Three *Kind of* Rare Windows Tips
The tips below should work in any version of Windows from Windows 7 through Windows 10. Enjoy!
Taskkill
Windows borrows a feature from Linux. Taskkill allows you to terminate a running process (program) from the command line. Here’s how you use it:
Click Start/Run and type Command. The command utility window opens.
Type Tasklist at the prompt. You’ll see a list of running processes. Next to each process you’ll see a PID number. To kill any running task, type Taskkill /PID xxx (where xxx represents the PID number of the task you want to terminate).
Why would you want to use this? Because you can? Or maybe your computer is frozen and you can’t access Task Manager. Or maybe just for fun?
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Edit user accounts using the command line
Click Start/Run. Type “control userpasswords2? (without the quotes) in the command line, and press Enter.
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Create a shortcut for easy access to Task Manger
You can access Task Manager by right-clicking on your taskbar and choosing Task Manager, you can user CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, or you can use the three-finger salute (CTRL+ALT+DELETE). Did you know that you can also create a shortcut to Task Manager and leave it on your desktop, drag it to your quick launch toolbar, or taskbar (Windows 7 & newer) or put in on your start menu? You can, and it’s easy to do.
Right-click on your desktop and choose “New” “Shortcut” and copy and paste the following (in bold) into the “type location of the item” field:
%windir%\system32\taskmgr.exe
Once you’re created your shortcut, you can drag its icon to your start menu, quick launch bar, taskbar (Windows 7, Windows 8.x, Windows 10) or simply leave it on your desktop. The next time you need to launch Task Manager, just click your new shortcut.
When my computer has frozen I’ve not been able to move my cursor to access my desktop or anything else. I have a Windows 10 computer (bought it with 10 installed on it) so I’m able to right click on the windows icon and get immediately to Task Manager or my Desktop that way. But without a cursor, I can’t do either.
In Windows 10, Ctrl-Alt-Del does not bring up the Task Manager.
Here is from https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-ctrl-alt-del-2625830
“If you’re logged on to Windows 10, 8, 7, and Vista, Ctrl-Alt-Del starts Windows Security, which lets you lock the computer, switch to a different user, log off, start Task Manager, or shutdown/reboot the computer.”
We were talking about ways of ACCESSING Task Manager. CTRL+ALT+DELETE lets you ACCESS task manager – as the article says. We’re not playing semantics or writing about “Windows Security” which could be misunderstood because it has nothing to do with security as most people think of computer security. We’re not writing for geeks, we’re writing for everyday people.
And indeed the key word is ACCESS. I did not say it’s the preferred way, fastest way or even the right way. The fastest way is to use CTRL+SHIFT+ESC or right-click the start buttion and click Task Manager (Windows 10 and Windows 8.1) or right-click the taskbar and click Task Manger.
If you want to lock your computer you can just press Windows Key + L for example. Or you can switch user or sign out by pressing ALT+F4 from the desktop. Or you can shutdown by pressing ALT+F4 from the desktop, from the start menu, by pressing Win Key + R and typing SHUTDOWN /S or SHUTDOWN /R to restart.
I guess I miss your point here.
Interesting!