understanding my PC

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Bryny

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Apr 19, 2014
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I've recently installed various bits of software. Now when I boot up, and at various times in use, the computer runs very slowly and there's a lot of disk activity.

I'd like to know what software is causing this behaviour but, other than trial and error, I don't know an easy way to do this. Task manager gives me a lot of information but it actually tells me very little that I, as a non-professional, can use. If, for example, the reason my disk is thrashing and there's a lot of network access in progress is because my Dropbox files are updating I'd like a simple tool which shows me that the disk and network activity is linked to Dropbox. Similarly for other programs and functions - just a table showing me which software is causing high disk and network activity.

My anti-virus is up to date, my disk has been defragmented and everything else is pretty much OK.

So can anyone point me to a simple tool which does what I need - perhaps like Task Manager - but with additional information which allows me simply to relate the activity to the software and other processes.

Thanks
 
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Bryny

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Apr 19, 2014
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Thanks for your answer - but I'm really asking a different question. I'm not actually so concerned that my computer is slow - I can probably fix that as you say. And as a good starting point I can (and will!) get rid of the stuff I don't need as you suggest.

The computer is fast enough and has enough memory. It's all running correctly - the problem has only recently occurred and is almost certain to be software or network related - and the network connection seems fine.

But my question is: What better systems analysis tools would you recomend that gives me better digested and more complete information about the programs which are thrashing my disk and my network connection than I can get through Task Manager. Wouldn't Task Manager be a lot more useful to non-professionals if it digested the information, such as svchost.exe instances, to indicate what had caused them to run and thus which actions by the user or background programs are responsible for them.

I'm not a computer techie (far from it) but I can't understand why mature computer systems seem to have so many dumb things in them (my favourite being that when you run a search under Windows Explorer and it gives you an option to save your search it actually means to save the search term, not the results. Perhaps there's a good reason but I'm baffled at such behaviour).
 
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i7Baby

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You'd have to do a Google search on each of them. But as I said, I recommend you going to Uninstall Programs and unistalling any that you defintely know you don't want. Then you can google through the rest. I've got about 45 processes running according to Task Manager. But they are in 16GB of RAM on my PC. It takes a while (25 secs from a SSD) to load Windows when I log on. But then there's no worries.
You can find programs on the internet to get rid of 'bloatware' - stuff that doesn't really have to be there. But I prefer to trim it back by uninstalling anything I don't want.
If you don't want to do this then that's up to you. Its dumb just sitting there complaining when you could do something about it yourself.
 
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Bryny

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Apr 19, 2014
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It's kind of you to answer and I don't want to seem ungrateful but I am asking a different question. I can get rid of bloatware, I can identify running processes and I am not some dummy sitting here complaining about a problem which I can fix.

But there is no reason why Task Manager could not tell me which software is linked to which process without me having to Google anything. On the first tab of Task Manager it tells me which programs are active, on the second it tells me about the processes which are running but the connection between the two, and to background bloatware and the like is made weakly (it requires considerable further effort to understand) or not at all (because the process names are obscure). When I learnt programming, a long time ago, the need for sensible naming and full documentation, understandable by a wide range of readers, was drummed into us. This problem with Task Manager seems like a classic failure of this sort.

There is a large gap between the information which the normal user needs in order to understand what their computer is doing and the tools which Windows provides for this purpose. Markets being markets I would have expected that I'm not the only user with this problem and that there is therefore a range of solutions available: Software which is more directly useful than Task Manager to the average Joe like me. If there truly isn't then maybe somebody should write it - because I'd probably buy it.

If you, or any other reader has a solution I'd be delighted - and grateful.
 
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i7Baby

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I can't change Task Manager. I'd go and Uninstall Programs - but only of those I definitely know I don't want. Sometimes when you look you'll find all sorts of crap. You can also get bloatware clean-up software - google it. But it does make you decide what to get rid of amongst the list it comes up with.

How much RAM do you have? Maybe the problem is exacerbated by not having enough RAM. What OS do you have eg Vista is really crap with this sort of thing.
 
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