Have you ever had a program lock up on your computer so that you could not do anything with it, including closing it? Many times, people will reboot their computers to resolve those types of issues. But there may be an easier way. That is done by using Task Manager. Not only can it shut down a stubborn program, but it has many other tasks that it helps with.
My opinion is that there are too many ways to start Task Manager. Here are two of the simplest. Press the Control (ctrl), Shift, and Escape (esc) keys simultaneously, and it will open. My favorite way is to right-click on the task bar and choose it in the menu that appears. If you have not updated to the latest version of Windows 11, the right click may not work. But it does in the most recent update. There are more ways to open it, but you now have what you need.
Windows 11 displays the tabs, described in the following, on the left: Windows 10 is shown across the top. Other than that, there is not much difference between the two (see below).
Here is how to stop that runaway program. Open TM and go to the “Process” tab; if it is not displayed, you will see a list of all the current programs running. When you see the one that is giving you a problem, right-click it and choose “End task.” It will vanish from the list and be closed on your computer. The background processes under “Apps” you can leave alone. You cannot destroy anything if you do end them, but you may have to reboot. Remember, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Next, for informational purposes, click the “Performance” tab. Here you will see graphical representations of what is going on with your CPU, hard drive, and others. If you click on the CPU area and look down to the lower-left corner, you can see how long your computer has been running. There’s not much else you can do here, but it is interesting to look around.
The last tip today is when in Task Manager, click on the tab labeled, “Startup Apps.” This is a list of programs that may be enabled to start up automatically when your computer starts. Many of them you may not need. If you see something that does not need to start up at the beginning, right-click it and choose “disable.” Or if you do need it, choose “enable.” They are all set for what the programs “think” you need. You will see the “Status” column with “disabled” or “enabled” shown for each program. What can you disable? Most likely any browser, anything labeled iTunes, Teams, Cortana, and more. If you disable one and need to use it later, it’s simple. Just start it as you normally would, and it will run fine. It will take them an extra second or so to start up. You can also reenable them in the task manager later.
Leave it alone if you have no idea what it does. Yet another option is to right-click on it and select “Search online.” When your browser opens, a page describing the program will appear. If it makes you feel better, you can check online to see if it needs to be allowed and then decide. My BEST piece of advice is to ignore anything you don’t recognize. If you want to examine the columns in a different way, you can also sort them by clicking on their column titles, such as “Status,” which will then group them by enabled or disabled.
11 of the 26 programs mentioned in my computer’s start-ups are disabled. Your results may differ.
