Lab: What’s Going on in There?
The Microprocessor clock is ticking. Data bits are flying in and out of RAM and zooming over the data bus to a storage device. All that seems invisible, but wait! You can get an idea of what’s going on inside the system unit. Who needs to know? You might. If you suspect your computer has a virus. If you think your computer might have been compromised by a botnet. If your computer seems sluggish. Windows and macOS include monitoring utilities that provide all kinds of information about your computer’s status.
Requirements: For this lab, you need a desktop or laptop computer running either Windows or macOS. The instructions are generalized; they provide helpful guidelines, but not specific steps. You may have to explore a bit to find all the tools needed to complete the assignment, but that is all part of the learning experience.
Assignment:
1. Open your computers monitoring utility.
On a Mac, select the Applications folder from the dock. Select the Utilities folder, then select Activity Monitor. Use the View menu to select All Processes.
On a PC with Windows, make sure you are at the Home screen. Use the Search box to find and launch Task Manager. It might be necessary to select More Details.
Capture a screen shot of your computers monitoring utility for your lab report. (See the begin here section for an example lab report.)
2. Examine your computer’s CPU usage.
On a Mac, select the CPU button; on Windows select the Performance tab.
CPU utilization is expressed as a percentage of total processing capability. If CPU utilization exceeds 10% when you are not using software, it might signal a security breach. Temporary spikes are normal; and when you are playing 3D games or using compute-intensive software, the usage could remain above 70%.
What is the current CPU utilization on your device?
Record the CPU utilization of your computer on your lab report.
3. Check processes.
On a Mac, processes are listed on the CPU tab; on Windows, select the Processes tab.
A process corresponds to a program. Any programs that are currently running put a load on the CPU.
What is the process with the highest CPU usage? Do you recognize the program associated with this process? If not, look it up online.
Record the answers to the above questions on your lab report.
4. Check for malware.
Some processes are launched by the operating system rather than application software. If you don’t recognize a process, you can find out if it is legitimate by checking online.
Select a process with an unusual name and search for it online. What is its name and what does it do?
Record your answer an your lab report.
5. Check memory.
On a Mac, select the Memory tab; on Windows, remain on the Processes tab.
As you know, RAM holds the operating system, programs, and data, but the amount of stuff that’s actually in RAM is pretty surprising.
Find the listing for Kernel_task (Mac) or System (Windows). That process is part of the operating system. How much memory is it using?
What is the name of the software application that uses the most memory?
Record the answers to the above questions on your lab report.
5. Check storage
On a Mac, choose the Disk tab; on Windows remain on the Process tab.
Programs send data to storage even when you are not in the process of manually saving files. Some programs create autorecovery files as temporary backups, and Web pages write cookies.
Find a process that is writing data to disk even when you are not actively using it. What is the name of that process and what is its purpose?
Record the answer to the above question on your lab report.
Name your document using the following naming convention: lastName_firstInitial_Mod1. So if your name is Jane Doe, your file name will be doe_J_Mod1.docx.
Upload your lab report to the Module 1 Dropbox.
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