How to use Windows Task Manager to troubleshoot and optimize your PC

Windows Task Manager is the perfect tool for early troubleshooting when your computer faces an issue. The Task Manager encompasses all the necessary widgets that allow you to calculate and manage minute details of your PC's hardware. It features multiple tabs that showcase the performance of your computer alongside all user mode processes.

When a computer runs a program, it is usually listed in the Windows Task Manager, which not only analyzes its process status but also includes detailed percentage numbers when displaying its usage. This knowledge can be utilized efficiently when one runs into an issue while running a specific program.

One can set up the Task Manager in various ways. This makes the troubleshooting process easier and can help solve minor issues.

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Explore Windows Task Manager to troubleshoot issues while using Windows 10 and 11

The Windows Task Manager is capable of displaying all user mode processes running on the computer on top of the Kernel. The manager ultimately shows the impact of the services and processes on the hardware.

While for most tasks, users tend to check the analysis of a program on hardware bits like RAM, CPU, and storage, the GPU (graphics processing unit) is also a common analysis point as newer software utilizes the graphics card with time.

Therefore, it is important to keep all hardware in check when the computer runs into an issue. Here's how you can utilize the Windows Task Manager to start troubleshooting your computer:

• Press the CTRL+ALT+DEL buttons together and click on Task Manager when the blue screen appears. Alternatively, you can also right-click on the Windows taskbar and click on the Task Manager option to access it.
• Upon launching the manager, you will be able to access a total of seven tabs, namely, processes, performance, app history, startup, users, details, and services.
• On the processes tab, you will be able to access all the processes running on your computer. This includes browsers, applications, and the operating system services itself that always run in the background.
• You can also notice how much a process is impacting the hardware by looking at the CPU, Memory, Disk, Network, Power usage, and its trend.
• This in particular allows you to analyze the usage of the software and if it is crossing the required threshold while running on your computer. If the CPU or memory usage alongside the graphics card is too high or too low, you will be able to reach for a solution based on that.
• You can also right-click on an application from the processes tab and then click on 'go to details'. The details tab will allow you to tweak the usage of a particular software. For example, you can set the core affinity usage of software alongside its priority on the CPU itself by right-clicking on the name of the software detail section.
• The performance tab allows you to analyze the exact usage of the hardware specifications from your computer. You will be able to notice specific information on a graph that will display how much exactly is a particular process reaching while running.
• One can also see the storage activity while a software is running alongside GPU temperature and its use as it runs another software that uses GPU render. Users who tend to use video editing tools and other programs that render from the graphics card can benefit a lot from this information.
• The services tab in Windows Task Manager includes all the active running services for the operating system. You can also access their detailed list from the same tab.
• The app history section tells you the CPU time of all the most recent programs run on the computer since booting. This can help you analyze issues regarding unwanted software running on the hardware.

Lastly, the startup tab allows you to control which software you want to run with the computer booting. Disabling the software will result in the applications no longer opening when the computer starts up.

Users can utilize the Windows Task Manager in various ways, as mentioned above, to optimize their computers. It can be an important tool to utilize if your computer is aging and has trouble running multiple processes.