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How to Run Task Manager on Windows 11 (6-Ways)

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How to Run Task Manager on Windows 11 (6-Ways)How to Run Task Manager on Windows 11 (6-Ways)

A task manager is a system monitor tool that provides information about the processes and programs operating on a computer, as well as the machine's overall state.

 

Method 1: Run Window
To open the Run window, press Windows+R, then type "taskmgr", and then click "OK" or hit Enter. Task Manager will open up.

 

Method 2: Ctrl+Shift+Escape
Simply press Ctrl+Shift+Escape on your keyboard to bring up Task Manager.

 

Method 3: Ctrl+Alt+Delete
On the keyboard, press "Ctrl + Alt + Delete," you will see few options. To open Task Manager, select "Task Manager."

 

Method 4: Start Button
To open Task Manager, right-click the Start button on the taskbar. Select "Task Manager" from the menu that appears, and Task Manager will be launched.

 

Method 5: Command Prompt
Open the Command Prompt, type "taskmgr," and press Enter. Task Manager will launch immediately.

 

Method 6: Start Search
Click the "Start" button and then type "Task Manager" into the search bar. The Task Manager app should be the first result. To open the Task Manager, click on its icon.

63 Replies

Right click of Start button no longer has Task Manager - users of Windows need a stable/easy way to access this tool.  Numerous old standby tools have been changed or removed in Win 11 which is not a good way to keep customers. 

@trexhastinyarms 

@Stuck_forever it's unlikely. You'll probably be there for a long time. Probably until the Sun expands to envelope the Earth. If humanity survives that catastrophe, there's a chance we may reach the very brink of the heat death of the universe, where energy is dispersed over impossibly large distances and the last remaining efforts of humanity to scavenge energy from the dying universe are all devoted to keeping your laptop running in order to prevent your app from being extinguished.

Or you will discover one of the at least 6 other ways to end a task. But I'm betting on the former.

thanks i also got the answer from this post. 😊

@ammarjaved Over half a million views... You'd think something like this would garner some attention to the fact that Windows 11 is going the wrong way for users, that we don't want 10 clicks to get to something as simple as Task Manager (or Network Settings, for that matter...).

 

It's time to reevaluate your path with this clunky GUI.

TaskManager.jpg

@ammarjaved 

 

Best workaround for me to get back 1 click Task Manager. 

 

Navigate to TM file location C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System Tools and drag the Task Manager to Taskbar. Now Task Manager is 1 click open from Taskbar.

Right clicking the start button has task manager in the context menu in Win 11 now, no more context menu when right clicking the taskbar. @andsoitgoes 

Actually I have an idea for the windows development team. People coming from windows 3,1-95 area has some solid habits for buttons, menus, shortcuts etc. But microsoft hiring new generation developers, and these people don't have same habits with us. They easily killing some most used features for god knows which motivation. After windows 8, whole things gonna messed up. If I don't depend new hardware I definitely not switch new windows versions. Windows trying be more user friendly like macos. But actually its not working.

@akeremak I loudly agree - Microsoft is letting developers change how key functions work not understanding that literally millions of users have the old way hard wired into their brains already.  At minimum have an option to leave it work as it always did.   I managed teams of developers for decades and we always reviewed the value (or lack of value) in changes of how you access functionality.

While I'd like to have the Task Manager available from the taskbar context menu, it's not all that different to get it by right-clicking on the Start button, which is conveniently located on the taskbar. Get over it, maybe?

I suppose that's fine if you happen to use start, @rcharbon. But I'm afraid I use  Open Shell Menu.

@mdcleaver Then perhaps you should ask Open Shell Menu to add the functionality you want?

I could, but Microsoft should think about forgetful old fogeys like me who still have the old Windows trick in mind. I'm too old to remember a new one 😉

This right here. Oddly, it goes in opposite directions. UI is going towards removing usefulness so users don't mess things up. It takes seven clicks to get to actual network settings instead of other OS'es, right-click and you're in. On the opposite end, administrative tools aren't even being introduced anymore and instead, are pushed in to PowerShell as if that's anything other than a beta solution if it's not in a UI because it's called WINDOWS, not SHELL. The functionality is becoming a cell phone OS on a computing system, all while collecting "telemetry" and disabling people from fixing the issues simply. If Windows ran like iOS or Android, it might not be so bad, but it most certainly does not.

Stop making the desktop versions like cell phone OS'es. From Metro on up, the UI has lost it's way, and it's made apparent by the lackluster Windows 11 upgrade numbers. I get more requests to consider Mac and Linux desktops by the day because if Windows is trying to be iOS, just get iOS. Stop using cell phone developers and adhere to the universal UX design principals that have been around for a generation. And stop removing shortcuts. That's huge. You now need to have odd features enabled like Snap in the OS just to use keyboard shortcuts to move items from monitor to monitor with Win-Shift-Arrow.... such an odd choice.

So please bring back W2K UI so we can use the product again? I don't need news on my menu, I need Task Manager
And we haven't even started on the subject of the file manager in Microsoft Office. That has gone from being a simple tool to being an all-powerful monster that can be used for anything BUT finding, opening and saving files.

@michaelcookeHear, hear! I don't understand Microsoft's decision in this regard. It is not as if the presence of the task manager was intrusive or anything. On the contrary, it was quite useful when one of the apps (in my case, Outlook) crashed.

I just noticed that the 22H2 update to Windows 11 also adds task manger back to the taskbar tight click.

For me, it also broke all right-click move methods to recover off screen windows, but that is another issue.

@Mchael E alt/spacebar, then M for move, then arrow keys. Bit clumsy but works

 

It is not exactly the same. You can (it's back in Windows 11 now) right click anywhere on the taskbar, no matter where your mouse is just swip.to bottom of screen and right click, bang context menu with taskmanager. That is much smoother and less cumbersome than dragging your mouse over to the narrow section of the start menu that contains the star button.

@JoshuaCollinsMedia 

Of course you can do that.  The question is why can't you make the OS backwards compatible?  I've been using Windows since 2.0 and it's infuriating that Microsoft continuously modifies each release to move things around.  For god's sake look at how many times the command prompt has moved.  We want to spend time using the tool to do productive things not hunt around for solutions to inane interface mods.

 

You spend a career using a tool and continuously have to refigure where basic functions are located often for no reason.  Windows 11 could have easily kept the task manager popup menu option on the task bar.  And while we're at the taskbar, for some reason it can only be reliably anchored at the bottom, no longer right/left/top.  Why?

Please bring back the Right Mouse click to access the Task Manager.