Microsoft is all news about Windows 8, building the excitement around everyone in the tech world. The latest to the addition is the update of its revamped Task Manager. Building Windows 8 blog updated that Task Manager would now help a user to view the same in a better way and at the same time would even would be able to control open applications and other processes, which may be causing trouble.
Talking about task manager, it has always been a tool which has helped users in viewing the files and processes that are open. It even helps in noting those processes and files, which are chewing up memory and CPU cycles. Users typically use Task Manager to shut down application which are not responding. Over the years, it has incorporated more data and has given decent control
to the people. But one cannot deny the fact that it has never been too user friendly.
Ryan Haveson, group program manager of Microsoft’s In Control of Your PC team, had a note written on the company’s blog which read, “For the default view, we designed a minimalist experience that appeals to the needs of the broadest customer base and most common scenario.” He even said, “When you launch Task Manager for the first time in Windows 8, you see a very clean view of your running apps. We made the default view great at one thing: killing misbehaving apps. And we removed everything that did not directly support that core scenario.”
This means that the company has worked on removing the extras from the Task Manager, may it be the tabs, menus, and other distracting items. With this happening, users would only see the open applications lined up by name. Now, the default screen would make is easy for the user to choose a program which is not responding and accordingly to shut them down. Thus, it would be more of a user friendly tool now.
The image posted here shows that there is a option in the new Task Manager noted as “More Details”. Clicking on this, one would see a window opening up with more in-depth data, which is quite similar to today’s Task Manager. The details displayed here are how much memory is being used, CPU cycles, and disk space each application and process is using.
This is not the only update Microsoft had, as it was even noted that they have worked hard on helping users in case of the misbehaving items, as the software giant has set up a “heat map”. This would highlight those applications, which are eating up more than their fair share of system resources. This option would be most useful, when multiple applications are fighting over CPU or memory.
The other features added include is the ability to group and sort items, which is eased. Ability to group items by applications, background processes, and Windows processes would help users in determining those applications which are safe to shut down and which ones should be left alone. This would be an important aspect for Windows 8 users.
Lastly, Microsoft has incorporated an option for the users to search the Web for a particular process or service to learn more about it.