Select the Task Manager Processes tab to see a list of running processes and measures of their performance. The Task Manager process table includes all processes that run in their own address space, including all applications and system services. From the Options menu, choose Show 16-bit Tasks to include those in the display.
Note
Task Manager displays its values in kilobytes, which are units of 1024 bytes. Performance Monitor displays the full number values. When comparing Performance Monitor and Task Manager values, multiply Task Manager values by 1024 (and drop the K). For example, in the following illustration, Task Manager shows the PERFMON.EXE process using 28K bytes of memory. In Performance Monitor, this value would be displayed as 28,672 bytes.
From the View menu, choose Select Columns to add to or remove performance measures from the display. The following table briefly describes the measures and their Performance Monitor counterparts, if any.
Process measure | Description | Performance Monitor Process counter |
Image Name | Name of the process. | The process name in the Instances box. |
PID (Process Identifier) | Numerical ID assigned to the process while it runs. | ID Process. |
CPU Usage | The percentage of time the threads of the process used the microprocessor since the last update. | %Processor Time. |
CPU Time | The total microprocessor time used by the process since it was started, in seconds. | None. |
Memory Usage | The amount of main memory used by the process, in kilobytes. | Working Set. |
Memory Usage Delta | The change in memory use since the last update, in kilobytes. Unlike Performance Monitor, Task Manager displays negative values. | None. |
Page Faults | The number of times data had to be retrieved from disk for this process because it was not found in memory. This value is accumulated from the time the process is started. | None. Page faults/sec is the rate of page faults over time. |
Page Faults Delta | The change in the number of page faults since the last update. | None. |
Virtual Memory Size | Size of the process's share of the paging file, in kilobytes. | Page File Bytes. |
Paged Pool | Amount of the paged pool (user memory) used by the process, in kilobytes. The paged pool is virtual memory available to be paged to disk. It includes all of user memory and a portion of system memory. | Pool Paged Bytes. |
Nonpaged Pool | Amount of the non-paged pool (system memory) used by the process, in kilobytes. The non-paged pool is operating system memory, which is never paged to disk. | Pool Nonpaged Bytes. |
Base Priority | The base priority of the process, which determines the order in which its threads are scheduled for the microprocessor. The base priority is set by the process code, not the operating system. The operating system sets and changes the dynamic priorities of threads in the process within the range of the base. Use Task Manager to change the base priority of processes. | Priority Base. |
Handle Count | The number of object handles in the process's object table. | Handle Count. |
Thread Count | The number of threads running in the process. | Thread Count. |
You can control the rate at which Task Manager updates its counts. This will reduce Task Manager overhead, but might miss some data. You can force an update at any time by choosing Refresh Now from the View menu or by pressing f5.
Task Manager Update Speed options:
Option | Description |
High | Updates every half-second. |
Normal | Updates once per second. |
Low | Updates every four seconds. |
Paused | Does not update automatically. Press F5 to update. |