Unresponsive Program? Try This Trick to Keep from Losing Data
This tip is for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 (all versions)
In earlier versions of Windows if a program froze (hung, locked-up) there was nothing you could do about it but kill the program using Task Manager/Processes/End Process. But Windows 7, 8, and Windows 10 users have at least a shot at un-freezing the program – plus you may get a nifty explanation of the problem too. And using this method to unlock or un-freeze a program will allow you to recover the program without losing any data.
Keep in mind this does not work all of the time…
But it does work some of the time and that’s much better than no chance at all. In earlier versions of Windows, you had no chance at all to unlock a frozen program and recover your data. And if you have been working on something, like say a Word doc and Word freezes, you’ll surely want to try this tip before ending the Word process in Task Manager or restarting your computer in frustration.
The next time you have an application that becomes unresponsive, do this:
Press & hold down the Windows Key and tap the “R” key to open a Run command.
In the Run command box type
RESMON
And press ENTER.
Switch to the CPU tab (this tab should be the default) and find your frozen program which should be easy since it will be highlighted in red. Right-click on the application and choose “Analyze Wait Chain”.
If you see at least two processes in the list, the one that is furthest down is the one instance of the program that is hanging. Before proceeding — just to be safe — save any open work in any other programs you may have open. Now, you’re ready to proceed, right? Check the box next to the hanging process (program), click “End Process”, and your frozen, locked-up program should come back to life. Remember this will not work all of the time, but it’s something you can try before giving up and terminating the program… or restarting your computer. At least you’ll have some chance of saving whatever it was you were working on.