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I noticed there is a status column in Windows 10s task manager where some processes have a symbol that looks like a leaf. I have no idea what the symbol could mean. There is no tool tip describing the symbol.

Screenshot of task manager showing the leaf symbol

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  • (Offtopic) What are the extra title bar buttons?
    – K.A.Monica
    Feb 17, 2019 at 20:37
  • @K.A not sure. I know that Actual Tools Window Manager has similarly looking. If they are this, then the left one is a different maximize button, the right is move to different monitor.
    – LPChip
    Feb 17, 2019 at 20:40
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    @K.A They are from UltraMon (not affiliated)
    – raznagul
    Feb 17, 2019 at 20:40

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Notice that your process has a > in front of it? If you click it, it opens the group to see what's inside.

You'll notice that you find a new process in there with the same leaf icon. This time, however it also has the word "Suspended" next to it, which is the tooltip you were looking for,

These processes are suspended because they are not actively used. This means that the process is not using any CPU but can be resumed at a later stage to work again without starting up. Windows manages the suspending/unsuspending of its core processes to make windows respond more snappy but not actually run slower because there are background processes that aren't being used.

Do note, the faster your computer is, the less likely it is that windows needs to suspend processes. So some users with fast pc's may not see any suspended process, while people with a slower pc may see a lot of them.

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    Do you have a reference for your last paragraph? What does faster mean? How does Windows determine whether my PC is fast or not? Is it related to GHz or to the number of CPUs, or both, or even Cache and RAM? Also, I don't understand, how suspending makes Windows react faster. In previous versions, processes were managed by priorities. Windows could simply give the "leaf"-processes a low priority so that they never run. There seems no need for suspending.
    – Thomas Weller
    Feb 17, 2019 at 13:57
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    @ThomasWeller A low-priority process is run x% of the time, all the time. A suspended process is run 0% of the time until it's unsuspended; while it's suspended, it's just data sitting around. "Fast" is related to how fast the computer is at running programs; it's related to all of those things you've stated.
    – wizzwizz4
    Feb 17, 2019 at 14:30
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    Why would a process that is not doing anything need to wake up in the first place? What is the difference between this function and the process calling MsgWaitForMultipleObjects with a rather short list of events to wake up for?
    – Simon Richter
    Feb 17, 2019 at 16:40
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    @SimonRichter The difference is that the latter logic has to be baked into the program and is a fundamental part of its behaviour. The former is something the OS does to programs that do not work this way. The end result is more or less the same.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Feb 17, 2019 at 17:03
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    Adding: It's a green leaf because it's supposed to focus on power management as a goal.
    – Jason C
    Feb 18, 2019 at 6:07

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