Task Manager

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Windows 10 is full of small changes. One thing that I miss is having Task Manager autostart in the system tray. In XP, Vista and Windows 7, I had a shortcut to Task Manager in the Startup folder, set to start minimised. Task Manager appeared in the system tray, minimised, and took up no taskbar space.

Now, in Win 10, this does not work. Although I still have a shortcut to Task Manager in the Start-up folder, nothing appears to happen, and, with each restart, I need to right-click on the Taskbar to make Task Manager start. Even then, it’s a bit hit-and-miss whether the large, or the small, window opens, and whether Options > Hide when minimized is checked or not. Once it is set properly, it settles into the system tray, as I want it to.

Perhaps I am the only Lounger to whom this matters, but I can scarcely believe that. Has anyone found a way round this?

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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Does your shortcut still work if you double click it?

What is the path in the shortcut?

--Joe

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Yes, it does, though I should have checked that the shortcut was valid.

Path is: C:WindowsSystem32taskmgr.exe. Start in: C:WindowsSystem32

Thanks, Joe

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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What is the full path of the folder which contains the shortcut?

--Joe

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Joe – thanks.

This is the full path: C:UsersJMFAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsStartup. Nine other things launch as expected from that folder only Task Manager disappoints as described. Same behaviour on my MS Surface, and my wife’s Dell desktop, both just upgraded to Win 10.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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I tried this with a shortcut in startup and it did not work for me either.

What worked was creating a task in task scheduler that runs at user logon.

--Joe

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Joe – that sounds like a good idea. I’ll give it a try and report back, though it may be a couple of days before I can create a task.

Thanks,

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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It sounds like a lot of work for something that just takes two clicks anyway, but I suppose it’s what you get used to.

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It sounds like a lot of work for something that just takes two clicks anyway, but I suppose it’s what you get used to.

Or Ctrl Shift ESC via the keyboard.

Jerry

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Or Ctrl Shift ESC via the keyboard.

Jerry

CTRL+ALT+DEL still works as well but also gives you some other options – but I don’t mind risking RSI by clicking the mouse twice

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You could use a tm.cmd file in shell:startup instead of a shortcut. The tm.cmd file just needs start taskmgr in it.

However, if you don’t want to see a command window open and close briefly, use a tm.vbs file instead. It’s both neater (no visible window) and more flexible.

The contents of this VBS file for Task Manager to open normally should be:

CreateObject(“Wscript.Shell”).Run “taskmgr”,1,True

As an alternative, if you want Task Manager to start minimized to the Notification Area, use:

CreateObject(“Wscript.Shell”).Run “taskmgr”,0,True

Hope this helps…

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I had this problem beginning in 8.1. After much trial and error I found that a shortcut in Startup that pointed to a file named something.cmd with the following line worked:

start /min taskmgr.exe (Note the /min is optional -I just want it in the taskbar ready to go)

It isn’t so much that I hate the extra keystrokes to start it up, it’s that I like in in the taskbar immediately when I want it – before whatever is running away has left the building.

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I had this problem beginning in 8.1. After much trial and error I found that a shortcut in Startup that pointed to a file named something.cmd with the following line worked:

start /min taskmgr.exe (Note the /min is optional -I just want it in the taskbar ready to go)

It isn’t so much that I hate the extra keystrokes to start it up, it’s that I like in in the taskbar immediately when I want it – before whatever is running away has left the building.

Phil – thanks for this, which seemed to me a more elegant solution than creating a Scheduled Task.

Thanks to all who contributed.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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