How do I get back the old Task Manager (from Windows 7) in Windows 10?

windows windows-10 task-manager

17,106

Solution 1

The old Taskmgr is still part of Windows 8/10. It is part of the WinPE which is stored in the boot.wim on the DVD.

Winaero extracted the old Taskmgr and provides it in a download:

Solution 2

I cannot find any functionality that is in the Windows 7 task manager that is not in the Windows 8/8.1/10 task manager.

There are some differences with naming though:

The "applications" tab is now called "Processes".
The "Processes" tab is now called "Details" (and moved almost to the end), and I could enable more columns to sort by, just like the old one.
The "Performance" and "Networking" tab are both in the new "Performance" tab.
Two new tabs ("App history" and "Startup") have appeared.

Also, I don't think I have to tell you this since you mentioned improvements (and without doing this I wouldn't really call the new task manager improved), but I'm going to do it anyway just in case: Don't forget to click the "More details" button at the bottom if you don't see any tabs at all ;)

To answer the specific question about how to sort by path:

Right-click the column-headers, and select "Select columns":

Select "Image path name":

Solution 3

If you are truly unsatisfied with Windows' Task Manager (for any version/reason) then as an alternative I'd suggest using the well trusted Process Explorer from Microsoft.

17,106

Gravity

My rule: I upvote any question that was downvoted and no reason was provided for the downvote !!!! The decline of StackOverflow: https://hackernoon.com/the-decline-of-stack-overflow-7cb69faa575d Delphi is 2nd most hated language. Congrats Embarcadero! https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/10/31/disliked-programming-languages/ Randomly deleted questions on SO: https://sergworks.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/why-stackoverflow-sucks/ Why Borland failed? The Borland Turbo languages where the Cat's Pajamas. Microsoft countered with the Quick languages. Borland made Turbo Pascal for Windows and with Objects and then made Delphi. Microsoft countered with Visual BASIC. Borland made Borland C++ and JBuilder. Microsoft countered with Visual C++ and Visual J++/J# and then later Visual C#. The free IDEs and Free compiler languages ate into Borland's sales. Eclipse, Netbeans, IntelliJ, BlueJ, Sublime Text, GNU C/C++, Apple XCode, FreePascal/Lazarus, Ruby/Ruby on Rails, Python, Code::Blocks, etc. In 2005 Microsoft introduce Visual Studio Express a free version of their development tools. Like Amiga, Borland had the superior technology, but cheaper/free alternatives undercut their sales. Mostly it was the free and open source revolution that did Borland in. orionblastar

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Gravity over 1 year

There are some improvements in Windows 10 in Task Manager, but they also removed really nice stuff. For example, in the the old Task Manager you could sort the running applications by their path. So you can easily locate an application (by 'Program Files', 'WINDOWS', etc. folder).

So, how do I get back the old Task Manager?
- chrki over 8 years
  
  I had a situation on Win8.1 where it opened the old style task manager when I was very low on RAM, haven't been able to reproduce this
- user530873 over 8 years
  
  I expanded and copied taskmgr.exe from a Windows NT 4 CD I had laying around. Works just fine.
- Gravity over 8 years
  
  I copied mine from Win7 32 bit in Win 10 64 and won't work.
- Gravity over 8 years
  
  Excellent answer @magicandre1981. Check out WinAero.com. It has some other really nice tools also!
- Gravity over 8 years
  
  Looks like A LOT of people HATE the new Win 10 GUI!
Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 over 8 years

Ahh they moved the Select out of View and stuck in on the column headers... Nice!
SilentVoid over 8 years

While process explorer is very good, IMHO it's overkill to replace task manager. Processed Explorer has so much information and advanced features that it's best suited for trouble shooting, not quick killing a non responsive task.
Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 over 8 years

@CryptoMin While I get your point, if all the OP wanted was to quick kill processes (which is not what they asked for, or said), then Task Manger could easily be considered overkill too. What you may consider "overkill" may be what someone else considers "good options to have". ;)
SilentVoid over 8 years

True, but usually if you need to find a process by location it's because you started a process that doesn't set a name and you have to find it to kill it. Although as you said, that's in my opinion. If you want to use process explorer, by all means do so.
crazypotato over 8 years

Options->Replace Task Manager
Gravity over 8 years

@crazypotato - I have a window visible on screens and I need to figure out which app (exe file) corresponds to that window. I don't want to kill it.
Nikita Chernykh over 8 years

@frosty sounds like process explorer and "find window's process" would do exactly what you want.
Joshua over 8 years

I found one. I suspect the answer would be to copy taskman.exe over from Windows 7.
ComicSansMS over 8 years

While I agree that the other answers are more useful, this is the only one that actually answers the question.
Mikey over 8 years

however, process explorer has really prettty graphs and a great real-time icon for cpu usage - for these reasons alone, I use it . Windows 8>10 also looks pretty, but I'm unsure how to minimize it to the tray
Gravity over 8 years

Looks like a lot of other people consider the old task manager better. This guy has a list of 14 good reasons to get the old Task Manager back: winaero.com/blog/get-classic-old-task-manager-in-windows-10
Gravity over 8 years

Excellent answer @magicandre1981. I really really like WinAero.com tools!
ForNeVeR over 8 years

I'd also recommend you to take a look at a Process Hacker - similar open-source utility.
Daddy32 over 7 years

Old task manager did rememer the columns you selected, the new one does not.
Cherona over 3 years

The main point for me is that sometimes, when my system is unresponsive, opening the new task manager takes significantly longer, and sometimes it's just a white box that's not responding...