Windows 8's Task Manager -- Slow as Hell.

[Armando]

Hi everyone. I searched the Web a bit but can't find any real discussion and solution to this problem... And not too many people seems to complain about it.

Since I bought a new laptop with windows 8 pre-installed, I've had to put up with a super slow Task Manager. After hitting ctrl+shift+esc, Task Manager takes between 10s and 60s to appear. Anything else is quicker than that! Again : note that the laptop is new and fairly powerful.

Anybody else has this kind of experience ? Any potential cure ? it's really annoying.

(Reinstalling Windows is out of the question here -- too long.)

[Carol Haynes]

Same here - even slow from the taskbar context menu. I did notice it was using over 20% CPU when it finally launched and then dropped back to nothing.

I absolutely hate the new task manager. I am sure it has better stuff in it than previous versions but I find it a confused layout, slow to use and one thing I really hate is that MSCONFIG no longer gives you a quick way to disable startup items - it sends you to task manager to fiddle with apps one at a time.

Haven't tried any of the alternative task managers but I bet some of them work better.

[Armando]

Ah! I'm not alone. 

There are a few good things about it, but just the fact that it's so s-s-l-l-o-o-w-w drives me mad. The whole idea of the task manager used to be "an application that always answers fast, no matter what"!  The weird thing is that I've read here and there comments about how responsive it is, etc. How can that be ? Here it's always been slow. I'm not using any special anti virus, and I use Comodo strictly as a Firewall for the days I'm traveling.

Haven't tried any of the alternative task managers either, simply because I've grown tired of maintaining an OS full of replacements for all the things that should just work... But I digress.

One thing I think I haven't tried consistently is launching it from the run "dialog". I might try that today -- I'm not holding my breath.

[Carol Haynes]

I am using Windows Defender and Windows Firewall (both preinstalled in Win 8 as standard)- so I shouldn't be having problems because of 3rd party security software!

[wraith808]

Mine takes a while when the processor is under load.  I haven't tried yet b/c I don't really use it that much (I use process explorer), but have you tried to increase the priority of task manager?

[Shades]

The first thing I do on a new installation of any Windows version is replacing the task manager with a tool called 'Process Explorer' from SysInternals.

Their software is so good that Microsoft bought them up and they made the programmer one of the lead Windows architects. It is free to use and portable. I know for a fact that I am not the only member here who does this. This software is so essential, I don't get why it wasn't used as replacement.

There is an open source alternative (also portable)...with a somewhat ill chosen name: Process Hacker. This one is also very good.

[x16wda]

You're right, it seems very slow loading the first time.  But bring it up again and it's faster the second and subsequent times.

That said I usually use System Explorer instead, and leave it running.  It has most everything I need and some of the features are handy (like the running history of processes, connections and events).  If I need anything else I can fire up Process Explorer.  I don't replace the default Task Manager with either, as they are both simple to get at when I need them.

[Armando]

@Carol: yup, that slowness is inexcusable.

The first thing I do on a new installation of any Windows version is replacing the task manager with a tool called 'Process Explorer' from SysInternals.

Thanks Shade. I use process explorer too from time to time -- especially when I need to find out what's keeping my external storage busy. It's always installed on my various machines. However, I (used to) launch taskmanager to rapidly kill tasks or check  ram/cpu usage of certain processes, etc. like most mere mortals. Process Explorer, while great, used to be slower --as in a few noticeable seconds slower. Now it's different though... Not because it's quicker, but because Task Manager has become unbearably slow.

Mine takes a while when the processor is under load.   I haven't tried yet b/c I don't really use it that much (I use process explorer), but have you tried to increase the priority of task manager?

By using e.g. "start /high" ?  Or by using the Prio utilitty (just found it by googling) ?

You're right, it seems very slow loading the first time.  But bring it up again and it's faster the second and subsequent times.

My experience is that it doesn't take too long before a re-run is slow again. And just remains slow, no matter how many times I rerun it. No idea what does that. Maybe atmospheric humidity.

[wraith808]

Mine takes a while when the processor is under load.  I haven't tried yet b/c I don't really use it that much (I use process explorer), but have you tried to increase the priority of task manager?

By using e.g. "start /high" ?  Or by using the Prio utilitty (just found it by googling) ?

You can just open the task manager and look for taskmgr.exe and right click on it and set it to high.

[Armando]

This would only work as a temporary measure, if I'm not mistaken. Isn't the priority reset each time the task manager is closed? The problem isn't so much the slowness once it's loaded, but the (long) time it takes for it to just appear.

Just now, it took 25s to show its face. Feels like I'm booting an OS or something.

[wraith808]

This would only work as a temporary measure, if I'm not mistaken. Isn't the priority reset each time the task manager is closed? The problem isn't so much the slowness once it's loaded, but the (long) time it takes for it to just appear.

Just now, it took 25s to show its face. Feels like I'm booting an OS or something.

Mine maintains it from boot to boot.  When I just checked, it was on high, and I haven't touched it in forever.

http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Process-Priorities-in-Windows-Task-Manager

I see that some say that doesn't do it permanently; not sure what governs that as mine seem to stay.

[Armando]

Thanks Wraith.
Strange. I thought Windows 8 (maybe vista and 7 too, don't remember as I was on XP right before 8 ) treated priority changes at the "instance" level, so to speak. In any case, I can confirm that priority changes certainly don't stick here.

You're right, it seems very slow loading the first time.  But bring it up again and it's faster the second and subsequent times.

You might be right about that. I'll have to experiment some more. What might happen is that I very often put my laptop in standby mode, which probably flushes the caches -- sorry if the term isn't perfectly accurate.
Still...

[Armando]

@Wraith : what version of Windows are you on ?

[wraith808]

@Wraith : what version of Windows are you on ?

Windows 7 - 32-bit and 64-bit (on different machines)

[Vurbal]

You're right, it seems very slow loading the first time.  But bring it up again and it's faster the second and subsequent times.

That said I usually use System Explorer instead, and leave it running.  It has most everything I need and some of the features are handy (like the running history of processes, connections and events).  If I need anything else I can fire up Process Explorer.  I don't replace the default Task Manager with either, as they are both simple to get at when I need them.

I use System Explorer as well, but I do use it as a replacement for Task Manager (on Win7 and Win8) and don't leave it running all the time. I find it particularly useful for tracking down problems with hanging applications, particularly in Windows 8. Very often when Task Manager shows you that a program is hung System Explorer will also show that the DWM.exe (ie the compositing window manager that runs full time now in Win8) is also hung. In other words what really appears to be going on is that the userland program is only hanging because it's waiting for the window manager. That's a pretty important piece of information for troubleshooting.

[Armando]

Reviving an old thread.  
Seems like Windows 8.1's Task Manager running got quicker (coming back from standby/sleep mode)! Something like 10x quicker.
Now you're talking.

[MilesAhead]

Reviving an old thread.  
Seems like Windows 8.1's Task Manager running got quicker (coming back from standby/sleep mode)! Something like 10x quicker.
Now you're talking.

I wonder if anyone tried the exe on 8.0?  I have 8.0 preloaded and there's no way I'd attempt to go to 8.1.

Right now I'm trying AnVir Task Manager Free since I saw it recommened someplace.  I haven't used it much yet though.  I liked DTaskManager but it only shows support up to Vista.

Edit:  and of course I have the SysInternals tools.

[tomos]

Yeah, I'm still slow to upload to 8.1 - see.
So I guess I better install Process Explorer, cause it's true here too: "Windows 8's Task Manager -- Slow as Hell"

[Armando]

I hate upgrading as it always brakes something. That's why I waited until March 2013 to leave XP.

The 8.1 upgrade (3 weeks ago) broke a few things (now working)

- Problems with all special folders (Documents, Music, Downloads, Videos, ...) : were reset to Microsoft defaults. So several applications couldn't find their configuration files as they were recreated elsewhere at start-up.
- Lost Wi-Fi but after rebooting 2 times (presumably after a few patch installations or whatever) it came back. And now it works well... But I lost a couple hours trying to figure out what the heck...
- Seems like my power management config were lost.

That said, I made 2 images of my drive on 2 separate hard drives before upgrading as I *never* trust any upgrade.

To summarize... Task Manager is now faster. : ) And I don't get to see the useless (for me) tiles at boot time.

[Help4u]

I tried opening as administrator and it opened in just a second so big help there!