Troubleshoot Windows with Task Manager

Troubleshoot Windows with Task Manager

by: Stephen Bucaro

Task Manager is a Windows system utility that displays the tasks or processes currently running on your computer. To open Task Manager, press Ctrl+Alt+Del. The Applcations tab lists the applications currently running on your computer. A single application may actually consist of several running processes, and many programs that run in the background are not listed (you can see icons for some of these programs in the System Tray).

Note: With Windows 98 and Windows Me, Ctrl+Alt+Del will open Program Manager, which allows you only to close aplications. However, you can download one of the many Task Manager utilities from the Web.

The Processes tab displays a comprehensive list of all the processes currently running on your computer. This can be very useful for monitoring your system. The process tab displays information about the processor useage and memory usage of each process. The problem is, how to identify a process. Below is a list of some processes you may see in Task Managers Processes list.

กSystem Idle Processก

กSystemก The Windows System Process

กSMSS.EXEก Session Manager Subsystem

กCSRSS.EXEก Client Server Runtime Subsystem

กWinLOGON.EXEก The Windows Logon process

กSERVICES.EXEก Services Control Manager

กLSASS.EXEก Local Security Authentication Server Service

กsvchost.exeก Service Host

กspoolsv.exeก The print spooler service

กexplorer.exeก Windows Explorer

‘tASKMGR.EXEก The Task Manager

‘regsvc.exeก Remote Registry Service

กSystem Idle Processก is basically another name for the time when Windows is doing nothing. There are hundreds of thousands of processes that run on a computer, so you will definitely find names of many other processess that are not listed above. For a list of well known processes, visit www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm. You can also learn about almost any task by using itกs name as a search term in google.

Task Manager can also be used to tweak your system if itกs running slow. The [Performance] tab displays running graphs of your computers CPU and memory usage. If the CPU usage seems to be running over 80 percent most of the time, or if the memory usage seems to be running higher than the total physical memory, you may want to shut down some applications or processes.

On the Process tab, you can identify processes that are consuming a lot of processor time. Click twice on the CPU column heading to sort the CPU column so the processes hogging the most CPU time on top. You can sort the กMem Usageก column the same way.

On the Application tab, if you right click on the name of an application and, in the popup menu that appears, choose กGo To Processก, Task Manager will open the Processes tab and highlight the process that runs the application. On the Processes tab, if you rightclick on the name of a process, you can choose กSetPriorityก and promote the priority of the process you need (or demote the priority of a different process to free up some resources).

If you go to the Application tab and shut down an application, you will shut down any processes related to that application. Or, you might choose to shut down a background process that you can identify. To shut down an application or process, click on itกs name in the list to highlight it, then click on the [End Task] button.

On the Processes tab, if you right click on the name of a process, you can choose กEnd Process Treeก to kill the process and any subprocesses started by the process.

Task Manager can also be used for troubleshooting. If an application freezes up, you can open Task Manager and shut down the application. If the entire system freezes up, you can use Task Manager to shut down a process that is hogging all the CPU time or memory.

If you spend some time monitoring your computer with task Manager, eventually you will become familiar with the processes that commonly run. Then, when you see an unfamiliar process, you can do a little investigation to make sure itกs not a virus. For example, if you see msblast.exe in the process list, your computer is infected with the Blaster virus. You might be able to detect and eliminate a new virus before an antivirus update is available.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author

To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blank email to [email protected]

This article was posted on August 16, 2004

by Stephen Bucaro

It Ain’t Going To Happen!

It Ain’t Going To Happen!

by: Robert Teske

Are YOU still trying to succeed online without an AutoResponder and Mailing List Manager? Itกs NOT going to happen!

Your #1 online success tool is a mailing list manager. If you don’t have one you are NEVER going to succeed online. Hereกs why.

A List Manager is a handy piece of software, which enables you, at the press of a single button, to deliver a message to every single person on any given list. The List Manager is important because the list it delivers messages to is important. Indeed, Iกll go so far as to say: the business is your list, the list is your business.

Companies, which are making money online, are making money because they’re 1) building their crucial email list and 2) using an autoresponder to deliver regular messages to it.

What can these messages be?

A company newsletter

Information about products and services and usage information, so that customers get more value from what they buy

Specials, sales, offers, discount coupons, etc.

In short, the Mailing List Manager and AutoResponder enables you to run the most customer centered business imaginable, keeping your vital information in front of prospects in ways impossible in the ‘real worldก and for a trifling cost.

When youกve got a Mailing List Manager and AutoResponder, you’re able to wake up in the morning with a dandy idea for motivating your prospects, sit down at your computer and write your clientcentered message (or reuse a message that has worked for you in the past), and, by hitting a single button, get that message out IMMEDIATELY to every single person on your list. Want to update prospects in the afternoon? No problem! Create another message and send it out to your list! Your prospects will have it in minutes!

Is this Spam? CERTAINLY NOT! A List Manager serves a SUBSCRIPTION list! People need to request to be on your mailing list. Itกs easy to add them or they can add themselves. Itกs equally easy to delete them if they don’t want to be on your list anymore, so you’re NEVER spamming anyone!

When you’re using a List Manager, youกve got your #1 Profit Tool for connecting with prospects, bringing vital information to their attention when YOU like, both sending it with your List Manager and directing them to whatever area of your website you want them to see.

Speaking personally, the apt use of List Managers is what has turned many of our subsidiary companies from a back bedroom enterprises into a multidigit figure operations.

Let me make myself perfectly clear: IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A MAILING LIST MANAGER AND AUTORESPONDER, YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO SUCCEED ONLINE; List Managers and AutoResponders are THAT important!

There are many great and new AutoResponder Services offering UNLIMITED LIST MANAGERS and AUTORESPONDERS for a very reasonable monthly fees. You will be doing yourself a great injustice if you don’t even take the time to investigate these services.

With your List Manager, youกll finally begin to capitalize on the incredible economies and speed of online business. What are you waiting for?

Copyright 2005 Robert Teske

About The Author

Robert K. Teske is the President and CEO of Teske Enterprises & Subsidiaries, and Founder of the TesCommPro AutoResponder Systems and Services, as well as the Hostmaster at the Area51 Domain Hosting Services; both of which can be found at: http://www.tescomm.com and http://www.area51domainhostingservices.com. For personal assistance, mailto:[email protected] with กI want a List Managerก in the subject, along with your name, company, and phone number.

This article was posted on February 28

by Robert Teske

Multiple Sources of Income

Multiple Sources of Income

by: Liron Rose

It is a common say today that there is now job security whatsoever that is true fact worldwide US, Europe (see what is happening in Germany), Australia or any other developed country.

What basically happens is that globalization causes our jobs to be relocated to countries which have cheaper labor. For example, many programmer jobs are being moved to India, Russia, Estonia etc… where labor might cost only ten percent of its cost in a developed country.

So its time to forget the golden watch and the dream of easy sweet retirement at 65. And as far as that is concerned things are getting even more complicated since we tend to live longer years but have less children who is going to pay for our pensions?

Governments are already in the process of changing the laws and we could reasonably expect the official retirement age to be raised to 67 and perhaps 70 in the next few years. Also the social benefits system of some countries is in dire straits with too many claims by the impoverished and a too small contribution of the middle working class.

Robert Kayosaki in his book Rich Dad Poor Dad has pointed out that we live in an age where we must ensure that we have Multiple Sources of Income. He correctly identified four ways of earning money:

Employment (i.e. a normal tradional กjobก)

Self Employment (working for yourself)

Business (having a กsystemก that makes money)

Investment (earning money of accumulated capital)

Kayosaki argues that an individual seeking financial freedom should try to position himself in both nos. (3) and (4), which is exactly what the rich do they either own a business (its management can be outsourced at a cost to a professional manager) , or invest surplus capital in other peopleกs business and both these do not require an individual to work (i.e. trade time for money).

The point is basically to be free from being wholly dependent of an employer.

A wise man does not work for money, but lets money work for him.

About The Author

Liron Rose (MBA) has been in the Internet Marketing scene since 1999. He served as the Business Development Manager of Suntrader Interactive, a full service interactive agency based in Canada, and as the Online Marketing Manager for Zootec Innovations, a startup company in the gaming arena. http://www.rainbowmaster.com

This article was posted on February 26, 2004

by Liron Rose

Why a Project Manager Manages More Than Just The P

Why a Project Manager Manages More Than Just The Project

by: Blair Ballard

So your Project Manager is responsible for getting your Project whatever it may be, completed. This is going to involve more than just managing time and resources. Above all it requires good people management, in particular managing You, the Client!

Let me give an example from กHistoryก. We were engaged in the development of a large (several million dollar) project. It required development of software, building of a company intranet, a web presence, a big database and overcoming lots of security issues.

The กClientก was actually represented by 4 parties.

An IT Manager, who is in overall control of the budget, but doesn’t actually have any involvement in the hardware or software.

The Systems Manager, who looks after the operating of the Clientกs hardware and software.

The Sales Team, for whom this product is being built.

The boss, who pays the bills, but doesn’t appear to understand what all the money is being spent on.

It is important to appreciate the characters and dynamics involved. I won’t go into too much detail to protect their identities. The IT Manager is extremely demanding. The IT and Systems Managers are best of buddies. There appears to be a power struggle between the IT Manager and the Boss. As will become apparent, we don’t know about the Sales team. By the time I am involved, the IT Manager has already fired 2 project managers, supposedly on technical grounds, but realistically more because the two sides didn’t get on.

Part of project management involves soliciting information from the Client what do you want? How are you going to use it? So far, are we on the right track? As I said this system was to help the Sales Team and to a degree, the Accounts Department. The IT Manager explicitly refused to let us talk to anyone else in the Clientกs company except himself or the Systems Manager. He is the one approving our pay, so what he says goes. He feels that he alone is capable of determining the result of the project and therefore can manage all aspects on behalf of the Client. Unfortunately, project management is all about collaboration.

The Systems Manager, before any coding has started or even the system processes are worked out, decides to spend $300,000 on hardware and some specialized software for this new system. It may be the best, fastest, biggest, most powerful, most prestigious, newest on the market, but at this stage we had no idea whether we really needed something that powerful. As Project Manager, you determine the technical specifications of the project and advise the Client. But at the end of the day, itกs the Clientกs money!

Not surprisingly, with the size of project and the many skill sets required, there were several different people involved on the กSupplierกs sideก. We were in charge of the project management and a substantial amount of the coding. We had 4 people full time working on the project management team. One of our number could probably have been described as fulltime Liaison/Buffer to the Client, while the rest of us got on with the job.

In addition there were yet 4 other parties working under the direction of our project management team.

Party ก1ก was involved in designing the database.

Party ก2ก was involved in building that database and doing the required coding.

Party ก3ก had to provide communications between the several applications we were building.

Party ก4ก had to look after security measures, review code and do final testing (and keep an eye on us).

The project was is to be built in phases. Party ก4ก has just lost the contract to look after the project. It is therefore in their best interests to see us fail. As I mentioned they are to review our work. They have tasks to do for the project and naturally itกs the responsibility of the project management team to ensure it happens properly and on time. So due to the obvious conflict of interest, requiring them to do their part in the project, is always an issue to be handled with care.

Another case of kid gloves: We need the $300,000 worth of hardware and software to be configured in order to set up the environments for our work. Without it, we are spinning wheels, กitกs a Milestone on the Critical Pathก. It transpires that the Systems Manager is in over his head. As a result we have to delay the project. Given that the last Project Manager was fired when she voiced her view that several delays were due to the Systems Manager, we accept responsibility. Unfortunately though, we are not able to address the root cause.

However the environment has all been set up by the Client, since they chose the development teams and had already purchased the hardware and a substantial amount of กOff the Shelfก software. As a Project Manager you cannot really tell what the issues will be until you get into it. Sure, we knew what was needed to do to make the product, but we also needed information from the Client and support from the whole development team. Add to the mix, the fact that we are all working out of the Clientกs offices and that half the team speak English and half French as their first language, communication takes on an even greater significance.

We end up expending significant energy (and hence Client money) on trying to extract this information and keeping the Client happy that work was progressing. All the while knowing that the real end users are yet to have any input into the product.

When we finally finish the product (really just a phase of development) and give a demonstration, we are finally allowed to present it to the Sales Team. They duly watch the demonstration กLooks nice, getting there, but doesn’t exactly do what we need, we have a few questions . . .ก Interesting feedback to receive after supposed completion.

About The Author

Blair Ballard is founder of the MARKET YOUR WEB group. His experience spans from that of Corporate Project Manager to Webmaster for a Non Profit organisation. http://www.marketyourweb.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 22

by Blair Ballard

Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules

Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules

by: Regine Azurin

This article is based on the following book:

First, Break All The Rules

‘What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently’

By Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

Simon & Schuster

271 pages

Based on a mammoth research study conducted by the Gallup Organization involving 80,000 managers across different industries, this book explores the challenge of many companies attaining, keeping and measuring employee satisfaction. Discover how great managers attract, hire, focus, and keep their most talented employees!

Key Ideas:

The best managers reject conventional wisdom.

The best managers treat every employee as an individual.

The best managers never try to fix weaknesses; instead they focus on strengths and talent.

The best managers know they are on stage everyday. They know their people are watching every move they make.

Measuring employee satisfaction is vital information for your investors.

People leave their immediate managers, not the companies they work for.

The best managers are those that build a work environment where the employees answer positively to these 12 Questions:

Do I know what is expected of me at work?

Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?

At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?

In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?

Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?

Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

At work, do my opinions seem to count?

Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?

Are my coworkers committed to doing quality work?

Do I have a best friend at work?

In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?

This last year, have I had the opportunity at work to learn and grow?

The Gallup study showed that those companies that reflected positive responses to the 12 questions profited more, were more productive as business units, retained more employees per year, and satisfied more customers.

Without satisfying an employee’s basic needs first, a manager can never expect the employee to give stellar performance. The basic needs are: knowing what is expected of the employee at work, giving her the equipment and support to do her work right, and answering her basic questions of selfworth and selfesteem by giving praise for good work and caring about her development as a person.

The great manager mantra is don’t try to put in what was left out; instead draw out what was left in. You must hire for talent, and hone that talent into outstanding performance.

More wisdom in a nutshell from First, Break All the Rules:

1. Know what can be taught, and what requires a natural talent.

2. Set the right outcomes, not steps. Standardize the end but not the means. As long as the means are within the company’s legal boundaries and industry standards,let the employee use his own style to deliver the result or outcome you want.

3. Motivate by focusing on strengths, not weaknesses.

4. Casting is important, if an employee is not performing at excellence, maybe she is not cast in the right role.

5. Every role is noble, respect it enough to hire for talent to match.

6. A manager must excel in the art of the interview. See if the candidate’s recurring patterns of behavior match the role he is to fulfill. Ask openended questions and let him talk. Listen for specifics.

7. Find ways to measure, count, and reward outcomes.

8. Spend time with your best people. Give constant feedback. If you can’t spend an hour every quarter talking to an employee, then you shouldn’t be a manager.

9. There are many ways of alleviating a problem or nontalent. Devise a support system, find a complementary partner for him, or an alternative role.

10. Do not promote someone until he reaches his level of incompetence; simply offer bigger rewards within the same range of his work. It is better to have an excellent highly paid waitress or bartender on your team than promote him or her to a poor startinglevel bar manager.

11. Some homework to do: Study the best managers in the company and revise training to incorporate what they know. Send your talented people to learn new skills or knowledge. Change recruiting practices to hire for talent, revise employee job descriptions and qualifications.

About The Author

By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla

Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.

http://www.bizsum.com/lite.php

กA Lot Of Great Books….Too Little Time To Readก

Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers and More!

Mailto: [email protected]

BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service.

(c) Copyright 20012005, BusinessSummaries.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 14

by Regine Azurin

Taking Email Marketing To The Next Level

Taking Email Marketing To The Next Level

by: David Bell

Many types of Internet advertising don’t work as well as they once did. People have gotten used to banners and don’t click on them. Some ezines have failed to keep their readersก interest and ads sometimes get less response. Search engines are overflowing with submissions. Getting your site listed high is almost impossible.

More and more businesses and organizations are now turning to email marketing to keep profits rolling in. While an increasing number of people say they rarely surf the Net, the vast majority of North Americans check their email every day.

Email marketing is the most effective and efficient way to influence purchases and keep customers informed and happy. It is also extremely inexpensive. Where you might have mailed out one printed customer update every month, you can now email one every week for a fraction of the cost.

Increasingly, companies need to embrace email marketing in a big way in order to stay competitive. Those who formerly used a service to send out their newsletters, sales info, and consumer updates are now doing all the emailing themselves.

New technology that is powerful yet easy to use allows anyone to handle email jobs that previously required expensive professional help. Many companies are bringing their email campaigns in house in order to have more control, grow their email efforts, and decrease costs.

Here are four features you will want to use in your email marketing efforts:

Include HTML in your email messages. Most email programs are now equipped to read HTML. Your logo, banner, bullets, and color elements can make your message jump off the screen. You can even include forms that allow customers to order instantly from your message. You take advantage of impulse purchases that can lead to big increases in sales.

Use a campaign manager feature to schedule when your email messages will be sent out. You can prepare an entire monthsก worth of messages and tell the manager which weeks, days, or hours to release them to your list.

Take advantage of a POP import feature. It automatically takes the email addresses from messages you receive and puts them on your mailing list. This insures no one who requests information from you is left out of your next update. This also helps you grow your list as fast as possible. You can even use a feature that automatically unsubscribes those who ask to be removed from your list. Many companies say this saves them hours of work each week.

Make sure the software you use to send your messages includes a walkthrough wizard. You get stepbystep instructions on how to do any task you wish to achieve. Instead of waiting for the tech guy to show up, you can speed through the job on your own.

I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.

About The Author

David Bell is Manager, Online Marketing, at http://www.wspromotion.com/ , a leading Search Engine Optimization services firm and Advertising Agency.

This article was posted on April 13

by David Bell

Microsoft Great Plains Integration with Microsoft

Microsoft Great Plains Integration with Microsoft Access – overview for developer

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions stakes on Microsoft Great Plains as main Accounting/ERP application for US market. At the same time it seems to be staking on Navision in Europe and has Axapta as high end large corporation market competitor to Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, IBM. This article is brief review of Microsoft Great Plains integration with Microsoft Access. This is also applicable to Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology – Great Plains Dexterity dictionary DYNAMICS.DIC and runtime DYNAMICS.EXE) and Great Plains Standard on MSDE or MS SQL Server.

If you are developer who is asked: how do we implement Great Plains integration/interface with your MS Accessbased system – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Great Plains Integration Manager this is rather enduser tool it is very intuitive, it validates 100% of business logic, brings in/updates master records (accounts, employees, customers, vendors. etc.) brings in transactions into work tables. The limitation of Integration Manager it does use GP windows behind the scenes without showing them so it is relatively slow you can bring 100 records but when you are talking about thousands it is not a good option. By the way you can program Integration Manager with VBA. Microsoft Access is ODBC compliant and so you can do direct Integration Manager query to MS Access

2. eConnect – it is type of Software Development Kit with samples in VB.Net. Obviously the development environment should be Visual Studio.Net. eConnect will allow you to integrate master records such as new customers, vendors, employees, etc., plus you can bring transactions into so called Great Plains work tables (eConnect doesn’t allow you to bring open or historical records you need to post work records in Great Plains, the same limitation applies to Integration Manager above) eConnect is rather for ongoing integration. It was initially created for eCommerce application integration to Great Plains.

3. SQL Stored Procedures. Obviously you have unlimited control and possibilities with SQL queries. You need to know Great Plains tables structure and data flow. Launch Great Plains and go to Tools>Resource Description>Tables. Find the table in the proper series. If you are looking for the customers – it should be RM00101 – customer master file. If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents – they are in SOP30200 – Sales History Header file, etc. Do not change existing tables do not create new fields, etc. Also you need to realize that each GP table has DEX_ROW_ID identity column. Sometimes it is good idea to use inbound/outbound XML in the parameters then you can deploy web service as a middle party between two systems.

4. Data Transformation Services (DTS) – Good tool for importing your third party data into staging tables in GP then you can pull them in using either stored procs of Integration Manager. You can also deploy this tool for EDI export/import. You can have DTS working with Linked Server SQL Server Construction for linking to Microsoft Access

5. Great Plains Dexterity Custom Screens. Sometimes users prefer to have seamlessly integrated into GP interface custom screens for parameters settings and initiating integration. Dexterity is a good option, however remember it is always better to create new custom screen versus customizing existing one due to the future upgrade issues. Also Dexterity is in phasing our by Microsoft Business Solutions.

6. Modifier/VBA custom buttons on the existing screens alternative to Dexterity is you are comfortable with VBA and ADO.

7. SQL Linked Servers – you can do direct SQL queries to other ODBC compliant platform via SQL Linked Server (including Microsoft Access) you may need to familiarize yourself with OPENROWSET command in Transact SQL. This is also good option if you need crossplatform Crystal Report pulling data from SQL Server and third party databases on the same report.

8. Warning do not place existing GP tables into Replication! you will have upgrade issues.

Happy integrating! if you want us to do the job give us a call 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, New York, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Oregon, Arizona, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 25, 2004

by Andrew Karasev