How to Use Task Manager

Task Manager is tool that’s built into windows. Most people are not aware the tool is even there but it’s only a tap away. Just press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. You will see an option screen with a button called task manager. Go ahead and click it. Now that task manager is open, lets talk about the tabs.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Window XP or VISTA

1. The 1st tab is called Applications. Here you will see every application running even if you cannot see it. If its here, it’s running. If you see a status by one of your programs that says not responding, you can right click it and choose end-task.
2. The 2nd tab is processes. There will much more of these. Some programs will have several processes. Some processes wont have any viewable programs running. If a virus was on your PC, you might spot the thing running under processes. You can use end-task here as well.
3. The 3rd tab is Services. We are getting a bit more technical now. Services support programs and processes. They also can be running or stopped. If you right click a service you can also pick “go to Process” which lets you see what process is associated with this service. You can learn more about a service or process by doing this.
4. Tab 4 is Performance. This tab lets you see many things about how well your PC is running. CPU usage is your processor chip or your Core2Duo or Pentium 4. When your not doing anything this should be as close to 0 as possible but 2-4% is fine.
   CPU Usage is one of the best tools in task manager. If you see 90-100%, you have a problem or you are running something very processor intense. In all cases, do not push your PC harder. If you are not running an heavy process like digital video conversion, and you have no idea why your PC is running its CPU at 100%, try rebooting. If the problem persists, you will want to run you’re anti virus scanner. If the virus scanner can not run due to the heavy CPU use, try booting into SAFE MODE and run from the scan.
   Safe mode can be accessed by rebooting and tapping F8 as the boot screen (before the windows logo appears).
5. We also have memory. This should be lower than the middle or no more than the middle (depending on the version of windows and how much memory is in your computer. Vista users get a button on this screen called “resource monitor”. This opens up a similar window with more options and graphs.
6. Tab 5 is for Networking. This shows the network traffic and could expose any network traffic problems. It also gives you some details about the speed of your connection.
7. Last tab is USERS. Here you can see everyone connected to your computer and a right click allows you to disconnect or logoff anyone you wish.