Controlling the Task Manager window

By default, the Task Manager opens in “always on top” mode – so you can easily keep it in view while carrying out different tasks. You can change this by unticking the Options | Always on top menu item.

The two options below it aren’t quite so self-explanatory. “Hide when minimised” means that when you hit the minimise icon to hide the Task Manager window, its icon also disappears from the taskbar. It’s not lost, though: what you may not have noticed is that whenever the Task Manager is running, a small greyish square appears in the system tray (you might need to click the “Show hidden icons” arrow to see it).

This tiny square gives an at-a-glance indication of total CPU usage, and if you hover your mouse pointer over it, you’ll also see details of RAM, disk and network usage. Doubleclick on this little icon when Task Manager is hidden and the window will spring back into view.

If the “Minimise on use” option is enabled, Task Manager will automatically minimise whenever you use the right-click option in the Processes tab to “Switch to” a running program. We’re not sure why this is supposed to be useful, but the option’s been there since Windows XP so presumably someone must be using it.

After installing the May 2019 Update to Windows 10 you’ll also see one extra menu option below this. The “Set default tab” submenu lets you choose which Task Manager tab will open automatically the next time you launch the tool – so if you’re more interested in performance graphs than process lists, Microsoft has you covered.