[HN Gopher] Today I learned you can pause the Windows Task Manag...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Today I learned you can pause the Windows Task Manager moving apps
       around
        
       Author : isaacfrond
       Score  : 246 points
       Date   : 2023-08-16 12:49 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theverge.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com)
        
       | doctorpangloss wrote:
       | Give me a way "taskkill /f /t" processes from the task bar, and
       | then I never have to visit Task Manager in the first place.
        
         | boomboomsubban wrote:
         | Didn't they just add one to the right click menu? There was a
         | story about it recently.
         | 
         |  _edit_ link https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36151607
        
       | wedd222 wrote:
       | > While I have your attention, you might also like to know that
       | you can spin the gear in Windows 11's Notepad app. It's like a
       | digital fidget spinner, and part of the many delightful little
       | additions to Windows 11.
       | 
       | Hey Microsoft, thanks for the spinner, but how about instead you
       | un-ruin right clicking in explorer and give me my corners back.
        
         | xnyan wrote:
         | Shift + Right Click shows the classic right click menu. I'd
         | prefer a setting to turn it off, but it's just muscle memory
         | for me now and I never see the new menu.
        
         | jaywalk wrote:
         | You can restore the legacy right click functionality in
         | Explorer with a registry hack:
         | https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/restor...
        
           | wruza wrote:
           | Pretty sure there's a WinTweak11 or something for all of that
           | already.
        
         | usrbinbash wrote:
         | How about they replace notepad.exe with something offering the
         | bare minimum of what Linux users get in the default text
         | editors of their Desktop Environments?
        
         | buggy6257 wrote:
         | Because as we all know as software engineers, Windows as a
         | whole is likely only written by a single team or maybe even
         | single developer, and thus multiple features cannot be worked
         | on at the same time, and thus you have to pick between these
         | two things.
        
           | userbinator wrote:
           | There's something called budget. People are being paid to
           | write frivolous crap, when those funds could've gone to
           | better uses. If you're someone who pays for software, you
           | want your money to pay for the things you want.
        
           | johnnyworker wrote:
           | That in itself is orthogonal to progress or regression. For
           | example, while one team could put a fidget spinner in
           | Notepad, another could ruin right-clicking in Explorer. Which
           | obviously raises the question if another team could be spun
           | up to incentivize the first team to distract the second team
           | long enough for a fourth team to swoop in and fix right-
           | clicking in Explorer.
        
             | yomlica8 wrote:
             | After that, you have a whale eat the whole let of them. But
             | then how do you get rid of the whale?
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | You ask Japan to conduct some research on it.
        
           | chikitabanana wrote:
           | >a single developer
           | 
           | you don't actually believe this
        
         | Dalewyn wrote:
         | I actually welcome the return of easter eggs because that was a
         | time when Microsoft programs were sincerely awesome.
        
       | nailer wrote:
       | Blogspam, direct link:
       | https://twitter.com/JenMsft/status/1691563112175165724
        
       | kongolongo wrote:
       | On Windows 11, task manager has a search function now!
        
       | rkagerer wrote:
       | Great feature, regrettably obscured by a lack of discoverability.
       | 
       | The norm used to be to show shortcut accelerators right next to
       | their menu dropdowns. That would naturally advertise those most
       | useful to the user, without getting in the way.
       | 
       | Tangentially, the correct way to present nifty tips like this is
       | NOT in a "tour of new features" wizard spammed at the user when
       | they're opening your app to try and get something important done.
        
         | gregschlom wrote:
         | > The norm used to be to show shortcut accelerators right next
         | to their menu dropdowns. That would naturally advertise those
         | most useful to the user, without getting in the way.
         | 
         | Yes to this. The Task Manager does have a menu entry for this
         | (View -> Update Speed -> Paused). If they had written "Ctrl" to
         | the right of "Paused" (as used to be the norm), it would be
         | much more discoverable.
         | 
         | (Incidentally, when I hold Ctrl and open that menu, the update
         | speed still displays what was selected before, e.g. "Low". So
         | the Ctrl thing was probably implemented as a hack that bypasses
         | the menu.)
        
           | nhinck2 wrote:
           | The shortcut text labels are for toggling or effectively
           | clicking that option.
           | 
           | This is for press and hold which has never had shortcut text
           | associated.
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | While a bit less convenient, Alt+V, U, P/N (and Alt+V, R) are
         | discoverable.
         | 
         | The bigger problem I see is that Microsoft programs don't come
         | with adequate documentation any more like they used to (which
         | was called "online help", though really offline in today's
         | terminology).
        
           | almostnormal wrote:
           | > The bigger problem I see is that Microsoft programs don't
           | come with adequate documentation any more like they used to
           | (which was called "online help", though really offline in
           | today's terminology).
           | 
           | It used to be delivered with printed documentation.
        
             | layer8 wrote:
             | Yeah, I didn't want go that far back, though I have fond
             | memories of the multiple ring binders for the MS Word
             | manuals. :)
        
         | whywhywhywhy wrote:
         | >"tour of new features" wizard spammed at the user when they're
         | opening your app
         | 
         | If you ever see these in an app it's a sign the team has a
         | talent problem. People actually with talent to solve problems
         | with the app would actually tweak the interfaces to make the
         | tools discoverable or better. Teams with low talent (Modern
         | Adobe etc) just work on spamming the front of house with
         | messaging (Written in web tech that flashes up as a white
         | rectangle first, obvs) in the hopes of changing user actions
         | rather than actually working on the product itself.
         | 
         | Once I realized this I see this everywhere and the products
         | that do it just never evolve or get better.
        
         | stetrain wrote:
         | > Tangentially, the correct way to present nifty tips like this
         | is NOT in a "tour of new features" wizard spammed at the user
         | when they're opening your app to try and get something
         | important done.
         | 
         | My favorite is when this happens in a tool I've used for years
         | just because I have a new account flag, like signing into Slack
         | at a new job.
         | 
         | Bonus points if it's completely unskippable or keeps happening
         | as you touch each part of the app during use.
        
           | Arrath wrote:
           | Ah my arch-nemesis, the unskippable, rigidly timed "How to
           | use the controls" tutorial that requires me to click ok to
           | advance through every control, at the beginning of _every
           | single one_ of the several dozen mandatory, annual training
           | modules that corporate requires I sit through.
        
         | albert_e wrote:
         | Yep ... or just putting this info (keyboard shortcuts) in the
         | "Help" menu which is the last item in a standard menu bar.
        
           | jbverschoor wrote:
           | Or just make it an actual menu item / command, because that's
           | what it is..
        
             | naikrovek wrote:
             | this is the correct way to expose keyboard shortcuts to
             | users. this is how it used to be done before UX people
             | started getting involved and following trends instead of
             | thinking about usability.
        
             | wongarsu wrote:
             | It is. On Windows 10 it's View -> Update Speed -> Paused.
             | On Windows 11 it's more hidden because the redesign got rid
             | of the menu bar, but you can still find it by clicking on
             | the gear icon in the bottom, then changing the "real time
             | update speed" dropdown.
             | 
             | Maybe a big "pause" button next to the "end task" button
             | would have been better, but it's not _that_ undiscoverable.
             | It 's certainly easier to find than the option to show
             | additional columns in the details view, like gpu memory
             | used, the full command line, or total CPU time.
        
               | tom_ wrote:
               | The shortcut isn't shown though, possibly at least in
               | part because it's not a shortcut to that option. Try
               | selecting the Normal speed, then holding Ctrl, and
               | activating the menu - note that the Normal speed is still
               | highlighted. And yet the display is still paused!
               | 
               | (Of course, just because it's not a shortcut to that
               | option specifically, that doesn't mean that the current
               | solution of not showing this shortcut _anywhere_ is the
               | right one.)
        
               | JohnFen wrote:
               | It's undiscoverable enough that lots of people (including
               | myself) had no idea that this was possible, though!
               | 
               | Not saying that as a criticism of this particular
               | application. Discoverability is a very hard problem
               | (which is probably why the modern trend is to just give
               | up on it entirely). I'm glad that Microsoft didn't
               | completely neglect it here.
               | 
               | Edit: Does View -> Update Speed -> Paused do what it
               | implies? Does it pause all updates? because that's not
               | what I want here... what I want is to stop the reordering
               | of the items in the list, not to stop the updating of the
               | items.
        
               | myself248 wrote:
               | > the redesign got rid of the menu bar
               | 
               | This drives me batty, and it just feels like an insult.
               | 
               | For decades, the argument for sticking with Windows was
               | that it was a single stable UI/UX with lots of
               | established conventions. The same menus in the same
               | places, the same hotkeys worked everywhere, etc. Linux
               | couldn't claim that, was the pitch.
               | 
               | Since human time is the expensive part, it didn't matter
               | if the OS itself wasn't exactly performant, and we could
               | afford to throw hardware at its ever-more-bloated
               | footprint, because the investment in _human reflexes_
               | paid dividends whose value far exceeded some extra sticks
               | of RAM or whatever.
               | 
               | Now that hardware is virtually free and it _should_ cost
               | nothing to continue that legacy of consistency, they've
               | fucked it all up! Teams is completely unusable by
               | keyboard, the new UI skin got rid of all the menu bars,
               | lately I've found GUI elements that're _hidden until you
               | mouse over them_, like are they kidding?
               | 
               | I feel like I've been played for a fool. Every time I run
               | into one of these insults, it pisses me off way more than
               | the individual problem should, because it twists this
               | 3-decade-old knife in my gut.
        
               | wruza wrote:
               | _For decades, the argument for sticking with Windows was
               | that it was a single stable UI /UX with lots of
               | established conventions. The same menus in the same
               | places, the same hotkeys worked everywhere, etc_
               | 
               | Except for windows 98 control panel, windows 2000 control
               | panel, windows xp control panel, windows vista control
               | panel and windows 10 control panel and system settings.
        
               | wokkel wrote:
               | Thats what you get when you let a an effective monopoly
               | be run by baboons.
        
               | vxNsr wrote:
               | I knew everything was going downhill when I saw the
               | windows 8 back button. It looked like it'd been hastily
               | drawn by me in MSPaint for a school assignment. Nothing
               | was aligned, and the arrow was actually pixelated on my
               | 720p laptop screen
        
               | vxNsr wrote:
               | > _For decades, the argument for sticking with Windows
               | was that it was a single stable UI /UX with lots of
               | established conventions. The same menus in the same
               | places, the same hotkeys worked everywhere, etc. Linux
               | couldn't claim that, was the pitch._
               | 
               | And then Microsoft let their employees use any machine/OS
               | they wanted and all the designers promptly choose
               | MacBooks, and now Windows is slowly morphing into
               | macOSLite. Taking all the most annoying design concepts
               | from macOS and trying to unsuccessfully merge or replace
               | them with the very thoroughly designed and developed
               | Windows conventions.
        
               | david422 wrote:
               | Get rid of the menu bar to free up more space. Get giant
               | 4k monitors. Pad all the UI elements with extra space. It
               | just gets dumb.
        
               | baq wrote:
               | I've started to browse the web on 80% by default because
               | it's preposterous and ridiculous. I don't want fancy
               | designs. I want boring predictable accessible UIs with
               | maximum amount of information on one screen.
        
             | LoganDark wrote:
             | I wish more operating systems had adopted macOS's feature
             | to search through menu bar items, which also automatically
             | points to where it is in the menu.
        
         | graypegg wrote:
         | Oh god you've hit a nerve. I've never learned anything useful
         | from a forced tour.
         | 
         | I've been in meetings where we're discussing adding these, and
         | the intentions all seem to be "we want to help users find
         | things" but they're somehow totally ineffective at that job.
         | 
         | ALL the information at once, presented in a way you can't leave
         | or return, is just the wrong solution. I honestly think it's
         | just assumed these help users because someone saw some other
         | product use it once.
        
           | sublinear wrote:
           | Forced tours strongly remind me of bad presentations given by
           | people trying to wipe their hands clean of responsibility.
           | 
           | They don't want to admit their monolithic UI is a mess. I
           | miss the days when apps were much simpler and bundled
           | together as a suite instead of one foolishly consistent...
           | thing.
        
         | RajT88 wrote:
         | These kinds of features are what breaks in new Windows
         | releases.
         | 
         | For example: in windows explorer you can start typing the name
         | of the file and it will character by character match it to a
         | file. This got reduced to just the first character when Win11
         | shipped (now fixed).
        
           | entropie wrote:
           | This is a very old feature. Iam pretty sure that was around
           | since like win 98 or even 95.
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | wolpoli wrote:
           | This feature will likely completely disappear once that part
           | of Explorer is rewritten.
        
           | baq wrote:
           | Did the same guy also made the start menu search 'more
           | maintainable' in the same fashion? I've had to install power
           | toys to get working app search.
        
         | david422 wrote:
         | Reminds me of macOS menus. Hold down the option key and some
         | menu items change. Like, what?
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | orbital-decay wrote:
           | Windows is also like that - Shift + right click presents a
           | different context menu on Explorer icons, taskbar shortcuts,
           | and probably in some other places.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | HeckFeck wrote:
         | > NOT in a "tour of new features" wizard spammed
         | 
         | Oh man, if there's any way to guarantee I won't notice your
         | features, that's it. Please also freeze half the app and jump
         | your wizard modal around the screen so I've no easy way to
         | dismiss it.
         | 
         | And the only thing worse is games having cutscenes that explain
         | 'feature X' in 'BOOMING EPIC VOICE' for everything I click in
         | the menu. Looking at you, Back4Blood.
        
       | user070223 wrote:
       | My tip: download sysinternals procexp(taskmgr with more features)
       | (or download the entire suite, possibly from the microsoft
       | store), on the menu you have the option to permenantly replace
       | the taskmgr
        
       | spiralx wrote:
       | The guy who wrote the original Task Manager has a video about how
       | it came to be, how it works and some of the "hidden" features
       | such as the one in the article:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve95Nh690l0
       | 
       | He's also got a new video trying to see how the NT4 Task Manager
       | handles 32 CPU cores lol.
        
       | lurtbancaster wrote:
       | I only discovered this because of an accidental keyboard
       | malfunction ~10 years ago.
       | 
       | I pressed Ctrl+Shift+Escape to open Task Manager. And then I was
       | confused that the list wasn't moving around. Sorted by CPU usage
       | and still, the list just wasn't updating.
       | 
       | Thought I'd discovered some rare bug. So I closed task manager
       | and then when I tried to open it up again using
       | Ctrl+Shift+Escape, I realized the Ctrl key was already pressed.
       | 
       | Thank you to the grime in the walls of the key housing of my Ctrl
       | key in my uncleaned membrane keyboard. Wouldn't have discovered
       | this feature without you.
        
         | HeckFeck wrote:
         | A bit like how we discovered sticky keys from hammering 'Shift'
         | while playing full screen games on Windows 98. Cost me more
         | than a few lives...
        
         | bentcorner wrote:
         | I just realized I've been triggering this accidentally for
         | months if not years. Every so often I'd notice that Task
         | Manager would stop updating and I always thought it was some
         | kind of bug where the "Update period" would get set to
         | "Paused". All this time it was because I pressed Ctrl.
        
       | ChoGGi wrote:
       | I always just went to the menu and changed refresh time, but this
       | will make it easier.
        
       | sphars wrote:
       | From the comments on the verge's article: if you hold down the F5
       | key, it'll increase the refresh speed. Not sure why you'd want
       | the refresh speed higher though...
        
         | WorldMaker wrote:
         | There's also View > Update Speed > High and you don't need to
         | hold a key.
         | 
         | Faster refresh can help if you are debugging certain types of
         | processes. (Though you probably want a real performance testing
         | tool at some point if you are doing that a lot.)
        
         | netsharc wrote:
         | F5 means refresh now, on Windows 7 opening the "View" menu
         | shows Refresh Now and the F5 shorcut key right-aligned. Geez,
         | where are all the shortcut keys, Windows 10?
        
       | nottorp wrote:
       | > Microsoft is working on a force quit option to close apps
       | without the Task Manager in Windows 11 simply from a right-click
       | option in the taskbar.
       | 
       | When did they put that in os x? In 1.0?
        
         | wombat-man wrote:
         | The taskbar. I think the equivalent in macos would be force
         | quit from the dock which I don't see. Just quit.
        
           | david_allison wrote:
           | Hold 'option' and "Force Quit" appears
        
             | wombat-man wrote:
             | Ah
        
               | nottorp wrote:
               | If the app is frozen you also get 'force quit' directly.
        
       | danjc wrote:
       | Ya know what else jumps around - the contents of the stupid start
       | menu. Super irritating when the wrong app starts because as you
       | clicked, it reshuffled to render additional items that loaded
       | async.
        
       | elorant wrote:
       | If you sort by name the UI remains stale.
        
       | bluedragontea wrote:
       | Task Manager is missing "filter by name" which Sysinternals
       | Process Explorer has.
        
         | jaywalk wrote:
         | Windows 11 has it.
        
       | toss1 wrote:
       | This is great! It would be much better if they made it more
       | discoverable.
       | 
       | What I miss most is the ability in earlier TaskMgr versions to
       | select an app and Switch To that app (RtClick menu). Far more
       | convenient way to see _IF_ I need to kill the app or whatever
       | other action.
       | 
       | It'd be really cool to have that back with this newly discovered
       | (to us) Ctrl-to-pause function.
        
       | eob wrote:
       | There used to be a hack to get around password protected screen
       | savers in which you'd do the following (IIRC):
       | 
       | - Drag the password window around the screen furiously
       | 
       | - Press Ctrl-Alt-Del as you did it
       | 
       | I think it would just dump you straight to the desktop.
       | 
       | I remember doing it in Circuit City as a kid to access computers.
        
       | lapsis_beeftech wrote:
       | I prefer to keep the task manager processes sorted by PID, that
       | way the order is stable with new processes appearing at the end
       | of the list.
        
         | alliao wrote:
         | been playing that I'm the OS game and this comment brings joy
        
       | userbinator wrote:
       | I wonder how long that has been there? But View -> Update Speed
       | -> Paused has been there since the beginning and it's much more
       | discoverable.
        
       | almostnormal wrote:
       | Is it a feature of the task manager itself? Or possibly a feature
       | of the list, which switches to multi-select mode wheb ctrl is
       | held?
       | 
       | If the latter is true, it might work in explorer, too, which
       | shuffles files around when displaying network drives or directory
       | entries change.
        
       | dmccarty wrote:
       | It's a nice little tip, although I have to question any article
       | that claims task manager items are "randomly moving around."
       | 
       | FWIW I always assumed anyone who really cared about this stuff
       | was using Sysinternals's excellent Process Explorer instead.
        
         | genocidicbunny wrote:
         | I don't think I could even describe what the current Task
         | Manager window looks like because I've been using Process
         | Explorer as a replacement for probably a decade now.
        
         | Slackwise wrote:
         | > I have to question any article that claims task manager items
         | are "randomly moving around."
         | 
         | "Randomly" is colloquially used to mean "chaotically" in a lot
         | of contexts, and the chaotic they mean is "unpredictable enough
         | as to seem or feel random".
        
         | roelschroeven wrote:
         | Or Process Hacker (https://processhacker.sourceforge.io/) which
         | IMO is even better.
        
       | threeboy wrote:
       | You can also just sort by name.
        
       | drumhead wrote:
       | I did not know this, but now I dont have to play the whack-a-mole
       | catch the app to kill it game anymore.
        
       | brudgers wrote:
       | Clicking on the Name column also works.
        
       | isaacfrond wrote:
       | I've used that app for 20+ years. And cursed the moving around
       | apps all that time. Turns out there is a single keyboard click
       | trick to avoid it (press CTRL, that is). I feel a bit stupid now.
        
         | stevenwoo wrote:
         | I think I've used Windows since the beginning and I don't think
         | it's anything to be ashamed of - there is no status update on
         | the user interface (at least on my Windows 10 Task Manager) to
         | indicate that pressing CTRL has any effect - it's like a
         | precursor to all those hidden multiple finger/movement gestures
         | on modern phones except with possibly less discoverability.
        
         | seanp2k2 wrote:
         | You're not the stupid one, their UI designers / devs are for
         | hiding a useful feature and making the default UX suck.
        
         | fortyseven wrote:
         | It's not intuitive. Not your fault. No reason to have guessed
         | that.
        
         | leptons wrote:
         | Sorting by "Name" also achieves more or less the same thing.
        
         | ourmandave wrote:
         | Maybe it will be a question on your next DevOps job interview.
        
           | karakot wrote:
           | yes, a good example for a bad question.
        
             | seanp2k2 wrote:
             | "Do you recall __X obscure fact__" just like too much of
             | standardized testing.
             | 
             | Edit: another example would be something like judging
             | someone on if they remember the option name in an API call
             | for a specific library. Trivial to google. Whiteboard
             | interviews for stuff like this are asinine.
        
         | mynegation wrote:
         | I haven't used windows in a while, I believe I just sorted by
         | the name column to put everything in a fixed place.
        
           | Novosell wrote:
           | Yeah, I did precisely the same thing. I'm floored that people
           | have suffered from this "issue" to be honest.
        
           | sphars wrote:
           | If you're looking for a specific program/app, then this is
           | the way. But what the article is talking about is when
           | sorting by the CPU column (for a high usage app), as
           | everything jumps around quite a bit.
        
             | toast0 wrote:
             | My pattern was sort by whatever usage to identify the app I
             | want to interact with; if it's constantly at the top, easy
             | peasy; if not, I can now sort by name, because I'm looking
             | for a specific program.
        
             | akira2501 wrote:
             | The real problem is "instantaneous CPU usage" is pretty
             | useless to users. It'd be like trying to judge the speed of
             | my car solely by gear ratio and engine RPM. Perhaps some
             | gauge to show me the actual derivative value would be
             | smarter.
        
               | TheSpiceIsLife wrote:
               | If you know the gear ratio (ok, and diff ratio, and wheel
               | circumference) and engine RPM, you can derive the speed
               | with high confidence.
               | 
               | Perhaps what you meant was _solely by the engine RPM_.
        
               | gnatman wrote:
               | If I'm exiting the highway into a 35-mph zone, I don't
               | want to derive my speed with high confidence from 4 other
               | numbers, I want to see that pertinent number directly.
        
               | akira2501 wrote:
               | The other point would be is that derivatives can provide
               | low pass filtering. The "high frequency" components of
               | "CPU usage" are not useful to me.
        
             | mixmastamyk wrote:
             | Sorting by mem usage will show the big apps which 99% of
             | the time will also be the ones using cpu time. Still, this
             | trick is neat.
        
         | kodra wrote:
         | Why do you feel stupid? There is absolutely zero
         | discoverability.
         | 
         | But you should've probably discovered View -> Update Speed :)
        
       | 2devnull wrote:
       | I've always enjoyed trying to click the moving apps, like a
       | little video game I get to play to break up the monotony of my
       | computing adventure.
        
       | robotnikman wrote:
       | So many times this feature would have come in handy for me, glad
       | to find out about it!
        
       | usrbinbash wrote:
       | > Microsoft is working on a force quit option to close apps
       | without the Task Manager in Windows
       | 
       | It always amazes me how things that have been standard features
       | in Linux Desktop environments, usually for a long time, are big
       | news in the Windows world.
        
         | bozhark wrote:
         | Apples to Androids
        
         | devnullbrain wrote:
         | It's a necessary development: it's tough for Microsoft
         | employees to get their work done when programs keep on crashing
         | Explorer.exe and then Task Manager becomes unresponsive too.
         | 
         | Hopefully they'll run into some friction using NTFS so we can
         | start modifying files that are in use.
        
       | drsopp wrote:
       | I miss user manuals.
        
       | gsuuon wrote:
       | I really wish filtering could optionally include matching
       | processes' children
        
       | denysonique wrote:
       | The equivalent in htop is Shift+Z
        
         | TRiG_Ireland wrote:
         | The problem with htop is that it's a normal program, so when
         | your computer's freezing you can't start htop. The Task Manager
         | is the one thing I miss from Windows. No matter what kind of
         | broken state the computer was in, you could always start the
         | Task Manager.
        
           | usrbinbash wrote:
           | > No matter what kind of broken state the computer was in,
           | you could always start the Task Manager.
           | 
           | The only thing that can prevent me from accessing htop, is a
           | kernel panic.
           | 
           | Because, even if the Desktop Environment crashes or freezes
           | (Can't even remember the last time that happened), I can
           | always switch to another virtual console with Ctrl+Meta+F2,
           | login and run any program from there, including starting
           | another DE instance.
           | 
           | And in the equivalent of a kernel panic in windows (BSOD),
           | the Task Manager is inaccessible as well.
        
           | actuallyalys wrote:
           | I don't think it is quite as reliable as the task manager but
           | on some (most?) Linux distributions you can use control-alt
           | plus function keys to switch away from the graphical user
           | interface to one of the ttys. Some issues affecting your
           | display or window manager can be fixed that way.
        
         | thangngoc89 wrote:
         | Thanks. It's a real struggle to kill the process you really
         | want when it keeps jumping.
        
           | WithinReason wrote:
           | Maybe it's trying to escape
        
         | pluijzer wrote:
         | First thing I did when opening the comments was searching for
         | 'htop', I was sure somebody would teach me how to do it there.
         | It did not disappoint. I was always annoyed by it, never
         | occurred to me to look for a solution.
        
       | gagged_s_poster wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | omnibrain wrote:
       | And if you want to kill a specific task, you don't have to "right
       | click->end task", you can instead just press "del".
        
         | jmlim00 wrote:
         | Neat, but then I need to move my right hand off of the mouse.
         | My go to is Alt + E
        
       | wruza wrote:
       | Or they could, you know, put a play/pause button somewhere in the
       | ui.
       | 
       | If discovered myself, and knowing what Windows is, I'd rather
       | think that pressing Ctrl simply breaks the WindowProc somehow
       | than assuming it's its intentional function.
        
         | somat wrote:
         | view / update speed / paused
        
           | vxNsr wrote:
           | Did this once, then forgot and then was very confused why it
           | would only update if I held down f5. Took like a week for me
           | to remember/realize.
        
       | zwieback wrote:
       | Wow, my life was a lie! I always sort by name and then scroll but
       | will adopt this now.
        
         | tgv wrote:
         | Sorting, then filtering by name was my goto.
        
           | naikrovek wrote:
           | how do you _filter_ in Task Manager?
        
             | xnyan wrote:
             | It's a feature of the latest version of task manager. I
             | don't know of any way to do it with the win10 task manager,
             | but you can always "Get-Process | Out-GridView" which will
             | present a GUI process info table with sorting and a filter.
        
               | zwieback wrote:
               | Also, tasklist and taskkill work for the most common use
               | of killing zombie processes and you don't have to learn
               | powershell
        
       | hospitalJail wrote:
       | Too late, I already switched to linux.
       | 
       | It was death by 100 cuts, and the opaque memory management was
       | one of the cuts. I'd say 1 drive hijacking your file system was
       | 100 cuts. Cortana, in-menu candy crush ads/ragebait news, auto
       | reboot, edge default opening links, more cuts.
        
         | cam_l wrote:
         | Yeah, I switched too, but the task manager I use now is a bit
         | of a letdown compared to windows.
         | 
         | It always shows the same processes, just the base os and the
         | apps I installed and expressly start or autostart. There are no
         | new obscurely named processes constantly popping up after every
         | update. There are no rogue processes using 90% cpu, no
         | programmes hanging and crashing the window manager.
         | 
         | It's just all so predictable and.. well, boring. I almost miss
         | the excitement of never quite knowing what I would find in the
         | window task manager.
        
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