In last week's blog post Better troubleshooting with the Windows 8 Task Manager Performance tab, I showed you how to use the new features on the Performance tab in Windows 8's Task Manager. As I mentioned, back in October 2011, I wrote an article titled Explore the Advanced Features of the New Windows 8 Task Manager, in which I provided you with an overview of all the Task Manager features in the Windows 8 Developers Preview.
Since at this point in time Task Manager should be feature complete, I have decided to spend some time taking a detailed look at the information and features on the various tabs. This week I'll continue my investigation by looking at the new features found on the Processes tab in Windows 8's Task Manager.
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Getting started
The quickest way to get to Task Manager in Windows 8 is to press [Windows]+D to access the Desktop, right click on the taskbar and select the Task Manager command from the context menu. When the Task Manager appears, you'll click the More details arrow. You'll then see the full tabbed interface.
Grouping processes
To make specific processes easier to find, the Processes tab in Windows 8's Task Manager organizes all the processes in groups by type. This arrangement is far superior to previous versions of Task Manager where all processes were mixed together. As you can see, there are three groups titled Apps, Background processes, and Windows processes and within each group you'll find a list of the pertinent processes. It is important to point out that while the first group is titled Apps, it includes processes associated with standard Windows applications as well as Metro apps.
As you can imagine, if and when you need to kill a process, having them in these groups will make it easier for you to quickly and safely find the process that you need to eliminate.
This photo gallery is also available as a blog post in the TechRepublic Microsoft Windows Blog.
