4 powerful tools you should use instead of Task Manager on Windows

Task Manager is one of the more useful tools for power users on Windows 11. Almost everyone uses it to some extent, particularly when an annoying app freezes and you need to kill it. For that usage, Task Manager does the job perfectly fine.

But if you want to get serious about managing your running processes, then you probably want to look into some alternatives, and perhaps surprisingly, there are quite a few of them. There have been plenty of tools for this purpose throughout the years, and I took a bunch of them for a spin to highlight the best ones you can use today. So let’s take a look at some of the options you should probably be using instead of the built-in Task Manager.

4

Process Lasso

Process Lasso is one of the simpler solutions on this list, but it doesn’t make it any less interesting. Much like Task Manager, Process Lasso lets you see all your running processes with a wide range of details, including their priority level, CPU affinity, number of threads and memory being used, and much more. You also get an overview of the CPU and RAM usage across your system, so you can keep an eye on the overall state of things.

Of course, there are plenty of ways you can use Process Lasso to change things, too. You can set a different priority level for each process, or select the CPU affinity for that process, meaning it will prefer running on a specific CPU core compared to others. Priority levels can be set separately for memory access and I/O access, and you can also trim a process’s memory usage, limit the number of instances, and more.

Process Lasso also includes a ProBalance feature that tries to monitor and enforce certain settings to ensure your PC keeps running smoothly, and there’s also a watchdog option that monitors specific processes and limits their resource usage according to your preference.

Related

6 diagnostic tools you need on your Windows 11 PC

If you are constantly dealing with performance issues on your PC, then you should always have these 6 tools on hand

There’s quite a bit to dive into here, and as a bonus, this app actually supports dark mode on Windows 11, so if you’re someone working on your PC day and night, you can give your eyes a bit of rest. It’s definitely worth checking out.

3

System Informer

If you want something a bit more pleasing on the eyes and more colorful, System Informer may be for you. Using helpful colored highlights, System Informer presents all your running processes with more quickly glanceable information so you can spot specific kinds of processes more quickly. And if you don’t like the default colors, you can customize them, which is always nice to have.

In addition to a helpful process monitoring view, System Informer lets you see an overview of your system resource usage, including CPU, memory, I/O, and GPU, with live detailed views on things like the total number of processes, threads, and handles, among other things depending on what you choose to focus on.

Other features include the ability to find an open window in the process list (with the option to kill it immediately), the ability to termiante “zombie processes” (programs that may be running despite not being used), and the option to upload a file to VirusTotal to make sure it’s safe to use.

There’s quite a bit going on here, and it’s easy to recommend this tool as well.

2

Process Explorer

Microsoft may not build the most powerful tool into Windows itself, but it doesn’t mean the company doesn’t know how to make it. Process Explorer is part of the SysInternals suite and it’s a much more advanced task manager than what’s built into Windows.

First off, Process Explorer is similar to System Informer in that it uses colored highlights to make it easier to identify specific kinds of processes, though it has the added benefit of also supporting dark mode so it’s a bit easier on your eyes. You can also customize the highlight colors to make it a bit more pleasant if you find the default ones a bit too jarring, since they are a bit brighter than System Informer’s.

Otherwise the feature is similar in many ways. You can see a quick overview of all your system resources at the top, and clicking any of the graphs lets you see a much more detailed view, including the option to view resource usage per CPU core. Similarly, it’s also easy to look up the name of a process online and, importantly, you can choose any running process to check it with VirusTotal, rather than having to browse File Explorer to find the file you want. Of course, things like setting CPU affinity and priority levels are also possible here.

Process Explorer is one of the most popular alternatives to Task Manager, and for good reason. It’s a lightweight tool, but it’s very capable.

1

Task Manager DeLuxe

Finally, we have Task Manager DeLuxe, which is probably my personal favorite of the bunch. It does lack the colorful highlights that make processes easier to spot (aside from some processes being shown with a red font), but still packs some very interesting features. You can see all your running processes and set their CPU priority and affinity according to your preference, as well as monitor I/O and RAM usage. You can also switch to a Service sview, or see detailed graphs on resource usage, whether that’s CPU, disk, RAM, or GPU.

One of my favorite things Task Manager DeLuxe offers is the Autoruns tab, which highlights apps that are set to run or launch automatically. This highlights a lot more processes than what shows up in the Task manager’s Startup tab, so it’s a good idea to check it out to really see everything that might be running on your PC that you might have forgotten about. You can delete unwanted entries from here, too, so it’s pretty useful.

There’s a bit more to it, like being able to see open windows for a given process, cleaning the process memory, and a desktop explorer overlay that identifies the apps and objects you move your mouse over, which may make it easier to find in the list of processes. You can also upload files to VirusTotal for verification, though you need to provide your own API key for it (which you can get for free with some limitations).

I wouldn’t necessarily say Task Manager DeLuxe is better than Process Explorer, but I do like it more, personally. It’s worth shot, but you’ll be well served with either one.

• Your changes have been saved

  

Who needs the Task Manager anyway?

No matter which one you go with, the big takeaway here is that you don’t need to limit yourself to Microsoft’s built-in Task Manager. These alternatives all provide some additional functionality that make it that much easier to manage your running processes and system resources.

And speaking of alternatives to the built-in Windows 11 tools, you might want to check out some of the many file managers out there. Third-party developers are putting in the work Microsoft won’t, andit shows how much better the

File Explorer
could be.

Related

The Windows File Explorer isn’t good enough — 5 file managers for power users

Microsoft could learn a thing or two… or more