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4 Apr 2025

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Why almost half the Black Ferns Sevens are joining exodus to 15s
The Olympic champions are losing a host of players for the season finale and one star is making a curious switch to one of rugby’s most specialist positions.

I use Windows Task Manager daily. Here are 9 tips I wish I’d known sooner
The Windows Task Manager is one of the most iconic tools of the operating system. Whether you’re looking for information on system processes, checking on how your CPU or RAM is doing, or trying to shut down an errant app, it’s a really useful app. But like most Windows tools, you probably only know the bare essentials for day-to-day use—and that’s a shame because Task Manager can do so much more. Here are some lesser-known Task Manager tips and tricks worth knowing that’ll make you look like a pro. Quick-launch using a keyboard shortcut Jon Martindale / Foundry You might know you can press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and then select Task Manager from the list on the black screen that follows, but there’s another quick keyboard shortcut you can use to open Task Manager. Simply press Windows key + X to bring up the WinX menu (also known as Power User menu), then press the T key to immediately launch Task Manager without needing your mouse. Alternatively, you can press Windows key + Shift + Esc. It’s a little trickier to do one-handed, but this one instantly opens the Task Manager directly. Manage your startup apps Jon Martindale / Foundry If you have too many apps set to automatically launch when Windows boots up, it can slow down the overall Windows startup process. The solution? Manage your startup apps from within Task Manager to make sure only the most important ones are set to auto-start. With Task Manager open, navigate to the Startup apps tab in the left-side panel. Look through the list of apps that are “Enabled” and consider disabling the ones you don’t need all the time, especially if they have a “Startup Impact” of Medium or High. To disable auto-start for an app, right-click on it and select Disable. Once you’ve disabled all the apps you don’t need at startup, try rebooting your PC to see what kind of impact it had. Jump to an app’s program folder Joel Lee / Foundry If you want to make manual changes to an app’s program files—or just want to know where they are for future reference—you can actually navigate there directly from within Task Manager. To do so, make sure you’re in the Processes tab of Task Manager in the left-side panel. Then, right-click on the app you want to locate and select Open file location. This will launch a new File Explorer window where the app’s program folder is located. Restart Windows Explorer to fix glitches Jon Martindale / Foundry Lots can go wrong with Windows, but one of the best cure-all fixes when it seems like your PC is malfunctioning? Restarting Windows Explorer. If certain files or folders are unresponsive, or if the taskbar has disappeared, or if the Start menu stops working, or if a range of other basic Windows functions aren’t behaving properly, then this trick usually does the job—and you can do it from within Task Manager. Select the Processes tab and scroll until you find Windows Explorer. (It’ll likely be at the bottom of the running apps list.) Right-click it and select Restart to reboot Windows Explorer and give it a fresh start… hopefully without whatever problems you were facing before. Force-quit crashed or frozen apps Joel Lee / Foundry Task Manager has long been the tool of choice for shutting down errant programs, but the modern Task Manager has a number of options you can try for anything too stubborn to shut down properly. In the Processes tab, locate the app you want to close, right-click it and select End Task. If that doesn’t do the job, select the Details tab in the left-hand panel, then look through the list of running processes for the app you want to close, right-click it and select End process tree. This should force-quit the app and all related processes. Give an app more system resources Joel Lee / Foundry If your PC has a weak processor or not enough RAM, you might find that some apps are sluggish, especially when you have lots of apps or browser tabs open. In such cases, it can be helpful to tell Windows to prioritize certain apps over others and give them more resources to work with. (This can be really useful when you’re gaming since any dip in performance can affect how well a game plays.) To use Task Manager to change app priority, open it up and select the Details tab in the left-hand panel. Locate the app you want to boost, right-click it, hover over Set priority, then choose a priority level from the menu. (“Above normal” and “High” are good choices. “Realtime” offers the best performance but can cause system instability or crashes.) Similarly, you can deprioritize certain apps that are hogging too many resources or causing problems. Just repeat the above steps but select a lower priority, which will cause Windows to portion its resources away from that app to the higher-priority ones. Alternatively, right-click an app and set it to Efficiency mode if you’d rather Windows automatically deprioritize it to save resources as needed. See which apps are using your network Jon Martindale / Foundry Task Manager lets you quickly see just how much of your wired and wireless networks are being utilized, but it can also give you a shortcut to more detailed information when you need it. Select the Performance tab in the left-hand panel of Task Manager, then select Wi-Fi or Ethernet to look at broader network usage. If you want to see what’s using what in more detail, click the three-dot menu at the top right and select Resource Monitor. Then, on the next window, select the Network tab to expand out and see all the processes that are using your network and by how much. Monitor your system performance Joel Lee / Foundry If you need to keep an eye on how well a particular app runs or how your PC handles the running of certain apps and services, then you can use Task Manager for monitoring and reports. Select the Performance tab in Task Manager and choose the component you want to monitor (e.g., CPU, Memory, Disk, etc.). Right-click on the large real-time graph and select Graph summary view to see a simplified graph without any extra menu items. (Double-click it to return to the full Task Manager view per normal.) You probably want this graph to run on top of all other apps while you’re monitoring it, right? To do that, click the Settings cog icon in the bottom-left corner of Task Manager, then scroll down to Window management and tick the checkbox for Always on top. Use the old Task Manager Do you prefer the way the old Task Manager used to look? You can run it but it takes a few extra steps. Follow this quick guide to bring it back with its retro look. Note, however, you can’t use the new and old Task Managers at the same time; if the current Task Manager is running, you can’t also start the old one (and vice versa). Interested in more ways to use Windows 11 like a pro? Check out these essential Windows survival skills everyone should know.

This mini PC is stacked with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD for under $330
The adorable mini PC form factor—cramming laptop guts into an itty-bitty, super-efficient desktop design—is getting popular for those who want to save space and money. Today, Walmart is offering a GMKtec model with an impressive 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for just $327.99. That’s over $70 off the retail price. Walmart’s listing calls the GMKtec NucBox M5 a “gaming mini PC,” which seems a little generous to me since it’s using a rather dated Ryzen 7 5825U laptop processor with an integrated RX Vega graphics system. Sure, it’ll handle some 2D indie games fine, but it’s not going to give you blistering frame rates on any newer 3D title. That said, the rest of this device is pretty great for a budget desktop. The memory is maxed out for this processor at a roomy 32GB, even if it’s a little slower on the DDR4 standard. And if 1TB of storage out of the box isn’t enough for you, there’s an open M.2 2280 slot for you to slide in even more, for a maximum capacity of 4TB. The mini PC comes loaded with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, ensuring speedy connections to both your local network and wireless devices. And it’s running Windows 11 out of the box, not always a given with these devices. Port selection is generous, too. On the front you get easy access to USB-C, double USB-A, and a headphone/microphone port. Around back are two more USB-A ports, plus dual display support with one HDMI and one DisplayPort. (The front USB-C port also supports display-out for triple screens, albeit a little awkwardly.) Two Ethernet ports can handle 2.5Gbps speeds each for speedy local networking. You can also mount it to the back of your monitor with the included VESA adapter. Note that Walmart is only offering this discount on the brighter blue model of the GMKtec mini PC, as the black version is going for the full $400 list price. That seems like a more-than-fair trade to me. Get a mini PC with 32GB RAM and 1TB of storage for just $328Buy now from Walmart