In earlier versions of Windows if a program froze (hung, locked-up) there was nothing you could do about but kill the program using Task Manager/Processes/End Process. But Windows 7 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 recover the program without loosing any data. Keep in mind this does not work all of the time, but it does work some of the time and that’s a much better chance than you had in earlier versions of Windows. In those earlier versions, you had no chance to unlock a frozen program at all.
The next time you have an application that is frozen or hanging, do this:
Click Start, type RESMON in the start menu search.
When RESMON.EXE appears at the top click it to launch the Resource Monitor.
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.
I can’t print your artical “Before you close a frozen program– try
this tip to prevent losing data.
https://thundercloud.net/infoave/new/before-you-close-a-frozen-program-try-this-tip-to-prevent-losing-data/
John.
I just added a print/email/pdf helper on all posts. You should be able to easily print any article now. Try it and let me know, John.
it ended the program
RESMON worked. I was able to jostle Powerpoint awake and not lose my doc. Thanks
Can’t do this when running SketchUp.
When I check out the “Analyze Wait Chain”, it shows nothing at all.
I also tried to change the respective process’ priority to “high” and close my browser – usually the program that consumes the most resources – but this mess won’t do anything to unfreeze this.
Any other way to unfreeze without data loss?
We did not say it worked with all programs… the title isn’t “This trick can save loss of data”, the title is “Before you close a frozen program, try this tip to prevent losing data” it only takes a second to try and can save loss of data if it works. If it does not work you only lose a few seconds, so why not try it.