lack of protective software.  Grab some antispyware software and antivirus software (AVG is good, and has a free version) and see what you can find and clean up.

Be sure when you're done you've got them setup with some antivirus software, the firewall is at least on, and that you've got Firefox set as the default browser.  Also be sure that everything is current with Windows Update, and since they're not very computer literate, you might want to go ahead and set Automatic Updates to automatically download and install.

When you open the task manager, under "performance" it will say "Physical Memory" - it lists the amount of RAM in KB.

Interesting.     The Delete in Ctrl Alt Delete is the backspace key, right ?  No task manager popped up.

I'm still baffled about the firewall control panel.  Anyway, they've got PC semi-pros in their family.  I'll just inform them of the problem and let somebody else fix it.

Booksley wrote:

nonono, it's the actual "delete" key. It's to the bottom left of the backspace key on an extended keyboard.

bottom right.

okay, I get the picture

er, bottom right. I knew that. I was just testing your skills. yeah.

:shiftyeyes:

Nefarious Bidding wrote:

Now, I am upset.  (not really)

The Ctrl-Alt-Delete, correct keys found, says that the function has been disabled by the administrator.  Is this probable ? 

I'm waiting until this weekend to dump the bad news on them.

You can also try right-clicking on the Taskbar to get to the Task Manager. It works for Win2000. Sorry, no picture included And yes, it sounds like you are working off a standard user account instead of an admisistrator one. The only control panel I can access right now is "Regional and Language Settings" so you know I'm locked down pretty tight.

Altivec - you need a new username, now.

Confirmed.  Massive infection by Ad-Aware (117 items, probably 50 of which are "tracking cookies") and 470 items found by Spy Doctor.

The owners were baffled by Mozilla going MIA, but never mentioned to me or thought it a sign of danger.

I repeatedly warned them today of the dangers of identity theft and trojans.   Their PC professional brother is too busy to help.  They have enough money to take drive to Alabama and Georgia for a week, but complain of their debt.

I gave up; fortunately I had an important meeting to attend so that was the end of my spiel.

Roger that.

I did get an email from them last night, asking me to let them know if I sell my Mac.        hmmmmmm...... I've been planning to hang on to this one.   The G4 iMac screen adjustment fits me well.     Anyway, that's another thread someday.