How to Use Activity Monitor

The Activity Monitor

Hint: It is not in the same location as the Task Manager Now lets go find out!!Where can the Activity Manager be found on the MAC?

Welcome allThe location and the use of the Activity monitor varies on a MAC machine as oppose to Windows operating system. Where can the activity manager be found on the Mac machines? (Point to other character) Hint: Its not in the same location as the Task ManagerNow lets go find out!!1

The Path to the Activity Monitor

The activity monitor is similar to the task manager, except for the location where the activity monitor has to perform its functions from. The Activity manager tends to perform the same functions as the task manager however its a different operating system. The function is able to allow the user to view, manage services, end tasks, end applications, and end any running activity process running on the MAC. The location of the Activity Monitor would have to be from the Finder icon(that is the icon with the double face together), then to the Applications, then Utilities, and then Activity Monitor. (Osxdaily.com, 2014) This is how to locate the activity monitor.2

Activity Monitor

Search Engine

There are alternate keys to use to locate the Activity Monitor. The following keys can be hit : command+Spacebar simultaneously and it will allows the typing of the word Activity Monitor to go into the search. The spotlight is the search engine. The activity monitor allows sorting name, memory usage, process ID, and a search box. (Osxdaily.com, 2014)3

To kill or not to kill ?

Killing or Stopping a Task/Process

There is lots of power within the Activity Monitor. The power of being able to view running application and perform tasks to stop it any time. The ability to manage system level task, kernel tasks, daemons, and processes. The Activity Manager gives you the power to end a service, to end a task, or to end a process that can become more than a threat to that machine. The Activity Monitor allow you to Kill a process or just stop the process. The dialogue box will prompt you to select QUIT when ready or just cancel if you decided otherwise. If the process needs to be force, then the Force Quit button will allow that process.4

Get System Stats

The DOCK

The bottom portion of the dialogue box allows you to also get system memory, disk activity, disk usage, and network usage. The activity monitor is very similar to the task manager in the PC world. The bottom of the Activity monitor allows the viewing of CPU, system memory, disk activity, disk usage, and the network usage. In addition to how much free space is available, the amount of wired, active, inactive, and used memory is allowed. The main tab function allows the force quit on any process running. The quitting of a functional application can also be performed from the Dock but the services have to be processed from the utilities folders and then the activity monitor.5

System monitor for OS X systemsQuitting or Killing a processViewing CPU loadRAM monitoringDock Icon

Activity Monitor Functionalities

The process of monitoring what is going on within the computer is by knowing how to manage the activity monitor and knowing the functionalities that provide information on the processes. The activity monitor aka the Interface can provide an understanding on the output of certain applications. (Bennett, H., 2009) There are certain buttons that provide quicker ending processes to the system. There is the Quit Process, the Inspect, the Sample Process, Pop up & Filter.6

References:Bennett, H. 2014. Making The Most of Activity Monitor | Mac.AppStorm. [online] Available at: http://mac.appstorm.net/how-to/os-x/making-the-most-of-activity-monitor/Osxdaily.com. 2014. The Mac Task Manager. [online] Available at: http://osxdaily.com/2010/08/15/mac-task-manager/

Conclusion

In Conclusion:Activity Monitor is an application to use as a resource to help find out if something is not working properly or needs to be terminated. The quit process is the button used when a process needs to be killed. The inspect button allows the investigation of information on the basic data pertaining to the components that make it work. There are lots of buttons that provides information on the activity monitor. You must get to know the Activity Monitor in order to find these buttons useful. Thank you.

References:Bennett, H. 2014. Making The Most of Activity Monitor | Mac.AppStorm. [online] Available at: http://mac.appstorm.net/how-to/os-x/making-the-most-of-activity-monitor/Osxdaily.com. 2014. The Mac Task Manager. [online] Available at: http://osxdaily.com/2010/08/15/mac-task-manager/

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