Not able to use Task Manager to end frozen programs.

Make sure, that you have "Always on Top" checked.

Hello JasonCheney Welcome to the Ten Forums! and join the "Steam Game Crash Club"! Been there done that here on 10 as well and have to agree with keeping the task manager checked off to stay on top.

The one thing missed in 10 we both saw in 7 when pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Del key combination is the non desktop screen for clicking on the task manager option, the log off, and other power options as well as the Lock Screen on the menu and the button at the lower right hand corner of the screen to logoff, restart the machine, or shutdown completely.

That is where 7 triumphed over the previous versions of Windows however when always being forced to hard boot if a game or some program locked up solid on you! In 7 you were brought back to the desktop and might also see the program stopped working prompt where you have the option to close it! Seen that too many times with 3rd party game mods made for Steam games like HL2 for example! Crash Central over!

One thing I also did was to untick the minimise when in use item to keep it not only on top but in plain view for repeat clicks on the end process button when something refuses to quite and return you to the desktop before forcing a hard boot! If you can stop it there that can prevent disk errors as well as other glitches when restarting before getting to close things out properly!

That's odd since you won't if you are in the middle of a Steam game or mod for some reason! That's when you need to be seeing it and why for the time being 7 still remains to have the better crash control. 10 wiil take some time however for all of the fixes as well as other updates as would any other version would. This is still one area that tends to need a lot more work in the task manager being able to take complete charge when some game or app lingers on when crashing. For Steam games knowing the game executable name will allow you to end the process for that separately under Processes from the game name item in the Applications area. Once you end the main process you should immediately get the desktop back.

Upgrades from Windows 7 do seem to be causing problems for people. I would say do the upgrade then do a clean install if you can after backing up your files.

Having forgotten to put the gui part of the mouse software on here can be an advantage at times since what would have been a crash ended up as a return to the desktop when a mouse button ended things.

The other advantage here of course at getting at the task bar to right click that for the task manager option of course is having a twin monitor set up so if the stalled game takes up the entire screen I can force the cursor onto the second with the Alt Enter key combo. That would normally make the full screen view into a minimized window.

Up until seeing the game crash I had assumed I would be seeing the full off desktop screen with the Ctrl-Alt-Del combo as you would expect. With Steam driven and some other games that came out around 2005-2010 full screen lockup with the full screen taken wouldn't minimize like a much older 2001 9x-XP compatible type.

Those were stand alone even with multiplayer option as far as not requiring internet connection except when going multiplayer. Steam has the offline option while you still need to connect online with some that run from a server. Those are where the game maps are not stored locally on the drive due to the larger size as well as those for the multiplayer.

This is why getting at the Processes tab in the task manager is where you want to be if any locks up solid on you. You want the exe like hl2.exe to end that process. Fear, Fear2, Soldier of Fortune: Payback, Duke Nuken Forever another old title revived are all Steam catagory. Once you know the main exe file you look that up and end that one to gain control over things. The error message that may come up in the process will usually point to that in particular.