Windows Task Manager - The Story

[davepl]

If you've ever used Windows, you've likely run across the Task Manager. Starting as something I wrote in my spare time in my den, it's been 25 years, and the University of Regina asked me to do a little talk on it, so here's a brief edited version of some of the stories:

https://youtu.be/f8VBOiPV-_M

Let me know what you think!

[Getter-Done]

Very Interesting.

I have been a subscriber to your channel for a-while now.
Great Channel

I Have seen Task Manager in the past and really did not know what it was for.

Does it work automatic or is it best to check or change things from time to time?









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[LockDoc]

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I will have to watch it. I use Task Manager from time to time to "end task" on locked up programs. I made some changes to items in the "Processes" or "Services" on my backup desktop computer and now it will no longer connect to the network. I need to see if I can set everything back to factory defaults....

LockDoc

[1976gmc20]

I use Task Manager from time to time to "end task" on locked up programs.

Yeah, it's my hunt and kill weapon

Next step is Ctrl-Alt-Del.

[weq92f]

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Holy crap! That is impressive!

I know because my background is in UNIX OS admin, troubleshooting, performance evaluation and control with emphasis on RDBMS hosting. I have used Windows primarily as my personal client over the past 25 years and have always used Task Manager in the background as a historical reference for when things go wrong ( et al of course ). I can pull it up and look at the history to find the culprit quickly.

Ctrl=>Shift=>Esc to start TaskMgr was new to me!

-klb

[Ol Blue K20]

I've been a subscriber for a while. It's fun to know someone that made something I have used.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by davepl

If you've ever used Windows, you've likely run across the Task Manager. Starting as something I wrote in my spare time in my den, it's been 25 years, and the University of Regina asked me to do a little talk on it, so here's a brief edited version of some of the stories:

https://youtu.be/f8VBOiPV-_M

Let me know what you think!

This is a long shot, but you don't happen to know Tony Kusalik, do you ???

https://www.cs.usask.ca/people/facul...#CoursesTaught

[toms68cst]

If I had a dollar for every time i've used task manager over the years to kill a locked-up program. I've never delved that deep into it's other features. Cool story!

[CG]

I use it to kill stuff. Im amazed out how many things show up in the background processes. I google stuff to see what the heck it is but it seldom helps even after I find it. Want to kill something more permanent? You gotta go deeper, and when you read the explanations you can see the person doing the explaining is way over my head in tech speak. Sometimes regular joes wanna get rid of something but its just too frustrating. I just wanna right click on something and delete ... Are you sure you want to delete forever? Sure why not ... Click ... Time to buy a new puter haha.

[weq92f]

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Take the processes tab...sort by whatever Memory Column you want but probably Working Set should do for the general " my machine is slow" type deal. Make sure the check box at the bottom is checked to show processes from all users.

BAMB!

EDIT: Some of these options evolved along the years...

-klb

[prairewolf]

Originally Posted by davepl

If you've ever used Windows, you've likely run across the Task Manager. Starting as something I wrote in my spare time in my den, it's been 25 years, and the University of Regina asked me to do a little talk on it, so here's a brief edited version of some of the stories:

https://youtu.be/f8VBOiPV-_M

Let me know what you think!

I listened to all of it and I think you are one smart cookie. . it was so far above my knowledge I should unplug my computer and write a letter or something. ,

[prairewolf]

Originally Posted by davepl

If you've ever used Windows, you've likely run across the Task Manager. Starting as something I wrote in my spare time in my den, it's been 25 years, and the University of Regina asked me to do a little talk on it, so here's a brief edited version of some of the stories:

https://youtu.be/f8VBOiPV-_M

Let me know what you think!

I listened to all of it and I think you are one smart cookie. . it was so far above my knowledge I should unplug my computer and write a letter or something.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by prairewolf

I listened to all of it and I think you are one smart cookie. . it was so far above my knowledge I should unplug my computer and write a letter or something. ,

Originally Posted by prairewolf

I listened to all of it and I think you are one smart cookie. . it was so far above my knowledge I should unplug my computer and write a letter or something.

You can say that again!

[Getter-Done]

Also like that OP is a Pontiac fan also








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[1976gmc20]

Actually, I more or less followed the code explanations ... except it was a bit too fast.

~20 years ago I wrote a turbofan maintenance application where we made sure that only one instance of it could be run at a time. I also tried to convince them that the program should also just lock the laptop and not allow switching to any other task, but no go on that. There was big concern at the time that because Windows was "non-deterministic" that the user would pop over and play solitaire or something while a data download was going on and something would get corrupted. I had to adapt CFile into a child class with all sorts of protections, so if all the data wasn't perfect (checksums, etc) then the file did not get written to the disk. So it all had to go to a huge memory buffer first!

Like your Task Manager, this application was basically all tab pages for display of different data blocks. I created a CPage child class that was the base class for all my different tabs with all the shared operations. The data was all handled in separate non-visual classes, so most of the event handlers only had one or two lines of code

[WorkinLonghorn]

Awesome story and I don't use that word lightly. I just used Task Manager 45 minutes ago in performing a clean boot. It's my go-to program that I keep running at all times. Thanks! -BA

[Myself]

Dave, I watched the video........you and some of these other guys make my brain hurt. I'm more hands on mechanical, BUT....I did used to type in code for hours to play an Atari like game on my VIC-20 when I was young!