So basically, Task Manager works ONLY when using the START/RUN/tskmgr.exe method.
They say they used to be able to run Task Manager using the CTRL ALT DEL method, but it just stopped working one day. I should mention that this problem has existed for a long time now, according to the person who owned the computer. Hitting CTRL SHIFT and ESC does not bring it up either. Right clicking on the task bar at the bottom and clicking on 'Task Manager.' will not bring it up either. Hitting the keys CONTROL ALT and DELETE will bring up a 'Windows security' window which will have a button to access Task Manager, but when I hit the button it will not bring up the Task Manager. After running multiple scans, I've finally cleaned up the entire thing and it is working perfectly except for one tiny little problem. Someone gave me an old computer running Windows 2000 pro to fix and it had tons of issues with it (spyware, trojans).