Windows Task Manager Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe McGuire
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Joe McGuire

Word and Outlook (2003) seem to crash fairly frequently for me in recent
weeks and I have no idea why. But whenever I suspect a crash, such as after
10 minutes OL is still trying to start Word as my e-mail editor, I open the
Windows Task Manager (Win XP SP2). The Task Manager happily reports that
all my programs are running beautifully. Of course, at least one is
definitely not. It will keep reporting everything as fully operational
until I finally pick a program and click End. A second or two later a
message appears telling me that--surprise--that program, say Outlook, is not
responding. Duh! My question is: Why doesn't the Task Manager provide
accurate operational information? Apart from telling me what is (supposed
to be) running the status information is totally useless. Am I missing
something?
 
Joe said:
Word and Outlook (2003) seem to crash fairly frequently for me in recent
weeks and I have no idea why. But whenever I suspect a crash, such as after
10 minutes OL is still trying to start Word as my e-mail editor, I open the
Windows Task Manager (Win XP SP2). The Task Manager happily reports that
all my programs are running beautifully. Of course, at least one is
definitely not. It will keep reporting everything as fully operational
until I finally pick a program and click End. A second or two later a
message appears telling me that--surprise--that program, say Outlook, is not
responding. Duh! My question is: Why doesn't the Task Manager provide
accurate operational information? Apart from telling me what is (supposed
to be) running the status information is totally useless. Am I missing
something?
Click to expand...

The Task Manager does not report whether programs are "running
beautifully". It reports what programs/processes are running. Period. To
see errors, look in Event Viewer.

Start>Run>eventvwr.msc [enter]


Malke
 
BUT - The OP said the Task Manager shows the program is running when in fact
it is not responding.

Malke said:
Joe said:
Word and Outlook (2003) seem to crash fairly frequently for me in recent
weeks and I have no idea why. But whenever I suspect a crash, such as
after 10 minutes OL is still trying to start Word as my e-mail editor, I
open the Windows Task Manager (Win XP SP2). The Task Manager happily
reports that all my programs are running beautifully. Of course, at
least one is definitely not. It will keep reporting everything as fully
operational until I finally pick a program and click End. A second or
two later a message appears telling me that--surprise--that program, say
Outlook, is not responding. Duh! My question is: Why doesn't the Task
Manager provide accurate operational information? Apart from telling me
what is (supposed to be) running the status information is totally
useless. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

The Task Manager does not report whether programs are "running
beautifully". It reports what programs/processes are running. Period. To
see errors, look in Event Viewer.

Start>Run>eventvwr.msc [enter]


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Click to expand...
 
Bob said:
BUT - The OP said the Task Manager shows the program is running when in
fact it is not responding.
Click to expand...

BUT - It is running! Just because the program is not responding doesn't
mean the program isn't running. In fact, "not responding" usually means
a runaway process that isn't responding to taskill. To clarify, my point
was (and remains) that the Task Manager is not the right place to find
out what it is happening in the OP's case and for him to be indignant
that the Task Manager was not doing what he thought it should was
misdirected.


Malke
 
Thanks. I obviously read too much into "running". I guess the Task Manager
might actually "manage" what is going on. It might still be helpful if I am
merely curious about what programs are "running," or perhaps more
accurately, programs that got started and have not been yet been shut down.
They may all have crashed but Windows has not (yet) put them out of their
misery, so they are technically running. Maybe that's also why the Task
Manager's "End Task" button seems to be unable to "End" such crashed
programs. Sort of like a cardboard traffic cop--looks helpful watching the
traffic but don't expect him to do anything about it.
 
Thanks for that explanation, Malke. My problem is that, recently, the task
manager window no longer has an X, so I can't close it! I have to scrunch it
down and move it over to the side of the screen so I can continue doing
whatever. Ideas?
 
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Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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