We have already underlined several times how much the task manager has improved in Windows 8 and Windows 10, which is not only useful for checking what is turning in the background while using the PC, but also for optimizing how the various programs use hardware resources, memory, processor and network. One of the least considered and most interesting sections is that of application history, which if by default does not show anything, but just changing a small option to open a world of information about the use of the computer for the entire past month .
The task manager collects and reports usage statistics for applications and programs running on the computer and lets you know the processor time or network usage for an app in the past month.
This can be useful to see how the PC is used, which programs use the most network and download the most data from the internet, which use the most CPUs and therefore consume the most energy on tablets and laptops.
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To view the application history in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 you have to open the task manager, by pressing the CTRL-Shift-Esc keys or by right-clicking on the taskbar and clicking on Task Manager.
From the task manager, which at first glance may seem like an empty window, click on More details to open a whole series of information divided into tabs.
One of these tabs is the application history tab which shows a whole list of apps sorted by name.
While the list of apps may not be as interesting, you can go to Options at the top and then to Show history for all processes to finally have the complete list of programs that have been used on the PC in the last 30 days.
CPU Time tells us how long these programs have been used and have used the computer's processing power.
The Net instead tells us how much that program has exchanged data on the net.
The other columns related to Consumption network indicates how much a program has used a connection considered to be consumption, such as that of a mobile phone.
By clicking on CPU time you can sort the list by processor use and have a ranking of the most used programs in the last month.
With application history, it is easy to find if a particular process or program has used a lot of CPU or a lot of network bandwidth .
If the name of a process is not known, right click on it and open the Properties to find all the details about it.
If this is not enough, you can click on Search Online to start a search on the internet concerning him.
If you have privacy problems, you can press the " delete usage history " link to reset the counters.
Close and reopen the task manager to see the new list with only the apps and programs used so far.
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