Page 369 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

Right-click a blank spot on the taskbar; from the shortcut menu,

choose Task Manager.

Right-click the in the lower-left corner of the screen; from
the secret utilities menu, choose Task Manager.

In any case, now you see a list of every open program. In its freshly opened

state, the Task Manager doesn’t let you do anything but (a) double-click a
program’s name to switch to it, or (b) click a program’s name and then hit
“End task” to close it.

But if you click “More details,” then, wow, are your nerd genes in for a

treat. The Task Manager blossoms into a full-blown spreadsheet of details
about all the programs you’re running at the moment—including invisible,
background programs (“processes”) you might not even have known were

there. Figure 6-5 shows the Task Manager in both its tiny and expanded
states.

The Status column should make clear what you already know: One of your

programs—labeled “Not responding”—is ignoring you.

Tip

Now, “Not responding” could just mean “in the middle of crunching away at something.” If the
nonresponsive program is some huge mega-hog and you just chose some command that’s going to
take awhile, then give it a chance to finish before you conclude that it’s locked up.

Shutting down the troublesome program is fairly easy; just click its name

and then click the “End task” button.

Note
In the old Task Manager, you sometimes got yet another dialog box at this point, telling you, “This
program is not responding.” You had to click the End Now button to put it away for good.

That no longer happens. “End task” kills a program completely and instantly—and no longer
gives you the chance to save any changes.