How Do I Use Windows Task Manager?
You can start Task Manager in several ways,
depending on your preferences. Just press
Ctrl-Shift-Esc and Task Manager pops right up.
Windows XP users may be more used to
Ctrl-Alt-Del for starting Task Manager, but
alone that doesn't cut it on Vista or Windows 7.
You can also click the Start button and type
taskmgr into the input
box, then hit Enter. On Vista or Windows 7, you
have an additional option to right-click the
taskbar, then select Task Manager from the menu.
Task Manager has tabs for Applications, Processes, Services, Performance, Networking and Users. These tabs will help you keep tabs on what's going, as it relates to each of those areas.
The Applications tab lets you see a list of currently running programs. These are the ones that you would normally know you are running, because you started them. Things like Internet Explorer, Paint and Microsoft Word will show up here. The main thing you can do in Task Manager that you can't do elswhere is End Task - that is, force a frozen application to shut down. Note that you will lose any unsaved data for that program if you do that, but that's better than a PC locked up forever.
The Processes tab shows you applications and also system processes that are running in the background, normally invisble to you. These may include thing such as antivirus programs; automatic updaters; and other things that you generally don't need or wish to know about. I often used this tab to see which programs are chewing up the most CPU and/or RAM memory. Just click on the column headers to sort the entries. You can end a process if it is causing problems, but ending the wrong process may cause applications to malfunction or lock up your PC. No permanent damage is done, though. Just be aware that when you restart your computer, it'll probably be back, unless you use the MSCONFIG utility to remove it from your Startup programs.
The Services tab (found only on Vista and Windows 7) shows things built into Windows itself that are running in background. Examples include the DHCP service that gets an IP address for your PC when you connect to the Internet, and the Spooler which manages your printer queue. Again, these are things you don't want to mess with unless you know for sure you don't need them. Windows Fax Service is a pretty clearcut example; if you don't use a fax modem, you can safely end it. (And again, you'll need to use the Services tab in the MSCONFIG utility to prevent it from reappearing when you reboot.)
The Performance tab shows graphs, charts, and statistics about the real-time performance of many parts of your PC. It is useful for determining what hardware or Windows services may be limiting the performance of your computer, so you can upgrade a part or reconfigure a service instead of buying a whole new, more powerful computer. Click the Resource Monitor button at the bottom of the main screen (not available in XP) and you will find enough monitors to keep you busy for weeks.
The Networking tab shows rolling time-series graphs of your network connection's activity. It isn't very informative, showing only the percentage of your bandwidth used at any given instant.
The Users tab shows the username of each person or entity logged on to the PC. You will see your username there. Note this is the Windows login username, not your Internet or email username. If you see others, such as Guest, you may wonder if some hacker in Russia is using your PC. If it's something like ".NET Framework", it's probably just an application that needs to use the computer exactly as a real, human user would. You can select a username and disconnect it, but if you really have Russian hackers logging in to your computer, the problem is bigger than that. See my article on free anti-virus and anti-malware utilities to rid your system of the nasties that allow bad guys in.
