Working with Task Manager
One of the features I appreciate most about Windows 2000 and XP is the simple
way users can summon the Task Manager. A right-click on the taskbar is all you
need to do. XPers bent on instant gratification can give a three-fingered
salute. No doubt this was remapped to curb the 9xer's learning curve. Yep.
There's a list of running processes. But are any of them safe to close? Be
careful! Some of those suckers are critical; closing the wrong one could hose
your OS. Click View | Select Columns | and put a checkmark in the PID (Process
Identifier) field. Now, let's go through them. Services.exe (208) handles:
AppMgmt, Browser, Dhcp, dmserver, Dnscache, Eventlog, lanmanserver,
LanmanWorkstation, LmHosts, Messenger, PlugPlay, ProtectedStorage, seclogon,
TrkWks, W32Time, and Wmi. That's a mouthful, eh? Well, each one of those
components takes care of a different part of the operating system (yet they're
all under the same process). Need to know what else is going on inside? Click
Start | Run and enter: "CMD" (sans quotes). Now, if you're in Win2k, at the
command prompt, enter: "TLIST -S" (sans quotes). If you're running WinXP, at the
command prompt, enter: "TASKLIST /SVC" (sans quotes). Remember, you can use that
vertical scroll bar to view bumped command screen data. You couldn't do that in
9x, ya know.