Basic Tools
and Features
WinTasks
5.0 Professional is the ultimate power utility software that
arms users with a comprehensive set of tools to put them in
full control of their computer.
Basic Tools
and Features
The basic features of WinTasks
are:
Stopping
and Starting Processes
Wintasks allows you to stop and start
processes whether because you are suspecting that they may be
security risks or because you would like to free up computer
resources for other processes.
To stop a process, highlight the
process by clicking on it within the work area. Click on the
Stop button as shown in the screenshot below. Immediately WinTasks
returns a Warning message alerting you that stop processes may
destabilise your systems. As a general rule, you should not
stop any processes that are started by the system unles you
know exactly what you are doing.
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How do you learn which process
may be stopped? The information window at the bottom left hand
corner of WinTasks provides you with the necessary information
on the process and will usually suggest whether you should stop
the process or what effects you will experience by stopping
the process. In the case of AcoTray.exe, this process may or
may not be running on your computer depending upon whether you
have Adobe Acrobat Distiller installed. Stopping this process
does not destabilise your system.
To restart the process, click on
the Start button as shown below.
Click on the Refresh button to refresh your
screen and reveal the changes that you have effected even though
this usually happens in real time.
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If, for example, you wish
to burn CDs without distortions, use WinTasks to quickly
stop the processes that are not of vital importance to
the running of Windows while you are performing your CD
burning.
This means that the program
controlling the copying of the CD gains exclusive access
to the computers’ resources.
Alternatively, if you
wish to optimise the performance of the computer it is
possible to quickly adapt the number of active processes
to a minimum.
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Increasing
or Decreasing Process Priority
As stated earlier in What
are Processes?, Windows allocates computer resources among
the various processes that are running at any point in time.
The two main resources are CPU time for processing and memory.
Windows allocates resources to usage patterns. For example,
as you read this page, Windows is allocating top priority to
your internet connection and browser.
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The Increase and Decrease buttons
are found on your toolbar. To increase the priority of a particular
process, highlight the process within the work area and then
click the Increase button. On the left hand side of the process
you will notice a resource level or Process Icon ( ).
As you increase the priority of the particular process, the
icon changes showing increased levels of allocated resources.
 
Pressing the Decrease button, decreases the
amount of resources allocated by Windows to the particular resource.
Click on the Refresh button to refresh your
screen and reveal the changes that you have effected even though
this usually happens in real time.
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WinTasks supports four
different priority levels: low, normal, high and real-time.
A process that has been given the status Real-time holds
the exclusive access to the CPU. This means that no other
process can be given the CPU unless the real-time process
is in the blocked mode or alternatively is passive.
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Blocking
Processes
Processes may be selected and blocked. Such blocking
may be desireable, for example, where you may suspect certain
processes to be possible security threats or malware. If a 'cure'
for the particular virus or spyware has not yet been found or
if your computer is being attacked, you may want to know exactly
what is happening to be able to block the security threat.
Blocking a process is similar to stopping it.
Highlight the process to be blocked and press the block button.
WinTasks returns an alert that the particular process has been
added to your block list.
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To unblock a process, you need
to access your block list. This is done either by clicking on
the Block List button on the tool bar or by accessing the Windows
sub menu under the View menu as shown below.
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As soon as this is done the Block
List Window pops up listing the blocked process. From this Window,
you may request WinTasks to block a known process. This is done
by adding the exact process name in the area on the bottom of
the screen as shown below. Then click on the Add Process button.
Removing a block on a process requires you to either highlight
the process on your list or type in the exact process name in
the space provided and clicking on the Remove Button.
You may also request WinTasks to
confirm new processes and/or allow all known processes. This
enables automatic security protection as WinTasks will inform
you if a new process is running.
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Remember, the process
library within WinTasks is updated at least twice a month
with all known processes including known security threats.
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Clicking on the Allow List tab,
as may be seen below, displays a list of allowed processes.
Statistics
WinTasks allows you to graphically monitor CPU
and memory usage of each process against the usage patterns
of the entire system over various periods.
Access the statistics window by clicking on
the Stats button on your toolbar:
This calls up the following window:
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This window allows you to view system performance
over the past minute, ten minutes, 2 hour and 24 hour period.
It also helps predict the resource usage by each process and
thus help you identify possible future glitches in the system
given that the present processes are kept running. In other
words, if all the processes you are running now are kept in
operation, you will be able to identify whether a process will
increase the burden on your CPU processing time and memory usage.
As a general rule, if a particular process is increasing its
burden on CPU and Memory, it will most likely dramatically decrease
computer performance and lead to an eventual process crash.
In this respect, you may decide to stop a process and restart
it.
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Process Descriptions
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At the bottom left hand side of the main WinTasks
interface, you will see information relating to the process
that is highlighted in the work area. WinTasks contains a database
or library of processes which may also be accessed from our
online Process
Library. All this information is kept up-to-date at least
twice monthly and any additions or amendments may be downloaded
free of charge through WinTasks.
Updating
WinTasks
To download updates press the Check for Updates
button on the toolbar.
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The following pop-up window is
shown once the updates button is clicked:
Click on Update Process Library to update the
process database or on Download WinTasks Updates to download
any patches or new releases of your version of WinTasks. Before
installing any new release, you may have to uninstall the older
version.
Now that you have learned the basic tools of
WinTasks, you may proceed to the Advanced Users Section to see
what other features are available to increase your computer
security and performance.
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