processes

Fri
08
Mar
John Lister's picture

Processor Breakthrough Could Double Speeds

A new approach to computer processing could double speeds while halving power consumption, according to researchers. The approach could work on existing hardware without needing physical modifications. The research builds on the existing technique ... of multithreading. That's an attempt to overcome the major limitation of computer processors (CPUs). They are broken down into cores (often 2, 4 or 8 cores) but each core can only carry out one task at any specific split-second. Workload Optimized Threading means breaking bigger tasks down into a list of individual steps known as a thread. The ... (view more)

Mon
10
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

How to View Active and Idle Processes in Windows?

Infopackets Reader 'mg_barrett' writes: " Dear Dennis, Is there a way to show a list of running processes (programs) in Windows? Also, how do I determine if a process is active or not? " My response: A process is said to be active if there is CPU or ... memory activity associated with the process. The opposite is also true; if there is no CPU or memory activity reported by a process, then it is considered to be an idle process. Process activity can be determined using various utilities mentioned below. How to View Active and Idle Processes in Windows You can use Windows Task Manager to view all ... (view more)

Sun
23
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Quick Access InfoBar Review

Quick Access InfoBar is a cool little tool that transforms your Windows Task Manager into a source of information about the processes that are running on your PC. The program comes from UniBlue (the makers of WinTasks Professional ), which has ... always been one of my trusted sources for process information. From processlibrary.com: " As many as 20 to 30 processes may be running invisibly, silently in the background on your PC. Some hog system resources drastically slowing down your computer; others are a threat to security and privacy; others may be harmless. The Windows Task Manager ... (view more)

Tue
04
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

TaskInfo Review

Synopsis: Are you a system info junky? Need to know all your resources available and all the 'behind the scenes' happenings of your computer? Introducing: TaskInfo -- a poweful utility that goes *way* beyond the standard Windows Task Manager and ... generic System Information Tools. With TaskInfo, you can visually monitor all types of system information in real time, including: CPU usage, threads, processes, available memory, opened files, DLLs, network connections, network speeds, hung processes, and even invisible processes! TaskInfo: Screenshots Click to view: Page 1. With TaskInfo, you can ... (view more)

Tue
28
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

X-ray PC and Simple Ocr

X-Ray Pc X-RayPC Displays running processes, and compares them to the SpywareGuide database. The result is something like a systems management tool with a built-in expert system. Lists active processes, List autostarting programs, Lists BHOs, ... Download Program Files, IE Extension plugins, etc, Shows file size and MD5 of all files instantly, One-Click "Triage" : shows which items are "good", "bad" or "unknown", Integrated file-uploader, Integrated deactivation and removal of an item or file, Can kill running processes (within the limits of the OS security model), Can delete in-use files (after ... (view more)

Thu
29
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Scandisk and Defrag Interrupted?

Infopackets Reader Ed M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I can't seem to run Disk Defrag, ScanDisk, or Norton Disk Doctor on my system because other programs are actively running in the background and keep interrupting the process. How can I find out what is ... running in the background and stop it? I have asked this question numerous times to Microsoft and they don't seem to know the answer. I have tried 'CTRL + ALT + DEL' on my keyboard to bring up the Windows Task Manager, I get a list of programs -- but I do not know which ones are safe to delete? Can you help? " My response: Many users ... (view more)

Tue
17
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Infopackets Main Server Woes

After announcing that most of the bugs have been worked out of the new infopackets mail server, the main web server started having issues of its own. Subsequently, I was only able to send out 2 newsletters last wee k. In not so many words, the main ... server appears to be choking on bounceback email messages. Since there are literally hundreds of bounceback messages received every day [due to viruses and spam], the infopackets server eventually became overloaded with processes which looped endlessly, caused high CPU usage, and ate away at valuable memory resources. The processes were overloading ... (view more)

Thu
29
Jan
Dennis Faas's picture

Task Manager woes?

Infopackets Reader Gail from Houston writes: " Dennis, I *love* your newsletter! Thanks so much for doing it! I am having trouble with my printer. The more programs that are open, the slower my printer runs. I've pressed CTRL + ALT + DEL and brought ... up the Task Manager and closed as many applications as I could [in order to free up system resources in hopes of speeding things up]. My questions are: How come there's so much stuff open in Task Manager? How do I [prevent tasks that I don't want] from opening? How can I tell which programs are going to shut down my computer (because I always ... (view more)

Thu
26
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Process Throttling

Yesterday I wrote about a problem concerning the usage of the mail queue on the infopackets web server. To recap: whenever the Infopackets Gazette newsletter is sent out (to the list of readers), some emails are entered into a temporary holding area ... (called a "mail queue") if they are unable to reach the recipient. This is a potential problem for the infopackets web server because the mail queue can "overflow" and cause the server to run out of storage spac e. Recall: The Mail Queue Polling solution I was able to save the web server from potentially running out of space by ... (view more)

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