According to Microsoft, understanding how Windows works is no easy task. If you're a regular home user, they imply, there's no need to worry your pretty little head about such technicalities. Get back to playing games and browsing the web: leave the clever stuff to us.
Of course, this isn't entirely true. Sure, most people won't gain anything from studying the data structures that surround a Windows process, for example. However, learning just a few fundamentals can help you to improve your PC's performance, troubleshoot problems and diagnose – or prevent – system crashes. And you don't need a degree in computer science to understand these ideas, either.
Thread count
Press [CTRL]+[Shift]+[ESC] to launch Task Manager, click the Processes tab and you'll see a lengthy list of programs running on your system. Click 'Show processes from all users' (on Vista) and you'll add even more, a total of over 60 on our test PC. That's a busy setup, but the reality for your processor could be even worse.
The fact is that a Windows process doesn't 'run' anything at all. It's just a collection of data relating to a program. Every process contains at least one thread, though, and it's this that executes program code. Click 'View Select Columns', find and check the Threads box, click 'OK' and you'll see that virtually all your processes have more than one thread. And many have considerably more: numbers of 10, 20 or 30 are by no means uncommon. Our test system had more than 600 threads listed, without opening a single application.
This doesn't mean all 600 threads want to run simultaneously, though, and Task Manager can reveal this, too. Click 'View Select Columns', check 'CPU Time' and click 'OK': you'll see most processes have very little or no recorded CPU use at all. These are like Windows Services, set up and ready to run, but not actually consuming any CPU time until you need them for something.
Still, even if some threads are dormant, there will often be more running than your CPU can handle at once. So how does the system decide which thread gets the most attention?
Of course, this isn't entirely true. Sure, most people won't gain anything from studying the data structures that surround a Windows process, for example. However, learning just a few fundamentals can help you to improve your PC's performance, troubleshoot problems and diagnose – or prevent – system crashes. And you don't need a degree in computer science to understand these ideas, either.
Thread count
Press [CTRL]+[Shift]+[ESC] to launch Task Manager, click the Processes tab and you'll see a lengthy list of programs running on your system. Click 'Show processes from all users' (on Vista) and you'll add even more, a total of over 60 on our test PC. That's a busy setup, but the reality for your processor could be even worse.
The fact is that a Windows process doesn't 'run' anything at all. It's just a collection of data relating to a program. Every process contains at least one thread, though, and it's this that executes program code. Click 'View Select Columns', find and check the Threads box, click 'OK' and you'll see that virtually all your processes have more than one thread. And many have considerably more: numbers of 10, 20 or 30 are by no means uncommon. Our test system had more than 600 threads listed, without opening a single application.
This doesn't mean all 600 threads want to run simultaneously, though, and Task Manager can reveal this, too. Click 'View Select Columns', check 'CPU Time' and click 'OK': you'll see most processes have very little or no recorded CPU use at all. These are like Windows Services, set up and ready to run, but not actually consuming any CPU time until you need them for something.
Still, even if some threads are dormant, there will often be more running than your CPU can handle at once. So how does the system decide which thread gets the most attention?
