As long as there are bugs and malware, I'll probably want to know what my
computer is doing. Disk activity and network activity are my primary inputs
-- when either of those is active, I generally wonder why.

Of course I've learned that Vista is often using the disk, eg., indexing,
defender, superfetch. It'd be nice if there were a window that would answer
the question "What is the computer doing now?".

The Reliability and Performance Monitor (RPM) might be the answer, if only
the applications running were identified more meaningfully. I like the way
RPM divdes into Disk, Network, Memory, etc.

So: Could more user-friendly identifiers be used in the Image column in the
Reliability and Performance Monitor windows?

If people could know what their computer is doing, they can better detect
deviances that could indicate problems or malware. Also it helps them learn.

These types of tools are beyond most casual users' ability to interpret.
For advanced users, there are tools like the Sysinternals tools that can
give you detailed memory, disk, network, etc. statistics by process,
program, etc.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper******.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
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"Baffin" <Baffin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4F5FC1FB-CA5A-4A0F-B3A6-DC439291B471@microsoft.com...
> As long as there are bugs and malware, I'll probably want to know what my
> computer is doing. Disk activity and network activity are my primary
> inputs
> -- when either of those is active, I generally wonder why.
>
> Of course I've learned that Vista is often using the disk, eg., indexing,
> defender, superfetch. It'd be nice if there were a window that would
> answer
> the question "What is the computer doing now?".
>
> The Reliability and Performance Monitor (RPM) might be the answer, if only
> the applications running were identified more meaningfully. I like the
> way
> RPM divdes into Disk, Network, Memory, etc.
>
> So: Could more user-friendly identifiers be used in the Image column in
> the
> Reliability and Performance Monitor windows?
>
> If people could know what their computer is doing, they can better detect
> deviances that could indicate problems or malware. Also it helps them
> learn.