Run task manager command line

We can open task manager by running the command taskmgr from command prompt.

Note that this command launches the task manager GUI. It does not provide task manager functionality in command prompt(CLI). In case if you are looking for some command line equivalent of task manager then tasklist is the right command for you.

Image Name PID Session Name Session# Mem Usage
========================= ====== ================ ======== ============
System Idle Process 0 Console 0 28 K
System 4 Console 0 248 K
smss.exe 1292 Console 0 428 K
csrss.exe 1572 Console 0 8,824 K
winlogon.exe 1600 Console 0 8,672 K
services.exe 1644 Console 0 5,300 K
lsass.exe 1656 Console 0 2,332 K
ibmpmsvc.exe 1840 Console 0 1,660 K
svchost.exe 1872 Console 0 5,652 K
svchost.exe 1920 Console 0 5,460 K
svchost.exe 292 Console 0 33,208 K
S24EvMon.exe 520 Console 0 15,504 K
svchost.exe 688 Console 0 4,084 K
svchost.exe 808 Console 0 4,296 K
spoolsv.exe 1236 Console 0 7,432 K
TPHKSVC.exe 1424 Console 0 4,396 K
svchost.exe 1476 Console 0 3,532 K
CcmExec.exe 1516 Console 0 17,036 K
cvpnd.exe 1660 Console 0 5,532 K
tpnumlk.exe 1956 Console 0 2,896 K
DOZESVC.EXE 2028 Console 0 1,192 K
EvtEng.exe 192 Console 0 19,256 K
PresentationFontCache.exe 320 Console 0 7,632 K
iPassPeriodicUpdateServic 432 Console 0 4,620 K
iviRegMgr.exe 508 Console 0 2,460 K
cammute.exe 360 Console 0 3,252 K
micmute.exe 652 Console 0 2,164 K
LMS.exe 680 Console 0 4,756 K
FrameworkService.exe 744 Console 0 11,204 K
mcshield.exe 932 Console 0 174,120 K

Below are some Questions asked by blog readers about taskmgr command.

How about some /switches to start in a particular tab?

unfortunately there’s no such switch with taskmgr command..It always opens with the tab that was active when taskmgr was closed last time…

Thanks for that…How about open Windows 7 Task Manager with “show process’ for all users” active?

That’s also not possible from command line as taskmgr.exe does not accept any kind of parameters. You may try tasklist command which is a non-gui equivalent of taskmgr.

Hi – the info above does close off what might have been a fruitless search but …
When I click the “Show processes from all users” button, I get the UAC panel and it shows Program Location as:
“C:\Windows\System32\Taskmgr.exe” /1
What’s that about (the “/1” I mean).

Thanks,
Brian Howe

Most programs do accept parameters even if they don’t do anything with them :p

It’s used (or was used) internally by Windows to determine how the taskmgr was started. (Though only the devs know why!)
Taskmgr.exe /n where n =
1 – ‘Show processes from all users’ button clicked in a non-elevated Task Manager .
2 – Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
3 – Ctrl+Alt+Del, click Start Task Manager.
4 – Right-click taskbar, click Start Task Manager.

It was probably a dev debug tool that is likely ignored in released versions and certainly doesn’t seem to make any difference.
Also, as ‘someone’ already said, (changing a single word!) ALL programs accept parameters but it’s up to them what they do with them.

How to display the Command Line in Windows 10 Task Manager

The Task Manager is one of the most helpful components of any Windows computer that allows users to manage non-responsive tasks and take care of the startup apps in a very convenient way. It can show various information about a running process. For example, you can find the CPU usage, RAM usage, Disk Usage, GPU usage, and much more. The Task Manager in Windows 10 v1709 now allows you to display the Command Line. Let us see how to do it.

Display Command Line in Task Manager

Open the Task Manager on your computer. You can right-click on the Taskbar and then choose Task Manager from the list. Now, make sure you are on the Processes tab and right-click on any process under the Name tab > select Command Line.

You will find a new column Command line appear under which you will be able to see the command line path for each process.

It would be visible for running apps as well as background processes.

You can repeat the same process in the Details tab. Head over to that tab, right-click on the top row. A Select columns box will open up.

Select the Command Line check box and click OK. The Command line column will appear.

While one can just right-click on a running process and get the file location, knowing the Command Line of every running process, can help you determine whether it is legit or malware and whether it should run or not.

A useful feature – but a pity that you cannot copy the path from the Command Line column.

How to open the Task Manager in Windows 10 (all shortcuts)

Task Manager is a great tool that helps you manage the way apps, processes, and services run on your Windows 10 PC. Before you can work with the Task Manager, you should first know how to open it. In this guide, we show you different ways of getting to it, not just one shortcut for Task Manager. The list includes eleven ways to start the Task Manager, so let’s get started:

1. Use the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keyboard shortcut

The fastest way to open Task Manager in Windows 10 is to simultaneously press the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys on your keyboard.

2. Use the Ctrl + Alt + Del keyboard shortcut

Another way to open Task Manager in Windows is to press Ctrl + Alt + Del on your keyboard. This keyboard shortcut displays a screen with several different shortcuts. Among them, you get a shortcut for Task Manager.

Click or tap on Task Manager to open it.

3. Use the hidden Win+X power user menu

Windows 10 has a “power user” menu called WinX, that’s filled with useful shortcuts. One of them is a Task Manager shortcut. Press the Win + X keys on your keyboard to open the menu, and then press the T key to open Task Manager or click on its entry.

If you prefer to use your mouse instead of your keyboard, instead of pressing the Win + X keys, right-click or press and hold the Start button, and then click or tap on Task Manager.

4. Use the Start Menu to open the Task Manager

The Start Menu from Windows 10 holds a Task Manager shortcut. Open the Start Menu and scroll through the list of apps, until you find the Windows System folder. Inside it, there’s a Task Manager shortcut.

5. Use the search to start the Task Manager

Click or tap on the search field from the taskbar and type the word task inside it. After a short while, Windows 10 begins displaying the search results. The first one should be the Task Manager. Click or tap on it or press Enter.

If you’d rather, you can also choose to speak to Cortana and tell her to “open Task Manager.”

6. Run the Taskmgr.exe executable file

You can also open Task Manager using its executable, which is called Taskmgr.exe. You can find it in the “C:WindowsSystem32″ folder (where C: is the drive where Windows is installed).

7. Use a desktop shortcut for Task Manager

You can create a shortcut for Task Manager, or you can download this shortcut that we have created for you and copy it to your Desktop.

8. Use the taskbar right-click menu to start the Task Manager

On your desktop, right-click or press and hold on the taskbar. A menu is shown, that includes options for customizing the taskbar, as well as a shortcut for Task Manager.

9. Run the taskmgr command in Command Prompt or PowerShell

If you prefer the command line, you can also use the Command Prompt or PowerShell to launch Task Manager. Open the command-line environment you prefer, type taskmgr, and press Enter.

10. Run the taskmgr command in the Run window

A relatively fast way of launching the Task Manager is to use the Run window*.* Simultaneously press the Win + R keys on your keyboard and then enter the command taskmgr. Press Enter or click/tap on OK, and Task Manager should open.

11. Run the taskmgr command in File Explorer

A similar method of opening the Task Manager is for you to use the File Explorer’s built-in command running features. Open File Explorer, type the command taskmgr in its address bar and then press the Enter key.

How do you open the Task Manager?

The Task Manager is a powerful tool that allows you to manage different features of the applications, processes, and services running on your computer. Knowing different ways to open Task Manager can prove useful in different situations. Before you close this tab, tell us your favorite method for opening this app. Do you know others? Comment below and let’s discuss.

Configure Task Manager to Display Full Path and Command Line of Running Processes

Out of all the built-in troubleshooting tools in Windows, Task Manager is probably the most useful tool. Almost every end-user knows what to do when an application stalls. They just fire up Task Manager using Ctrl + Shift + Esc and end the nonresponsive task. Also, Task Manager can be an extremely valuable tool to troubleshoot processes, monitor disk I/O rates or other system performance issues.

Task Manager’s Details tab lists all running processes. By default, it doesn’t display the complete path of the running processes and the command-line arguments used by those processes. This article tells you how to enable this critical bit of information in Task Manager.

Show Command Line and File path of Running Processes

To display the full file path and command-line of running processes in the Processes tab, in the Task Manager’s Processes tab, right-click the column header and enable Command line option.

Show Command-line column in Details tab

In Task Manager, click on the Details tab. Right-click the column header and click Select columns

Enable Command line and Image path name checkboxes and click OK.

Note that “Command line” field would show the image file path anyway. So, enabling the Command line column alone is sufficient.

The above instructions below apply to Task Manager in Windows 8 and 10.

Task Manager in earlier versions of Windows

Task Manager user interface appears a bit different in previous versions of Windows. For Windows Vista and 7, use these steps:

Launch Task Manager. From the View menu, click Select Columns… Scroll down the listing, select the following options and click OK.

• Image Path Name
• Command Line

(Fig 1: Task Manager showing Image Path Name and Command Line)

Note: You may also use Process Explorer or any other process viewer to see the path name and command line of a running process. You’d also like to read my earlier article titled What’s the suspicious Rundll32.exe process?

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Ramesh Srinivasan founded Winhelponline.com back in 2005. He is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for 10 consecutive years from 2003 to 2012.

Microsoft → Windows → Configure Task Manager to Display Full Path and Command Line of Running Processes

Show Command Line in Windows 10 Task Manager

Windows 8 and Windows 10 have a new Task Manager app. It looks completely different compared to Windows 7’s Task Manager and has different features. It can analyze the performance of various hardware components and also shows you all the processes running in your user session. However, it does not show the app’s command line by default. So you might want to tweak its tabs to show this information.

Windows 10’s Task Manager has some nice features, like a performance graph and startup impact calculation. It is able to control which apps launch during startup. There is a special tab «Startup» which is designed to manage startup apps.

Tip: You can save your time by creating a special shortcut to open the Task Manager directly on the Startup tab.

It is possible to make Task Manager show the command line of apps on the Processes, Details and Startup tabs. When enabled, it will allow you to quickly see which folder an app is launched from what its command line arguments are.

To show the command line in Windows 10 Task Manager, do the following.

1. Open Task Manager. If it looks as follows, switch it to the full view using the «More details» link in the bottom right corner.
2. Switch to the tab you want to add the command line information to.
3. Right-click on any column in the list of the app entries. The following context menu will appear on the Processes tab:
4. Click the Command Line item in the menu to enable the column. It will become visible.You can re-arrange columns if you want using drag and drop.
5. Repeat the procedure for Details and Startup tabs if required.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.