Troubleshoot Windows with Task Manager

Posted by admin | Posted in Computers and Technology | Posted on 12-06-2011

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 Applications 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 applications. 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 usage 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.

“System Idle Process” “System” The Windows System Process “SMSS.EXE” Session Manager Subsystem “CSRSS.EXE” Client Server Runtime Subsystem “WinLOGON.EXE” The Windows Logon process “SERVICES.EXE” Services Control Manager “LSASS.EXE” Local Security Authentication Server Service “svchost.exe” Service Host “spoolsv.exe” The print spooler service “explorer.exe” Windows Explorer “TASKMGR.EXE” The Task Manager “regsvc.exe” Remote Registry Service

“System Idle Process” 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 it’s name as a search term in google.

Task Manager can also be used to tweak your system if it’s 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 “Mem Usage” 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 “Go To Process”, Task Manager will open the Processes tab and highlight the process that runs the application. On the Processes tab, if you right-click on the name of a process, you can choose “SetPriority” 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 it’s 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 “End Process Tree” to kill the process and any sub-processes 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 it’s 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.

Copyright(C)2004 Bucaro TecHelp.

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 subscribe@bucarotechelp.com

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.

SQL: Querying Microsoft Great Plains – Overview for Database Administrator/Developer

Posted by admin | Posted in Computers and Technology | Posted on 09-06-2011

Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology – Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations. There are several reporting tools available and you definitely need to know which one to use for different types of reports.

If you are database administrator who is asked to import some data to Great Plains or repair or copy data from one company to another – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Microsoft Great Plains Tables Structure – 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.

2. DEX_ROW_ID. This is identity column and each Great Plains table has it – this is due to the Great Plains Dexterity technology. This column is never used as a key field – so don’t try to link your tables on DEX_ROW_ID. In case if you need to transfer the table from one company to another you should use these queries:

Select * into GL00100_BAK from TWO.dbo.GL00100
go
alter table GL00100_BAK drop column DEX_ROW_ID
go
insert into GL00100 select * from GL00100_BAK
go
drop table GL00100_BAK

The set of queries above will transfer GL00100 (Account Master table) from TWO company into your current company. Then you need to run Checklinks – refer to GP Manual – in order to recreate the rest of the account master related tables.

3. Do not modify the table – sometimes it seems to be nice if you just append couple of extra columns to the table – like in IV00101 – inventory master file why wouldn’t you just add couple of additional descriptions. If you do this – Great Plains Dexterity engine will fail reading all your items – due to the fact that DYNAMICS.DIC (main Great Plains Dictionary file) has exact description of all the tables and Dexterity uses it for reading and writing into the specific table

4. Feel free to create SQL views or stored procs. If you are helping your internal developers to create Crystal Reports – good SQL views are real help to them. Let me give you example, the view below will show work and historical SOP Invoices – then Crystal can just use it

Create view SOP_WORK_HIST
as
select SOPNUMBE, CUSTNMBR, CUSTNAME, DOCAMNT from SOP30200 where SOPTYPE=3 and VOIDSTTS=0
union
select SOPNUMBE, CUSTNMBR, CUSTNAME, DOCAMNT from SOP10100 where SOPTYPE=3 and VOIDSTTS=0

The above view will show all the work and historical non-voided invoices (SOP Type = 3 stays for invoice)

5. Some repair / unlocking tips:

If you run query above against DYNAMICS database – it will unlock the user, who accidentally shut down the computer without logging off Great Plains:

delete ACTIVITY where USERID=’JOHN’

Next one will unlock hanging batch:

update SY00500 set BCHSTTUS=0 where BACHNUMB = ‘JULYINVOICES04′

Happy querying! If you want us to do the job – give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com