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Haw you ever wondervd what is going on when your PC suddenly starts making a gravelly noise and south to slow down? Chances are there Is a pro- gram (or process) running on the system that has been scheduled to do some extra work, in most cases some- thing useful in you as com- puter user like indexing your files for faster searching or scanning your system for viruses. If you are using a Win- dows-bauNt PC and are at all curious about what makes your system tick. there is a free tool that will help you dig into these mysteries. Process Exblnrcr 9 is available for download from the System Sysintemals Web site at "httpr//wwwsystem- interrraiccant". The package downloads as a ZIP file and when exuacled reveals three files. If you have administra- tor privileges on your sys- lvm. you can double click on the pmwxprxe file to start the program. and you are presented with a window displaying currently running Programs un your system. If you do not have administra- lor privileges, you will not be able in run the program. Exploring the mysteries of your PC Process explorer displays u hierarchical list showing processes and their child {when one running program mans another it is consid- ered a child of the first) and Show... l Full om this term and tor , to me Waterloo Chronicle, 895-5240 2 Man the (mated ton" to 279 Webs! St, N, Sum 20. Wanda), Onluno N2J 3H8 ENE mung: 'e tfeo9rreetolo_' Show your love for the Waterloo Chronicle oy contributrng to the Chronicle Voluntary Pay Program By making 0 arm a year contribution to The Waterloo Chronicle, you show that you core about the community y0u live in and that you appreciate receiving the Chronicle delivered right to 'four door, every Wednesday. 'r’ou are also rewarding your Cater' for o job well done. C your @ng.’ 1mm Foe MORE INFORMATION CALL 694-2250 x3226 includes everything running at the current time. The list is updated every second to reveal changes in activity. At first glance, you may be sun prised at the number of items in the process list, but don't be alarmed. There are many necessary things that your system does in the background. without your input or even your knowl- edge. Processes that have been started at your request or as a result of your actions are flagged with a blue colour. You might also note that some processes are tlagged with a pink colour. These are service-based pro- grams-. ones that are intended to run with no user input to perform "house- keeping" tasks. ftsu' will notice that the interface presents several columns of information for MICHAEL HIEMSTRA Sm your love. smurf mick Another useful feature of Process Explorer is the abili- ty to pull together many details about a process into one properties dialog. You can select any process from the list and click the "Prop- erties" toolbar button. Among other information presented here, you will see details about the file that is running, the memory and CPU usage, the environment variables used by the process and the frle security settings. My two favourite tabs in this dialog are the "TCP/IP" and "Strings" tabs. The "TCP/IP" tab shows entries for any Internet or network connections that the process is currently using. The "Strings" tab attempts to pull out any each process. You can con- figure the columns to show the information you find useful. When using Process Explorer. I regularly consult the "CPU" column which shows the percentage of proressihg capability a given process is using at the moment. A process with a high CPU number indicates a process that is consuming a high percentage of your CPUs resources. and is pos" sihly slowing your system down. Other columns can be added to the display such as the name of the system user that started a process. the window title and program version among many others. pieces of readable text from the file, Most of what is shown will look like non- sense. hut occasionally you will see elements from the program's interface, and you might be able to determine if the program is legitimate. Process Explorer is a powerful little program squeezed into a small little package. " is configurable and stahle. But be careful when you use it. Some fea- tures allow you to stop or "kill" a process which can cause instability on your sys- tem, possibly requiring a reboot. "tetg5Et:ELl Be sure to take advantage of the exceptional savings on these remaining 2005 A4 models before the all new 2006 M arrives later this spring. 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