Windows XP,32b,sp3,ie8 While I am still pretty much a rookie, I have learned the functions and importance of the Task Manager. Control, alt, delete and I usually wait 30-45 seconds for it to load. However, today I right clicked my clock for another matter and lo and behold-there was task manager. Click and it immediately came up. I have never seen a reference to this ability. Why is that?1 person needs an answerI do too

Hi Rusty,Your Task Manager may be open in minimized state, you can see a green box near clock. If you happen to open Task Manager -> Option -> Select "Hide when minimized", your Task Manager will sit next to clock (when minimized) and will not be shown in Task Bar.!!Hope this helps.

Thank you for your response,Saurabh, that is useful to know. My question, tho, is more to the point of when I do any research into the task manager, the directions to access it are always the cont.-alt.-del. route. Not one yet has shown the easy way thru the clock button, and I was wondering why.

I would think that if it takes your Task Manager 30-45 seconds to load from Ctrl-Alt-Del, you may have some other issues, but I am generally impatient and need things to work pretty much instantly. I hope that some other folks will share their expriences since it could just be my interpretation of things.Are things different if you launch Task Manger by right clicking your Toolbar and choosing Task Manger?if you would like to pursue it, we would need to know more about your system.If you like Task manager, you might like Process Explorer even more. Process Explorer is the Windows Task Manager on steroids.Download Process Explorer so you can see what is "really" running on your system, especially behind those multiple svchosts you see running in Task Manager. Download Process Explorer from here:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspxYou'll like Process Explorer when you get the hang of it. Process Explorer installs nothing so it will not slow your system down since it only runs on demand. Process Explorer may look a little intimidating at first since it presents so much information, but you will start to get to like the way it works when you are looking for performance problems. You can even tell PE that you want it to be your new default "Task Manager" from now on. You can still run the original Task Manger too.Once you get Process Explorer running, expand the columns, drag the corners of the display to make it bigger, etc. so you can see the most information as possible in the window. Now you can really see everything that is running on the system.Here is a screenshot of my system when I use Process Explorer:http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2567/processexplorer.png The CPU column is usually the most interesting to get started with performance issues - who is using the most? It is okay and normal to have multiple svchost processes running, but sometimes malicious software will hide behind them since the malicious software knows you will not be able to spot it in Task Manager. Malicious software can also disguise itself to appear to be a legitimate XP Process or it could hide under/behind other Processes that you see running in Task Manager so you cannot see it running.The malicious software would like to fool you into thinking that you need to use a System Restore Point, perform a Repair Install or reinstall your XP from scratch when you really don't have to.When looking at the display in Process Explorer, you would like the most CPU to be associated with System Idle Process. That is the "free time" on your system so the more free time it has, the better. If you look at the performance graphs and see red spikes (or not) double click the graph in the top left corner to display the usage graph. Hover the mouse over any spikes to see what causes them. Even if the spike has already scrolled past in the display, you can still hover the mouse over the spike to see what caused it. You can also just wait for a spike to occur and then see what caused the spike.To help understand your svchost processes and what is running beneath them, read this article and you will be smarter than the average bear:http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum56.html Do, or do not. There is no try.I decided to save up points for a new puppy instead of a pony!