Task Manager Not Remembering Show processes from all users

  • Thread starter Thread starter CerfurMark
  • Start date Start date
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CerfurMark

On Windows Vista Home, I often am starting the task manager to see why the
system is slow. But every single time I start Task Manager, the Show
processes from all users is a button instead of a checkbox and I have to
press the button and go through UAC to be able to see all the processes. How
do I get Task Manager to remember that I ALWAYS want to see all the processes
from all the users?
 
Hi,

There is no setting to enable that, you will have to initiate it each time
you load Task Manager.

I woud concentrate my efforts on isolating whatever software is causing the
slowdown issue. Full malware scans in safe mode with up to date antivirus
and antispyware programs would be a good first step.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
 
Hello,
In XP, I could check the "Show all processes" check box and it would
remember for next time. Why have they made this not work? I've had Vista
for almost a year and I still hate it. SearchIndexer.exe is always running
and making all this noise on my hard disk and spiking my CPU up and down, so
I'm always looking at TaskManger to set it to low priority or kill it.
Forcing me to have to press the Show all processes button every time I start
Task Manager and then go through the UAC is just one more irritation on top
of the SearchIndexer irritation.
Mark
 
Hi Mark,

So disable indexing on that drive if you find it annoying. It's a low
priority process though, and I suspect that's not the real issue. If it's
not settling down after a few days, then I suspect something else is
interfering with it.

Vista is vastly different than XP, and if processes for all users were to be
shown each time TM is opened it would also involve an additional UAC prompt
for elevated privileges. In Vista, nothing runs in that mode without the
user's explicit consent. For TM to open with that level by default means
that the permissions used could also be exploited by malware.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
 
Hi Rick,

I do appreciate your responses.

I always see that SearchIndexer starts as Normal priority. I always have
to go set it to Low Priority. And since it's a SYSTEM process, I always have
to go through this whole step of Show All Processes and the UAC. I've read
all the articles about how SearchIndexer is supposed to working quietly and
efficiently in the background and is not supposed to be noticable by the
user, but that certainly isn't the case for me. I will say that I have
Windows Defender and Avast Antivirus and Windows Firewall, so there shouldn't
be any malware. There is a third-party backup process I use called
Carbonite, which may possibly be causing SearchIndexer to get busy. It's
really hard for me to tell. How can another process "interfere" with
SearchIndexer? What requirements does SearchIndexer have so that it is not
interferred with?

I'm sure that all of this is complex, but it's extremely hard for me to
believe that Microsoft engineers could not figure out a way to store the
state of the task manager Show All Processes check box. It seems to remember
the column names fine. I am the only user and I am an administrator with
full priveleges, so how is it that my computer doesn't believe I am who I say
I am? It allowed me to log on as Administrator, so there must be some sort
of trust there. Why would an administrator not be able to see processes from
other users, especially system processes?

I certainly agree that Vista is vastly different than XP, but I do want to
complain to somebody that it is vastly worse. It's far slower and far more
combersome to use. I remember when I got XP and I thought, "Hey, this is
really an improvement. Speedy and hardly crashes.". That's not how I think
about Vista. I think it would be really great if they went back to the
drawing board and made Vista be like XP.

Mark
 
Hi Mark,

Start by removing some software, particulary anything that loads at boot.
That would include your antivirus application. It doesn't have to be malware
to interfere, anything that alters, adds, or removes files can potentially
be a cause.

One of the main changes in Vista, as opposed to every other version of
Windows thus far, is the implementation of using the least user privileges
necessary for normal operation, and this includes the administrator. Much
malware takes advantage of the elevation that most users run with to install
surreptitiously, and that can't happen in Vista. This is actually not a new
idea, Linux has been using it for years. In order to implement this new
security design, many of the loopholes that allowed things like the settings
change you want had to be locked down.

FWIW, I have Vista running on several machines with varying hardware and
software installed with nary a crash on any of them. In fact, the only
machine that was having stop errors turned out to be a bad stick of ram. If
Vista were like XP, then it wouldn't be Vista.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
 
I checked the all users box and closed the task manager and reopened
it and its still checked... don't know why yours doesnt work
 
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