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The Windows Task Manager is a functional but basic tool for keeping an eye on what your computer’s up to. If you want to go beyond the built-in tool and for more in depth information and control, check out these five alternatives.

Process Hacker (Windows, Free)

Process Hacker is the only open-source offering in today’s Hive. When using Process Hacker you’re not just able to view your applications and services in more detail but to interact with them in a variety of ways—many well beyond the scope of the standard task manager, like hex editing the contents of a process’ virtual memory. Process Hacker allows you to alter process security levels, terminate, suspend, resume, and restart them. For those “What is this?” moments, you can right click to search online for the identity of a given process and what it might be up to.

Anvir Task Manager (Windows, Basic: Free, Premium: $39.95)

Anvir Task Manger is available in a range of editions ranging in cost from free to $89.95 for a full security suite. The free edition, however, has quite an array of features that make it more than satisfactory as an alternative to the default Windows tool. From within Anvir Task Manger you can manage your startup applications and delay their startup to improve your boot time, and check processes against a virus database. In addition to common features like the ability to alter the priority of a process you can also right click on any process and hide the window it is running in within the system tray. Although you have to install it to unpack it, once installed you can turn Anvir Task Manager into a portable application.

Process Explorer (Windows, Free)

Process Explorer is the free and portable offering from Microsoft. Process Explorer is like the standard task manager on steroids. You still get a list of processes, you still see charts of your usage, but both give you significantly more information and control over the information. Unlike the default manager, Process Explorer makes it easy to track down which file is being held by which program and get to the bottom of computer mysteries like why a certain DLL or DOC file simply cannot be deleted. It also shows which service is performing which function so you’ll never look at a long and repetitive list of Windows system executables that are indistinguishable from each other—every one will be associated with its function.

Extended Task Manager (Windows, Free)

If you want more than the default task manager can offer but you’re not sure if you need some of the advanced featured offered by other nominees in this week’s Hive Five, Extended Task Manager is a great compromise. Extended Task Manger can display locked files and which process is locking them, help you terminate specific processes to free files, provides a summary overview of your resource usage, and allows you to pause and resume processes. Note: we ended up having to test Extended Task Manager on one of our Windows XP machines after it failed to launch in Windows 7 64-bit. Whether this is a result of being launched in Windows 7 or in a 64-bit environment is unknown.

System Explorer (Windows, Free)

System Explorer lives up to its name by not only allowing you to explore system processes, but which applications autorun on startup, system add-ons, drivers, services, and more. It doesn’t have the most elegant interface we’ve seen so far, but it does pack in an enormous amount of information and functionality. You can manipulate processes, search for additional information online, check them against virus databases, and hunt down which process is locking which file or causing system instability.

Joomla! is a CMS powerhouse, but the core does not include any social media integration other than RSS feeds. With a free download and easy installation, any Joomla! administrator can quickly integrate with popular social media applications.

In addition to driving traffic to your site, integrating your Joomla! site with social media applications shows your readers you value them and want them to return. It also shows your readers that your content is valuable (or you think it is) and it’s worth sharing. Here are eight of the best social media extensions for Joomla!

1. Joomla! AddThis

This module inserts an AddThis button wherever you want it. You can edit the parameters of the button like your account information. If you are not familiar with the AddThis button, it is a single method of including all the major social media bookmarking and sharing applications such as Stumbleupon , Digg , Twitter, Facebook and Delicious . This is a great option if space is tight, or if you just like the uncluttered look.

2. Ultimate Social Bookmarking Plugin

This plugin adds small, uniform links below your article. If you’re looking for a full-featured plugin to incorporate all the major social media bookmarking and sharing applications, this is it. Take your pick of 60 different applications and styles.

3. DiggIt Plugin

As one of the most popular social bookmarking options, the easily recognized “Digg It” button is a must have. Sometimes the plethora of options isn’t the best if you want to emphasize major services like Digg, StumbleUpon and Delicious.

4. Sociable Plugin

If you’re looking for fast, easy, out-of-the-box functionality, the Sociable Plugin is for you. It automatically inserts small social media bookmarking and sharing links at the bottom of the article. All the major social media sites are available and even some obscure ones. You can pick and choose which ones show up and even use your own CSS.

5. Digg Module

Sometimes showing off your popularity is a good thing, and may even increase your conversion rate because it shows first time visitors you offer something valuable. This module integrates with Digg, letting you display your stats like “Most Diggs, Newly Dugg and Oldest Dugg.”

6. Twitter Module

This plugin displays tweets from an account you identify in a module. This is great for anyone who wants to headline their own tweets or perhaps a friend’s. A lot of Tweeters are using Twitter as a mechanism for introducing original content that doesn’t appear on their own website, which may encourage Twitter followers.

7. Twitter Plugin

This plugin sends a preformatted tweet to your Twitter account with each new article. This can be handy when you want to keep your followers updated but don’t have a lot of time. One note: it will not send a tweet if you save a post as unpublished, then publish it later.

8. Article Footer Plugin

Create your own social media plugin! Use the “Add Article Footer” plugin to insert any code in the footer of every article. This way you can pick and choose your favorite social media sites, select your own images and build your own links.

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