Task Manager in Windows

Task Manager is the primary tool for viewing operating system resources and closing unwanted and hung processes. Initially, its main function was to close applications that do not respond to user requests. In Windows 10, the functionality of the task manager has been significantly expanded. Now with the help of it you can not only control and end processes, but also view information about the use of system resources, manage startup and perform many other tasks.
How to start Task Manager
How to determine why the program is frozen
How to restart Windows Explorer without Task Manager
View Windows system performance
How to look on the Internet for information about the process
How to manage application Windows using the Task Manager
How to see file location in Task Manager
How to open command prompt from Task Manager

How to start Task Manager

Every user who uses Task Manager has their own favorite way to launch it. There are at least five options for opening this app.

  1. Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Del. When you press these buttons, a menu appears on the monitor screen, in which you can select the “Task Manager” item.
  2. Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Esc. This combination is even more convenient than the previous one, because when you use it, the task manager opens immediately.
  3. Right click on the taskbar. The advantage of this method is that the user does not need to use the keyboard. Right-click on the taskbar and select “Task Manager” from the menu that opens. Task Manager
  4. Right click on the Start button. As a result of these actions, a menu will appear in which you need to select the “Task Manager” item.
  5. Using the command line. This method is rarely used, but it is also useful to know. Press the key combination Win + R, type taskmgr and press the Enter key. Type taskmgr

Choose any convenient way for you to call the task manager, and use it if necessary.

How to determine why the program is frozen

Every user has probably experienced freezing programs. As a rule, a hung program is simply closed using the task manager. If the application freezes regularly, it will not be superfluous to figure out why this is happening. In such cases, the task manager comes to the rescue.

  1. Open the task manager in any way you know, for example, using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
  2. Go to the Details tab in Task Manager.
  3. Right-click on the hung process and select the “Analyze wait chain” section. Analyze wait chain
  4. In the ” Analyze wait chain ” window that opens, analyze the processes that caused the program to hang. Once you have identified the blocking processes, you can remove them. To do this, mark these items with a checkmark and click the “End Process” button. End Process

After the blocking processes are removed, the hung application can work again. However, this does not always happen. For example, blocking can be caused not only by external processes, but also by internal resources. An illustration of this fact can be a situation in which a program tries to save data to a file occupied by some other process.

Also, sometimes the wait chain can be empty even though the application is hung. This is due to the fact that the program hang was not due to external events, but due to internal reasons. For example, the program may hang due to incorrect code with an infinite loop.

Despite these facts, this tool is still a fairly effective way to determine the reasons for blocking a hung application and unblocking hung processes.

How to restart Windows Explorer without Task Manager

Why restart Windows Explorer? If there are problems with the computer, the first thing the user does is restart the PC. However, often in these cases, you can do without restarting Windows Explorer, which is responsible for displaying Windows interface elements, including displaying the Start menu and Taskbar.
You can restart this application in several ways, for example, using the task manager.

  1. Open the Task Manager in any way, for example, by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
  2. On the Processes tab, find the Windows Explorer process and right-click on it.
  3. Select Restart or click the Restart button at the bottom of the Task Manager window. Task Manager window

After restarting Windows Explorer, the taskbar will disappear for a few seconds and then reappear. The explorer will be reloaded.

View Windows system performance

Viewing system performance will help you troubleshoot problems on your computer. The information received on this tab of the Task Manager is displayed in real time. This allows you to understand how your computer’s resources are being used and find the cause of slow network and hard drive speeds, as well as understand the causes of other PC performance problems.

On the Performance tab of the Task Manager, you will see several major components, including the processor, memory, hard drive, and network. Let’s take a closer look at each of these options.

CPU

On this tab, you can see complete information about the processor of your PC and how its resources are being used in real time. CPU
In the upper right corner you can see the type of processor used and its clock speed. The graph shows CPU usage for 60 seconds. Right-click anywhere on the partition and select “Logical Processors”. So you can see graphs for each of the processor cores. Logical Processors
In the same menu, you can select the “Show kernel times” item in order to troubleshoot devices with incorrect drivers or faulty hardware.

At the bottom of the window, you can view many processor parameters, including base speed, usage percentage, number of cores and sockets, and more.

Memory

In this section, you can view information about the use of Memory by the system and programs. Memory
In the upper right corner you can see the amount of Memory. In the same section, you will see two graphs: the first one shows the total memory usage during 60 seconds, and the second one shows the amount of memory used at that time.

The lower part shows various information about the Memory. For example, “In Use” is the amount of RAM that is currently in use by the operating system, drivers, and applications.

The “Available” parameter displays the amount of shares that is not currently used.
Options such as “Speed”, “Slots Used”, “Form Factor”, “Hardware Reserved” allow you to use this data when updating your computer. For example, in cases where you want to add another memory bar.

Disk

This section contains hard disk usage data. This information is given for each disk separately. Disk
In the upper right corner you can see the brand of the disk, interface type and capacity. The first graph shows disk activity for 60 seconds. The second graph gives information about the data rate.

At the bottom of the window, you can view information about data read and write speeds, disk capacity, type, and more.

Ethernet

This section contains information about network adapters, and for each adapter this data is issued separately, including even virtual network adapters. Network adapters
This block contains only one graph that displays the network activity of the adapter for 60 seconds. Below the graph contains information about the speed of sending and receiving data, the type of adapter, the type of connection, and IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

Right-click on the graph and select “View Network Details”. This will bring up a window with many network parameters.  View Network Details
As a rule, this information is useful only for advanced users.

Thus, by viewing the parameters and graphs in the Performance tab of the Task Manager, you can get all the information about the operation of your hardware and identify the causes of many problems.

How to look on the Internet for information about the process

When you open Task Manager, you will be presented with a large list of different processes under the Processes or Details tabs. It is often not clear to inexperienced users what these processes are and what they do. Information about this can be viewed on the Internet directly from the task manager. To do this, right-click on the process and select “Search online”. Search online
After that, a browser will open with a list of information about this process.

How to manage application Windows using the Task Manager

If you have multiple windows of an application open (for example, multiple Word or Excel files), you can manage them using the Task Manager. To do this, right-click on one of the open documents and call the context menu to manage this window.

Using this menu, you can minimize a window, bring it to the foreground, maximize it, switch between windows, or end this process.

How to see file location in Task Manager

You can view the path to the file in several ways, but not everyone knows that you can use the task manager for this purpose. For example, how to find the path to a running program that causes problems with the PC?

  1. Open the task manager in any way, for example, by pressing the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys.
  2. Right-click on the line with the program you need and select “Open file location”. Open file location
  3. In the Windows Explorer that opens, find the path to the desired file in the address bar.

There is another way to see the path to the process directly in the task manager. To do this, right-click on one of the headings, for example, “Name” and select the “Command line” section in the menu that opens.  Command line section
After these steps, the “Command line” column will be added to the task manager, which will indicate the path to the process files. Process files
This method is the most practical and informative.

How to open command prompt from Task Manager

The task manager has an easy way to launch any application through the command line, and this program will be run as an administrator. In order to do this, follow these steps.

  1. In the task manager, click “File”. Run new task
  2. Press and hold the Ctrl key.
  3. Hold down the Ctrl key and select “Run new task”.

After these steps, a command prompt window will open, in which you can type the commands you need.
So, the task manager can perform a large number of different functions. With it, you can optimize your computer, terminate incorrectly running processes, and even use it as a PC сleaner from various viruses.