The Task Manager of Windows 8 and Windows 10 has been completely revised compared to that of Windows 7 and significantly improved. Not only is it easier to use and read, but it is also much richer in extremely useful features.
Having never dedicated a guide to the task manager, we see here all that can be done in the Task Manager of Windows 10 and Windows 8, which are absolutely necessary to be able to better manage the computer .
The Task Manager, which in Italian version of Windows is translated into "Task Management", is able to manage the startup programs, the use of the network, the use of processes and to show many colored graphs on the use of resources.
There are many ways to open the Task Manager in Windows 10 and 8 .
The most classic is to press the right mouse button on the taskbar and then go to Task Manager.
The fastest way to open the task manager, however, is by using the keyboard, pressing the CTRL-Shift-Esc keys together.
This method should also work in case the mouse appears to be stuck due to a problem.
The default interface of the Windows 10 and 8 Task Manager shows only the active applications, without any detail.
With this mode it becomes very easy to terminate programs that have crashed.
By clicking on " More details ", the real task manager opens, the one with the list of processes and various computer monitoring cards.
Processes
The process list is divided into three sections: applications, background processes and Windows system processes.
The columns on the right indicate the use of a computer resource and are colored differently and are darker in the case of greater use of that resource.
The list of processes can be sorted by name or by use of a resource by clicking on the header of one of the columns.
It therefore becomes easy to know which ones are taking up more memory or which ones are taking up more CPUs.
The list of processes is also indicative of the background programs and, if you have experience, you can also find out here if there are malware.
By right clicking on a process, you can press " Search online " to find information about it and know what it is.
In the Processes tab you will notice a column called Status, which, in Windows 10 shows the green leaf icon for some of the processes.
Those with the green leaf are running but suspended processes.
Suspended means that it is not actively running, even if it remains in the background ready to be called.
In previous versions of Windows 10, this column only said if an app or service isn't responding
Performance
The Performance tab shows real-time graphs on the use of resources: CPU, Memory, Disks and Network.
For each of them is indicated the maximum capacity and the one used.
For network cards, the assigned IP address is also visible, if you were looking for it.
From here you can also open the Windows resource monitor with even more information.
Application History
If the Processes tab shows the resources used now and in real time by each process, the history tab shows us which apps have used the most CPU and network bandwidth.
This is helpful in finding heavier programs and those that use the most internet traffic.
Start
The Startup tab is one of the most useful in the task manager and allows you to exclude some programs from automatic start.
If you want to make the startup of Windows faster when you turn on the computer, you should disable, from this tab, the startup items indicated with high impact.
Users
The Users tab divides the use of system resources according to the user accounts connected to the computer.
On a home PC with a single user it is useless, but if it is a computer that can be accessed by several people simultaneously (remotely) then it is very useful.
Details
The Details tab is a bit confusing, but allows you to use advanced options not available on other tabs.
For example, from here you can assign a different CPU priority and how many cores to assign ( affinity ) on individual processes.
We talked about this in another article, about how to raise process priority to increase CPU performance.
Services
The Services tab has been improved because it now allows you to restart a Windows service.
From the link below you can also quickly open the services management screen.
The new Task Manager is truly an added value for Windows 8 and Windows 10 compared to Windows 7 and allows you to manage so many things on your computer that it becomes almost essential to solve almost any type of problem.
READ ALSO: 10 tricks for the Task Manager on Windows
