In a perfect world, the average user should never need to enter the Task Manager. But in this world, we depend on software written by many companies, including Microsoft. That means crashes, errors, and spontaneous failures are inevitable, and that's when Task Manager comes to the rescue. Its original creator, David Plummer, recently shared on Reddit some tricks and little-known details about Task Manager and how it works…
At the end of March, I talked about the efforts of the Folding@Home project and its huge number of participants to fight COVID-19. But after spending more than two months with its client, I've learned it has a quirk or two. For example, there are isolated occasions where the folding process doesn't stop even when we order it, and the only way to stop it without restarting the computer is with the help of Task Manager. I imagine the 'taskkill' command should work similarly, but Task Manager makes the maneuver much easier.
Now, how well do we know Task Manager? Do we know how to use it to its full potential? In reality, this piece of software 'hides' features that most users ignore, and today they are exposed thanks to David Plummer, the original developer who created TaskMgr in 1994. Last week, Plummer visited the 'TechSupport' section of Reddit and shared some things definitely worth remembering:
Tips for Task Manager
- If Task Manager hangs or stops working, the Ctrl + Shift + Esc combination should run it again. Winlogon will try to revive an existing instance for ten seconds, and if TaskMgr doesn't respond correctly (using a secret code), it will open a new one.
- Task Manager is one of the few applications that won't suffer a catastrophic failure due to lack of resources. If the environment experiences a shortage, Task Manager will start in “reduced mode”, which reminds us a bit of “safe mode”.
- If Task Manager suffers any kind of internal corruption, close or kill the process, and restart it while pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift. That combination activates a sort of “hard reset”, returning Task Manager to its factory state.
- If all title bars disappear and you only get a graph, double-click any “dead” area of the client to return to normal mode. That function is associated with the old Windows NT clock, but it evidently caused more problems than it solved.
- Ctrl+Shift+Esc will run Task Manager without shell intervention. So if the Explorer.exe process ever crashes along the way and you need to open a new instance, a bit of that shortcut followed by the “Run” option will be more than enough.
- If the shell can't start something, use Task Manager It has a run mode that loads software without shell32.dll references, and allows us to open items like Command Prompt without a Start menu.
- Don't know the exact location of a process? Open Task Manager, right-click on that process, and select “Open file location” in the context menu.
- Another often-ignored detail: Task Manager is customizable. You can turn columns of information on and off at will with a right-click on each one.
- In theory, Task Manager should be able to kill any process, even elevating privileges if necessary. However, this behavior changed over the years, and there are certain system elements that resist TaskMgr.
Plummer's post doesn't end there. He also reminds us that he wrote the Space Cadet port for Windows, Zip folder support, the calculator (yes, calc.exe), the famous “product activation”, and more. Many years have passed since Plummer left Microsoft, but between car restorations and volunteer work in schools, he keeps programming. In fact, he has a YouTube channel with several projects.
