I think it often happens a little to everyone to leave the computer without doing anything, maybe looking at the screen because you are enchanted to think or because you are writing a document on a Word sheet or because you return after a pause and find that the PC is working, loading something with the led that indicates the hard disk access. The consequence of this continuous loading is that the PC is busy carrying out mysterious operations which, at times, cause big slowdowns of the computer. Those who understand Windows know that they must go to the Task Manager to find out what is slowing down the PC and what the computer is doing. The solutions to slowdown problems can be many and different depending on the problem. The real challenge is to understand what this problem is because then Google or, better still Navigaweb.net can think about solving it.
In another article we have seen that if the pc freezes or slows down very often the fault may be of a running process that must be stopped or frozen.
To identify the process that runs idle and takes up computer resources, it may be necessary to use programs that provide an improved task manager with more details on the activities in progress. However, I found some very interesting Windows tools which shows what the computer is doing in real time and indicates, for each activity in progress, if and when it uses the hard disk or SSD and / or the processor .
1) Whatsmycomputerdoing works as an easy to use, absolutely understandable diagnosis tool that also provides information on how to solve any problems or to recognize viruses . It displays a list of activities and processes active on the computer but not all those loaded in memory as the task manager does, only those that use the hard disk, the processor or both . With WhatsmyComputerDoing you can see both active programs and system processes, always if they use hard disk or processor.
The monitoring is real time in the sense that the list is sorted according to the time of last use, therefore those at the top are actually loading and working while for the processes that follow in the list the time passed since the last activity is indicated in seconds . If you notice a process always at the top and therefore always loading, there could be some problem. Pressing with the left mouse button on one of these, a tab is opened with all the details on that process or program, where it comes from, from which file it is generated and if it is considered safe. For each of them there is a direct link to solve problems related to that activity or to search on Google. For system files, a Microsoft support page almost always opens. When you have serious doubts you can click on the VirusTotal or Kaspersky button to perform an online analysis and check if a process is actually a virus .
The other keys are used to open the properties of the file or program, to open the folder in which it is located and to end a process. The "freeze" box at the top simply serves to freeze the list of processes that would otherwise be constantly moving. This program, Whatsmycomputerdoing, therefore serves to understand what the computer is doing at a given time and allows you to recognize for what operation the PC loads even if I am not doing anything. If advanced users can find in this tool an alternative tool to other task managers, those who know less about computer science can instead have a clearer and more explanatory tool that makes information understandable.
2) Another program to check what programs are doing on the computer, which files are opened, modified, created and deleted is Moo0 FileMonitor .
3) DiskPulse is an excellent tool for Windows to see what is loading the computer and what files are created or modified. In the free version, you can monitor specific folders or set filters to record only some events (only the creation of new files or only those in modification). Each file used is listed in a scrolling list and marked with colored dots: green for those created, yellow for modified, orange for renamed and red for deleted files.
4) Activity Indicator is a controller of writing and reading activity on the disk by showing an icon in the bottom right next to the clock, when the hard disk is in use. In practice it is a light that lights up when the computer reads or writes data to the disk. In addition to this, it creates a log where every operation made on files, of modification, creation or deletion is stored.
5) HDD Led is a similar program that does not require installation and which shows an LED icon in the lower right corner that lights up intermittently when the hard disk is in use, i.e. when the head moves and data is read or written.
6) SSD-Led is a free, portable program that shows the writing and reading activities on the computer's SSD with a circular icon, thus simulating the physical LED of the disk.
