If you are like most Windows users, you probably only open Task Manager when something goes wrong. Maybe an app froze, or your PC fans suddenly started spinning loudly. But Task Manager is far more than a tool for emergencies.
It’s full of useful features that can help you understand your system, track down issues, monitor hardware health, and even tune how your apps use resources. It doesn’t matter what you use your PC for. Knowing what the Task Manager is really capable of can help you make the most of it.
Add more columns for deeper insights
Expand your view beyond the basics
By default, the Task Manager already shows key information like CPU, memory, disk, and network usage for different processes. But that’s not all. You can right-click on the column header and add even more tabs, such as GPU, Power usage, Publisher name, PID, and others.
These extra tabs can give you a clear picture of what your system is doing. For instance, if one of your apps is weirdly eating up GPU resources or drawing too much power, you can spot it right away. This works in the Details tab too. There, you can enable I/O reads, I/O writes, and I/O other to see how much disk activity your apps are generating.
Identify a suspicious process or find any app’s install folder
Spot trouble before it spreads
Beyond apps and programs, Task Manager shows all kinds of system processes and background services. These are usually easy to recognize by name, but some can look like random strings of letters. When the name alone doesn’t give you any clues, you can right-click the process and select Search online. It will pull up information about the process in your browser so you can tell if it is legitimate or malware.
Another useful option you’ll find in the same menu is Open file location. It’s incredibly useful when you want to find where an app is installed on your PC. It can also be handy if you come across a program that you don’t recognize and want to locate its uninstaller or dig deeper into what it is doing on your system.
Restart Windows Explorer to fix temporary issues
It’s not always necessary to reboot
While using a Windows PC, you might run into odd glitches like when your desktop freezes, the taskbar disappears, or File Explorer gets stuck on loading. In these moments, the usual reaction is to reboot the entire PC and hope for the best, but that isn’t always needed.
Windows Explorer is a process that handles your desktop, taskbar, and File Explorer. When any of these start acting strange, you can use Task Manager to restart the Windows Explorer process and get everything back to normal. All you have to do is right-click the Windows Explorer process in Task Manager and select Restart.
Set priorities for apps
Boost performance where it matters
There are times when a specific app needs more of your PC’s muscle than everything else around it. Perhaps you’re using a video editor that needs every bit of performance it can get, or maybe you want a game to run smoothly while background apps take a back seat. If so, you can use Task Manager to tell Windows to allocate more resources to that app or game. This can be especially useful on PCs with limited amounts of CPU and RAM.
In the Task Manager, switch to the Details tab, right-click the process you want to adjust, and go to Set priority. Here, you’ll see various options ranging from Low to Realtime. Choosing a higher priority tells Windows to focus more of its processing power on that app, while lowering the priority does the exact opposite.
Check GPU temperature and boot speed
Track critical stats
If you use your PC for gaming, creative work or anything graphically demanding, keeping an eye on your GPU temperature is a nice habit. The good thing is that you don’t need a third-party app to do this. In the Performance tab, you can select GPU to check the current temperature of your graphics card. This makes it easy to spot any overheating issues.
Task Manager also shows the Last BIOS time in the Startup apps tab. This number basically is the time your system took to initialize its hardware before Windows started loading. If you notice this jump higher than usual, it can be a sign of a slow-loading device or a BIOS setting that needs your attention.
Switch to classic layout or pin Task Manager always on top
Choose the layout that works for you
The Task Manager layout is modern but if you’re like me and prefer the old look, you can bring it back without any complicated tweaks. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box, type taskmgr -d and hit Enter. Of course, this one doesn’t have any transparency effects or dark mode, so it might feel a bit retro.
Finally, if you want to keep an eye on Task Manager to monitor usage while you go about your work, you can make it always appear on top. Head to its Task Manager Settings > General > Window management and tick the Always on top checkbox.
Task Manager may look like one of those boring tools, but once you know what it can really do, it will become your favorite. The more you explore it, the more confident you will feel about managing your PC.