The Windows Task Manager is often used for troubleshooting, perhaps closing an application that's frozen and you need to kill it or monitoring system resource usage.
Here are some features in the Task Manager that you may not know, until now.
1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
2. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del, and select Task Manager from the list.
3. Press Win+X, and select Task Manager from the Win+X menu.
4. On Start Screen, type “Task”, and hit Task Manager from the list.
5. On desktop, right click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager from the context menu.
6. Open up Windows Explorer and navigate to C:/Windows/System32, locate taskmgr.exe.
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Find out Why Apps are Frozen
The most common reason to open the Task Manager is to kill a Frozen application but it's possible that the program isn't frozen, just taking a while to process a task. To analyze wait chain, open Task Manager and tap on "Detail" tab, right click the process you want to investigate and select Analyze wait chain.
A pop up window will open with a list of processes the process is either waiting or depending on running. If you see one from the list that holds up the main process, terminate it right there.
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How to Restart Windows Explorer
Sometimes, you may find that some parts of your system aren't responding such as Taskbar, File Explorer, Start Menu etc but other applications are running fine. Restarting computer will solve the issue, but it may be enough to restart Windows Explorer instead. Right click Windows Explorer process in Processes tab and choose to Restart right there.
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Right click any process in Processes tab, tap on Resource values and choose one of the resources such as memory, disk and network. From here, you can change the display units from Percents to Values or vice versa.
Percentage are better when you need a sense of how a particular process's resource usage compares to the total amount of that resource available. For example, if Chrome is using 40MB of RAM, but it can also be useful to know that it is only 2% of all the RAM in your system.
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In the Processes tab, not only you can kill the process you want to end, but also switch to or bring the process up front, if it's lost under your other applications.
Once you open the pull down menu for an item, right-click it and you’ll see five window actions for that application:
Go to File menu and select Run New Task to launch the Run prompt and if you hold the Ctrl key at the same time you click on the Run New Task action, it actually launches the Command Prompt instead of Run prompt.
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If you are suspicious about any processes in task manager, right click on them and select Search Online. It opens the default browser with the application name and the process name, which will help you to determine whether or not it's safe or malicious.
Also, you can do the same to the processes in Details tab as well.
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By default, the Task Manager only show five columns when listing processes such as Name, CPU, Memory, Disk and Network. You can actually add up to six more columns just by right clicking the header area. These additional columns are Type (Process Type), Status, Publisher, PID (Process ID), Process Name (Executable File) and Command Line.
Extra columns can also be added under the Startup tab, whether for troubleshooting purposes like CPU and Disk I/O at Startup or just to see which startup processes are still running.
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Show History for all Processes
Go to App history tab and tap on Option to select show history for all process to see a full history resource utilization for all apps.
You can clear out the history by clicking on the tiny link Delete usage history at the top of App history tab.
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Open App File Locations
Do you need to navigate to the installed location of a particular program or tweak some configuration files or want to drop some new theme files for that particular program.
Crawling through the File Explorer is one way to do that, just right click on any process and select Open File Location. This will take you directly to the folder that contains the process's executable file.
Monitor Performance and Resources
Task Manager has several tools for effectively monitoring the performance of your system and how your resources are being used. Try these under the Performance tab
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Do you learn any new thing from this article. Can you think of any other features it should have? Tell us in the comment below!
Here are some features in the Task Manager that you may not know, until now.
6 ways to Launch the Task Manager
1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
2. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del, and select Task Manager from the list.
3. Press Win+X, and select Task Manager from the Win+X menu.
4. On Start Screen, type “Task”, and hit Task Manager from the list.
5. On desktop, right click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager from the context menu.
6. Open up Windows Explorer and navigate to C:/Windows/System32, locate taskmgr.exe.
Also See : How to Capture a Screenshot in Windows 10
Find out Why Apps are Frozen
The most common reason to open the Task Manager is to kill a Frozen application but it's possible that the program isn't frozen, just taking a while to process a task. To analyze wait chain, open Task Manager and tap on "Detail" tab, right click the process you want to investigate and select Analyze wait chain.
A pop up window will open with a list of processes the process is either waiting or depending on running. If you see one from the list that holds up the main process, terminate it right there.
Also See : How to clean a Flash Drive, SD card, Hard Disk to fix Partition and Capacity Problems
How to Restart Windows Explorer
Sometimes, you may find that some parts of your system aren't responding such as Taskbar, File Explorer, Start Menu etc but other applications are running fine. Restarting computer will solve the issue, but it may be enough to restart Windows Explorer instead. Right click Windows Explorer process in Processes tab and choose to Restart right there.
Also See : How to Find Your WiFi Network Password
Toggle between Percentage and Value units
Right click any process in Processes tab, tap on Resource values and choose one of the resources such as memory, disk and network. From here, you can change the display units from Percents to Values or vice versa.
Percentage are better when you need a sense of how a particular process's resource usage compares to the total amount of that resource available. For example, if Chrome is using 40MB of RAM, but it can also be useful to know that it is only 2% of all the RAM in your system.
Also See : How to Install Windows 10 in Laptop or PC
Manage App Windows Easily
In the Processes tab, not only you can kill the process you want to end, but also switch to or bring the process up front, if it's lost under your other applications.
Once you open the pull down menu for an item, right-click it and you’ll see five window actions for that application:
- Switch To: Brings focus to the application and minimizes Task Manager to the Taskbar.
- Bring to Front: Brings focus to the application, but doesn’t minimize Task Manager. Doesn’t work if there’s another application that’s “Always on Top”.
- Minimize: Minimizes the application without bringing focus to the application window.
- Maximize: Maximizes the application without bringing focus to the application window.
- End Task: Kills the application completely.
Launch the Command Prompt (CMD) Directly
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Search Online for Suspicious Processes
If you are suspicious about any processes in task manager, right click on them and select Search Online. It opens the default browser with the application name and the process name, which will help you to determine whether or not it's safe or malicious.
Also, you can do the same to the processes in Details tab as well.
Also See : How to Lock or Password Protect Folders in Windows 10
Add Extra Columns for Details
By default, the Task Manager only show five columns when listing processes such as Name, CPU, Memory, Disk and Network. You can actually add up to six more columns just by right clicking the header area. These additional columns are Type (Process Type), Status, Publisher, PID (Process ID), Process Name (Executable File) and Command Line.
Extra columns can also be added under the Startup tab, whether for troubleshooting purposes like CPU and Disk I/O at Startup or just to see which startup processes are still running.
Also See : 21 Tricks in WhatsApp, You didn't Know
Show History for all Processes
Go to App history tab and tap on Option to select show history for all process to see a full history resource utilization for all apps.
You can clear out the history by clicking on the tiny link Delete usage history at the top of App history tab.
Also See : Biggest Library of Windows Shortcut
Open App File Locations
Do you need to navigate to the installed location of a particular program or tweak some configuration files or want to drop some new theme files for that particular program.
Crawling through the File Explorer is one way to do that, just right click on any process and select Open File Location. This will take you directly to the folder that contains the process's executable file.
Monitor Performance and Resources
Task Manager has several tools for effectively monitoring the performance of your system and how your resources are being used. Try these under the Performance tab
- Resource Monitor: Click on Open Resource Monitor at the bottom of the window to launch the Resource Monitor, which is an advanced way to view real-time data about your system: threads used, disk response times, exact breakdowns of RAM used by processes, etc.
- Overview Modes: Right-click anywhere in the left sidebar and select Hide Graphs to hide the graphs and Summary View to display nothing but the sidebar. The other way works too: right-click anywhere in the right panel and select Graph Summary View to display nothing but the current graph.
- Diagnostic Info: With any resource type selected (e.g. CPU, Memory, Disk, etc), you can right-click anywhere and select Copy to load a diagnostic snapshot into your clipboard. Paste it anywhere — like in Notepad, in an email, or in a forum post — as it could help with troubleshooting.
- Network Details: With Network selected, right-click in the right panel and select View Network Details to get a real-time breakdown of things like network utilization, link speed, bytes sent and received, etc.
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Do you learn any new thing from this article. Can you think of any other features it should have? Tell us in the comment below!