Make Your Computer Faster with Windows Task Manager

The Windows Task Manager is a very important tool in the windows operating system created by Microsoft, what this means is that the Task Manager tool has been available for all version of Windows starting from Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 & 10.

Not so many people behind a window’s computer know of its existence, most people just turn on their computer – Open their web browser usually Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox –  Browse and when something goes wrong or the computer starts getting slow, they don’t know what to do. Most people believe that reason behind computer slowness or unresponsiveness is the size of RAM and many also believe that shutting down & restarting the computer would solve the problem.

There is nothing wrong with restarting your computer once it becomes slow but that is only a temporary solution which won’t work every time but i have a more permanent and a sort of “in-your-face” approach to this problem. My approach is done with the use of the Task Manager tool in Windows and this would give you a specific reason why your computer is slow and unresponsive.

What is Windows Task Manager?

Image result for Windows Task Manager?

The Windows Task Manager is a computer program that enables the user of the computer to view, edit and end tasks, programs and processes running on the computer. So, the task manager tool basically turns you to a “Task Master/Manager” who plays supervisory role over the computer, with this tool, you can detect what is causing the slowness and unresponsiveness of a computer in this regard and perform actions to fix them. The Task Manager has many functions, new one were added during the Windows 8, 8.1 & 10 release.

Features of the Task Manager Tool

  • Monitor Applications, Softwares and Programs
  • Monitor Processes
  • Disable Startup Programs
  • Monitor Services
  • View the current performance of the computer
  • Monitor your Network usage through the Networking tab

 

How to Make Your Computer Faster with Windows Task Manager

 

#1. Locate the Task Manager

There are up to 6 ways of locating the Task Manager

  • Right-Click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager from the pop-up window
  • Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete keyboard shortcut and select Task Manager. This is the most popular method.
  • Press Windows Key+X keyboard shortcut to open up the Power Menu. Select Task Manager
  • Hit the Start button or Windows Key and search for “Task Manager”. Select Task Manager when it appears.
  • Press Ctrl+R keyboard shortcut to start the RUN tool. Type “taskmgr” and press Enter.
  • Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc keyboard shortcut to instantly open the Task Manager tool.

 

#2. Open the Task Manager

Make Your Computer Faster with Windows Task Manager

If this is your first time of opening the Windows Task Manager, don’t be scared when you see the mini compacted view. Click on More Details.

 

#3. Make Your Computer Faster with Task Manager

This is the main point of this article – Make Your Computer Faster with Windows Task Manager. There are other important features within the task manager tool but i am going to focus on just ending processes and programs coupled with disabling start up programs which helps in making the computer perform faster.

There are two steps to take when trying to make your computer faster with Task Manager.

  • End Tasks/programs
  • Disable Startup programs

 

END PROGRAMS/TASKS/PROCESSES

One of the ways to speed up your computer is by ending programs or softwares that have frozen up and become unresponsive which is eating away your CPU, Memory and Disk resources. You need to end a task when you know this is the program making my computer slow and you want to delete that particular task so your computer can become fast again. Task manager divides programs into two parts: Apps & background apps.

Apps are the programs running on your computer screen at the moment

Make Your Computer Faster with Windows Task Manager

 

Background apps are those other apps that run underneath what the eye can see. You can’t see their processes on your computer but they are running beneath it all but the good part is you can monitor each process and terminate it at anytime but there’s an exception – You can’t end a system process, or i will advice you should not end a system process because once ended, you would need to restart the computer to reboot everything.

Make Your Computer Faster with Windows Task Manager

You can also sort your programs, tasks and processes to see what exactly is really taking your computer resources and making your computer slow. This is the”in-your-face” approach i mentioned earlier.

Click on CPU, Memory, Disk and Network to sort your tasks and processes to see what program is using the highest resource and why.

Make Your Computer Faster with Windows Task Manager

To end a task, process or program –  Right Click on the task and Hit “End Task

Make Your Computer Faster with Windows Task Manager

DISABLE START UP PROGRAMS

I strongly suggest disabling any start up program with a high start up impact because it has a very high impact on your startup speed. Disabling them should be our first priority.

Make Your Computer Faster with Windows Task Manager

PLEASE NOTE: Before you disable any program, make sure it’s not a system program that is compulsory for startup. I would give you a list of compulsory programs you shouldn’t disable.