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The Windows
Task Manager is a utility that can tell you all kinds of
useful information about what’s happening on your
computer. It can tell you who is currently logged in,
how much of your computer’s resources are being used at
the moment, and what programs are running. The last of
these is what concerns us with respect to spyware.
Opening the Windows Task Manager is easy:
1. To open the Windows Task
Manager, press the [Ctrl], [Alt], and [Del] keys at the
same time. The “Windows Task Manager” window opens.
To see what
programs are running, click the “Applications” tab at
the top of the window. The main panel displays a list
of the applications that are currently open.
Applications are usually programs like word processing
software, e-mail programs, or other programs that you
open and use. All of the items in this list should be
easily recognizable. Because spyware programmers know
that you don’t want their software running on your
machine, they often hide their programs from this list.
Still, if you see an unfamiliar program name here,
there’s a chance that it could be spyware.
The “Applications” tab of the “Windows Task Manager”
window
Next, click
on the “Processes” tab of the Windows Task Manager.
Doing so shows you what is most likely a much longer
list, and the names probably aren’t very familiar.
Processes are programs and parts of programs that
include the programs that you start. Windows itself
runs many more processes that control various aspects of
your computer. Unlike the “Applications” tab, spyware
programmers can’t hide their wares from this list.
Everything that Windows is doing appears here, so if
there’s spyware loaded, it’s process will be here.
The “Processes” tab of the “Windows Task Manager” window
Recognition
of malicious processes is the key to using the Task
Manager to identify spyware. There are many processes,
and it’s difficult to determine each one’s purpose by
name alone. You can look up a process on this website
to determine what it is doing:
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/
If you
determine that an application or process is spyware, you
can use the Task Manager to disable the program by doing
the following:
WARNING: Ending
a regular application or process through the Windows
Task Manager can cause system instability. End
applications and processes here only if you are certain
that the program is spyware.
To end an
application in the “Applications” tab:
1. Click the name of the
application in the list to highlight it.
2. Click the “End Task” button at
the bottom of the window. The name of the application
disappears from the list, indicating that it is no
longer running.
To end a
process in the “Processes” tab:
1. Click the name of the process in
the list to highlight it.
2. Click the “End Process” button
at the bottom of the window. The name of the process
disappears from the list, indicating that it is no
longer running.
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