As an administrator or technician one of your job is to help others keep their systems running well and to diagnose and fix performance problems when they occur.Let's discuss Task Manager role on Windows XP computer. As you know Task Manager displays information about the running programs and processes on your computer, it also shows the performance of your computer and provide better computer optimization facility.
You can use Task Manager to run programs, to terminate programs and processes, and to see a current view of your computer's performance. Task Manager enables you to monitor programs and processes that are currently running on your Windows XP computer. It also shows information about the processes, including the memory usage of each one. It gives statistics about the memory and processor performance and network usage.
You can access Task Manager in any of the following ways:
•Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC all together.
•Right-click the Windows taskbar, and then click Task Manager.
• Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE on keyboard.
Use Task Manager to stop a running program. You can use the buttons on the Applications tab of the Task Manager to End Task, to switch to a program and bring the program into the foreground, and to start a new program. At the bottom Task Manager displays you the number of processes that are currently running, the CPU usage, and the memory usage.
The Processes tab in the Task Manager windows displays each process that is currently running on your computer that runs in its own address space, including all applications and system services. Task Manager also allows you to kill processes.
Change Priority of a Running Process:
Changing the default priority of a process determines how much processor time Windows gives to the process compared with other processes. Processes with higher priority will get more attention from CPU. By default, most processes run at a Normal priority. However, you can change the priority for a process by using the following guide line:
STEP 1. On Task Manager window, on the Processes tab, click the View menu and then click Select Columns.
STEP 2. Next, in the Select Columns dialog box, select Base Priority and then click OK. The Base Priority column now appears in the Task Manager window.
STEP 3. Right-click the process for which you want to change the base priority.
STEP 4. On the shortcut menu that appears, point to Set Priority, and then select one of the following commands: Realtime, High, Above Normal, Normal, Below Normal, and Low.
Tip: Task priority can only be set temporary basis not permanently, once you restart your Windows XP computer the changes you've made in priority will disappear.
