What's running in the background?

[salaam]

Every now and again my Vista PC works very slowly due to some hyperactive drummer boy inside my drives.
How do I find out which software is doing it?
Here are the [Resource Monitor] screens.
One is when my PC was slow and the other when normal.

[Soquili]

Hi Anas,

I use the Windows Taskmanager.

Open Taskmanager and select the Processes Tab.

Click the CPU column to make it the sort by column, if necessary click it a second time so the 'arrow' points down. This indicates the sort will be descending.

The task taking the most processor time will be on top. As different processes take their turn at being the priority task you will see them jump to or near the top of the list.

As you can see from the attached image my system isn't doing much at the time the screen capture was made.

[jyoung]

In addition to what Bill wrote, I also use Process Explorer from sysinternals.com which shows where the process came from, that is what vendor. I like that so I can easily see if it is something I installed or came from some where else.

[salaam]

Thanks Soquili,
I usually use the Taskmanager but it didn't understand my problem with that either.
I know that if I have my anti-virus running or the Windows Update thingy running then the PC LED will light up red and will sound very noisy. I assume this is due to the activities of the CPU? One programme maybe running at 10 CPU and this is enough to slow everything down to a snails pace.
Is this normal or is my PC sick?

Anas

[steve.ledger]

Vista's local search hdd indexing was something that caused thrashing of HDD"s and CPU spikes for me, I quickly got rid of it.
Here's how to disable Vista search indexing

Then if you really miss the local search facility you can use this absolutely incredibly fast, no astoundingly fast freeware alternative Everything
No need to install it if you download the portable version, just unzip and plop it into a local folder, run and done. It will search all of your attached HDD's faster than you can say "This is what Vista's Search Indexing really should have been like!"

(*Thanks to TG member Tao Jones for putting me onto Everything)

[salaam]

Thanks Joe, Steve,

Steve I can't see any search indexing in the Taskmanager window info.
Joe does your method give you a more clearer picture of what is going on?

What should I be looking for to know that my PC is not being overloaded as it seems to overload quite quickly?

Anas

[steve.ledger]

Anas it's enabled by default on all Vista systems.
What do you expect to see in the task manager for a system service?
Just follow the instructions shown at the link in my earlier post to ensure you disable this default Vista service.

[haakoo]

Steve,

Is this also an issue with Win7?

[steve.ledger]

The Indexing Service is off by default in W7. No HDD thrashing.
(not the same thing as Windows Search - yes it can get confusing)

[haakoo]

Yes,Indexing is turned off
But search also uses some sort of indexing and is a high user of resources.
Is your solution a true replacement for the search and is it wise to shut it off.
Did you test this in some way.

Hans