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Task Manager and Resource Monitor in Windows

Last modified: 2012-02-28 16:14:25 EET

Task Manager is a powerful program for managing applications and processes, checking system and network performance and logged on users. Since Windows Vista, there is also a program called Resource Monitor for more detailed information about your system and running applications.

You can open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc on your keyboard or by right-clicking on an empty space of Taskbar and selecting Task Manager (Windows XP and Vista) or Start Task Manager.
 

To make system checking easier, Task Manager is on top of all other windows by default - it always hides contents of other open windows. You can change that by opening Options menu and clicking Always On Top. The Minimize On Use option works only after switching to another open program - you can turn the option off to keep Task Manager visible.

Double-clicking an empty space inside the Task Manager window will hide its Title Bar and Tabs. On Performance and Networking tabs, this will show larger CPU (processor) or network usage graphs. Double-click some empty space again to restore normal view.

Managing running applications with Windows Task Manager

You need Task Manager when an application (program) has stopped responding and you need to close it by force or a program is so busy that you cannot switch to other windows.

If an application is very busy doing something processor-intensive, its Taskbar icon might be unresponsive and you can't minimize its window. When you need to see other programs, open Task Manager and go to Applications tab. Right-click on the application name and select Minimize. This should force the application to minimize in a short period of time.

You could also right-click the program you want to see and click Switch To or Bring To Front.

If an application stays unresponsive for a long time and distracts your work, it is better to close it. The nice way for this is by ending its task; the more brute way is to kill its process (discussed later in this article).
To play nice and tell an application to stop its work and close, right-click on its name in Task Manager Applications tab and click End Task (see picture above).

In most cases this closes the application.

Managing running processes with Windows Task Manager

To see a list of running processes (this includes applications and services), click the Processes tab.

Here you can sort the applications listed by any column visible (Image name, CPU, etc) in ascending or descending order. Click on a column name once and it will be sorted in ascending order, the next click will sort it in descending order. The list will be dynamically updated every second, so if you sort the process list by CPU (processor usage in percent) column in descending order you will see the processes that consume most of your computer's processing power. If there are many programs running at the same time, this list changes often and makes it hard to find a process. Sort the list by Image Name column and find the process in much more peaceful list.

By default, only programs started by the current user (you) are shown. Administrators can also see and end system processes and applications of other users. To see processes of all users logged on to your computer, click the Show processes from all users check box (in Windows XP) or button. This will also display "System Idle Process" - an indicator of unused processor power at the time. This should have a value around 90 if your computer is not doing much - but the value will never exceed 99.

Of course, Windows Vista will open User Account Control dialog after clicking the button. Click Continue then.

In Windows Vista and 7, the button will be replaced by a check box with the same name after this.

But then a normal user never knows what process he/she needs to check - the names are sometimes pretty cryptic. To access the right process, go back to Applications tab, right-click on the running application you want to manage and click Go To Process. This is especially useful when you have several My Computer windows open and one of them stops responding. All those My Computer and Windows Explorer windows are different processes with the same name (explorer.exe), but Go To Process shows you exactly the right one.

This command will open Processes tab and select the process related to the application you selected.

If your computer reacts slowly and a process is consuming lots of CPU for a longer time, try changing its priority to a lower level first. By default, most processes start with Normal priority, which means that all processing power is shared equally when needed.

To lower priority of a process, right-click on it, select Set Priority and click BelowNormal (in Windows XP) or Below Normal.

Windows will then open a window warning about possible system instability. Click Yes (in Windows XP) or Change priority.
 

Please note that if you are trying to change a priority level of some essential system processes, you will get "Access Denied" error message instead. Some processes do not allow changing their priorities to keep Windows stable.
This does not mean that you can fool around with all processes on the list, though! Keep your mind clear and change only the process that seems to be causing trouble. Changing system services can do lot harm!

You can also set the process to Low priority if it still seems to eat all processor power after changing to Below Normal level.

If an application is totally unresponsive and clicking End Task under Applications tab changes nothing, you can try killing the process itself. Right-click on the process and select End Process.

Windows will open a warning window, click Yes (in Windows XP) or End process to kill the process.
 

Some processes have sub-processes or related processes and if killing a power-hungry process does not stop it from eating CPU resources, right-click it again and select End Process Tree instead.

If after ending a hung process (especially when killing explorer.exe) your Desktop and Taskbar disappear, you can get them back by starting explorer.exe process again. Open File menu and click New Task (Run...).

Create New Task window opens.
If you've enabled the Show processes from all users option in Windows Vista, there will be an additional line stating "This task will be created with administrative privileges". Some processes (such as explorer.exe) should not be run with elevated rights, close Task Manager and re-open it using keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Then launch the program normally.
In Windows 7, you can just check or uncheck the Create this task with administrative privileges box.
Type "explorer" and click OK.
 

Your Desktop and Taskbar will reappear after a few seconds.

Managing services with Task Manager in Windows Vista and 7

In Windows Vista and 7, Task Manager also includes the Services tab. This displays a list of all services available with their current status (Stopped or Running). This tab is not meant for configuring services, but you can open Services management console by clicking the Services... button under the list.

Here you can start or stop services and see which process the selected running service is related to. I do not recommend fiddling with items listed under this tab as this can lower system security if you stop an important service. If you want to check which process a running (not stopped!) service is related to, right-click the service and select Go to Process.

You can also do this the other way round - to see which service(s) a running process is related to, right-click the process under Processes tab and click Go to Service(s). This is especially useful in case you want to know which services a svchost.exe process is related to - there are normally several svchost.exe processes running in Windows.
Please note that not all running processes are related to services.

Checking overall system performance with Windows Task Manager

Under Performance tab of Task Manager are essential indicators for system performance. Most of these are useful for IT specialists only, but you can still see graphically how much of your computer's processor power and Page File (in Windows XP) or Physical Memory is used in real time. Please note that the History graphs are filled only while Task Manager is running.
In case you have a multi-core / HyperThreading processor or more than one processor installed, you will see a graph for each core or physical processor.
 

If processor usage is high for a long time, go back to Processes tab and click CPU column twice. This will show which processes use the most of your computer's processor. Ignore the "System Idle Process" - this shows how much of processor power is free.

To check if your computer has enough RAM (Random Access Memory) installed, open all the programs that you tend to keep running at all times and use these for some time (10-15 minutes).
In Windows XP, see the Available line in the Physical Memory (K) section on the right. If the number is consistently less than 32 000 (32 megabytes), you should consider adding more RAM.
In Windows Vista and 7, see the Physical Memory line on the bottom right of the window. If the percentage often exceeds 85, more RAM is required.

See the Memory and hard disks article about how to check which type of memory modules are required.

Checking network with Windows Task Manager

Next tab in Windows Task Manager is called Networking. Sadly, it does not display any other useful information than the network adapter usage history and link speed. The usage indicator will not usually exceed a few percent. If your computer has multiple network adapters, there is a separate history graph for each adapter.

Managing logged-on users with Windows Task Manager

The Users tab displays all users that are logged on to your computer. Here you can disconnect their sessions, log them off or send messages to them. It does not seem to make much sense as Windows allows only one active user at a time, but it comes in handy when there are multiple user accounts on your computer and user switching is turned on.

Here Mirjam is currently logged on and using the computer. Her status is "Active". Margus was also logged on, but he used Switch Users command instead of Log off command - his programs are still running, although his status is "Disconnected".

Mirjam has "Console" written in the Session column, this also means that she is actively using the computer. Second type for Sessions can be "RDP-Tcp" in case Remote Desktop or Remote Assistance is enabled. In most cases Remote Desktop should not be enabled, but if it is, you can see remote host name or IP address connected to your computer in Client Name column.

Connecting to another user's session

Now imagine that Mirjam needs to restart the computer after running Windows Update. If Margus is not available, but Mirjam knows his password (that is a very bad practice, never share passwords!), she can log on as Margus, close his running programs and then restart the computer. This is exactly the same as using Switch Users and logging on as Margus from Welcome Screen - but doing it with Task Manager takes less steps.

Please remember that only administrators can connect to another user's session.

To connect as another user, right-click the user name and select Connect.

Type in password of the other user and click OK.
 

You will then be switched to another user's session. Your own open programs will continue to run in your own session.

Logging other users off

If Mirjam has administrative rights, but does not know Margus's password (this is good practice), she still can log Margus off.

To log other user off without connecting to that user's session, right-click on the user name and click Log Off or click the user name and then click Logoff button in the bottom of the window. This will close the user's running programs and therefore the user will lose all unsaved changes in his/her open documents. After closing programs, the user will be logged off. Use it with care!

A confirmation window opens. Click Yes (in Windows XP) or Log off user to log the selected user off.
 

Sending messages to other users

When Mirjam does not know Margus's password and she does not want to log him off, she can still leave a message for Margus, for example "Log off and restart the computer as soon as possible - new updates need to take effect!". Mirjam can then log off, leave the computer running and go to some night club... err, sports club. When Margus returns, he will see the message after logging on. What a cheap substitute for a phone call!

To send a message to another user, you need administrative rights again.

Right-click on the user's name and click Send Message... command.

Send Message window opens. Message title field is automatically filled, but you can change that if you want to. Then type something in Message field and click OK to send the message.

You might hear a beep to indicate that a message was received by the user.

When the user logs on the next time, he/she will see the message:

Back to the Performance tab - using Resource Monitor in Windows Vista and 7

Resource Monitor is best suited for tech support people who sometimes need to see more detailed reports about processes and services. I will not go into details with Resource Monitor, as this site is primarily meant for beginners and intermediates. Windows 7 users can see some helpful overview of any column contents after they stop mouse pointer on the column's title.

You can start Resource Monitor by clicking the Resource Monitor... button under Performance tab of Windows Task Manager.

Windows Vista will open another lovely User Account Window. Click Continue to assure the lovely little creature you know what you're doing.

Resource Monitor opens in Overview tab, CPU section open. You can open and close any section by clicking on it. You can sort any list by any column by clicking the column name. If a value is longer than column width, stop mouse pointer on it and you will see the full value in a ToolTip.

Real-time history graphs for all main sections are on top in Windows Vista and on the right in Windows 7. The latter also has different tabs for more detailed overview of a resource usage and a Views button to switch between sizes of the graphs on the right.

CPU section

CPU section displays both running processes and services and how much processor resources they are using - sorted by Average CPU usage during the last 60 seconds. Section head shows current total CPU usage and at which frequency CPU is running - modern processors slow down automatically to save power.
 

Disk section

Here you can see which processes or services are writing to or reading from which files. The section might be empty for a while, but it will fill eventually after some disk activity occurs. As in CPU section, the statistics are displayed for the last 60 seconds. Section head shows current Disk I/O (Input/Output) in kilobytes and current disk usage in percentage.

By default, all processes are sorted by I/O Priority column, but I suggest sorting by Response Time (how quickly hard disk completes reading or writing) or Total (B/sec) (how much data the service or process reads or writes) columns instead.

In picture below, the first row shows that System service has written 17 477 bytes (17 kilobytes) to Page File (Virtual Memory) in 14 milliseconds.
If Response Time column consistently shows values over 1000 milliseconds, it is probably time to defragment your hard disk and/or free up some disk space.

Network section

This section is empty until your computer does some networking (dooh!) - uses the Internet or local network. Processes and services using network are sorted by Total (B/sec) column - how many bytes of information the program sent and/or received during the last 60 seconds. You can see the remote host name the process or service is connected to in Address column. Section head shows current network traffic in kilobits (one byte equals 8 bits) and current usage of network speed available.

Those who have installed Spybot-Search & Destroy might be alarmed by some processes connecting to www.007guard.com - a known malware host. This happens because Spybot creates a list of malicious sites in Windows hosts file and assigns the IP-address of local computer (127.0.0.1) to them to block traffic to those harmful sites (aka Immunization). When Windows tries to resolve the IP 127.0.0.1 to a host name, it receives the first name in the hosts file - usually www.007guard.com.
So fear not, this is nothing to worry about!

Memory section

Here you can see how much physical memory (RAM) processes and services are using. By default, the list is sorted by Private (KB) column - how much dedicated memory (in kilobytes) a process or service is using. To see  the total amount of memory the process or service is using, see Committed (KB) column. Section head displays total Hard Faults and current total physical memory usage. If there are many hard faults consistently, you should run a RAM check to see if your computer's memory modules are working correctly or check for an update to the program that is causing hard faults.
If the Used Physical Memory is constantly over 85%, it is time to close some unneeded programs or add memory modules to your computer.

Monitoring only selected process(es) in Windows 7

In Windows 7, you can filter running processes to see only the data you need. Select one or more check boxes in CPU section and other sections will display only data related to the selected process(es). The selection will be assigned a color for the graphs on the right to visually determine the amount of resources used by it. You can get more detailed information on the selected processes under any of the tabs above.

All other tabs in Resource Monitor show even more detailed information about how many resources are being used by processes and services. As this gets really technical, I will not cover this part. You can find more information about using Resource Monitor in several Windows Vista and 7 books and e-books.

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