Process management views

• US 8,863,022 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2011
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rhodes, Christina L., Yalovsky, Mark, Ebeling, Rolf A., Morgan, John Corey, Woods, Shawn M., Hurst, Ryan M., Au, Jonathan M., Ponomarev, Peter Seraphim, Hendrickson, Jason C., Alla, Hemchand, Chin, Yau N., Sechrest, Stuart, Iyigun, Mehmet, Bak, Yevgeniy, Ismail, Ishfaq M., Fuller, Jeffrey C., Ratanchandani, Prashant
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo, Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hassan, Rashedul
• Application Number:
  US13/227,023
• Publication Number:
  US 20130061167A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,133 Days
• Field of Search: 715/781, 715/810, 715/772, 714/47.1, 714/46
• US Class Current: 715/781
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/324 Display of status information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3423 where the assessed time is active or idle time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/349 for interfaces, buses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5022 Mechanisms to release resources

Abstract

Two different process management views can be displayed, and a user can request to switch between the two views. The user can select a process in either view and have the selected process terminated. One view is a simplified view that identifies processes and whether they are non-responsive. The other view is an expanded view that identifies processes and the amount of various system resources used by each of those processes. Various additional information can be displayed in the expanded view, such as identifiers of various windows, tabs, and/or services associated with each of the processes.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying a first process management view on a device, the first process management view displaying;

process identifiers of multiple processes on the device;

for each of the multiple processes that is not responding, an indication that the process is not responding; and

an element selectable to indicate a request to provide additional details of the multiple processes, the selectable element being displayed in the first process management view independent of a user input;

receiving, via the selectable element, a user request;

displaying, in response to the user request, a second process management view, the second process management view displaying;

the process identifiers of the multiple processes,

for each of the multiple processes that is not responding an indication that the process is not responding,

for each of multiple resources of the device a usage of the resource by each of the multiple processes, and

as associated with a process identifier, one or more windows, one or more tabs, or one or more services related to the process identified by the process identifier; and

replacing, in response to the user request, the first process management view with the second process management view.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, the first process management view further displaying a button that can be selected to terminate one of the multiple processes.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, the second process management view further displaying, for each of the multiple resources, an overall resource usage by the multiple processes.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, the overall resource usage by the multiple processes for each of the multiple resources being displayed as a percentage of a resource capacity used, and for each of the multiple resources the usage of the resource by each of the multiple processes being displayed as a data unit being dependent on the resource.

5. A method as recited in claim 3, the displaying the second process management view further comprising:

displaying multiple columns, each of the multiple columns corresponding to one of the multiple resources;

displaying, as a heading for each of the multiple resources, the overall resource usage by the multiple processes for the resource; and

displaying, in the column of each of the multiple resources, the usages of the resource by the multiple processes.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, the displaying the second process management view further comprising displaying the usage of each of the multiple resources by each of the multiple processes color-coded to indicate how much of each resource is being used by each of the multiple processes.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one of the multiple resources that is expected to be causing slow performance of the device, the identifying being based on;

analyzing performance of the multiple processes and/or threads of the multiple processes using a processor contention determination technique,

analyzing usage of memory of the device using a memory contention determination technique,

analyzing utilization of a disk of the device using a disk input/output (I/O) contention determination technique, or

analyzing utilization of a network interface of the device using a network contention determination technique; and

outlining a list of usages of the identified resource by the multiple processes.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, while displaying the first process management view or the second process management view, a user request to terminate one of the multiple processes; and

terminating, in response to the user request to terminate the one of the multiple processes, the one of the multiple processes.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising maintaining a default view that is a most recently displayed one of the first process management view and the second process management view.

10. A method comprising:

identifying one or more processes running on a device;

identifying, for one of the one or more processes, one or more windows within which the one process is running;

displaying, in a first process management view, process identifiers of the one or more processes, and for each of multiple resources of the device a resource usage by each of the one or more processes; and

for the one process, displaying, in the first process management view as associated with the process identifier of the process, identifiers of the one or more windows within which the one process is running.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising displaying the identifiers of the one or more windows in response to a user request to expand the process identifier.

12. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

identifying, for the one process, one or more tabs related to the one process; and

for the one process, displaying, in the first process management view as associated with the process identifier of the one process, identifiers of the one or more tabs.

13. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

identifying, for the one process, one or more services related to the one process; and

for the one process, displaying, in the first process management view as associated with the process identifier of the one process, identifiers of the one or more services.

14. A method as recited in claim 10, the displaying the process identifiers of the one or more processes further comprising grouping the one or more processes by process type.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, for each of the one or more processes, the process type of the process being application process, background process, or operating system process.

16. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

grouping the one or more processes by process type in response to a selection to sort the one or more processes by name; and

otherwise displaying the process identifiers in an order based on particular criteria other than process name in response to a selection to sort the processes by the particular criteria.

17. A method as recited in claim 10, the displaying the resource usage by each of the multiple processes comprising displaying, for the one process, the resource usage by the one process and the one or more windows within which the one process is running as a combined value.

18. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

identifying one of the multiple resources that is expected to be causing slow performance of the device;

outlining a list of usages of the identified resource by the multiple processes; and

displaying the usage of each of the multiple resources by each of the multiple processes color-coded to indicate how much of each resource is being used by each of the multiple processes.

19. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising identifying one of the multiple resources that is expected to be causing slow performance of the device.

20. A method comprising:

displaying a first process management view on a device, the first process management view displaying process identifiers of multiple processes on the device, and for each of the multiple processes that is not responding an indication that the process is not responding;

receiving a user request to have a second process management view displayed; and

displaying, in response to the user request, the second process management view such that the second process management view replaces the first process management view, the second process management view displaying;

the process identifiers of the multiple processes,

for each of the multiple processes that is not responding an indication that the process is not responding,

for each of multiple resources of the device a usage of the resource by each of the multiple processes,

for each of one or more of the multiple processes, one or more windows, tabs, and/or services related to the process, the one or more windows, tabs, and/or services being displayed as associated with a process identifier of the process, and

outlining a list of usages of one of the multiple resources by the multiple processes, the one of the multiple resources being a resource that is expected to be causing slow performance of the device.