Window Pains – Task Manager
By Bob Balogh, President,
Boca Raton Computer
Society, Florida
www.brcs.org help
- brcs(at)yahoo.com
Obtained from APCUG with the author's permission for
publication by APCUG member groups.
TASK MANAGER
Task Manager is a helpful application that is part
of the Windows Operating System (2000, XP & Vista).
You can open it with the three fingered salute –
Ctrl/Alt/Delete, or more easily, my preferred way,
by a right click on an open space on your Taskbar,
and clicking on Task Manager. You may also open Task
Manager by going to Start-Run and entering "taskmgr"
(without the quotes).
Most of us have only
experienced dealing with the Task Manager when a
program no longer seems to be functioning. We then
open the Task Manager and click on the Applications
Tab, see the list of running programs, and highlight
the program we are having difficulty with, then
click on “End Task” at the bottom of the page.
Voila, the program is shutdown and is no longer
causing you a problem. Of course, you still will
want to find out why the problem began or why the
program froze in the first place. However, that is
for another time.
PROCESSES
You can also click on the “Processes” tab, to see
exactly which programs are running in the
background. Go on open yours up and see what is
running. Here is part of mine:
Of course all these
programs do not have to run. In fact while many of
these programs are useful and are needed others are
not needed and may at times cause problems. The
problem is what determining what these programs do.
Even if you are not inclined to stop any of these
programs it is a step forward to know what these
programs do so at least you have an idea as to what
may be causing a particular problem when it arises.
To see a list of
most of the possible programs that are running in
the background just go to this web site
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
and peruse the programs from A-Z. Well, you
don’t have to look at all of them, just the ones you
have listed in your Task Manager.
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Remember, all the programs,
that are listed in your Task Manager, may not be listed
at “Answers that Work”. Why you might ask? Well, just
look at my list and you will see a program listed called
SnagIt32.exe. That is a program that I added to my
computer, and use often. Actually, it is the program I
used to create the picture of the Task Manager above. So
it is listed, since it was still “running”, when I made
the screen capture. Could I turn it off? Sure, all I
have to do is close the program.
If you want to turn off
a program that is running in Task Manager, don't change,
or disable it in the Windows Task Manager. Instead, go
to the Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services,
and change them there. Double click on the entry, and
change it from the dropdown list where it says "Startup
Type". Carefully read what it does, and what it is
related to, before making a decision. Write down what
you changed, in the event you wish to change it back. If
you have System Restore or Go Back operating, write down
the date and time, in case you want to return to an
earlier time, when all was well. Additionally, set a new
restore point, prior to doing anything. If the service
isn't listed in there, then more than likely it was
added by an application you added after the install.
You'll need to decide if it's necessary, or if you only
want it running when you decide
There also comes a time
when a particular program “freezes” and is not
functioning as we mentioned at the outset of the
article. What should you do? Simply use Ctrl+Alt+Delete,
open the Task Manager, and simply close down the program
by selecting it and clicking on “End Task”. The
following figure demonstrates it for you:
The Performance tab
displays an overview of your computer's performance,
including graphs for CPU and memory usage as well as the
total number of processes running. Google such other
items displayed if you are interested in the purpose
they serve. I do not wish to get too technical here.
The remaining tabs,
Networking and Users are basically self explanatory. If
you are running a home network it will show up under
Networking and inform you of it function ability. As far
as Users is concerned you will see a list of those using
your computer.
Peruse the headings in
the toolbar (top), just to get an idea of what they are
and do. Of course the Help tab, as usual, is the most
important in explaining the program at hand. Use it and
you will learn much.
This
article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely
for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses
require the permission of the author (see e-mail address
above). |
cygnus
