Skip to Main Content
Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual
book

Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual

by David Pogue, Craig Zacker, L.J. Zacker
January 2003
Beginner content levelBeginner
672 pages
21h 13m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual

When Programs Die

Windows XP itself may be a revolution in stability (at least if you’re used to Windows Me), but that doesn’t mean that programs never crash or freeze. They crash, all right—it’s just that in XP, you rarely have to restart the computer as a result.

When something goes horribly wrong with a program, your primary interest is usually exiting it in order to get on with your life. But when a programs locks up (the cursor moves, but menus and tool palettes don’t respond) or when a dialog box tells you that a program has “failed to respond,” exiting may not be so easy. After all, how do you choose FileExit if the File menu itself doesn’t open?

As in past versions of Windows, the solution is to invoke the “three-fingered salute”: Ctrl+Alt+Delete. What happens next depends on whether or not your PC is part of a domain network (Section 2.1.1):

  • Part of a domain. Ctrl+Alt+Delete summons the Windows Security dialog box, a special window shown in Figure 6-2. Click the Task Manager button. The Applications tab on the resulting dialog box provides a list of every open program. Furthermore, the Status column should make clear what you already know: that one of your programs is ignoring you.

    Top: Click the Task Manager button on the Windows Security dialog box to check on the status of a troublesome program. Bottom: As if you didn’t know, one of these programs is “not responding.” Highlight its name and then click End Task to slap it out of its misery. Once the program disappears from the list, close the Task Manager and get on with your life. You can even restart the same program right away—no harm done.

    Figure 6-2. Top: Click the Task Manager button on the Windows Security dialog box to check on the status of a troublesome program. Bottom: As if you didn’t know, one of these programs is “not responding.” ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

David Pogue

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 059600348XCatalog PageErrata