7 Hidden Features in Task Manager That You Don't Use Despite Their Great Importance
Most of us only use the Task Manager in very few cases, such as ending programs and processes that are exposed to freezing. But we must remember that it was not created for this task alone. Before, we explained to you the 5 most important things in the Task Manager, which are the ability to reduce the size of the default tabs, or detect the programs and applications that consume the most computer resources, or monitor performance continuously through it and many other things. Now it is time to learn together about a group of its additional features that we do not use despite their great importance and benefit.
1- Waiting chain analysis feature
As we mentioned in the introduction, the main reason to use the Task Manager is to terminate a program that is experiencing a freeze. But when you encounter this situation again, do not rush to terminate the program, as you can perform further analysis through the “Analyze Wait Chain” feature, which tells you exactly whether this process is stuck waiting for another process or to help you determine why the program is not responding properly.
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To know who is the real culprit behind the delay, you should go to the Details tab and search for the process whose status you want to check, select it, then right-click and choose Analyze Waiting Chain to see the details. If this process is stuck waiting for any other processes, you will clearly see these processes in the new window.
2- Reset System Explorer
The Windows Explorer process, known as Windows Explorer, is responsible for many of the elements in the main user interface, such as the taskbar, file explorer, and the Start menu. Naturally, your first thought when encountering problems with these elements is to restart your computer, but instead there is an optimal solution, which is to reformat System Explorer.
To do this, search for Windows Explorer in the Processes tab of the Task Manager. After finding it, select it, then right-click and choose Restart to terminate it and run it again. You will then notice that the taskbar, start menu, and other main interface elements will disappear for a few moments, after which everything will return to normal.
3- Search the Internet for suspicious operations.
Sometimes you may discover some strange processes in the Task Manager, although they may be normal processes but it is always wise to check them if they are not familiar to you, even if just out of curiosity and knowledge.
To do this, select the process, then right-click and choose Search Online. Once you choose Search Online, the Bing engine will open in your browser and start searching for it and similar processes. The results will certainly help you know whether this process is safe or not.
4- Add additional columns for more details.
By default Task Manager displays several columns in the Processes tabs, these columns cover the most important details, but it is possible to add several additional columns for more details about each process, just right-click on the top area of the processes and a pop-up window will appear with more details that you can add,
For example, if you select Type, a new column will be activated, which tells you whether this process is an application, a background process, or a Windows process. If you activate Publisher, a new tab will appear showing the publisher and developer responsible for this process or application. If you activate the Process Name column tab, you will find the more accurate name for each process, which allows you to search for it better to know all the details.
5- Switch between absolute values and percentages.
When browsing the Processes list, the CPU usage percentages are shown in percentages only, but for the other three tabs you can switch between absolute values and percentages. Percentages are often better when you need to compare resource usage to the total available space, for example the default absolute setting will show you that a program is using 100MB of RAM, but if you switch to percentages you may discover that this percentage represents less than 0.5% of the total space.
To be able to switch, simply right-click on any of your processes, go to the Resources Value submenu, choose the type of resource you want to change, and then select either the value or the percentage.
6- Go to the path of the process file
You may find yourself needing to navigate to the installation path of any application or process, just right-click on the process or application and choose Open File Location to go directly to the folder containing the executable file for that process, this method is very practical and faster than System Explorer.
7- Adjust Task Manager options
The Task Manager has some settings that help speed up the experience of using it according to personal preference. Through the Option you can choose Always On Top to install the Task Manager window above all other windows. You can also specify the default tab to choose what should appear in the Task Manager when it starts or opens. Additionally, you can click the View tab to make the refresh rate slower or faster or even pause it if you want to take a picture to be able to check the values or to upload a picture of it to the Internet.