Course Code MIT411

Description Advanced Operating System

College / Department:
LabExer No. 1
Online Education Department

LABORATORY EXERCISE Page 1 of 2

Introduction to Operating System

A key tool that you will use to manage system processes and applications is Task Manager. You can access
Task Manager using any of the following methods:

• Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC

• Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and then select the Task Manager prompt

• Type taskmgr into the Run utility or the command prompt.

• Right-click the taskbar and select task manager from the menu

Familiarize yourself with the different tabs of the Task Manager.

Exercise #1

1. Start two separate instances of the notepad application using the Run utility. Confirm that the Task
Manager Window shows both applications running.
2. Select one of the notepad applications and then click the ‘Switch to’ button. Describe what happens.
 The process will switch to the another notepad process that is also open
3. Then click the ‘End Task’ button and describe what happens.
 The notepad will close
4. Finally start an instance of WordPad using the ‘New Task’ button.
 A new process o program for wordpad was created.

Exercise #2

1. Select the processes tab.

2. Identify the process that is using most of the CPU time.
 Firefox – 30%
3. Comment on what this may be the case.
 Because currently multiple instances of Firefox is open.

Exercise #3

1. Write, compile and run a simple c program with an infinite loop while it performs some simple math
calculation (a runaway process).
 2. While it is running, check the Processes tab of the Task Manager and identify your runaway process
and write down the percentage of CPU time it’s using. Discuss the result.
 23% since the loop keep the cpu process o cpu time active
3. Finally select the runaway process and right click and navigate to the Set Priority menu option and set
the priority to ‘low’. Discuss the result.
 17% since the CPU lessen the allotted cpu time / priority to process this job.

Exercise #4:

 Select the Performance Tab. Double click on the graph to enlarge as required. Select the menu item
‘View’|‘Show Kernel Times’ to add an additional kernel related red line to the graph.
 Click and hold the left mouse button over the Task Manager Window title. Move the window rapidly
over around the screen and watch the CPU usage graph change. Discuss why this may be happening.
 It is cause by the process changing state
 Also note the Physical memory and kernel memory reported. Calculate the percentage of total memory
used by the Kernel. Start 10 instances of Wordpad and describe and discuss what happens to kernel
level memory.
 The kernel graph will go down and up again in an instance. The kernel also goes
higher on the graph the more wordpad instances is open.
 Beneath the graphs you'll find several lists of statistics. These statistics provide the following
information:

• Totals

Provides information on CPU usage. Handles shows the number input/output 0/0) handles in
use. Threads show the number of threads use. Processes show the number of processes in use.

• Physical Memory

Provides information on the total RAM on the system Total shows the amount of physical RAM.
Available shows the RAM not currently being used and available for use. System Cache shows the
amount memory used for system caching.

• Commit Charge

Provides information on the total memory used by the operating system. Total lists all physical
and virtual memory currently in use. Limit lists the total physical and virtual memory available. Peak
lists the maximum memory used by the system since bootup.

• Kernel Memory

Provides information on the memory used by the operating system kernel. Critical portions of
kernel memory must operate in RAM and can't be paged to virtual memory. This type of kernel
memory is list as Nonpaged. The rest of kernel memory can be paged to virtual memory and is listed
as Paged. The total amount of memory used by the kernel is listed under Total.

Why/How is the value of Limit in Current Charge greater than Total Physical Memory?

 Page file memory is being use that’s what it show that is greater than the physical
memory.
Will the amount of paged memory always be greater than Nonpaged memory?

 Not always. It depend on how many memory the running process needs.

Exercise 5:

1. Explore different applications installed in your computer terminal.

2. Open applications taking note of the cpu and memory usage of each applications you opened.

3. Tabulate your observations.

4. Make conclusions based on the observations you have made.