Task Manager

You’re probably more familiar with Task Manager in Windows. Even the most inexperienced customer knows how to use Task Manager to kill a stubborn application. For all relevant versions of Windows, right-click a blank area of the System Tray, and then click Task Manager (Windows 2000 and Windows XP) or Start Task Manager (Windows Vista and Windows 7).

For Windows XP, you’re presented with five tabs:

• Applications

• Processes

• Performance

• Networking

• Users

Windows Vista and Windows 7 have an additional tab called Services. The Application tab shows you the running apps on the computer and lets you end any of those applications. Processes and Services shows a list of all those items, including their names and, in the case of processes, how much of the CPU and memory each one is using. Both tabs enable you to stop a stubborn or unwanted process or service. Performance displays a graph of CPU and memory usage and other data, and Networking shows network activity graphically. Users lists the names of users actively logged in to the system, which often is just you.