It is well known that Windows 8 brought a new interface with tiles which tablet users will benefit from but it seems like there aren’t really any improvements for ‘standard’ PC users. That’s why we decided to share some of our favourite ‘desktop’ features to show that Windows 8 does bring improvements to the desktop interface as well.
There aren’t any revolutionary game changing features in Windows 8 desktop mode but a small tiny improvements that make your daily use more convenient. In our first article we will take a closer look the ‘Task Manager’. Head on past the break to read more.
Processes
Probably one of the most improved features in Windows 8 is the Task Manager. First you will notice different Apps and Processes neatly grouped together in the ‘Processes‘ tab so it is easier to see what’s what. We also like that Microsoft added Disk and Network usage for each application.
Performance
Switch to the ‘Performance‘ and you will again see a cleaner and simpler layout with more detailed information for each of your drives, CPU, memory and even network adapters.
App history
The ‘App history‘ tab shows the total resources used by each of the applications. A welcome feature if you are using a ‘capped’ broadband service as you can quickly see where you spent most of your bandwidth.
Start-up
Our favourite change to the Task Manager is the ‘Start-up‘ tab. Now we know this information could easily be accessed and changed via mscofing, regedit, Windows Defender or CCleaner but having it built-in in the Task Manager just makes it more accessible and also offers ‘Start-up impact’ score. So if you like a fast start up as we do you can see which applications are delaying it and you can easily disable them. As you can see we pretty much disabled all of the applications here :)
Users, Details and Services
Then there is the ‘Users‘ tab which shows application resources use grouped by Users while the ‘Details‘ and ‘Services‘ tabs show ungrouped list of application and Windows services running.
Fewer/More details
If you prefer to keep your Task Manager simple Microsoft’s got you covered as well just hit the ‘Fewer details‘ at the bottom-left and you will only see a list of ‘Apps’ you are running and a button to end them.
