4.09.1 Use features and tools of the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system (OS) Part 1

Introduction 

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use Task Manager and other performance monitoring tools to troubleshoot and optimize computer systems—skills that are essential in a workplace where you're responsible for supporting other users.

Understanding how to monitor system resources and identify issues like high CPU or memory usage will enable you to quickly diagnose performance problems, address bottlenecks, and ensure that users experience minimal downtime. These skills will make you more efficient in resolving technical issues, improving overall productivity in the workplace.

Task Manager Process Monitoring 

The Task Manager (taskmgr.exe) is a tool used to monitor your computer’s key resources, such as CPU, memory, and network usage. You can open Task Manager in several ways: 

  • Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC 

  • Right-click the taskbar or Start button 

  • Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and select Task Manager 

Task Manager Overview 

When Task Manager starts, it may be in summary mode. To see more details: 

  • Click the Show details button to expand the window. 

On the Processes tab, you can see: 

  • Apps and background processes 

  • Expand each process to view its sub-processes 

  • See how much of each resource (like CPU, memory, etc.) each process is using. 

Managing Processes 

Task Manager provides several ways to manage running processes:

  • End a task: Right-click a process and choose End task to stop it. 

  • Search online: Right-click a process and select Search online to find more information about it.

  • Details tab: To see more details about a process, go to the Details tab. Some background services run inside a process wrapper, and you can see which services are linked to each process by right-clicking on the process.  

Right click on a process for management options.

Setting Process Priorities 

You can control how much CPU power is given to different tasks by setting the priority of processes. To change priority: 

  • Right-click the process. 

  • Choose an option from the Set Priority submenu. 

For example, if you’re using a Voice over IP (VoIP) app, and it’s not running smoothly, you can set its priority to Above normal. This tells the CPU to give it more resources than other tasks, improving call quality. 

Task Manager Performance Monitoring 

The Performance tab in Task Manager provides detailed information about key system components, including CPU, memory, disk, network, and graphics processing unit (GPU). The App History tab shows usage statistics for Windows Store apps. 

CPU and GPU Monitoring 

  • The CPU page displays: 

    • Number of cores and logical processors (with HyperThreading) 

    • Whether the system is multisocket and if virtualization is enabled 

    • Statistics for: 

      • Utilization (overall system load) 

      • Uptime (how long the system has been running) 

      • Number of processes, threads, and handles 

  • High utilization (brief spikes) is normal, but sustained high utilization indicates the need for more resources or fewer processes. 

  • The GPU page shows if the system has a dedicated graphics card and reports: 

    • Amount of graphics memory available 

    • Utilization statistics (how much the GPU is being used) 

Memory Monitoring 

The Memory page provides information about system memory (RAM), including which slots are in use and the speed of the memory modules. It also shows various memory usage statistics: 

  • In use: How much memory is being actively used by the system.

  • Committed: Total memory used, including paged memory (stored in a pagefile on disk). 

  • Cached: Frequently used files stored in memory to speed up access.

  • Paged pool and non-paged pool: Memory used by the OS kernel and drivers. 

    • Paged can be moved to the pagefile. 

    • Non-paged cannot be moved to the pagefile.

  • High memory utilization isn’t always a problem, but high pagefile usage may indicate performance issues. 

Disk Monitoring 

The Disk pages show information about: 

  • Type and capacity of the disk 

  • Active time, response time, and read/write speeds 

  • Disk utilization is measured across all devices. For example, 50% utilization could mean one disk is at 100% and the other is inactive.

  • High disk utilization and slow response times can lead to poor system performance, often caused by: 

    • Slow HDDs 

    • Excessive paging 

    • File/cache corruption 

    • Faulty disks with bad sectors or blocks 

Network Monitoring 

The Ethernet or Wi-Fi tab reports: 

  • Send and receive throughput (network data being transferred) 

  • IP address and MAC address (hardware interface address) 

For Wi-Fi connections, it also shows: 

  • SSID (network name) 

  • Connection type (802.11 standard) 

  • Signal strength  

Task Manager User Monitoring 

The Users tab in Task Manager allows you to monitor active users on the system. This includes: 

  • Viewing who is logged in 

  • Sending messages to users 

  • Signing users out of their accounts 

User Activity and Resource Usage 

The Users tab also provides information about: 

  • Processes each user is running 

  • The resource utilization (CPU, memory, disk, etc.) associated with each user's account 

Startup Processes and Services Console 

Startup Tab 

The Startup tab in Task Manager allows you to manage programs that automatically run when your computer starts up. Key features include: 

  • Disabling programs in the Startup folder or registry 

  • Viewing how the program is launched by right-clicking the headers and selecting Startup type 

  • Checking the impact each item has on boot times, which helps optimize performance  

Services Tab 

The Services tab monitors the status of all registered background processes. Services are special Windows processes that: 

  • Run in the background without user interaction (no window) 

  • Provide core functionality, like: 

    • Allowing logon 

    • Network browsing 

    • Indexing file details for faster searches 

    • Additional services may be installed by other software, such as antivirus or backup tools 

Managing Services 

From Task Manager, you can click the Open Services button to access the Services (services.msc) console. This console allows you to: 

  • Disable nonessential services to improve system performance or security 

  • Change a service’s startup behavior: 

    • Set to Manual to prevent it from running automatically at startup 

    • Set to Disabled to stop it from running entirely (be careful, as this could cause issues if other services depend on it) 

Troubleshooting Services 

If something isn’t working properly, check the status of any dependent services. Restarting a service is often a good first step in troubleshooting issues. 

Resource Monitor and Performance Monitor 

Task Manager is great for quickly checking system statistics, but for more detailed performance monitoring, you can use Resource Monitor and Performance Monitor. 

Resource Monitor 

Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) provides an enhanced version of Task Manager's monitoring, offering: 

  • Graphs of resource performance 

  • Key statistics like: 

    • Threads started by a process 

    • Hard page faults/second 

A rising number of threads or page faults could indicate a problem with the system. 

Resource Monitor can be launched by selecting Start + R > type resmon.exe > OK

Performance Monitor 

Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon.msc) is a tool that: 

  • Provides real-time charts of system resources 

  • Can log performance data to a file for long-term analysis 

By monitoring resources over time, you can identify bottlenecks causing system slowdowns. For example: 

  • Slow processor: Causes delays in completing requests. 

  • Slow hard disk: Increases time to open/save files. 

  • Faulty or congested network link: May slow down applications relying on network access. 

Performance Monitor can be launched by selecting Start + R > type perfmon.msc > OK

Using Performance Monitor 

Performance Monitor allows you to: Create Data Collector Sets to record performance data over time, helping you establish a system baseline for long-term analysis. 

There are two types of logs: 

  • Counter logs: Collect statistics about system resources like memory, disk, and CPU to determine system health. 

  • Trace logs: Collect statistics about services, providing detailed reports on resource behavior, similar to Event Viewer but with more data. 

Analyzing Logs 

  • Saved logs can be accessed from the Reports folder in Performance Monitor for analysis. 

  • Logs can be exported to other programs for further examination. 

Performance Counters Overview 

Performance Counters in Performance Monitor allow you to track various system resources by selecting objects (like memory or disk) and their associated counters. These counters represent different performance statistics, and you can monitor multiple instances of the same object (e.g., multiple disks). 

How to Configure a Counter Log 

  • Select what resources to monitor (e.g., memory, disk). 

  • Objects like Physical Disk and Memory are grouped with counters that show specific statistics. 

  • For example, you can measure disk performance with the Physical Disk object and the Average Queue Length counter. 

Commonly Used Counters 

Here are some of the most useful counters and their descriptions: 

Processor Counters 

  • % Processor Time: 

    • Measures the percentage of time the CPU is working (executing non-idle tasks). 

    • Should remain below 85% for sustained periods to avoid a processor bottleneck. 

  • % Privileged Time: 

    • Measures the percentage of time the CPU is handling system processes (e.g., Windows core tasks). 

    • High privileged time may indicate the CPU is struggling to run basic system functions. 

  • % User Time: 

    • Shows the percentage of time the CPU is handling user applications. 

    • Compare this with privileged time to identify whether the CPU is bottlenecked by system processes or user applications. 

Physical Disk Counters 

  • % Disk Time: 

    • Tracks how much time the disk is busy handling read/write requests. 

    • If this exceeds 85% for long periods, the disk may be overloaded. 

  • Average Disk Queue Length: 

    • Monitors the number of outstanding read/write requests. 

    • High queue length combined with high disk time suggests a disk performance issue.  

Memory Counters 

  • Available Bytes: 

    • Shows the amount of free memory. 

    • Should not drop below 10% of total system RAM; lower values could indicate a memory leak. 

  • Pages/sec: 

    • Tracks the number of pages read from or written to disk due to hard page faults (using the paging file). 

    • Normal as long as it doesn't average above 50; higher values suggest excessive paging. 

Paging File Counters 

  • % Usage: 

  • Measures how much of the paging file is in use. 

  • If the paging file is excessively used, consider adding more RAM to reduce disk-intensive paging activity. 

Interpreting Counters 

It's important to look at multiple counters together to identify the root cause of system performance issues.

For example: 

  • Low memory can lead to high disk activity due to excessive paging. 

  • Monitoring counters like Available Bytes, % Disk Time, and Pages/sec together provides a clearer picture of overall system health. 

System Configuration Utility Overview 

The System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe) allows you to modify settings that control how your computer boots and loads Windows. This tool is mostly used for diagnostic purposes, to test different configurations. 

After diagnosing an issue, permanent changes should be made using more appropriate tools like Services for startup settings. 

System Configuration Utility can be launched by selecting Start + R > type msconfig.exe > OK

General Tab 

The General tab allows you to choose the startup mode for your system: 

  • Normal startup: Boots Windows with all services and drivers. 

  • Diagnostic startup: Loads only basic services and drivers. 

  • Selective startup: Allows you to manually select which parts of the boot sequence to run. 

Boot Tab 

The Boot tab lets you configure settings in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store. Options include: 

  • Changing the default OS 

  • Adding boot options (like Safe Mode) to boot with minimal drivers and services 

  • Setting the timeout value for how long the boot menu is displayed 

For more advanced boot configuration, you would use the bcdedit command to add boot paths. 

Troubleshooting Boot Issues 

If your system keeps booting into Safe Mode or a command prompt, check the Boot tab to see if these options have been permanently set in System Configuration. 

You can also log boot events to a file located at %SystemRoot%\ntbtlog.txt. 

Services Tab 

The Services tab allows you to control which services start when the computer boots. You can: 

  • Enable or disable services at startup 

  • View the date a service was disabled, making troubleshooting easier 

 

Tools Tab 

The Tools tab provides shortcuts to important administrative utilities, such as: 

  • System Information 

  • Registry Editor 

  • Performance Monitor 

Summary 

By mastering Task Manager and performance monitoring tools, you’ve gained valuable skills that will make a real difference in troubleshooting and optimizing systems in a professional environment. Understanding how to manage resources, prioritize tasks, and diagnose issues will help you respond quickly to user problems, ensuring smoother operations and less downtime. These tools empower you to take control of system performance, making you a more effective and reliable resource in any workplace. Keep practicing, and you’ll continue to sharpen these essential troubleshooting skills!