Closing Background Programs for Dummies

task manager process tab

Our staffer with inside knowledge of the workings of Demand Media Studios ("DMS", as in "You can't spell 'dumbass' without 'DMS'!") tells us that the site's chief demanders wanted so-called evergreen content for their eHow.com website. Unfortunately, they placed the responsibility for creating that content in the hands of people who wouldn't know evergreen if it slapped them in the face with a pine cone. Take, for instance, Tim Mammadov, who scribbled down "How to Turn Off Programs Running in the Background of My Computer" for the website many years ago (it's now at Techwalla.com). Fortunately, Tim probably just got paid five bucks for this rubbish, and that's five more than it was worth...

According to Mammadov (a banker with a business degree "specializing" in computer questions?), you turn off background programs thusly:

1. Start the System Configuration Utility
2. "Uncheck the programs that you want to turn off and stop from running in the background."
3. Restart

We're still trying to figure out what version of Windows that will work on (we think maybe Vista), but never mind that for the moment. The fact is that Tim's method is for preventing programs from starting when you reboot, not for closing memory- and/or CPU-hogs that are currently running.

No, if you want to close a running program while keeping everything else operating (on a Windows computer – we assume you just think your desires at a Mac), here's how:

1. Give it the three-finger salute: CTRL+ALT+DELETE
2. Choose "TASK MANAGER"
3. Find the offending processes on the PROCESS tab: sort the CPU or Memory column. 
4. Right-click on the name and choose "End Task" from the popup menu.

Mammadov's odd interpretation of "running in the background" suggests that perhaps his opinion of his computer expertise was rather overblown. Even in Windows versions as old as Vista and Windows 2000, the Task Manager was available for closing unwanted programs. Suggesting that his readers needed to perform a restart to close a program is rather a Dumbass of the Day move, don't you think?

SE - COMPUTERS