The Windows Task Manager is a basic tool that enables you to see what applications are running on your system and, if they are proving problematic, you can choose to shut down the application or change the priority. If you find that your system is running slowly, you can also see which processes are using the majority of your processor time.

In addition to this information, you can find out how much of your physical memory is being used by open applications and utilisation of your network bandwidth. If your net connection is really slow, click on the ‘Networking’ tab to see if the bandwidth is being saturated 100%. You can also see the users logged in to your system.

However, it only goes so far. TaskInfo is a powerful utility that combines and improves features of Task Manager and the Windows system information tools. You can use the tool to monitor all current system activity. This activity can include processes that might remain invisible to Task Manager, such as spyware. It goes far further, showing the current libraries (DLLs) in use and much more.