Make Task Manager Sort by Base Name on Startup

Question

The Windows XP Task Manager saves most of the settings, but every time it starts, it always sorts the processes by PID. I want it to start up sorted by process name (Base Name column) since I always end up clicking the column header to do that when I start Task Manager anyway.

Is there a way to get this to work? I have looked at the Task Manager settings in the registry, but they are not in any sort of human-readable format.

Any ideas? Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

The built-in Task Manager doesn't do this, but I'm fairly certain Process Explorer saves your view each time you start it. It also has a lot more functionality and has an option to replace task manager completely.

Answer 2

I had considered hacking the executable file (taskmgr.exe) to see if there were a way to build this into it, but went with a decidedly easier and less risky method.

Since it amounts to a standard list-view control, what I did was to write an application that can detect if Task Manager is running, and if so, to hook into its list-control and perform the sort (by simulating a column click; I didn’t feel like manually sorting). It took a while to get it to be flexible enough to account for variations (especially since the columns are customizable), and then to allow for sorting on a different column—I figured I may as well have the option.

Unfortunately it means an extra program running in the background, but I already have plans for incorporating it into a more general-purpose app so that it’s not a one-function process, thus making it more acceptable to have it running because it does more things.

Answer 3

As Tom's Hardware claims, the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\TaskManager has 2 settings that may hold the default column sort order. Unfortunately, the data is in hex and I have no idea what the settings correspond to specifically. Perhaps Synetech can figure it out?