How to Open Task Manager in Windows 10
Task Manager can be used to view and manage your processes, performance statistics, app history, users, processes details, and services in Windows 10.
Starting with Windows 10 build 16215, you will notice UWPs now use per-application instanced Runtime Broker processes, rather than all sharing a single session-wide Runtime Broker. This will help improve resource attribution, resource management, and fault tolerance.
Starting with Windows 10 build 16226, Task Manager now includes GPU info to track your GPU performance. The Performance tab shows GPU utilization information for each separate GPU component (such as 3D and Video encode/decode), as well as graphics memory usage stats. The Details tab shows you GPU utilization info for each process. Please note that this feature is still under construction and you will find issues and bugs, as always please send Microsoft feedback in Feedback Hub under Desktop Environment > Task manager.
Starting with Windows 10 build 16232, Microsoft made a few small changes to the GPU performance tracker in Task Manager. They’ve updated the UI layout, and added more details like DirectX version and the physical location of your GPU. Only hardware GPUs show up in the list, and the software-only basic display adapter is hidden. More improvements coming soon!
Starting with Windows 10 build 16241, Microsoft made some design changes to the GPU section of Performance tab:
- GPUs in the task manager DirectX Developer Blog
- The GPU name is now shown on the left-hand side of the Performance tab for each GPU.
- We now default to the multi-engine view, which shows performance monitors for the four most active GPU engines. Typically you’ll see charts for the 3D, Copy, Video Encode and Video Decode engines. Right-click on the chart to switch back to the single-engine view.
- There is now a total GPU memory text counter next to the dedicated and shared text counters at the bottom of the Performance tab.
- The Direct X version now also contains the highest supported DX feature level.
Starting with Windows 10 build 17704, Task Manager now includes 2 new columns in the “Processes” tab to show energy impact of the running process on their system. This should help our customers to understand which apps/services are using the maximum power vs. the least power-hungry apps. The metric takes CPU, GPU & Disk into evaluation when calculating power usage.
- Power usage: This column will provide an instantaneous view of apps/services using power.
- Power usage trend: This column provides a power usage trend over 2 mins for each running apps/services. This column will be blank when you start an app but will populate based on the power usage every 2 mins.
For more information and details about Task Manager, also see:
- (same in Windows 10) The Windows 8 Task Manager | Microsoft Docs
- (same in Windows 10) Windows 8 Task Manager In-Depth | Windows Blog
This tutorial will show you how to open Task Manager in Windows 10.
Contents
- Option One: Open Task Manager using Keyboard Shortcut
- Option Two: Open Task Manager from Taskbar
- Option Three: Open Task Manager from Win+X Quick Link Menu
- Option Four: Open Task Manager from Start Menu
- Option Five: Open Task Manager from Ctrl+Alt+Delete Screen
- Option Six: Open Task Manager from Search
- Option Seven: Open Task Manager from Running Application File
EXAMPLE: Task Manager in More Details view
Processes Tab
The Processes tab is shown by default when the Task Manager is launched. It’s the place where you can manage running apps and services, and also monitor high-level performance stats.
On the Processes tab, there are two primary components of the UI: Running processes (left side) and the heat map (right side). In the Task Manager, running processes are sorted by apps, non-Windows background processes, and Windows processes. Apps are sorted out at the top, making it easy to find, monitor, and manage apps without having to scan all processes and scroll through many items as you had to in prior versions of Task Manager.
The heat map (shown in varying shades of yellow and orange above) is a visualization of the resource utilization for processes which makes it easy to pinpoint where high resource utilization is taking place.
The heat map is color-coded with low resource utilization shown in pale yellow, with darker shades of yellow and orange representing progressively greater resource utilization. If resource utilization has reached a critical level, the value will be shown with a red background.
Performance Tab
In the Performance tab, you can also double click/tap on the left or right side to switch to summary view. To return to normal view, just double click/tap anywhere in the small footprint mode window.
On the left-hand side of the performance view live mini-graph views are shown for each performance metric, and on the right-hand side you see a detail graph for the selected metric. Each performance category has a unique information view at the bottom that shows relevant statistics for the performance category currently selected. One of the great enhancements in these graph views is how the bounds of the graphs are dynamically scaled to current utilization.
App history Tab
The App History tab shows historical resource utilization metrics for apps. By default, the view shows only Windows Store App resource utilization.
While on the app history tab, you can go to Options (menu bar) and click/tap on Show history for all processes to see historical resource utilization for all apps.
Startup Tab
In the startup tab, you can see a summary of startup performance, and tune startup behavior all in one place.
You can activate more columns by right clicking the column header that are not shown by default including startup type, disk I/O at startup, CPU at startup, running now, disabled time, and command line.
Users Tab
In the users tab, you can manage user accounts that are currently signed in, see what processes users are running, and what percentage of system resources they are using.
Details Tab
The Details tab displays information about the processes that are running on the PC. A process can be an application that you start or subsystems and services that are managed by Windows.
Services Tab
The services tab allows you to view and manager services that are running on your PC.
1 Press the Ctrl + Shift + Escape keys.
2 Press the Alt + D keys to toggle Fewer details or More details view for Task Manager. By default, Task Manager will open to the same Fewer details or More details view as it was last closed.
1 Right click or press and hold on the taskbar, and click/tap on Task Manager. (see screenshot below)
This option will not be available if you have tablet mode turned on.
3 Select to have Task Manager display with Fewer details or More details. By default, Task Manager will open to the same Fewer details or More details view as it was last closed. (see screenshot below)
1 Open the Win+X Quick Link menu, and click/tap on Task Manager. (see screenshot below)
2 Select to have Task Manager display with Fewer details or More details. By default, Task Manager will open to the same Fewer details or More details view as it was last closed. (see screenshot below)
1 Open the Start menu .
2 In the All Apps list, expand open the Windows System folder, and click/tap on Task Manager. (see screenshot below)
1 Press the CTRL + ALT + DELETE keys, and click/tap on Task Manager. (see screenshot below)
2 Select to have Task Manager display with Fewer details or More details. By default, Task Manager will open to the same Fewer details or More details view as it was last closed. (see screenshot below)
1 Type taskmgr into the Search box (Win+S), and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
2 Select to have Task Manager display with Fewer details or More details. By default, Task Manager will open to the same Fewer details or More details view as it was last closed. (see screenshot below)
1 Run the C:\Windows\System32\LaunchTM.exe or C:\Windows\System32\Taskmgr.exe application file how you like (ex: Run, command prompt, Search, etc...). (see screenshots below)
2 Select to have Task Manager display with Fewer details or More details. By default, Task Manager will open to the same Fewer details or More details view as it was last closed. (see screenshot below)
That's it,
Shawn
Related Tutorials
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Open Task Manager in Windows 10
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New #1
In tablet mode, long pressing the windows icon in the task bar will pop up (at release) a menu like that in step 4 above. There the Task Manager is available.
None of the above described ways to open the Task Manager seem to work in tablet mode. Does anyone know? I cannot for my life figure it out, either I'm plain stupid or MS is playing tricks on us...
Thanks.Last edited by OppfinnarJocke; 26 Jul 2016 at 16:57. Reason: Found it!
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New #2
Hello Jocke, :)
All options except step 3 in step 1 should be available to you in tablet mode.
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New #3
Hey Shawn,
Here is a little something I just made(while joking around with Fafhrd on another thread), I though would fit here too, and should be hung up over every PC:
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New #5
[Edited for clarity 21:09 GMT]
Has anybody found out how to open Task manager when Windows starts with it already minimised to the System tray?
Opening it automatically is always a two-step process: opening it with an Admin-level TS task and then minimising it by manually clicking on its minimise button.
It does not obey any common methods when started automatically [such as adding /min -Hide or similar to the command itself] and I have not found any solution online.
It fails to respond when Windows starts to a shortcut in either Startup folder so the job has to be done with a TS task [and that task must be an Admin one].
The best I have been able to do is make it open minimised to the TaskBar so it then takes two clicks to get it minimised to the System tray [but it feels slightly more convenient than the alternatives as it leaves the desktop clear].
Any ideas?
DenisLast edited by Try3; 17 Sep 2016 at 14:10.
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New #6
Hello Denis, :)
Usually clicking on its icon on the taskbar will restore the Task Manager window.
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New #7
Use the Hide when Minimized option and then right-click restore.
Which also hides the taskbar icon.
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New #8
Brink - Thanks for replying but I am not trying to restore it. I am trying to do the opposite.
I start Task mgr with Windows [using an Admin-level logon task in TS] but it opens with a normal-sized window. I then have to minimise it manually to get it out of my way.
Cliff S - I want to find a way of having it open already minimised to the System tray without any intervention. I know how to minimise it manually as I said in my previous post.
Denis
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New #9
Denis,
You could create a Task Manager shortcut, then set the shortcut to "Run" "Minimized" like below. When you open the shortcut, it'll open Task Manager minimized by default.
Open Task Manager in Windows 10
How to Open Task Manager in Windows 10Published by Shawn BrinkCategory: Performance & Maintenance
22 May 2021
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