Task manager = problem solver?

Whenever I'm having problems in win2k, (freezing, severe lag, etc) just opening task manager seems to often clear up the problem. Is this just my imagination, or does anyone have any information supporting this idea?

opening the task manager with win2k/xp forces the HungAppTimeout to execute, even if the application is completely unresponsive. it's basically a way to give windows control of the system resources again. win2k is most certainly the most stable version of windows ever.