CSC207

PRACTICAL APPROACH OF
OPERATING SYSTEM

LAB EXERCISE WEEK 9:

PROCESS & THREAD
MS WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM
Group Members’ 1.
Name
2.

3.

4.

5.

Group

Lecturer’s Name

Submission Date

Course Outcome
 CO2 (LO1;LO3) Interact with various Operating Systems

CO3 (LO2;LO3) Explore current Operating Systems through Graphical User Interface (GUI) and
Command Line

Activities:
1. Discovering Essential Computer Specifications
2. Observing Processes and Services with Windows Task Manager
3. Observing Threads and Kernel Activity with Windows Task Manager

Activity 1: Discovering Essential Computer Specifications

Objectives
The object of this activity is to identify CPU, RAM, hard drive, and network specifications
and identities for a computer running Windows Operating System. Identification will be done
using various system utilities.

Activity Background
A friend has asked you to come with him to look at a used computer he is thinking about
buying. He would like to compare the computer’s hardware specifications to one recently
advertised in a local store flyer. He is not sure how to identify what components the used
computer comes with and has asked you to identify the type of CPU, the size of the hard
drive, the operating system version, the amount of RAM, and the type of network cards
installed. You sit down at the computer and discover it is running Windows OS.

Activity
1. Log on to your Windows operating system.

2. Click Start, point to All Programs, and then click to select and expand the Accessories
submenu.

3. In the Accessories submenu, click Run.

4. In the Open dialog box, type the command winver, and then click the OK button to open
the About Windows window. Place your About Windows screenshot below.
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5. Write down the following details, and then click OK to close the window: 5.1.
Installed version of Windows ______________________________ 5.2. Who
this copy is licensed to ______________________________

6. Click Start and select Control Panel from the Start menu.

7. In the Control Panel window, click System and Security.

8. In the System and Security window, click System. Place your current screenshot below.

9. Write down the following details:

9.1. Windows edition ______________________________
9.2. Processor ______________________________
9.3. Installed memory (RAM) total ______________________________
9.4. Installed memory (RAM) usable _____________________________
9.5. System type ______________________________
9.6. Computer name ______________________________
9.7. Workgroup ______________________________
9.8. Windows activation status ______________________________

10. In the System window, click the Device Manager link.

11. In the Device Manager window, click the Disk drives arrow to expand that category.

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12. For the first disk drive listed under Disk drives, double-click the name of the drive to
open the drive’s properties.

13. Select the Volumes tab in the drive’s Properties window.

14. Click the Populate button and wait while the disk and volume information is retrieved.
Place your current screenshot below.

Write down the following for the drive, and then click OK.
a. Disk ______________________________
b. Type ______________________________
c. Partition style ______________________________
d. Capacity ______________________________
e. For each volume listed on that disk, write down the following:
i. Volume name ______________________________
ii. Drive letter ______________________________
iii. Capacity ______________________________

15. In the Device Manager window, click the Processors arrow to expand that category.

16. Write down the name of the processor listed under the Processors category:
______________________________.

17. In the Device Manager window, click the Network adapters arrow to expand that
category.

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18. Write down the name of each network adapter listed under the Network adapters
category: ______________________________.

19. Close the Device Manager window.

20. In the System window, click the Advanced system settings link.

21. In the System Properties window, click the Hardware tab and note the buttons to launch
Device Manager and the Device installation Settings Wizard.

22. In the System Properties window, click the Computer Name tab. Note and record the
following:
a. Full computer name ______________________________
b. Workgroup ______________________________

23. Close the System Properties window.

24. Close the System window.

25. Click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Run.

26. In the Open dialog box, type the command msinfo32, and then click the OK button to
open the System Information window.

27. The System Summary screen will be displayed when the System Information utility is
first started. Place your current screenshot below.

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 Write down the following details from the right-side detail pane:
a. OS Name ______________________________
b. System Name ______________________________
c. Processor ______________________________
d. User Name ______________________________
e. Installed Physical Memory ______________________________
f. Total Physical Memory ______________________________

28. In the left pane of the System Information window, click the plus symbol next to
Components to expand that category.

29. Click the plus symbol next to the Storage category below Components.

30. Click the Drives category below Storage and wait for the system information to refresh
on the right pane of the System Information window. Place your current screenshot
below.

31. Write down, for each unique drive listed, the following details:
a. Drive letter ______________________________
b. Description ______________________________
c. File System (if present) ______________________________
d. Size (if present) ______________________________
e. Free Space (if present) ______________________________

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32. Click the Disks category below Storage, and then place your current screenshot below.

Write down the following for each disk drive:

a. Description ______________________________
b. Model ______________________________
c. Size ______________________________

33. Close the System Information window.

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Activity 2: Observing Processes and Services with Windows Task Manager

Objectives
The objective of this activity is to use Task Manager to observe the activity of processes,
threads, and services running on Windows Operating System.

Activity Background
The senior IT administrator for your company has left a user’s computer with you for further
inspection. The user has been complaining that she cannot print. Your boss wants you to
confirm that the print spooler service is running. The print spooler service is responsible for
managing the flow of data between applications and printers available to the computer’s users
when they print to them. If the print spooler service is running, you can restart it to confirm
that is operating properly.

Activity
1. Log on to Windows OS.

2. Click Start, point to All Programs, and then click to select and expand the Accessories
submenu.

3. In the Accessories submenu, click the Command Prompt.

4. In the Command Prompt window, type the command taskmgr and press Enter to start the
Windows Task Manager.

5. Click the Processes tab, if necessary.

6. Click the Show processes from all users button. The Windows Task Manager window
will refresh to list all processes currently running on the computer.

7. Click the Services tab.

8. In the Name column, find and click the Spooler service to select it. Place your current
screenshot below.

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 Write down the following details for the Spooler service:

a. PID ______________________________

b. Description ______________________________

c. Status ______________________________

9. The PID (process ID) uniquely identifies an active process running on the computer. Right-
click the Spooler service and select Stop Service from the pop-up menu.

Write down the following details for the Spooler service:

a. PID ______________________________

b. Status ______________________________

10. Right-click the Spooler service and select Start Service from the pop-up menu.

Write down the following details for the Spooler service:

a. PID ______________________________

b. Status ______________________________

11. Right-click the Spooler service and select Go to Process. The selected tab will change to
the Processes tab. Note that the name of the currently selected process is spoolsv.exe.

12. Click the View menu in Windows Task Manager, and select the Select Columns menu
item.

13. In the Select Process Page Columns window, click the PID (Process Identifier) check
box, and then click OK to close the window.

14. New columns will appear on the Processes tab. Write down the PID for the spoolsv.exe
process:

a. PID ______________________________

15. Right-click the spoolsv.exe process and select End Process from the pop-up menu.

16. When you are prompted by Windows Task Manager to confirm that you want to end the
process, click the End process button to confirm. Note that, after a brief refresh, the
spoolsv.exe process name is no longer listed under the Processes tab.

17. Click the Services tab.

18. In the Name column, find and click the Spooler service to select it. Write down the
following details for the Spooler service:

a. PID ______________________________

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b. Status ______________________________
19. Right-click the Spooler service and select Start Service from the pop-up menu.

Write down the following details for the Spooler service:

a. PID ______________________________

b. Status ______________________________

20. Leave Windows Task Manager open for the next activity.

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Activity 2: Observing Threads and Kernel Activity with Windows Task
Manager

Objectives
The objective of this activity is to apply a Windows 7 image to a new computer.

Activity Background
The senior IT administrator for your company has returned a user’s computer to you for
further inspection. The user has been complaining that performance has been very slow when
she manually triggers a defragmentation scan of the computer’s C: drive. Your boss has
asked you to confirm that the disk defragmentation service runs within expectations. The disk
defragmentation service is responsible for reorganizing blocks of file data stored on disk
drives to improve performance when reading or writing file data. This computer was
purchased along with 100 similar units three months ago. Some units have been experiencing
a system flaw that triggers two symptoms. The first noted symptom is that the number of
threads started by the disk defragmentation service will continuously increase while the
service is active. The second symptom is that the computer CPU will spend almost 100
percent of its CPU cycles running in privileged kernel mode. You must confirm that neither
symptom is occurring on this computer.

Activity
1. Log on to Windoows OS.

2. In Windows Task Manager, click the Processes tab, if necessary. Check the Show
processes from all users check box, if necessary.

3. Click the Services tab.

4. Click the view menu and select the Refresh Now menu item.

5. In the Name column, find and click the defragsvc service to select it. Write down the
following details for the defragsvc service:

a. PID (If blank, record that it is blank.) ______________________________

b. Description ______________________________

c. Status ______________________________

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6. Click the Performance tab. Place the Performance screenshot below. The green indicators
 represent the total CPU activity displayed in the last second and over the last few
seconds, respectively.

7. Click the View menu and select the Show Kernel Times menu item. Place the current
screenshot below.

This changes the CPU Usage and CPU Usage History indicators to show total CPU
activity. Kernel activity is also displayed in a different color (red). Kernel activity
shows how much time the CPU is spending in privileged kernel mode.

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8. Click the Processes tab.
9. Click the View menu in Windows Task Manager, and select the Select Columns menu
item.

10. In the Select Process Page Columns window, check the Threads check box, if necessary,
and then click OK to close the window.

11. Click the Services tab Locate, and click the defragsvc service to select it. 12.

Launch the disk defragmentation utility, as detailed in the following steps: a.

Click Start, and then select Computer from the Start menu.

b. Right-click the icon for C: and select Properties from the pop-up menu.

c. In the (C:) Properties window, select the Tools tab.

d. Click the Defragment now button to start the defragmentation graphical utility.

13. Switch to the Windows Task Manager window. Notice that the disk defragmentation
service is now running and has a process PID associated with it. Paste the current
screenshot below.

Write down the PID: ______________________________.

14. Right-click the defragsvc service in the Services tab, and select Go to process from the
pop-up menu. Note that the process name is identified as svchost.exe. Svchost.exe is a generic
process name used by Windows to identify services that run from dynamiclink libraries
(DLLs) instead of specific executable program files. Multiple

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instances of svchost.exe can run at the same time, each running a different service or a
group of related services.
15. Switch to the Command Prompt window. Type the command tasklist /SVC /FI“PID EQ
#” but replace # with the PID noted for the defragmentation service. (See Step 13) For
example, if the PID were found to be 5780, the command to type would be tasklist
/SVC /FI “PID EQ 5780”.

16. Press Enter to run the tasklist command; this will display a list of currently running
processes matching the filter criteria (i.e., services hosted in the process with a
process ID matching 5780 in the prior example).

17. Read the output from the tasklist command and note the service named in the displayed
results.

18. Switch to the Windows Task Manager, select the Processes tab if required, and note the
number of active threads listed in the Threads column for the highlighted process that
is responsible for the defragmentation service (svchost.exe). Paste the current
screenshot below.

19. Click the Performance tab. Note the current CPU and kernel activity in the visual
graphs.

20. Switch to the Disk Defragmenter window and start the disk fragmentation for C, as
follows:

a. In the Disk Defragmenter window, click to select the (C:) drive in the list of disks
below Current status.

b. Click the Analyze disk button.

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21. Switch to the Windows Task Manager window. Notice the change in CPU and kernel
activity displayed in the graphs.
22. Switch to the Processes tab and note the number of threads now active for the
defragmentation process. The number of threads has increased.

23. When the disk fragmentation process completes, click the Close button for the Disk
Defragmenter window.

24. In Windows Task Manager, switch to the Services tab. Note that the defragsvc is still
highlighted and the service’s status is listed as Running. Paste the current screenshot
below.

25. Wait at least four minutes and note that the defragsvc will automatically stop itself when
no further action is required to manage disk defragmentation. Paste the current
screenshot below.

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26. Remove the PID (Process Identifier) and Threads columns from the list of selected
Processes page columns in Windows Task Manager, as detailed in the following
steps:
 a. On the Processes tab, click the View menu and click Select

Columns. b. Deselect the PID (Process Identifier) check box.

c. Deselect the Threads check box.

d. Click OK.

27. On the Performance tab, click the View menu and click Show Kernel Times to disable
the display of kernel times. Paste the current screenshot below.

28. Close all open windows.

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