Hi,
The application freeze may be your display driver. If such is the case, you
won't see task manager or anything else respond (regardless of the method
used to invoke it). I would first try updating them to the most recent
release from the video card manufacturer.
Programs in Vista are virtualized and run from the user environment, which
is a big change from previous versions of Windows where the majority ran
from the system environment. This way there are two major controls in place:
1) Programs, including malware, cannot access and modify protected system
files. 2) Damage from malware or other issues from any program are contained
to just that user profile and does not affect other users or the system
kernel itself.
--
Best of Luck,
Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
Windows help -
www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts
http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com