... Task Manager in Vista ...

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Windows Task Manager covers some of the same ground as the Performance Monitor albeit more compactly and with a cool twist. One way to start the Task Manager is to right-click over the taskbar and choose it from the first context menu. The Task Manager sports five tabs (five in Win XP), most of which can be sorted by column headings. Most also have context menus that may prove useful.

  • Applications ... This tab lists the status of applications in the taskbar (not the icon tray or hidden applications). The status will be Running or Not Responding. If a task is non-responsive for a long time, you may want to highlight that task and use the End Task button.

    The context menu for a selected task enables you to control the window of the highlighted application in various ways (switch to, bring to front, minimize, maximize, cascade and tile, and end the task). The context menu also will create a dump file, a huge file full of program data most people have no use for. Finally, use the context menu for an application to jump to the related process on the Processes tab.

  • Processes ... Applications are made up of one or more processes. Every application in the previous tab will have at least one corresponding process on this tab (which may have a different name from the application); other processes in the list are in use by hidden applications, notification tray functions, and Windows Vista itself. You can end a process, but it may be riskier than ending a task if the process is also in use by another application; the application has other processes that don't end smoothly when one is ended; or you're wrong about the process. Still, when you can't end an application, you usually can end its process.

    Click on column headings to sort (twice to bring larger values to the top). You can also sort by the CPU column to see what's using the most processor time. You may also be interested in which programs use the most RAM. In either case, you may discover programs that are resource hogs but not very useful to you, particularly programs that insist on "pre-loading" before you run them to give the impression of fast loading. More and more applications use this cheat.

    In XP, you can find System Idle Process in this list. That's not really a process so much as an indication of inactivity. Windows Vista drops that indication, more clearly reflecting true activity. The context menu has an option to set priority for a process above or below normal. This may not be something you want to do very often, but you can boost the priority for a more demanding or important process or drop the priority for a less demanding or important process. This is a one-time change that will not affect the process the next time it runs (unless you change it every time).

  • Services (not in XP's Task Manager) ... Processes use services provided by the system. At this low level, there is great opportunity for destabilizing the system by ending a service. On the other hand, some services start automatically but are never actually used on a specific system. Optimizing, even securing, a system may involve controlling services. However, if you are unfamiliar with a specific service, use the Services button because it provides more information and options.

  • Performance ... The Performance tab graphs CPU and RAM usage. The Resource Monitor button opens a variation of a function (see below) "Reliability and Performance Monitor."

  • Networking ... The Networking tab graphs network throughout.

  • Users ... The Users tab displays the status of users logged in to your machine. Your user name appears here, of course. If there are other user accounts on this machine, you'll see them listed (probably as "disconnected"). You may also see network users who are using your shared resources.

GETTING MORE OUT OF THE TASK MANAGER

In XP, Ctrl+Alt+Delete starts the Task Manager. In Windows Vista, that key combination brings up a screen that includes an option to Start Task Manager, Switch User, and Log Off. Shutdown is on this screen also, which explains why Shutdown is no longer a menu on the Task Manager.

The other XP key combination for Task Manager, Ctrl+Shift+Esc, still works. You can also use Win+R, taskmgr.exe.

Under Options, check Always On Top to keep Windows Task Manager on top of all other windows.

On the Processes, Networking, and Users tabs, the View menu has an option to choose columns. Consider hiding columns that don't tell you much; add a few that interest you. All the tabs enable you to resize the columns. All except Applications enable you to drag to rearrange columns. Most columns can be sorted by clicking on the heading (do it twice to change the order).

Select the tab you want to monitor ... try Applications. To reduce the screen space Task Manager uses, double-click between the row of tabs and the column headings; this hides the title bar, menus, and tabs. Now you can resize the Task Manager to something more compact. Drag it out of the way and double-click in the white space above the column headings to restore the title bar, menus, and tabs.

A small icon will appear in the icon tray whenever Task Manager is running. This icon shows CPU activity as a green bar; more of that bar is bright green than dark during heavy CPU activity (all bright green equals 100% CPU activity). This is a handy way to keep an eye on CPU activity. Hover over the icon for a tooltip displaying the percentage of CPU activity. Near 100% activity for more than a few seconds indicates something is hammering the CPU and warrants investigation through the Task Manager or Performance Monitor.

Also under Options, check Hide When Minimized. Minimize instead of closing TaskManager. There won't be a button for it in the taskbar, just the little green icon pulsing with CPU activity. Finally, add a shortcut for taskmgr.exe to the Startup menu:
  1. Start menu, Programs.
  2. Open the Startup folder.
  3. Right-click in the main window and choose New, Shortcut.
  4. In the box on the first screen of the dialog box that appears, type taskmgr.exe, and then click Next.
  5. The shortcut name on the next screen can be anything. Click Finish.
  6. Right-click over your new shortcut and choose Properties. In Run, select minimized. Click OK.
Every time you start your system, taskmgr will run. These steps could be used for other programs.

RELIABILITY AND PERFORMANCE MONITOR

Let's say you run the System Diagnostics Report (Win+R, perfmon.exe /report). That report collects 60 seconds' worth of data, and then collates and analyzes that data. The report is a snapshot.

The source of that data is the Reliability and Performance Monitor. This tool shows the performance data in real time, instead of a snapshot. Again, we are seeing some of the same data in a slightly different way.

The simplest way to start this tool is with Win+R, perfmon.exe. Through menus, you can use Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance Information and Tools; click on the Advanced Tools link under Tasks. At the top of the Advanced Tools window, you may see something listed under Performance Issues. If a link is there, click it for more details. From the Advanced Tools, choose Open Reliability and Performance Monitor (this is where you end up more directly with Win+R, perfmon.exe).

On the Resource Overview screen of the Reliability and Performance Monitor (or, more briefly, the Performance Monitor), you'll see graphs and summary text displaying activity in four areas. The text for each category features a triangle to expand that category for more information. The categories duplicate some of the categories in the previous System Diagnostics Report. Some of this information was also graphed by the Task Manager. The areas are as follows:

  • CPU ... The CPU graph and summary text report on processor activity. It is normal for the processor to hit 100% usage. However, over time, most processors will have considerable idle time. Expanding the summary text shows which tasks are currently occupying the CPU. Click the CPU column heading to sort the most demanding to the top.

  • Disk ... As with the CPU, you will occasionally see 100% activity as the system reads from or writes to disk. There should be periods of low activity as well. Expand the summary text heading to see which tasks are engaged in disk access.

  • Network ... This graph and heading track network utilization, activity on your computer that involves network functions. If you expand the details, you may see Internet traffic as well, including IP addresses being contacted.

  • Memory ... How much RAM is currently committed to running processes? Of these categories of performance, memory is likely to have the highest sustained percentage of activity. (RAM is always in use, even as other areas may be idle.) 100% use over a longer period implies the need for more RAM. Expanded details show which programs use RAM.

These four components of the Performance Monitor can help you determine what, if anything, is placing an extraordinary demand on these areas of your system. Armed with that knowledge, you might simply choose to avoid running the demanding process or avoid multitasking that process.

The Performance Monitor is a "snap-in" for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). The console provides general organization and functionality, while the snap-ins provide specific tools. On the left of most snap-ins is a menu called the console tree. You will see more of these console snap-ins as you continue to learn more about Windows Vista. Use View, Customize ... to display or hide items in the console window. The Run command for many snap-ins ends in .msc, so Performance Monitor could be run with perfmon.msc instead of perfmon.exe. (This is one of the few console snap-ins that also has an .exe version.)

Earlier, in the Task Manager, on the Performance Tab, we saw a button for the Resource Monitor. If you use that button, you get a screen with the same initial Resource Overview of perfmon, but without the console tree on the left or the menu options above (and a different title bar). Resource Monitor is a subset of Performance Monitor. As such, its only limit is that you cannot choose other monitors through the console tree menu.

In the console tree of perfmon, you'll find Monitoring Tools. Under the Monitoring Tools, the Performance Monitor graphs activity for a selected system component (initially, it is the CPU). Using the green plus sign above that graph to add a "counter" opens a huge list of possibilities, including those counters you saw earlier in the System Diagnostic Report (all this stuff is tied together). You can monitor the performance of very specific activities and functions, especially any that caught your attention in the System Diagnostics Report.

Also under Monitoring Tools is the Reliability Monitor, which reports on system stability. This includes four categories of failures (application, hardware, Windows, and miscellaneous), plus installation and un-installation of software by date (change the date with the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the graph). This could be used to track down the source of some misbehavior.

Continuing down the console tree of perfmon exposes more and more data that I, for one, can no longer digest. Deep down, under Reports > System Diagnostics are copies of the System Diagnostics Reports you've run earlier. This might be useful to track down when something changed.


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