I had posted a similar thread a while back with some basic troubleshooting steps. The first one being the Windows Event Viewer. If you don't know where that is, just click "start" and start typing "event". It should pop up in the list. The Application and System logs are the two main ones to check for critical errors or application warnings (In Vista and later, expand "Windows Logs"). Application log will show program specific errors or failed services. System log will show faulty hardware, network, and driver errors.
Logs are displayed automatically by timestamp, most recent first. Most of the informational stuff you can ignore. Right-click the log (application/system) in the nav menu and chose "Filter log". From there you can just check Critical, Error, and Warning then Ok. That should clean things up considerably.
Another thing is the Task Manager which you can reach by Ctrl+Alt+Del, or by right-clicking the task bar and choosing it from the menu. The "Performance" tab will show how many system resources are in use. If your CPU is constantly pegged at 100% or you have 75% of your RAM in use, that signals a problem. Either an application is hung, a virus maybe slowing you down, or you have too much stuff open at one time for the limitations of your hardware.
Worst case scenario to recover a frozen Windows desktop if you can get into task manager, find the "explorer.exe" task and end it. This will close out the Windows GUI. Then you go to File->Run new Task and type explorer.exe in the box to restart it. You may actually be able to avoid a hard reboot doing this in some scenarios.
Hope this helps.
Logs are displayed automatically by timestamp, most recent first. Most of the informational stuff you can ignore. Right-click the log (application/system) in the nav menu and chose "Filter log". From there you can just check Critical, Error, and Warning then Ok. That should clean things up considerably.
Another thing is the Task Manager which you can reach by Ctrl+Alt+Del, or by right-clicking the task bar and choosing it from the menu. The "Performance" tab will show how many system resources are in use. If your CPU is constantly pegged at 100% or you have 75% of your RAM in use, that signals a problem. Either an application is hung, a virus maybe slowing you down, or you have too much stuff open at one time for the limitations of your hardware.
Worst case scenario to recover a frozen Windows desktop if you can get into task manager, find the "explorer.exe" task and end it. This will close out the Windows GUI. Then you go to File->Run new Task and type explorer.exe in the box to restart it. You may actually be able to avoid a hard reboot doing this in some scenarios.
Hope this helps.
