To get a basic overview of how your system is using its memory resources, bring up Task Manager by pressing Control-Alt-Delete, and clicking on Task Manager. The first two tabs of this programme will show you which applications and processes are running in the background, and the amount of memory and CPU they are currently using. This is a good place to search out those programmes that are using up all your valuable resources. Note that by default applications are given priority over background services: to change this go to System in Control Panel, and select the Advanced tab. You can also manually change the priority of a background process, by right-clicking on the process in task manager, and selecting Set Priority. Note that changing the priority of a process may affect system performance so proceed with caution! Here are details of some of the common processes that you will find running in Task manager:

SYSTEM IDLE PROCESS: One instance of this process operates per CPU, and runs to occupy the processor when other threads are not running. Normally this process should take up at least 80% of processor time on average (this is the value in the CPU column): if this is not the case look to see which process is taking up the time, and terminate it using the End Process button. This process also issues HLT commands which put unused parts of the CPU into a suspend mode, thereby cooling the processor. These commands are the same as those used by CPU cooling software such as CPUIdle, Rain and Waterfall.

SYSTEM: Handles various basic system functions.

SVCHOST.EXE: This is a process that runs a group of services that are run from dll files.. It runs from the registry key, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost where details of the services running under each instance of svchost.exe can be found. It is not unusual for more than one instance of this programme to be running in Task manager, this is done to optimise the running of the various services.

SMSS.EXE: Besides performing a number of key system initialization steps, the session manager acts as a switch and monitor between applications and debuggers.

WINLOGON.EXE: This process handles interactive user logons and logoffs.

SERVICES.EXE: Controls, and manages services that are run as processes, as opposed to those run in svchost.exe above, such as Alerter, Clipbook Server, Computer Browser, Event Viewer, Messenger, Server and Workstation, and Plug and Play.

CSRSS.EXE: Win32 subsystem

LSASS.EXE: The local security authentication server process receives authentication requests from WINLOGON and calls the appropriate authentication package (implemented as a DLL) to perform the actual verification, such as checking whether a password matches what is stored in the SAM (the part of the registry that contains the definition of the users and groups).

The third tab of Task Manager shows information on system resources. CPU usage shows the amount of processor resources in use, next to a graph of recent usage. The speed at which this graph is updated can be altered from the View/Update Speed option in the menu. MEM usage shows the amount of virtual memory in use, again with a graph of recent usage. Physical memory total is total RAM installed, split between the amount in use by the file cache, and the amount available to processes. The commit charge section gives details on virtual memory usage: total is equal to MEM usage in the box above i.e. the amount of virtualk memory in use, limit is the maximum amount available for paging, and peak is the highest amount that has been in use since Task Manager was started. The final box gives the amount of memory allocated to the kernel, both virtual (paged) and RAM (non-paged). You can leave Task Manager running to evaluate system performance in the short-term: if you are running short of RAM, you will see an increase in use of virtual memory. You can also get an idea of a realistic level at which to set your paging file to optimise performance. Remember of course that Task Manager itself uses resources, so the information is not entirely accurate.