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Test course two - do not enroll

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Course 2 of 3 in the Specialization Test Specialization - do not enroll

In this course, you’ll learn how to use the major operating systems, Windows and Linux, which are a core component of IT. Through a combination of video lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on practice, you’ll learn about the main components of an operating system and how to perform critical tasks like managing software and users, and configuring hardware. By the end of this course you’ll be able to: - navigate the Windows and Linux filesystems using a graphical user interface and command line interpreter. - set up users, groups, and permissions for account access. - install, configure, and remove software on the Windows and Linux operating systems. - configure disk partitions and filesystems. - understand how system processes work and how to manage them. - work with system logs and remote connection tools. - utilize operating system knowledge to troubleshoot common issues in an IT Support Specialist role. Except as otherwise noted, the contents on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

From the lesson

Process Management

In the fifth week of this course, we'll explore process management. As an IT Support Specialist, it is important to use system tools to read and understand process statuses of machines. We will cover ways to start and terminate a process in Windows and Linux. We will also apply troubleshooting tools to solve problems with processes and resources. By the end of this module, you will use Windows and Linux commands to do practical process maintenance.

Module Introduction1:01

Programs vs Processes Revisited2:45

Windows: Process Creation and Termination3:33

Linux: Process Creation and Termination1:21

Meet the Instructors

Paul Robinson

In earlier lesson, we learned that programs are

the applications that we can run like the Chrome web browser.

Processes are programs that are running.

We can have lots of processes running for the same program like how we can have

many chrome windows open at once or lots of movies playing using one program.

When we launch a process,

we're executing a program.

And remember, a program is just software.

To calculate the information that our software contains,

we need to give it resources so that it can be run.

When processes are run,

they take up hardware resources like CPU and RAM.

Luckily, today's computers are powerful enough to

handle the processes that we use in our day-to-day activities,

like browsing the web, watching movies, etc..

But, sometimes this isn't enough,

sometimes a process is taking more resources than it's supposed to.

Sometimes, processes are unresponsive and freeze

up our system making our entire computer unresponsive.

Well, we're going to talk about why this happens,

and how we can fix it in the upcoming lessons.

But before we can talk about managing processes,

we have to understand how they work.

When you open up an application like a word processor,

you're launching a process.

That processes get in something called a process

ID to uniquely identify it from other processes.

Our computer sees that the process needs hardware resources to run.

So our kernel makes decisions to figure out what resources to give it.

Then, in the blink of an eye,

our computer starts up a word processor and tadah,

already to start working.

This happens for every process you launch yourself,

and for every process you don't even know who's running.

Besides, the visible processes that we start,

like our music player or word processor,

there are also not so visible processes running.

These are known as background processes,

sometimes referred to as daemon processes.

Background processes are processes that run in the background.

We don't really see them,

and we don't interact with them,

but our system needs them to function.

They include processes like scheduling resources,

logging, managing networks, and more.

When we take a look at all the processes running on our system,

you'll see what I'm talking about.

In the next couple of lessons,

we'll talk about how processes get created and terminated.

Then, we can start digging into the details of process management.

Process management is a vital skill in IT support.

You'll often find yourself troubleshooting issues with frozen applications,

slow applications, and more.