Where the Task Manager has gone in Windows 11 (and how to find it)
If you’re anything like me, you frequently check what’s going on in Task Manager to see what’s going on — maybe see why something is running slowly, see what’s consuming all the RAM, or check what’s going on in my network.
Update: 18-Jan-2023
Most of this article is irrelevant now, since the latest update to Windows 11 adds Task Manager back to the task bar:
So, you can get to it just as we used to back in the old days of Windows 10, by right-clicking the task bar. Enjoy!
In Windows 10, I used to get to Task Manager by right-clicking the task bar, and opening it from there.
In Windows 11, though, this is just a shortcut to the Taskbar Settings:
My muscle memory trips me up every time I click this to get to Task Manager now.
So, where is it?
There’s a few ways to get there.
- Ctrl-Shift-Escape keyboard shortcut
- Good-old Alt-Ctrl-Delete and selecting it from there
- Right-click the Windows icon on the task bar and find it in the menu
This last option is my new replacement that I’m training myself to use. Just right-click the blue ‘Windows’ icon, and in the middle of all the options is Task Manager.
It’s the same number of clicks that I used to use in Windows 10, I just need to be a little more precise where I click on the taskbar; so instead of clicking the task bar empty space, it’s now the Windows icon. Which, I guess, makes sense.
