The EV Reach Task Manager is part of the Remote Control tools. It provides additional functionality not found in the native Windows Task Manager.

Starting the Task Manager

• While in a remote control session

• From the favorites menu

Right-click any computer in your Favorites list and select Task Manager.

• From Administration & Diagnostics while focused on a machine.

• Via the Tools area, which will be focused on the admin machine.

Connecting to other machines through the Task Manager

Once the Task Manager is opened, you can set the focus to another machine by selecting Controls > Connect To... or Controls > Connect to Local Machine.

The EV Reach Task Manager is hosted by its process(GovTools.exe), so closing EV Reach doesn't close any opened Task Manager session.

Task Manager View Modes

The Task Manager can display its information in 3 view modes:

1. Normal View Mode

   

2. Minimized View Mode

   

   • The Task Manager inserts an icon in the Windows notification area. This icon is always visible

   • This icon reflects the current CPU usage of the focused machine. To view more performance counters, place the mouse cursor over it and a tooltip appears which displays the CPU, Memory, Disk and Network usage counters.

     

     • Single click on this icon to trigger the Summary View Mode (see below)

     

     • Double click on this icon to trigger the Normal View Mode (see above)• Right-click on this icon to open the context-sensitive menu.

     

3. Summary View Mode

   

   The Summary View Mode only displays the primary performance counters of the focused machine. This view mode is designed for monitoring. To start the Summary View Mode, single click on the Task Manager Icon in the Windows notification area. To close the Summary View Mode, click on the Close button or single click again on the notification area icon.

Task Manager Options

Use the Controls > Options menu to control the behavior of the EV Reach Task Manager.

To export the information displayed by the Task Manager to a text file, click on the report button located at the top-right corner of the window.

Working with UAC

On Windows Vista or later, the EV Reach Task Manager automatically detects if UAC is active and allows you to restart the process with elevated privileges. In such an environment, the Controls > Run Elevated menu entry is accessible. If you execute an action which requires elevated privileges, EV Reach automatically prompts you to switch to elevated mode.

This option is disabled if UAC is not detected.

Users Tab

The Users tab displays all apps that are running on the machine that is organized by Username.

• To view detailed information about any application that the user is running, expand the user’s processes, right-click the application and select Properties. You can also double-click it.
• To terminate an application right click it > End Process. You can also click on the End Task button after highlighting it.
• To modify the priority of the application, right click it, select the Set Priority submenu and click on the desired property.
• To start a new process, click on the New Task... button. The New Task button starts the Run As feature.

Processes Tab

This tab displays extended information, including performance counters on all running processes on the system and their network usage, per process. Just like the Users tab, all the right-click menu options are available per process.

Show process parent relationships

Processes can either be displayed as a flat list or in a parent relationship tree format. You can switch between the two modes by Enabling / Disabling the Show process parent relationships option.

Each process, except for the root processes, has a parent process (the process which spawned them). Each process can also spawn new processes which become their child processes. The parent relationship view mode shows the processes in a parent/child tree format, highlighting how a process was created. For instance, the list of running processes, as displayed above, can also be viewed in the parent to child tree as follows:

This view format is very useful to recognize processes initiated by the console user (the processes parent is always Explorer.exe) versus processes started by the system such as services. You can also collapse entire branches to emphasize certain processes.

Viewing detailed process information

The Processes tab can display a lot of information about each process. Most information is hidden by default to avoid cluttering the interface.

• To display extended information for all processes, right-click on the columns header and Check / Uncheck the columns to be displayed.
• To display extended information for a process, double-click on it to view its properties.

Top 5 Tab

Use this tab to determine the most resource-consuming processes on the target machine. The Top 5 tab displays the five most active processes for CPU usage, Disk IO, Memory usage and Network usage:

The CPU and Disk IO sections can display either instantaneous values (i.e., the processes which are currently consuming the most resources) or the All-Time Values which correspond to the processes which have used the most resources since the system started.

Performance Tab

The performance tab displays real-time CPU, Memory usage, and Disk Activity information. The refresh update speed can be controlled selecting the Update Speed menu. Performance counter information is also always displayed in the Task Manager bottom status bar.

Detailed Process Monitoring

Placing the mouse over any portion the graphs timeline will show which processes were the cause of the spike, the percentage of use, its process ID, the user account that is running the process and the time at which the spike occurred. All graphs in the Performance tab have this ability.

Keep Graph History For

Each graph keeps historical data and the duration at which this data is kept can be set via this menu. This is useful for monitoring a process over time to determine the stability of each process on any given machine. A timeline at the bottom of the graph displays the time frame currently being displayed. You can also right-click on the graph and enable the Scale to Fit option to view the full set of recorded information. To reset the history of the performance counters, click on the Reset Counters button.

Networking Tab

The Networking tab displays real-time network usage performance information. The information presented in this view represents the statistics for each network interface available on the computer and is divided into the Receive and Send graphs.

Startup Programs

Use this tab to view the currently configured startup program on the computer. A startup program is a process which automatically starts when a user logs in. For instance, Microsoft Messenger is often configured to automatically start upon logging in. However, having too many programs configured to start automatically may result in a lengthy and slow login process.

Understanding Startup Information

The Startup Programs tab lists all currently configured startup programs. The list displays default information for each program such as the process name and description. However, more information is available. To modify the information displayed in the list, right-click on a column header and enable/disable the appropriate categories.

A program can be configured to automatically start in multiple ways. The Type information column displays some generic description of where the configuration has been found. This value can be:

• Registry - [All Users | User Side] The startup information was found in the registry under one of the Windows. Run keys.
• Windows Startup Group [All Users | User Side] The startup information was found in the user profile under a Startup folder.

To see the exact location where the startup information was found, enable the Found In column (again, right click within a column header and select the desired column). The Found In column shows the exact registry path or folder path where the configuration settings were found.

Removing Startup Programs

To stop a program from automatically starting, select it from the list and click on the Remove button.

If you wish to terminate the process initiated under the startup configuration, select the item and click on the Go to Process button before removing the startup program item. If the process is still running, the focus is automatically set on it in the Processes tab. You can then terminate the process.

Disabling Startup Programs

Disabling a startup program prevents it from running the next time the user logs in. However, the entry is remembered and can be re-enabled at any time.

• To disable a startup program, select it from the list and click on the Disable button. A disabled startup program is indicated with a red cross.
• To re-enable a startup program, select it from the list and click on the Enable button.