But if it??™s minimized, or if the main window isn??™t responding
at all, right-click the program??™s button on the taskbar and
select Close.
If closing doesn??™t help, or if, after closing a window, you can??™t open another
one, then it??™s time to pay a visit to Task Manager, shown in Figure 6-6.
There are three ways to start Task Manager:
Taskbar
Right-click an empty area of the taskbar and select Task Manager.
Keyboard
Press the Shift-Ctrl-Esc keys together.
Three-finger salute
If the taskbar and keyboard methods don??™t work, then Windows itself is
crashed or busy. In this case, press Ctrl-Alt-Del to blank the screen and
show a special administrative menu, at which point you can click Task
Manager to launch it.
Figure 6-6. Choose the Processes tab in Task Manager to list all the programs running on
your PC, a necessary step if one of them has crashed and you need to close it (the hard way)
300 | Chapter 6: Troubleshooting
Although the Applications tab is inviting and easy to understand, it??™s not
too helpful for this purpose. Choose the Processes tab, turn on the Show
processes from all users option at the bottom (if it??™s there), and then locate
the crashed program in the list.
There??™s a funky bug in Vista??™s Task Manager, but fortunately,
it??™s one that??™s easy to fix. If your Task Manager appears with
no title bar, menu, or tabs, just double-click the thin gray border
around the main list to bring them back.
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