How to Monitor Windows 7 Performance with Task Manager
The Windows Task Manager is an important tool for every Windows user. The Task Manager utility is excellent for getting a quick overview of the current state of the system.
The Task Manager utility can be opened either by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc, or right-click an empty section of the taskbar and click Start Task Manager.
The Performance tab, offers a more substantial collection of performance data, particularly for that all-important component, your system’s memory.
The graphs show you both the current value and the values over time for the CPU usage (the total percentage of CPU resources that your running processes are using) and the physical memory usage. Below the graphs are various numbers. Here’s what they mean:
If the Physical Memory Free value approaches zero, it means your system is starving for memory. You might have too many programs running or a large program is using lots of memory.
If the Physical Memory Cached value is much less than half the Physical Memory Total value, it means your system isn’t operating as efficiently as it could because Windows 7 can’t store enough recently used data in memory. Because Windows 7
gives up some of the system cache when it needs RAM, close down programs you don’t need.
The Task Manager utility can be opened either by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc, or right-click an empty section of the taskbar and click Start Task Manager.
The Performance tab, offers a more substantial collection of performance data, particularly for that all-important component, your system’s memory.
The graphs show you both the current value and the values over time for the CPU usage (the total percentage of CPU resources that your running processes are using) and the physical memory usage. Below the graphs are various numbers. Here’s what they mean:
- Physical Memory Total—The total amount of physical RAM in your system.
- Physical Memory Cached—The amount of physical RAM that Windows 7 has set aside to store recently used programs and documents.
- Physical Memory Free—The amount of physical RAM that Windows 7 has available for your programs. Note that Windows 7 does not include the system cache (refer to the previous item) in this total.
- Kernel Memory Paged—The amount of kernel memory mapped to pages in virtual memory.
- Kernel Memory Nonpaged—The amount of kernel memory that cannot map to pages in virtual memory.
- System Handles—The number of object handles used by all running processes. A handle is a pointer to a resource. For example, if a process wants to use a particular service offered by a particular object, the process asks the object for a handle to that service.
- System Threads—The number of threads used by all running processes. A thread is a single processor task executed by a process, and most processes can use two or more threads at the same time to speed up execution.
- System Processes—The number of processes currently running (that is, the number of items you see in the Processes tab if you activate the Show Processes from All Users control).
- System Up Time—The number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds that you have been logged on to Windows 7 in the current session.
- System Commit (MB)—The minimum and maximum values of the page file.
If the Physical Memory Free value approaches zero, it means your system is starving for memory. You might have too many programs running or a large program is using lots of memory.
If the Physical Memory Cached value is much less than half the Physical Memory Total value, it means your system isn’t operating as efficiently as it could because Windows 7 can’t store enough recently used data in memory. Because Windows 7
gives up some of the system cache when it needs RAM, close down programs you don’t need.