Use the Task Manager to Track App Use in Windows 8

Use the Task Manager to Track App Use in Windows 8



Here’s how to dig deep into the innards of your app use—and track down
apps that aren’t behaving well.
Which apps take up most of your CPU time or use the network most? Which Windows
8 native apps use the most bandwidth for updating their live tiles? Which apps are
running right now? Which may be causing problems for your Windows 8 PC?


If you’re the kind of person for whom these are burning questions (and if you’re reading
this book, they probably are), this hack is for you.

You can find all that and more using the Task Manager (Figure 1). This tool has
been considerably tweaked and improved since previous versions of Windows, and
it’s particularly useful when you want to know everything there is to know about app
use.

Run the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and choosing Task Manager. If
you’re on the Windows 8 Start screen, you can also run it by typing Task Manager and
then clicking its icon when it appears on the left portion of the screen.


Figure 1.
Showing which apps are currently running, and what they’re up to

Click the Processes tab. At the very top of the screen, you’ll see the Apps section. It
lists the number of apps currently running, and then beneath that, lists each app individually.
You’ll see four columns to the right of each app with this information:


CPU
Shows how much of the CPU any individual app is taking up. The number is listed
as a percentage, so it shows you how much of your total CPU capacity each app
takes up. If your PC is sluggish, it’s a good idea to head here, because this is where
you’ll be able to track down any CPU hogs. Simply sort on this column and you’ll
find your culprit easily.

Memory
Lists the total amount of memory each app uses. If you’ve got a sluggish PC, sort
on this column to see whether you’ve got a memory hog running.

Disk
Shows whether any app is currently writing to disk, and if it is, shows you its speed
in megabytes per second. If your PC seems to be slow, and you notice that its disk
light is flashing frequently, you may have a rogue app that’s spending a lot of time
accessing the disk and slowing things down. That’s when you’d go here.

Network
Shows you the network use of any individual app.



Tip: The Task Manager is particularly useful for tracking down which Windows 8
native apps are running, because often you don’t know which are running and
which aren’t. Unlike Desktop apps, Windows 8 native apps run only full-screen, so
you can look at a glance and see which are currently running.


You may notice that some apps have small right-facing triangles next to them. If that’s
the case, it means the app has several tasks running simultaneously. For example,
Internet Explorer may have a triangle next to it if you’re currently downloading a file
or have multiple tabs open (Figure 2).

Click the triangle to see all of the app’s separate tasks. To switch to that task, simply
double-click it.


Note: It’s not uncommon that you’ll see two separate icons for Internet Explorer in
the Task Manager. That’s because Windows 8 has two versions of Internet Explorer
—the Windows 8 native app version, and the Desktop version. The Windows 8
native app version shows up as a solid blue square with the E icon knocked out in
white. The Desktop app version has the E in blue against a white background. The
two versions of Internet Explorer run separately, so that you can have one set of
sites open in one version, and another set of sites open in the other version. The
Windows 8 native app version doesn’t show the tabs open in separate processes
here on the Task Manager; only the Desktop version does.


Figure 2.
Internet Explorer showing multiple tabs open

Delving into the App Innards
You can get plenty more information about each app, and do more as with it well, if
you right-click (Figure 3). Right-click an app, and here’s what you can do:


Switch to
Lets you jump straight to the app.

End task
Kills the app. This is a good choice when you find an app that’s hogging your CPU
or memory, and your PC is sluggish, or when an app is unresponsive for quite
some time.

Resource values
Lets you change the way the Task Manager displays memory, disk, and network
use. For each, you can have it display the usage either as a percent or an actual
value—for example, 229.6 MB in the case of memory use.



Figure 3.
Your choices when you right-click an app

Create dump file
This choice is for programmers, or it may come in handy for someone who’s
helping you with tech support. A dump file provides detailed information about
the current state of an app, useful for debugging. For helpful information about
dump files, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263.

Go to details
Want more details about any individual app? Choose this option (Figure 4)
and you’ll see more than you can imagine. For each app, for example, you’ll find
out the name of the user running it (many are being run by the Windows 8 system,
rather than a person, in which case they’re labeled “SYSTEM.”) You’ll also get a
description of the app, its status (running or suspended), and the file name.
There’s also the mysterious PID. That’s shorthand for Process Identifier, and it
identifies the order in which the app was spawned from the Windows kernel. It’s
mainly useful for techie troubleshooting.



Figure 4.
Getting even more details about any app

Open file location
Select this to open the folder in which the app’s executable file lives. Then you
can use the file’s icon for tasks such as creating Desktop shortcuts. Right-click
the file and select Create Shortcut. You can pin it to the Taskbar that way as well.

Search online
Search for information about the executable file online in Internet Explorer (or
your default browser). For example, if you notice an unfamiliar app and you’re
worried that it’s dangerous, doing an online search usually turns up any reports
of malicious behavior.

Properties
Here’s where you can get even more information about an app, including its size,
the location and name of its executable file, the day it was created, when it was
last accessed, and so on (Figure 5).



Figure 5.
Yes, here’s even more details about an app

Checking out an App’s Usage History
So far, everything in this hack shows you the current state of your app. But the Task
Manager can tell you something about the app’s usage history as well, and in some
detail. In the Task Manager, click the “App history” tab, which reports on each app’s
usage history for a specific time period (Figure 6). To see the time period, look
toward the upper-left portion of the screen, just below the tabs. It tells the usage time
period it’s measuring. Here’s what you’ll find out:

CPU time
Shows the total amount of CPU time the app has used.

Network
Shows how much bandwidth the app has used.

Metered network
Shows how much bandwidth on a metered network the app has used. When
you’re using a metered network, you pay if you exceed a certain bandwidth in a
given month, so this can be a very important number for you. (See “Hack
Windows 8 Wi-Fi, Wireless, and Network Settings” for more details about metered
networks.)

Tile updates
Shows how data the app’s live tile has consumed.


Figure 6.
The “App history” tab lets you trace what an app’s been up to

Tip: Worried that a live tile is consuming too much data? Tell Windows 8 to stop
the tile from grabbing live data. For details, see “Hack Your Way Through Windows 8 Start Screen”.



Hacking the Hack

Right-clicking an app and selecting Properties opens up a whole world of app and file
management. You’ll come to a dialog box (Figure 7) that lets you control many
aspects of the app’s executable file. It’s a four-tabbed dialog box, bristling with options,
so this section can’t cover every possible option. Spend some time clicking around,
and you’ll discover plenty on your own.


Figure7.
The Properties dialog box: your entrée into a world of tweaking

On the General tab, in addition to getting information about the file such as its size
and location, you can also choose to hide a file or make it read-only. Click the
Advanced button, and you can tweak the folder that holds the file (Figure 8).
Among other options, you can compress or encrypt the folder.


Figure 8.
Changing an app’s folder settings

The Sharing tab lets you customize your sharing options. Click Advanced Sharing to
get at even more options. Security lets you set permissions for who has access to the
folder, and what kind of access they have; click the Edit and Advanced buttons to
change those options. And the Customize tab lets you change the folder in a wide
variety of ways.





See Also
• “Use Task Manager to Track Bandwidth Use of Individual Apps and Overall Network
Use”