In this guide, we will walk through the steps to use Task Manager to monitor real-time performance in Windows 10. Monitoring your computer can help you understand how resources are being utilized. The Task Manager provides valuable information about your system performance. The Task Manager tool is also useful for troubleshooting. When your device is not achieving the expected network, hard drive speeds, CPU performance, memory usage, among other issues. Task Manager helps you discover and terminate the processes that are causing problems like, your PC is slowing down, or apps stop responding. In order to use this awesome tool to view and stop processes with high-resource usage. You first need to know how to open the Windows Task Manager console. Let’s dive in!
Windows Task Manager
There are a few ways to open Task Manager. It is always good to know different ways or short-cuts when troubleshooting or just using the computer in general.
Here are some ways to access the Task Manager using keyboard shortcuts:
- By using the short-cut keys, Ctrl+Alt+Delete brings up the Windows security screen with options such as Lock PC, Switch user, Sign out, and Task Manager.
- Pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc takes you directly to Task Manager.
- Press down the Windows + X button access the Power User menu and click on Task Manager in the menu pane.
- Right-click any open space on the Taskbar to pull the taskbar menu then click Task Manager.
- Hit start, type “taskmgr” in the search box, and press Enter or click on the name at the top of the box.
- You can use the Command Prompt to launch Task Manager. Type in the search box “cmd”, press Enter to open Command Prompt. Type the executable file for Task Manager “taskmgr and press Enter to open Task Manager directly.
Monitoring Real-Time Performance
In Task Manager, are several tabs which include, Processes, Performance, App History, Startup, Users, Details, and Services. Viewing the processes tab will help you determine the process responsible for draining your computer’s resources. The Processes tab has a list of all the running processes grouped by “Apps”, “Background processes” and “Windows processes”. Expand a group to see all the processes. Right-click the item and select expand or select the chevron-right icon.
How to recognize processes with high-resource usage in Task Manager
When applications are not responding or a website taking very long to load or maybe the system fan switches to a loud sound. Troubleshoot the problem with the Task Manager. View the percentage of the total resource used for the processor, memory, hard drive, and network in the Processes tab. Check to see which of these resources are running 90 percent or higher. High percentage results in a change of color from light to a dark orange which indicates a problem.
The total CPU usage should be less than 30 percent if you are not actively using any applications. Your memory usage should be below 60 percent depending upon your system configuration and disk usage below 5 percent.
Terminate processes with high-resource usage
You can terminate or end a task when you discover the problem. Right-Click the process, click the End Task button to end or terminate the application, or website. Never use the end task button if you are not sure about the process you are terminating, as you may crash your computer while executing this command. After right-clicking, choose the search online option to open the web browser for information about the process. You can use other ways to troubleshoot system performance, but Task Manager shows a simple way to view why your computer is running slow then address the problem with a quick response.
Summary Review:
- Monitor real-time performance with Task Manager in Windows 10.
- Windows Task Manager.
- Monitoring Real-Time Performance
- How to recognize processes with high-resource usage.
