Task Manager (taskmgr.exe)

The Task Manager (taskmgr.exe) tool can be used to monitor the PC’s key resources.

ways to open:
- shortcut: CTRL+SHIFT+ESC
- right-click taskbar or Start > Task Manager
- CTRL+ALT+DEL > Task Manager
could start in summary mode
- click Show Details to expand
Details tab shows more info about a process
- E.g., background services run in a process wrapper
can set priority to regulate resource usage priorities

Performance Monitoring

CPU page shows:
- \ # of cores and logical processors (HyperThreading)
- whether system is multisocket
- whether virtualization is enabled
- overall utilizaton
- system uptime
- count of processes, threads, and handles
High peak utilization is nothing to worry about
sustained periods of high peak means add more system resources or run fewer processes

reports which slots have modules installed and the speed
usage statistics:
- In use = system RAM usage only
- Committed = reports the amount of memory requested and the total system plus paged memory available
  - paged memory is the data that is written to a disk pagefile
- Cached = fetching frequently used files into memory preemptively to speed up access
- Paged pool and non-paged pool refers to OS kernal and driver usage of memory
  - paged usage is processes that can be moved to the pagefile
  - non-paged usage is processes that cannot be page
High RAM usage isn’t necessarily a sign of poor performance
- it is good to make full usage of RAM
High pagefile utilization is more problematic

reports the type and capacity and statistics for active time, response time, and read/write speeds
utilization is measured across all disk devices
common cause of poor overall system performance:
- high disk utilization
- slow response times
causes:
- slow HDD technology
- excessive paging activity
- file/cache corruption
- faulty device with bad sectors/blocks

Ethernet or Wi-Fi tab reports send and receive throughput for the active network adapter plus the IP address and hardware (MAC) interface address
if WiFi, then shows SSID, connection type (802.11 standard), and signal strength

The Startup tab lets you disable programs added to the Startup folder or set to run using the registry.

right-click > Startup type to see how the program is launched
- shows impact on boot times

The Services tab monitors the state of all registered background processes.

service is a Windows process that does not require any sort of user interaction and runs in the background
- provide functionality for the OS
  - E.g., allowing logon, browsing the network, indexing file details to optimize searches
- can be installed by Windows or third-party applications

Open Services button opens Services (services.msc) console.