how to find out previously running applicatiions?

[Anton Bayer]

Since a few days my Windows Vista Ultimate quad core PC once or twice a day
seems to run a job consuming all CPU power for almost 1 minute, no mouse or
keyboard events are processed, so I can't switch over to the task manager to
see what's running, and even if I would run the task manager before waiting
for this situation I couldn't activate its window to pop up.

Can I find out (after next time this happens) which applications have been
running previously?

Or what else could I check to see what's consuming all CPU power?

Thanks in advance,

Anton

[John]

On Sat, 10 Aug 2013 15:31:36 +0200, "Anton Bayer"

Post by Anton Bayer
Since a few days my Windows Vista Ultimate quad core PC once or twice a day
seems to run a job consuming all CPU power for almost 1 minute, no mouse or
keyboard events are processed, so I can't switch over to the task manager to
see what's running, and even if I would run the task manager before waiting
for this situation I couldn't activate its window to pop up.
Can I find out (after next time this happens) which applications have been
running previously?

Event Viewer might work.
Type "event viewer" in the search field of the start menu box and see
if you can find anything odd occurring at that time. The logs are
named strangely and they log events with weird names but they are
occasionally useful.

Post by Anton Bayer
Or what else could I check to see what's consuming all CPU power?

Use the "Windows" key and run "services.msc" and have a look for
anything odd. I know "odd" is a relative term in this panel but some
things are odder than others.
Also try "msconfig.msc" and see if anything weird starts with your
box, like an anti-malware scanner or a back-up service or something
trying to talk to the Web.
If you see anything strange, get back to us with a list of names.

Sysinternals' "Process Explorer" is a lovely tool. You could try
having that running *before* you expect the rogue process to start and
see if it shows anything odd popping up. This is basically a souped-up
"Task Manager" with extra super-powers. If you are willing to risk it,
you can slowly kill off running tasks that you don't recognise (though
I would check on the Web to see which are essential for the running of
Windows before I did this) (I have 30-odd years of PC/Mainframe and I
still don't know everything.)
If you run PE, or the basic Taskman, you can "google" any processes
you see running to find out if any are unwanted.

And you can always try "Scheduled Tasks". This has a "task history"
and a "show all running tasks". Either of those might be helpful.
J.

Post by Anton Bayer
Thanks in advance,
Anton