The Windows Task Manager is a powerful tool packed with useful information, from your system’s overall resource usage to lớn detailed statistics about each process. This guide explains every feature and technical term in the Task Manager.
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This article focuses on Windows 10’s Task Manager, although much of this also applies lớn Windows 7. Microsoft has dramatically improved the Task Manager since the release of Windows 7.
How khổng lồ Launch the Task Manager
Windows offers many ways khổng lồ launch the Task Manager. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc lớn open the Task Manager with a keyboard shortcut or right-click the Windows taskbar and select “Task Manager.”
You can also press Ctrl+Alt+Delete & then cliông chồng “Task Manager” on the screen that appears or find the Task Manager shortcut in your Start thực đơn.
The Simple View
The first time you launch the Task Manager, you’ll see a small, simple window. This window lists the visible applications running on your desktop, excluding background applications. You can select an application here and clichồng “End Task” to lớn close it. This is useful if an application isn’t responding—in other words, if it’s frozen—& you can’t cthua kém it the usual way.
You can also right-cliông xã an application in this window khổng lồ access more options:
Switch To: Switch lớn the application’s window, bringing it to the front of your desktop & putting it in focus. This is useful if you’re not sure which window is associated with which application.End Task: End the process. This works the same as the “End Task” button.Run New Task: xuất hiện the Create New Task window, where you can specify a program, folder, document, or website address và Windows will open it.Always On Top: Make the Task Manager window itself “always on top” of other windows on your desktop, letting you see it at all times.mở cửa File Location: xuất hiện a File Explorer window showing the location of the program’s .exe file.Search Online: Perform a Bing tìm kiếm for the program’s application name & file name. This will help you see exactly what the program is & what it does.Properties: Open the Properties window for the program’s .exe file. Here you can tweak compatibility options và see the program’s version number, for example.
While the Task Manager is open, you’ll see a Task Manager inhỏ in your notification area. This shows you how much CPU (central processing unit) resources are currently in use on your system, and you can mouse over it to lớn see memory, disk, & network usage. It’s an easy way to keep tabs on your computer’s CPU usage.
To see the system tray icon without the Task Manager appearing on your taskbar, clichồng Options > Hide When Minimized in the full Task Manager interface và minimize the Task Manager window.
The Task Manager’s Tabs Explained
To see the Task Manager’s more advanced tools, cliông xã “More Details” at the bottom of the simple view window. You’ll see the full, tabbed interface appear. The Task Manager will remember your preference và will open to the more advanced view in the future. If you want khổng lồ get bachồng khổng lồ the simple view, click “Fewer Details.”
With More Details selected, the Task Manager includes the following tabs:
Processes: A list of running applications và background processes on your system along with CPU, memory, disk, network, GPU, and other resource usage information.Startup: A danh mục of your startup programs, which are the applications Windows automatically starts when you sign into lớn your user tài khoản. You can disable startup programs from here, although you can also do that from Settings > Apps > Startup.Users: The user accounts currently signed into your PC, how much resources they’re using, và what applications they’re running.Details: More detailed information about the processes running on your system. This is basically the traditional “Processes” tab from the Task Manager on Windows 7.Services: Management of system services. This is the same information you’ll find in services.msc, the Services management console.Managing Processes
The Processes tab shows you a comprehensive sầu các mục of processes running on your system. If you sort it by name, the list is broken inkhổng lồ three categories. The Apps group shows the same danh mục of running applications you’d see in the “Fewer details” simplified view. The other two categories are background processes and Windows processes, and they show processes that don’t appear in the standard simplified Task Manager view.
For example, tools lượt thích Dropbox, your antivirut program, background update processes, and hardware utilities with notification area (system tray) icons appear in the background processes menu. Windows processes include various processes that are part of the Windows operating system, although some of these appear under “Background processes” instead for some reason.
You can right-cliông chồng a process to lớn see actions you can persize. The options you’ll see in the context thực đơn are:
Expand: Some applications, like Google Chrome, have sầu multiple processes are grouped here. Other applications have sầu multiple windows that are part of a single process. You can select expvà, double-cliông chồng the process, or click the arrow to lớn its left to lớn see the entire group of processes individually. This option only appears when you right-cliông chồng a group.Collapse: Collapse an expanded group.End task: End the process. You can also cliông chồng the “End Task” button below the danh mục.Resource values: Lets you choose whether you want khổng lồ see the percentage or precise values for memory, disk, và network. In other words, you can choose whether you want to lớn see the precise amount of memory in MB or the percentage of your system’s memory applications are using.Create dump file: This is a debugging tool for programmers. It captures a snapshot of the program’s memory & saves it khổng lồ disk.Go khổng lồ details: Go khổng lồ the process on the Details tab so you can see more detailed technical information.Open tệp tin location: xuất hiện File Explorer with the process’s .exe tệp tin selected.Search online: Search for the name of the process on Bing.Properties: View the Properties window of the .exe pháo file associated with the process.You should not kết thúc tasks unless you know what the task does. Many of these tasks are background processes important lớn Windows itself. They often have confusing names, and you may need khổng lồ perkhung a web tìm kiếm lớn find out what they vày. We have a whole series explaining what various processes do, from conhost.exe pháo lớn wsappx.
This tab also shows you detailed information about each process & their combined resource usage. You can right-cliông xã the headings at the top of the danh mục và choose the columns you want to lớn see. The values in each column are color-coded, & a darker orange (or red) color indicates greater resource usage.
You can clichồng a column khổng lồ sort by it—for example, cliông chồng the CPU column lớn see running processes sorted by CPU usage with the biggest CPU hogs at the top. The top of the column also shows the total resource usage of all the processes on your system. Drag and drop columns to lớn reorder them. The available columns are:
Type: The category of the process, which is App, Background process, or Windows process.Status: If a program appears to be frozen, “Not Responding” will appear here. Programs sometimes begin responding after a bit of time and sometimes stay frozen. If Windows has suspended a program lớn save power, a green leaf will appear in this column. Modern UWP.. apps can suspend khổng lồ save sầu power, & Windows can also suspkết thúc traditional desktop apps.Publisher: The name of the program’s publisher. For example, Chrome displays “Google Inc.” và Microsoft Word displays “Microsoft Corporation.”PID: The process identifier number Windows has associated with the process. The process ID may be used by certain functions or system utilities. Windows assigns a quality process ID each time it starts a program, và the process ID is a way of distinguishing between several running processes if multiple instances of the same program are running.Process Name: The tệp tin name of the process. For example, File Explorer is explorer.exe pháo, Microsoft Word is WINWORD.EXE, and the Task Manager itself is Taskmgr.exe pháo.Command Line: The full commvà line used to lớn launch the process. This shows you the full path khổng lồ the process’s .exe pháo tệp tin (for example, “C:WINDOWSExplorer.EXE”) as well as any command-line options used to lớn launch the program.CPU: The CPU usage of the process, displayed as a percentage of your total available CPU resources.Memory: The amount of your system’s physical working memory the process is currently using, displayed in MB or GB.Disk: The disk activity a process is generating, displayed as MB/s. If a process isn’t reading from or writing khổng lồ disk at the moment, it will display 0 MB/s.Network: The network usage of a process on the current primary network, displayed in Mbps.GPU: The GPU (graphics processing unit) resources used by a process, displayed as a percentage of the GPU’s available resources.GPU Engine: The GPU device and engine used by a process. If you have sầu multiple GPUs in your system, this will show you which GPU a process is using. See the Performance tab to lớn see which number (“GPU 0” or “GPU 1” is associated with which physical GPU.Power nguồn Usage: The estimated power usage of a process, taking inkhổng lồ trương mục its current CPU, disk, và GPU activity. For example, it might say “Very low” if a process isn’t using many resources or “Very high” if a process is using a lot of resources. If it’s high, that means it’s using more electriđô thị and shortening your battery life if you have a máy tính xách tay.Power Usage Trend: The estimated impact on power usage over time. The Power Usage column just shows the current power usage, but this column tracks power usage over time. For example, if a program occasionally uses a lot of power but isn’t using much right now, it may say “Very low” in the power usage column and “High” or “Moderate” in the Power nguồn Usage Trend column.When you right-cliông xã the headings, you’ll also see a “Resource Values” thực đơn. This is the same option that appears when you right-click an individual process. Whether or not you access this option through right-clicking an individual process, it will always change how all processes in the list appear.
Task Manager Menu Options
There are also a few useful options in the Task Manager’s menu bar:
File > Run New Task: Launch a program, thư mục, document, or network resource by providing its address. You can also check “Create this task with administrative privileges” lớn launch the program as Administrator.Options > Always on Top: The Task Manager window will always be on top of other windows while this option is enabled.Options > Minimize on Use: The Task Manager will be minimized whenever you right-cliông xã a process and select “Switch To.” Despite the odd name, that’s all this option does.Options > Hide When Minimized: The Task Manager will stay running in the notification area (system tray) when you cliông chồng the minimize button if you enable this option.View > Refresh Now: Immediately refresh the data displayed in the Task Manager.View > Update Speed: Choose how frequently the data displayed in the Task Manager is updated: High, Medium, Low, or Paused. With Paused selected, the data isn’t updated until you select a higher frequency or click “Refresh Now.”View > Group By Type: With this option enabled, processes on the Processes tab are grouped inlớn three categories: Apps, Background Processes, & Windows Processes. With this option disabled, they’re shown mixed in the danh sách.View > Expvà All: Exp& all the process groups in the menu. For example, Google Chrome uses multiple processes, và they’re shown combined inkhổng lồ a “Google Chrome” group. You can expand individual process groups by clicking the arrow to the left of their name, too.View > Collapse All: Collapse all the process groups in the menu. For example, all Google Chrome processes will just be shown under the Google Chrome category.Viewing Performance Information
The Performance tab shows real-time graphs displaying the usage of system resources lượt thích CPU, memory, disk, network, & GPU. If you have multiple disks, network devices, or GPUs, you can see them all separately.
You’ll see small graphs in the left pane, và you can click an option lớn see a larger graph in the right pane. The graph shows resource usage over the last 60 seconds.
In addition khổng lồ resource information, the Performance page shows information about your system’s hardware. Here are just some things the different panes show in addition to resource usage:
Memory: How much RAM you have sầu, its speed, and how many of the RAM slots on your motherboard are used. You can also see how much of your memory is currently filled with cached data. Windows calls this “standby.” This data will be ready & waiting if your system needs it, but Windows will automatically dump the cached data and free up space if it needs more memory for another task.Disk: The name & Mã Sản Phẩm number of your disk drive, its size, và its current read and write speeds.
You can also turn this inkhổng lồ a smaller window if you’d lượt thích to see it on screen at all times. Just double-clichồng anywhere in the empty White space in the right pane, and you’ll get a floating, always-on-top window with that graph. You can also right-click the graph & select “Graph Summary View” to lớn enable this mode.
The “xuất hiện Resource Monitor” button at the bottom of the window opens the Resource Monitor tool, which provides more detailed information about GPU, memory, disk, và network usage by individual running processes.
Consulting App History
The App History tab only applies lớn Universal Windows Platkhung (UWP) apps. It doesn’t show information about traditional Windows desktop apps, so most people won’t find it too useful.
At the top of the window, you’ll see the date Windows started collecting resource usage data. The danh mục shows UWP applications & the amount of CPU time và network activity the application has generated since that date. You can right-click the headings here to enable a few more options for more insight about network activity:
CPU Time: The amount of CPU time the program has used within this time frame.Network: The total amount of data transferred over the network by the program within this time frame.Tile Updates: The amount of data the program has downloaded to lớn display updated live tiles on Windows 10’s Start thực đơn.Non-metered Network: The amount of data transferred over non-metered networks.Downloads: The amount of data downloaded by the program on all networks.Uploads: The amount of data uploaded by the program on all networks.Controlling Startup Applications
The Startup tab is Windows 10’s built-in startup programs manager. It lists all the applications that Windows automatically starts for your current user account. For example, programs in your Startup thư mục và programs set lớn start in the Windows registry both appear here.
To disable a startup program, right-cliông chồng it and select “Disable” or select it và click the “Disable” button. To re-enable it, clichồng the “Enable” option that appears here instead. You can also use the Settings > Apps > Startup interface lớn manage startup programs.
At the top right corner of the window, you will see a “Last BIOS time” on some systems. This shows how long your BIOS (or UEFI firmware) took khổng lồ initialize your hardware when you last booted your PC. This will not appear on all systems. You won’t see it if your PC’s BIOS doesn’t report this time lớn Windows.
As usual, you can right-clichồng the headings và enable additional columns. The columns are:
Name: The name of the program.Publisher: The name of the program’s publisher.Status: “Enabled” appears here if the program automatically starts when you sign in. “Disabled” appears here if you’ve sầu disabled the startup task.Startup Impact: An estimate of how much CPU & disk resources the program uses when it starts. Windows measures & tracks this in the background. A lightweight program will show “Low,” và a heavy program will show “High.” Disabled programs show “None.” You can speed up your boot process more by disabling programs with a “High” startup impact than by disabling ones with a “Low” impact.Startup Type: This shows whether the program is starting because of a registry entry (“Registry”) or because it’s in your startup thư mục (“Folder.”)Disk I/O at Startup: The disk activity the program performs at startup, in MB. Windows measures và records this each boot.CPU at Startup: The amount of CPU time a program uses at startup, in ms. Windows measures & records this at boot.Xem thêm: Mách Bạn Cách Chơi Total War Shogun 2, Hướng Dẫn Cách Chơi Shogun 2 Total War (Phần 3)
Running Now: The word “Running” appears here if a startup program is currently running. If this column appears entry for a program, the program has shut itself down, or you’ve sầu closed it yourself.Disabled Time: For startup programs you’ve disabled, the date & time you disabled a program appears hereComm& Line: This shows the full commvà line the startup program launches with, including any comm& line options.Checking on Users
The Users tab displays a menu of signed in users & their running processes. If you’re the only person signed inlớn your Windows PC, you’ll see only your user tài khoản here. If other people have signed in và then locked their sessions without signing out, you’ll also see those—locked sessions appear as “Disconnected.” This also shows you the CPU, memory, disk, network, & other system resources used by processes running under each Windows user account.
You can disconnect a user account by right-clicking it and selecting “Disconnect” or force it khổng lồ sign off by right-clicking it và selecting “Sign Off.” The Disconnect option terminates the desktop connection, but the programs continue khổng lồ run, và the user can sign bachồng in—like locking a desktop session. The Sign Off option terminates all processes—lượt thích signing out of Windows.
You can also manage another user account’s processes from here if you’d like lớn over a task that belongs to lớn another running user account.
If you right-click the headings, the available columns are:
ID: Each signed in user account has its own session ID number. Session “0” is reserved for system services, while other applications may create their own user accounts. You usually won’t need khổng lồ know this number, so it’s hidden by default.Session: The type of session this is. For example, it will say “Console” if it’s being accessed on your local system. This is primarily useful for VPS systems running remote desktops.Client Name: The name of the remote client system accessing the session, if it’s being accessed remotely.Status: The status of the session—for example, if a user’s session is locked, the Status will say “Disconnected.”CPU: Total CPU used by the user’s processes.Memory: Total memory used by the user’s processes.Disk: Total disk activity associated with the user’s processes.Network: Total network activity from the user’s processes.Managing Detailed Processes
This is the most detailed Task Manager pane. It’s like the Processes tab, but it provides more information and shows processes from all user accounts on your system. If you’ve used the Windows 7 Task Manager, this will look familiar khổng lồ you; it’s the same information the Processes tab in Windows 7 displays.
You can right-cliông xã processes here to access additional options:
End task: End the process. This is the same option found on the normal Processes tab.End process tree: End the process, and all the processes created by the process.Analyze wait chain: View what threads in the processes are waiting for. This shows you which processes and threads are waiting khổng lồ use a resource used by another process, & is a useful debugging tool for programmers khổng lồ diagnose hangs.UAC virtualization: Enable or disable User Account Control virtualization for a process. This feature fixes applications that require administrator access by virtualizing their access khổng lồ system files, redirecting their tệp tin và registry access to other folders. It’s primarily used by older programs—for example, Windows XP-era programs—that weren’t written for modern versions of Windows. This is a debugging option for developers, và you shouldn’t need khổng lồ change it.Create dump file: Capture a snapshot of the program’s memory and save sầu it khổng lồ disk. This is a useful debugging tool for programmers.xuất hiện file location: xuất hiện a File Explorer window showing the process’s executable tệp tin.Search online: Perkhung a Bing search for the name of the process.Properties: View the properties window of the process’s .exe cộ tệp tin.Go khổng lồ service(s): Show the services associated with the process on the Services tab. This is particularly useful for svchost.exe processes. The services will be highlighted.
If you right-cliông xã the headings and select “Show Columns,” you’ll see a much longer các mục of information you can show here, including many options that aren’t available on the Processes tab.
Here’s what every possible column means:
Package Name: For Universal Windows Platkhung (UWP) apps, this displays the name of the ứng dụng package the process is from. For other apps, this column is empty. UWP. apps are generally distributed via the Microsoft Store.PID: The chất lượng process ID number associated with that process. This is associated with the process và not the program—for example, if you cthảm bại & reopen a program, the new program process will have a new process ID number.Status: This shows whether the process is running or suspended to lớn save sầu power. Windows 10 always “suspends” UWP apps you aren’t using to save sầu system resources. You can also control whether Windows 10 suspends traditional desktop processes.User name: The name of the user tài khoản running the process. You will often see system user trương mục names here, like SYSTEM and LOCAL SERVICE.Session ID: The chất lượng number associated with the user session running the process. This is the same number shown for a user on the Users tab.CPU: The percentage of CPU resources the process is currently using across all CPUs. If nothing else is using CPU time, Windows will show the System Idle Process using it here. In other words, if the System Idle Process is using 90% of your CPU resources, that means other processes on your system are using a combined 10%, và it was idle 90% of the time.CPU time: The total processor time (in seconds) used by a process since it began running. If a process closes và restarts, this will be rephối. It’s a good way to spot CPU-hungry processes that may be idling at the moment.Cycle: The percentage of the CPU cycles the process is currently using across all CPUs. It’s unclear exactly how this is different from the CPU column, as Microsoft’s documentation doesn’t explain this. However, the numbers in this column are generally pretty similar khổng lồ the CPU column, so it’s likely a similar piece of information measured differently.Working mix (memory): The amount of physical memory the process is currently using.Peak working phối (memory): The maximum amount of physical memory the process has used.Working set delta (memory): The change in working set memory from the last refresh of the data here.Memory (private working set): The amount of physical memory used by the process that can’t be used by other processes. This column does not exclude data from suspended UWP processes.Memory (shared working set): The amount of physical memory used by the process that can be used by other processes when necessary.Commit size: The amount of virtual memory Windows is reserving for the process.NPhường pool: The amount of non-pageable kernel memory the Windows kernel or drivers are allocating for this process. The operating system can’t move this data to the paging file.Page faults: The number of page faults generated by the process since it began running. These occur when a program tries khổng lồ access memory it doesn’t currently have sầu allocated khổng lồ it, and are normal.PF Delta: The change in the number of page faults since the last refresh.Base priority: The priority of the process—for example, this might be Low, Normal, or High. Windows prioritizes scheduling processes with higher priorities. System background tasks that aren’t urgent may have low priority compared to desktop program processes, for example.Handles: The current number of handles in the process’s object table. Handles represent system resources lượt thích files, registry keys, & threads.Threads: The number of active threads in a process. Each process runs one or more threads, và Windows allocates processor time khổng lồ them. Threads in a process mô tả memory.I/O reads: The number of read operations performed by the process since it started. I/O stands for Input/đầu ra. This includes tệp tin, network, và device input/output.I/O writes: The number of write operations performed by the process since it started.I/O other: The number of non-read and non-write operations performed by the process since it started. For example, this includes control functions.I/O read bytes: The total number of bytes read by the process since it started.I/O write bytes: The total number of bytes written by the process since it started.I/O other bytes: The total number of bytes used in non-read và non-write I/O operations since the process started.Image path name: The full path to the process’s executable file.Commvà line: The exact commvà line the process was launched with, including the executable file & any command-line arguments.Platform: Whether this is a 32-bit or 64-bit process.Elevated: Whether the process is running in elevated mode—in other words, with Administrator—permissions or not. You will see either “No” or “Yes” for each process.UAC virtualization: Whether User Account Control virtualization is enabled for the process. This virtualizes the program’s access khổng lồ the registry và file system, letting programs designed for older versions of Windows run without Administrator access. Options include Enabled, Disabled, và Not Allowed—for processes that require system access.Description: A human-readable description of the process from its .exe tệp tin. For example, chrome.exe cộ has the mô tả tìm kiếm “Google Chrome,” and explorer.exe has the mô tả tìm kiếm “Windows Explorer.” This is the same name displayed on the Name column in the normal Processes tab.GPU: The percentage of GPU resources used by the process—or, more specifically, the highest utilization across all GPU engines.GPU engine: The GPU engine the process is using—or, more specifically, the GPU engine the process is using the most. See the GPU information on the Performance tab for a các mục of GPUs & their engines. For example, even if you only have sầu one GPU, it likely has different engines for 3D rendering, encoding Clip, và decoding video.Dedicated GPU memory: The total amount of GPU memory the process is using across all GPUs. GPUs have sầu their own dedicated đoạn Clip memory that’s built-in on discrete GPUs và a reserved portion of normal system memory on onboard GPUs.Shared GPU memory: The total amount of system memory shared with the GPU the process is using. This refers khổng lồ data stored in your system’s normal RAM that’s shared with the GPU, not data stored in your GPU’s dedicated, built-in memory.Working With Services
The Services tab shows a các mục of the system services on your Windows system. These are background tasks that Windows runs, even when no user account is signed in. They’re controlled by the Windows operating system. Depending on the service, it may be automatically started at boot or only when necessary.
Many services are part of Windows 10 itself. For example, the Windows Update service downloads updates and the Windows Audio service is responsible for sound. Other services are installed by third-tiệc nhỏ programs. For example, NVIDIA installs several services as part of its graphics drivers.
You shouldn’t mess with these services unless you know what you’re doing. But, if you right-clichồng them, you’ll see options to Start, Stop, or Restart the service. You can also select Search Online to lớn perform a Bing search for information about the service online or “Go lớn Details” khổng lồ show the process associated with a running service on the Details tab. Many services will have sầu a “svchost.exe” process associated with them.
The Service pane’s columns are:
Name: A short name associated with the servicePID: The process identifier number of the process associated with the service.Description: A longer name that provides more information about what the service does.Status: Whether the service is “Stopped” or “Running.”Group: The group the service is in, if applicable. Windows loads one service group at a time at startup. A service group is a collection of similar services that are loaded as a group.
For more information about these services, click the “mở cửa Services” liên kết at the bottom of the window. This Task Manager pane is just a less powerful services administration tool, anyway.
Process Explorer: A More Powerful Task Manager
If the built-in Windows Task Manager isn’t powerful enough for you, we recommend Process Explorer. This is a free program from Microsoft; it’s part of the SysInternals suite of useful system tools.
Process Explorer is packed with features & information not included in the Task Manager. You can view which program has a particular tệp tin open & unloông chồng the file, for example. The default view also makes it easy to lớn see which processes have opened which other processes. Cheông chồng out our in-depth, multi-part guide lớn using Process Explorer to lớn learn more.