Task Manager questions

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On a number of occasions when it appears to be taking a long time to get a new file to open up, or access to a new webpage, I’ve opened up ‘Task Manager’ to try and determine the potential problem(s).

My problem is I am not a techie, so I don’t necessarily know what I am looking at.

1) Is it normal for these ‘task images’ to be jumping up and down with such repetivity that I barely have time to read them before they are replaced by another one?

2) I have upwards of 84 ‘processes’ listed, but of course most are ‘not active’ at anyone time. But why so many, some of which I have no idea of what they are by the abbreviated names.?? And a lot of them seem to occupy a lot of ‘physical memory’ even while not in use?

3) And why do they continue to jump around even while I am not doing anything on the computer?

I can’t help but think that some of these seemingly unnecessary ‘activity is contributing to the slowness I am experiencing??
(I am running Win7 on an Accer laptop that is perhaps 1/8 full of its memory, I have just completed a full AVG scan, and a Malwarebytes scan…everything OK. I do have a lot of icons and folders on my desktop as I have a lot of various subject interest.,…if that effects it? I normally utilize IE explorer to browse the internet as I am so use to its use, and my favorites markings. but I do get this IE ‘not responding’, or google ‘not responding’, or such&such webpage ‘not responding’,…. quite a bit lately.)

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1. Yes, shows things happening in the background, some ending some starting. It’s a Dynamic process, not Static.
2. When just opened mine showed 77 but dropped to 75 after about 20 seconds.
3. See 1.

I am running Win7 on an Accer laptop that is perhaps 1/8 full of its memory

Is that referring to RAM/Random Access Memory or the amount of storage memory on the drive?

Might also mention that the post is not really about Networking, maybe should have been in a different category.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Wasn’t sure where to put this posting. Someone can change it to a more appropriate location if they want?

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84 processes isn’t excessive for a Windows 7 system (IMO).

If you click on the first column heading, i.e. “Image Name”, the list of processes will be re-ordered alphabetically thus stopping the list contents jumping around.

You can tell which column the list of processes is sorted on by a tiny arrow (which I’ve highlighted in the example screenshot below):
39572-task_manager
Click to enlarge

As you can see, I like my Task Manager window wide so I can see the “Description” column visible (to save me having to decipher the “Image Names”).

In the “View” menu you can choose which columns to display.

If you click on the “CPU” column heading the list will be sorted by processor usage, which is useful if you want to see what is using the processor(s) most and possibly slowing operations like opening files, etc.

Note that if you have a tick in the “Show processes from all users” then you will see a process called “System Idle Process” running at a high percentage. This is quite normal and represents the processor availability when all the other processes have been taken into account, i.e. it’s what’s left over.

Hope this helps…

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For the performance problems have you tried Control Panel – System and Security/Find and fix problems – System and Security and run the Maintenance tasks and then the Check for performance issues, clicking on the Advanced button in each and clicking on Run as administrator ?

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Download Autoruns to your Desktop. Run the downloaded file from the Desktop as it doesn’t need to be installed.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/autoruns/

Look under the Logon tab. These are programs which start at boot. Most of them are unnecessary and can be disabled. If you are not sure which to keep, post a list.
Under the Everything tab, look for entries highlighted in Yellow and delete them. This will avoid Windows trying to start programs which are no longer installed.

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