How can I open and use Chrome Task Manager on Windows 10?

Google Chrome comes with a built-in Task Manager. Just like the Windows operating system, it gives you the statistics of all the processes running when using Chrome. The Task Manager has many options, including CPU usage, network consumption, and memory usage, among others.

One major difference that separates Google Chrome from other browsers is how it isolates the processes of each tab, extension or plugin. This explains why you can see up to 16 processes running with just one tab open.

Have you noticed Google Chrome behaving strangely, lagging or even crashing? This is one of the reasons why you need Chrome Task Manager on Windows 10 to troubleshoot issues affecting your browser.

How to open Chrome Task Manager

You can launch Google Task Manager in three simple methods via the Chrome browser.

Method 1: Using Chrome Menu

1. Open your Chrome browser.
2. Click the three vertical dots at the top-right corner of Google Chrome.
3. Go to “More tools.”
4. Click on “Task manager.”

Method 2: Using the tabs bar

1. Launch Google Chrome.
2. Right-click anywhere on the tabs bar.
3. Choose “Task manager” from the dropdown list.

Method 3: Using shortcut keys

The quickest way to access Chrome Task Manager on Windows 10 is via the shortcut keys. With your Chrome browser open, simply press Shift + Esc Keys.

How to use Chrome Task Manager effectively

Google Chrome uses the multi-process architecture where web apps and plugins are kept separate from each other, running their own processes – just like how an operating system works. The biggest advantage of this model is that, if a rendering engine in one web app crashes, it will only affect that particular tab, while the other tabs of the same site and the entire Chrome browser remain intact.

It also means the browser won’t stop responding in case of an exploit from a bug in the rendering engine. Since Chrome runs multiple processes, it also needs its own Task Manager to monitor how each web app and plugin is using the resources.

This makes it easier to kill apps or plugins that freeze without restarting the entire Chrome browser.

To launch Chrome Task Manager, use shortcut keys Shift + Esc. Google Chrome shows you all the running processes and an “End process” button to terminate any apps that are causing issues. To view more options, right-click anywhere in the Task Manager window.

You can also enable or disable options depending on the stats you want to view. Likewise, clicking the options in the header row allows you to sort the listed processes in ascending or descending order.

The main options shown in Task Manager are explained below:

• Task. This lists all the tasks that are open in your browser.
• Memory footprint. This option shows the amount of memory being used by the process that’ s currently running. This tells you which apps or extensions are using up the most memory.
• CPU. This enables you to see CPU usage in relation to the process that’s running in Google Chrome.
• Network. This column shows the internet bandwidth used by each process running in Chrome browser.
• JavaScript Memory. Here, you’ll see the amount of JavaScript memory each process is using.
• GPU Memory. This option shows the graphical usage of each running process.

How to end a process using Chrome Task Manager

The information shown in the Task Manager will help you determine which process is taking up too much space. The Memory footprint shows the exact amount of memory each process is consuming.

To end a process that’s causing Chrome to hang, select the task and click the “End process” button at the bottom of the page. This closes the app and frees up space which can be allocated to other tasks.

Using the Process per site command line switch

If you don’t want Chrome to create a new process for each tab you open, you can add the command line, –process-per-site, switch when starting Google Chrome. While the memory overhead will be less, it could also result in large renderer processes. This means, if one tab crashes, the entire Chrome browser will also crash.

To adjust the setting:

1. On your desktop, right click on Google’s shortcut icon.
2. Select “Properties.”
3. Make sure you’re viewing settings under the “Shortcut” tab.
4. In the “Target” text box, you’ll see the Chrome executable which ends with .exe.
5. Copy the command-line “–process-per-site”, and paste it after the .exe.
6. Click “Apply,” and then “OK.”

While ending the processes that have stopped responding might solve the issue of lagging in your Chrome browser, your computer’s performance might also affect smooth browsing. To improve the responsiveness of your apps and Internet speed, Auslogics BoostSpeed disables unnecessary services, thereby easing the load on memory usage.

Apart from repairing the Windows Registry to restore System stability, the tool has a feature called Real Time Speedup which optimizes your PC’s memory to enable active applications to run without glitches.