Sometimes, I open a program that doesn't respond. I then CTRL-ALT-DELETE but I cannot end the non-responsive program.
Then my mouse pointer goes to "busy" which will not allow me to do anything with the comp except move my mouse.

Is there a way to get my computer back to a responsive state WITHOUT a hard-reset (ie: holding power button down for several seconds to do a hard restart)?

I don't want to risk losing data. Also, when I do a hard restart...my RAID array starts verifying and it takes a very long time for my computer to get up to speed again.

I just want to get my computer to a Ready state before the hangup without restarting....surely Microsoft should have thought about this??!

Any ideas?

The best thing is to find out why it is hanging. You can go to >run>type in Performace>open the search (just click on it)> and a window will open showing issues. Post any issues that caused the PC to hang.
Here is a link explaining it. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Vista-039-s...ool-53390.shtml

Thanks for the link, Monty007

But that's all fine and dandy after I restart my system. My original question is am I able to return my computer to a responsive state once everything has hung, including CTRL ALT DEL, without restarting?

If it's possible, then I would love to know the trick.

Generally this isn't possible IME. If you can't get at Task Manager to terminate the hang, then you won't be able to do anything
At that point the only thing working on the system would be the power button - so that would seem to be your only option.

I'd suggest that you explore options for "sandboxing" applications, and maybe even some virtualization options, in order to be able to terminate hangs of this sort.

Another thing to consider may be a backup utility that functions automatically with a shutdown - that way you won't lose anything essential should the need arise to force a shutdown. I'm not even sure if this is possible (interrupting the shutdown process to run a backup), nor am I sure that it would work in all instances of a complete hang of the system.

That's what I figured.
Thanks for the input.