Managing and monitoring opportunities in Windows 7

Managing and monitoring opportunities in Windows 7 Operating Systems(CSC2133) - Assignment 01

Rksk Ekanayaka SC/2013/8853

Managing and monitoring opportunities in Windows 7

Table of Contents 1. Defragment and Optimize Drives.......................................................................................................... 2

2. Device Manager .................................................................................................................................... 3

3. Disk Cleanup .......................................................................................................................................... 4

4. Event Viewer ......................................................................................................................................... 5

5. Performance Monitor ........................................................................................................................... 6

6. Services ................................................................................................................................................. 7

7. Task Manager ........................................................................................................................................ 8

8. Task Scheduler ...................................................................................................................................... 9

9. Windows Firewall with Advanced Security ......................................................................................... 10

10. Windows Memory Diagnostic ......................................................................................................... 11


1. Defragment and Optimize Drives

What is? Optimizing the drive is one of the best ways we can improve computer performance. Windows

includes features to help optimize the different types of drives that PCs use today. It can

optimize solid-state drives as well as defragment mechanical drives.

How to access Control panel > Administrative tools > Defragment and Optimize Drives

My computer > Right click on a drive > Properties > Tools > Defragment and Optimize Drives

How to use? Open Defragment and optimize drives.

Click the drive you want to optimize.

To determine if the drive needs to be optimized, click Analyze.

After Windows is finished analyzing the drive, check the Current status column to see whether

you need to optimize the drive. If the drive is more than 10% fragmented, you should optimize

the drive now.

Click Optimize.


2. Device Manager

What is? You can use Device Manager to see the devices installed on your PC, update driver software for

our devices, check to see if hardware is working properly, and change hardware settings.

How to access Control Panel > Device Manager

How to use Double-tap or double-click a device category to expand it. If there's a yellow warning icon Yellow

warning icon that shows there might be a device problem on the name of a device, there might

be a problem with it. Click the device, Click Action, and then click Properties to see details about

that device.


3. Disk Cleanup

What is? Disk Cleanup will check our system and then present you with a list of things that can be

removed to free up space. It will tell us how much space can be gained by removing unnecessary

files in our computer.

How to access Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Disk Cleanup

How to use? Open Disk Cleanup.

If you see a drop-down menu with a list of drives, choose the drive you want to clean (generally

the C drive).

Click OK.

In the Disk Cleanup for OS dialog box, choose the checkboxes for the file types you want to

delete.

Click OK.

When you see a dialog box that prompts you whether to permanently delete the files, click

Delete Files.


4. Event Viewer

What is? The Event Viewer displays the Windows event log. Applications, services, and Windows itself

write messages to the event log. Viewing the log can sometimes help you identify a problem and

look up a specific error message, but most of the messages here aren’t important.

How to access Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer


5. Performance Monitor

What is? The Microsoft Windows Performance Monitor is a feature found in Windows 7 that allows us to

view and monitor the performance of your computer either in real time or from a log. In the

picture below, is an example of the Performance Monitor running in real time and is graphing

the percentage of the processor time. Additional values could be added to this chart by right-

clicking on the chart and clicking Add Counters.

How to access Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Performance Monitor


6. Services

What is? The Services tool displays the services installed on our Windows system and allows us to

manage them. Services are low-level programs that run in the background. Many of these

services are included with Windows and perform essential system tasks.

How to access Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services


7. Task Manager

What is? Task Manager shows you the programs, processes, and services that are currently running on

your computer. We can use Task Manager to monitor your computer’s performance or to close

a program that is not responding.

We can also use Task Manager to view network status and see how your network is functioning.

If more than one user is connected to our computer, we can see who is connected, what they

are working on, and we can send them a message.

How to access Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC

Right click on an empty area of Task bar and click Task manager


8. Task Scheduler

What is? Windows uses the Task Scheduler to automatically run processes at scheduled times. The Task

Scheduler application allows us to set our own programs to run on a schedule, view our system’s

scheduled tasks, and manage them.

How to access Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler


9. Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

What is? The Windows Firewall with Advanced Security is a tool which gives us detailed control over the

rules that are applied by the Windows Firewall. We can view all the rules that are used by the

Windows Firewall, change their properties, create new rules or disable existing ones.

The Windows Firewall with Advanced Security includes some monitoring features as well. In the

Monitoring section we can find the following information: the firewall rules that are active (both

inbound and outbound), the connection security rules that are active and whether there are any

active security associations.

How to access Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Firewall > Advanced settings.


10. Windows Memory Diagnostic

What is? The memory diagnostic tool checks our random access memory (RAM) for defects.Tt writes data

to different sectors of your RAM and reads it back. If it gets different data back, it knows our

RAM is malfunctioning. This is usually a hardware problem and can generally be solved by

replacing at least one stick of RAM.

How to access Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Windows Memory Diagnostic

How to use Open Windows Memory Diagnostic

A pop-up will appear on your screen, asking how you'd like to go about checking the memory.

The first option will restart your machine and check the memory right now, and the second

option checks the next time you choose to reboot. Pick the option that best suits your needs.

Your computer will load a screen that shows the progress of the check and number of passes it

will run on the memory. Watch the memory diagnostic tool for errors.

Technology

Managing and monitoring opportunities in Windows 7