Questions tagged [task-manager]

Use for questions about the Windows Task Manager utility for managing system processes. Do not use for questions relating to human tasks.

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87 votes
4 answers
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Windows using too much RAM, how to diagnose resource hog

I have 16GB of system RAM. On startup with no applications open except the task-manager Windows is using about 3gb of RAM. I looked in the processes tab, but nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. ...
Vader's user avatar
  • 1,683
53 votes
1 answer
69k views

Why do Resource Monitor and Task Manager's total RAM usage not even remotely add up to the total Physical Memory usage? [duplicate]

I have noticed this on many different Windows machine, on many different occasions: the RAM usage reported by Task Manager or Resource Monitor often seems to add up to an amount which is significantly ...
DumpsterDoofus's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
20k views

Task Manager shows 100% CPU utilization, but nothing in process list does

I'm using WinXP, and I notice that in the Task Manager, on the Performance tab my CPU usage is 100%. But When I go to the Processes tab, and sort by CPU System Idle Process is taking up 90%. I've ...
nathan's user avatar
  • 410
5 votes
1 answer
17k views

Why is my Hybrid Disk not Active?

Now that I found out that I do have a hybrid disk (AXM13S2-24GM-B), I'm starting to believe it is not active. Last night I started up Task Manager and I see 2 disks - Disk 0 (C:) and Disk 1. Disk ...
Mark's user avatar
  • 155
13 votes
4 answers
1k views

Task manager menu, titlebar and tabs have disappeared

I was reading a question tonight about our dear friend, the Windows Task Manager and remembered, just then, one particular area of confuzzlement about it that it took me a long time to clear up the ...
Stefan Sveidqvist's user avatar
43 votes
6 answers
69k views

Why does Windows 7 use the page file when there's free physical RAM?

I am using Windows 7 64 bit with 8G ram. After some use, I feel Windows is getting sluggish. The drive is thrashing. When I look at the resource monitor and disk activity, I see a few instances of use ...
Tony_Henrich's user avatar
  • 11.7k
11 votes
4 answers
6k views

Good Alternatives to Windows Task Manager [closed]

Does anyone know of any good free alternatives to the standard Windows Task Manager besides the Resource Monitor? I'm looking for a lightweight program that displays detailed info about my CPU, RAM, ...
Aznfin's user avatar
  • 487
42 votes
2 answers
53k views

How do priorities work on task-manager and when should/n't I set this?

I've been setting some processes priority in order to see what it actually happens, but, guess what... Nothing; it all runs the same way... I found on Google that priorities are not really linked ...
Pablito's user avatar
  • 574
7 votes
2 answers
30k views

What can I do about 99% disk usage (only 0.9 MB/s)? [duplicate]

My new laptop is two months old, the first day I got this laptop I noticed this but I assumed it was a bug in Windows 8. However I still have this issue today after reformatting and installing all ...
Ryuk's user avatar
  • 71
16 votes
6 answers
19k views

"Task Manager" addon for Firefox? [closed]

Are there any addons for Firefox that can replicate the performance monitoring of Task Manager in Windows - seeing memory and CPU used - but for all the tabs in the current Firefox session? I want to ...
eidylon's user avatar
  • 1,769
61 votes
3 answers
8k views

Can I make Ctrl+Alt+Del go directly into the task manager in Windows 7?

I am using Windows 7 and when I press Ctrl+Alt+Del I first go into the welcome screen and only then I can go into the task manager. I have no use for any other option on this screen, can I change it ...
Belgi's user avatar
  • 767
60 votes
4 answers
47k views

How to find which tab a particular Chrome process refers to

I often have 6 or 7 separate Chrome windows open, often with 5-10 tabs in each. When I look at Windows Task Manager, I see each chrome.exe process, with some using a large amount of memory. How can ...
George's user avatar
  • 603
23 votes
5 answers
49k views

Tool which finds which process is causing the heavy hard drive activity?

Sometimes my Windows 7 system is accessing the hard drive heavily for several minutes and it slows down the machine considerably. Is there a tool which tells me which process is causing it? That ...
Tony_Henrich's user avatar
  • 11.7k
5 votes
3 answers
3k views

Why doesn't Windows 8 Task Manager report the actual CPU frequency when Virtualisation is turned on?

In this question, I asked why the actual CPU frequency wasn't being reported in the performance tab of windows task manager. It turns out I had Virtualization turned on in the BIOS. When I disabled ...
user avatar
38 votes
2 answers
23k views

What is the secondary CPU Usage Graph line in the Windows 10 Task Manager

I was looking at the task manager in Windows 10 and for the first time noticed a secondary dashed line below the solid? What does this line indicate?
Brian Leishman's user avatar
34 votes
2 answers
25k views

Why does the windows 8 task manager seem to freeze?

Several times I've seen the task manager appear frozen in Windows 8. It doesn't update, and generally shows double-digit CPU usage. Closing it and reopening it doesn't usually help, but rebooting ...
Yostage's user avatar
  • 533
19 votes
13 answers
88k views

How to make windows task manager to show network usage?

I found that Windows 8 Task manager does not show network usage correctly: As you see, my torrent client downloads at a speed of 1 MB/s, while Windows shows zero. All adapters are disabled except ...
Dims's user avatar
  • 12.7k
16 votes
1 answer
22k views

Why is Windows 7 scheduled task running hidden?

I am migrating a system from XP to Windows 7. I ported a scheduled task that worked fine under XP to the Windows 7 environment by re-creating the job in the new scheduled tasks manager, and calling ...
tim11g's user avatar
  • 1,588
15 votes
4 answers
17k views

Kill process after it's been allowed to run for some time

I want to limit the time a grep process command is allowed to run or be alive. For example. I want to perform the following: grep -qsRw -m1 "parameter" /var But before running the grep command I ...
yael's user avatar
  • 539
12 votes
2 answers
49k views

RAM usage % on Task Manager lower than actual RAM

I have noticed an application I use quite often (Android Studio) is hogging my RAM and making my system slow if I dont close it. I have read up and see there is some kind of bug with it, this is fine ...
Big T Larrity's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
7k views

How to fix task manager memory column if it shows lies

I have a problem in showing memory in task manager with memory and paging columns. Why it shows so small size usage? And maybe anyone knows how to fix it? Here is a screenshot(working set, memory, ...
Viaceslav D.'s user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
10k views

Windows 8 Task Manager not reporting actual CPU frequency

Task manager reports 2.53 GHz, but CPU-Z reports 1192 MHz. My windows is a fresh install of the Windows 8 Pro Upgrade. When I used the Consumer Preview, task manager would report different ...
user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
48k views

What is Disk Active Time and how do I decrease it?

Looking at Task Manager in Windows, I see my hard drive is pretty maxed out on "Active Time" Empirically that seems to relate to when my hard drive is locked up, apps go grey, etc. (the rest of my ...
Eddie Parker's user avatar
  • 2,914
2 votes
4 answers
3k views

How to identify what is starting a process?

On my XP machine, a python.exe process starts every so on which takes up 100% of my CPU. I have to kill it from the task monitor.. How can one identify what this process is and how you can disable ...
Marcus Leon's user avatar
  • 3,045
2 votes
1 answer
7k views

Why does my SSD suddenly show up as HDD in the Task Manager?

My system’s 1 TB Western Digital M2 SSD shows up as an HDD in Task Manager. I did fresh Windows install couple days ago and it was showing just fine - SSD. Today when I booted and checked - it says ...
slejer's user avatar
  • 21
67 votes
5 answers
40k views

Why are there multiple Chrome instances running even though I only have one window (only one tab) open? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Multiple chrome.exe in Task Manager In Windows Task Manager it seems that I have multiple Chrome processes running, even though I only have one Chrome window open. How is ...
Piper's user avatar
  • 920
57 votes
4 answers
38k views

How can I determine what process a window belongs to?

Every time I start up windows vista lately, I see a random floating window. It is a tiny little window with no title, and only the resize, maximize and restore buttons. I'd post an image, but I don't ...
captncraig's user avatar
41 votes
5 answers
16k views

Can Task Manager show the total memory usage for a group of processes?

Some applications like Google Chrome and TweetDeck show up as several processes in Windows Task Manager. This means that the memory reported in each row is only part of the overall amount used by ...
Liam's user avatar
  • 3,060
36 votes
9 answers
225k views

Run Task Manager as another user (administrator)

Is it possible to run the Windows Task Manager as another user, for example, as an administrator? Our users run with limited privileges, so it would be helpful if I could use Task Manager as an ...
Brenton Taylor's user avatar
33 votes
3 answers
76k views

On Windows, how can I gracefully ask a running program to terminate?

On Unix or Linux, it's easy to gracefully ask a running application to terminate: you send it the SIGTERM signal. If its process ID is 1234, you can simply run kill 1234 or kill -s TERM 1234 or kill ...
unforgettableidSupportsMonica's user avatar
32 votes
2 answers
46k views

What's the easiest way to save Task Manager's Processes tab as a CSV file?

I want to get the information in the Task Manager's Processes tab into Excel. I want to do this because I am trying to make an image to deploy to a few workstation and need to see what I should ...
paradroid's user avatar
  • 23k
20 votes
4 answers
47k views

How do I permanently set the affinity of a process?

I have a game that has issues with CPU usage, so one of the fixes is to disable one core out of a quad core cpu. Since everytime I launch the game I have to manually go into the Task Manager and ...
yuritsuki's user avatar
  • 1,678
17 votes
2 answers
14k views

What are these different kinds of memory usage in Windows 7 task manager?

In Windows 7's task manager, I can select different columns to show. There are a bunch that are related to memory and memory usage, but I'm not sure what it all means. I have a Dutch installation of ...
Simon Verbeke's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
64k views

Handles vs Threads vs Processes

Is there a difference between a thread and a process? I am trying to understand the calculations of the system data listed in the performance tab. Handles: 48097 Threads: 1602 Processes: 99 Up Time: ...
JohnNg's user avatar
  • 395
11 votes
1 answer
9k views

Save processes priority settings?

Is there anyway to save the processes priority settings in Windows 7 instead of opening the task manager in every session and doing it manually?
Adrian de Anda's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
32k views

What does "I/O Reads or Writes" and "I/O Read Bytes or Write Bytes" mean?

In Task Manager (and Sysinternals' Process Explorer) there are columns called "I/O Reads", "I/O Writes", "I/O Read Bytes" and "I/O Write Bytes". So what do these counters mean exactly? What else, ...
skr3am's user avatar
  • 91
7 votes
5 answers
14k views

Windows 8 task manager, on Windows 7

As the MSDN Blog explained in great detail, the Windows 8 Task Manager is a big leap from the Windows 7, Vista (and especially the XP)version. Is there a way for me to run the Windows 8 Task Manager ...
wizlog's user avatar
  • 13.3k
4 votes
3 answers
4k views

Why the Task Manager automatically does not start from the Startup folder at user log on?

I want the Task Manager to be able start automatically each time when user login to the Windows. The following article describes how to Add an app to run automatically at startup in Windows 10: ...
Jackdaw's user avatar
  • 1,212
4 votes
1 answer
28k views

Window 8 : RAM usage (committed memory) [duplicate]

I have a 4 GB RAM memory. In task manager you can see tha Committed memory is 5,6/7,9 GB RAM. Why that if In use memory is just 3,1 GB ? Is Windows using the Page File ?
vovahost's user avatar
  • 313
3 votes
1 answer
18k views

How can I recognize a running batch file in task manager?

I run a few batch files as SYSTEM (as services) and they appear as cmd.exe in tasklist. Sometimes I need to terminate one of them but I cannot decide which cmd.exe to terminate. Plus; I run many ...
Nime Cloud's user avatar
  • 1,171
3 votes
2 answers
264 views

I can't remove a tiny window

There is a tiny window that I am unable to identify or close. It is big enough for me to move but I can't seem to stretch it to make it bigger, I can't close it. It does not appear to be any of the ...
Joseph U.'s user avatar
  • 133
3 votes
5 answers
13k views

How can I configure the Windows 7 Task Manager to always display processes from all users?

How can I configure the Windows 7 Task Manager to always display processes from all users? I don't want ot always have to click on the button in the bottom left corner.
Mark's user avatar
  • 3,159
2 votes
2 answers
170k views

Task Manager shows high power usage while gaming

I turned on my computer today and all of a sudden my power usage was spiking for everything. Not just in games but when i open task manager and watch videos... I have never seen this happen on my ...
Sam1us's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
3 answers
8k views

Disable task manager for restricted user on Windows 7 Home Premium

Anybody know how? So far all I've been able to do is disable the task manager for the admin user. I used the following registry key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\...
R.K.'s user avatar
  • 178
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

How do I check the amount of memory my program uses in vista's task manager?

The columns in xp's task manager differ from the ones in vista/7 and that's why I'm asking that question.Which column in vista's task manager shows the amount of memory that a program had allocated?
Ivan Prodanov's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
669 views

Why does my Task Manager window outline keep disappearing? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Task manager menu, titlebar and tabs have disappeared I'm not sure what the proper term for the window outline is (chrome, I think?), but it keeps disappearing. As you can ...
Brandon's user avatar
  • 419
1 vote
2 answers
4k views

Unknown Process in TaskManager and cannot be removed

I have just found an unknown process in Task Manager. I have scanned my system with Windows Defender on Windows 8.1 and it could not detect any issues. But there is something there that shouldn't be ...
jay_t55's user avatar
  • 548
0 votes
1 answer
414 views

Weird "Local Address" in lots of processes

I noticed a weird address in the Local Address column in the Network tab of Process Hacker in lots of program that work with internet connection (like chrome, firefox, dropbox, thunderbird etc..). ...
Gruber's user avatar
  • 449
0 votes
3 answers
363 views

what could be cause of my slow running laptop on windows 10

I am having a laptop which has 12 GB of RAM. Intel Core i3-60060 CPU 2 Ghz it has become extremely difficult to use this laptop for some unknown reason. I am attaching a couple of screenshots which ...
political science's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
696 views

Task manager always crashes within a few seconds

This is the error report: Problem signature: Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: taskmgr.exe Application Version: 6.1.7600.16385 Application Timestamp: 4a5bc3ee Fault Module Name: ...
tallship's user avatar