1. Wintop.zip Driver
2. wintop.txt File Contents

wintop.txt Driver File Contents (Wintop.zip)

WinTop
======

A Windows 95 approximation to the UNIX "top" program.

Installation
============

Right-click the "wintop.inf" file and select "Install".

Uninstallation
==============

From Control Panel, double-click "Add/Remove Programs" and double-click
"WinTop".

WARNING!  Do not uninstall WinTop while it is running!  You have been warned.

Usage
=====

From the Start Menu, select Run, then type "Wintop".

Every 2 seconds, WinTop recomputes information about the processes running
in the system.  (The update interval is not configurable, sorry.)  As WinTop
starts, the numbers may be a bit screwy; wait a few seconds for the numbers
to settle down.

Icon
----

A gear icon indicates a system service process.  These processes are necessary
for the proper functioning of Windows 95 and cannot be terminated.

An MS-DOS icon indicates an MS-DOS application.

A generic application icon indicates some other type of application.

Name
----

The name of the process.

The "Idle" process is not really a process; it represents how much CPU time
has been spent in the system's idle loop.

The "KERNEL32.DLL" process is not really a process; it represents the part
of the system that is responsible for the Win32 subsystem.

The "MSGSRV32.EXE" process acts as the liaison between 16-bit and 32-bit
system components, manages various system housekeeping tasks, and is also
used as part of Plug and Play.

The "MPREXE.EXE" process manages your passwords, user profiles, and network
connections.

The "mmtask.tsk" process manages the system multimedia services.

The "SPOOL32.EXE" process manages the system printer spooler.

% CPU
-----

The percentage of CPU used by the process/thread in the last two seconds.

Note that CPU time used by the system is also charged to the process/thread
which was selected to perform the system task (even though the application
might not have anything specifically to do with that task).  For example,
swap file compaction and floppy disk access are system operations which will
be charged against whatever process/thread happens to be available at the
time.

CPU Time
--------

The total amount of CPU time (dd:hh:mm:ss) used by the process/thread since
it was started.  WinTop does its best to track this number, but if a process
creates and destroys threads, then the CPU time used by destroyed threads may
be lost, so don't be too surprised if the number sometimes goes *down*.

Threads
-------

The number of threads created by the process.

You may notice that MS-DOS programs take two threads.  One is for the MS-DOS
program itself (COMMAND.COM, or whatever).  The other is the thread that
handles the user interface for the MS-DOS program (toolbar, scroll bars,
system menu, etc.)

Type
----

This field describes whether the process is a 16-bit or 32-bit process,
and lists the operating system for which the process was designed.
(Windows 95 is considered version 4.0 for the purpose of this column.)

MS-DOS applications are listed simply as "MS-DOS".

Path
----

Path to the program file.

Note that the path for MS-DOS programs is the name of the module that manages
the user interface, not the name of the actual MS-DOS program.

Menu options
============

Process: Show Threads
---------------------

Toggles the display of threads for the process.

Process: Properties
-------------------

Displays properties for the process.

    Process: Properties: Memory
    ---------------------------

    This property sheet page displays the 32-bit memory used by the process.
    Memory allocated by 16-bit components is not counted.

    "Allocated" memory is memory that the application has obtained from the
    operating system.  Loading a DLL counts as "allocating" the amount of
    memory equal to the size of the DLL.

    "In memory" memory is memory that is physically available to the
    application.  The application can access "in memory" memory with no
    penalty.

    "In use" memory is memory that the application is actively using.

    When an application A stops using a particular piece of memory M for a
    period of time, the memory is removed from "In use" status.  If
    application A accesses M, then M is returned to "In use" status.
    However, if another application B needs memory, and M is still in
    "not in use" status, then the memory will be given to application B.

    If application A does not access large chunks of memory for a period
    of time, the system may decide to remove even the memory that is
    used to keep track of the memory that application A isn't using.
    If this happens, the number of "page tables" that have been discarded
    will be reported at the bottom of the property sheet page, and the
    memory for which that page table is responsible will not be included
    in the statistics (because the information is not immediately available).

    Process: Properties: Priority
    -----------------------------

    This property sheet page displays the priority class of the process.
    The current version of WinTop does not let you alter the priority
    class of a process.

    There is also a button that lets you terminate the process.  This button
    should be used with extreme caution, because it does not give the
    process a chance to save files or release its system resources.

    WinTop will not let you terminate system services.

View: Show All Threads
----------------------

Choosing this option causes all threads for all processes to be displayed.
It is a shortcut for selecting "Show Threads" for each process.

View: Hide All Threads
----------------------

Choosing this option causes all threads for all processes to be hidden.
It is a shortcut for de-selecting "Show Threads" for each process.

View: Always on Top
-------------------

Controls whether WinTop should run as a topmost window.