How to Remove Files in Task Manager

How to Remove Files in Task Manager

If your computer suddenly slows down or seizes up during use, you can use the Windows Task Manager to try and isolate the problem. Usually this works, and you will avoid a crash. However, you may still lose any unsaved information in the malfunctioning program.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Save any unsaved work, such as documents or spreadsheets, that you might currently be working on. Be patient; if your system is running slowly, this may take awhile.
   • 2
     Activate the Windows Task Manager by pressing down and holding <ctrl> <alt> <delete> on your keyboard, in that order. Make sure you only enter this sequence once. If you do it twice, you will reboot your computer.
   • 3
     Switch to the "Processes" tab inside the Task Manager. This will bring up a list of all the processes currently running in Windows. There should be two columns on the right-hand side, one titled "CPU" and one titled "Memory Usage."
   • 4
     Look in the "CPU" column to see if there is any process consistently using more than 80 percent of your CPU capacity. There will always be some natural spikes and dips in CPU usage as your programs run, but any process consistently running above 80 percent is likely slowing down your entire system.

     Shut down this process by selecting it and clicking "End Process" at the bottom of the window. If the process is unable to shut itself down after a few seconds, you will be presented with a window giving you the option to force it to shut down. Do so. If this fixes the problem, you should get your optimum computer performance back in a few seconds.
   • 5
     Look in the "Memory Usage" column, if the problem persists, for a process that is using much larger amounts of memory than any other program. Shut it down. This should restore your system performance. If not, you will need to reboot your computer.

Tips & Warnings

• Shutting down these processes does not delete them from your computer. It just shuts them down. They will restart next time they are called upon.
• Some processes are critical to the operation of Windows. If you shut one of those down, your computer will crash or reboot automatically. Therefore, take precautions to save your work before shutting down processes that you don't recognize.