How to Use Chrome’s Built-in Task Manager

Most operating systems have a built-in task manager or resource monitor that allows you to see all the active processes and programs running on your computer. Chrome web browser also has one that helps you get rid of troublesome tabs and extensions.

Open Chrome Task Manager

To open the Chrome Task Manager, click the More button (three dots), hover over More Tools, and then click Task Manager. Alternatively, press Shift + Esc on Windows or Search + Esc on Chrome OS to open the Task Manager.

Click on the three dots, hover over

Now that the Chrome Task Manager is open, you can see a list of all the tabs, extensions, and processes currently running in the browser.

When Task Manager opens, a list of all the tabs, extensions, and processes currently running in Chrome will appear in the list.

End of troublesome processes

You can end any of the processes from this menu, which can be useful when an extension or tab stops responding. To do this, click on the process and select End Process.

Click on the process and then click

You can kill more than one process at the same time by holding down the Shift or Ctrl key (Command on Mac), highlighting multiple items from the list, and then clicking the End Process button.

Select multiple elements with Shift or Ctrl.

See what resources a task is using

However, if you want to use the Task Manager to see what resources each task is using, Chrome has over 20 statistics categories that you can add in the form of new columns. Right-click on a task and a context menu will appear with a full list of available statistics options.

An example of a list of categories to choose from in the task manager.

Click on any additional categories to add them to the task manager. Categories with a check mark next to them are already displayed. If you want to remove specific statistics, click on the category and make sure the box is unchecked.

You can sort specific columns by clicking on the heading. For example, if you click the «Memory Amount» column, the process using the most memory will be sorted at the top of the list.

Example of sorting by maximum and minimum.

Click on it again so that the process takes up the least amount of memory at the top of the list.

Descending sort example.

Advice for professionals: if you double-click a tab, extension, or subframe in the task manager, Chrome will send you straight to the tab. If you clicked on an extension, Chrome will send you to the settings page for that extension in chrome://extensions .

RELATED: Windows Task Manager: The Complete Guide