Google Chrome Task Manager: The Ultimate Guide

Would you like to know how Chrome uses your computer resources?

Or, you might want a foolproof way to stop unnecessary tasks in Chrome.

In a previous article, we discussed why Chrome creates so many processes? The explanation includes using Chrome’s task manager.

Chrome has an inbuilt task manager that provides critical data and helps you understand your Chrome usage. You can also use it for other stuff like ending a process inside Chrome and looking at some nerdy stuff to provide insights about each task. 

We will discuss everything you need to know about the Google Chrome task manager in this article.

So, without any further ado, let’s begin.

How to Open Chrome Task Manager?

It is one of the best features Chrome has to offer. Let’s see how to access the Chrome task manager.

1. Open Chrome.
2. Then, click on the “More” button. (Three vertical dots)
3. Now, hover above “More tools” to reveal the next menu.
4. Finally, select “Task manager.”

You can also use the keyboard shortcut “Shift+Esc” to quickly open it.

Now that you know how to access the task manager let’s see how we can use it in the best way possible.

How to Use Google Chrome Task Manager?

When you open the Chrome task manager, it will show you a window containing all active tabs, extensions, and processes. 

Chrome also shows multiple processes in the Windows task manager. However, it does not contain details about each task. The inbuilt version names each process and has some more information available at our disposal.

You can differentiate the tasks into three categories to better understand, i.e., open tabs, extensions, and background process. 

The tabs would show you the page title, the extension process would share the name of the plug-in, and the background tasks contain their names like renderer, GPU process, and more. 

There is also a minor category called subframe. It is available for each page that loads a smaller window like ad banner, third-party plug-ins on a website, various accounts for audio channels, and more. You can treat them as a separate task. However, details for each subframe is not available.

The most frequent use for the Chrome task manager is to kill unnecessary processes. You can select any task and click on the “End process” button to force close the activity. You can also select multiple tasks by pressing the “Ctrl” or equivalent button for your OS.

Ending a task is easy, but choosing which one to kill can be tricky. Let’s see how we can make the most out of the Google Chrome task manager.

Understanding Google Chrome Task Manager

There are numerous statistics to look at while using the Chrome task manager. You might confuse yourself with all the data without knowing how to understand it. Therefore, let’s see what each stat represents and what does that means.

The sequence might change for each individual depending on the stat you choose to make visible first. Close and restart the Chrome task manager to get the default sequence.

Task

The first column is the Task. It is the most simple one compared to others. The Task column shows the name of each activity Chrome is processing currently. 

Double-click on any task to open the corresponding tab, the settings page, in case of an extension. However, it would not open anything for the background process. 

Profile

This column shows you the user who is running the task. If you open a tab or installed an extension, the process belongs to you. Therefore, the Profile column should show your name. If there are two profiles in your Chrome, it will show the corresponding name in front of the task.

The background processes do not have any profile since Chrome itself governs it. Similarly, the Guest mode does not show any name.

Memory footprint

The Memory footprint column shows the RAM usage per activity. It is the memory any task is using to process. A video tab should use more than a tab only consisting of text. 

You can decide, depending on this statistic, whether you should close a particular activity or not. You can also use it to identify any rogue extension or malware existing in the Chrome browser.

CPU

It shows the percentage of CPU a task is using. So, if a browser extension consists of a miner, then it should use more CPU. Otherwise, the column should show minimal CPU usage for inactive tabs and extensions. Usually, it should be zero for a static page.

CPU time

This column shows the amount of time any process is actively using your CPU. If you have minimized Chrome, then there should not be any increase in the time. If you are continually using a single tab, it will allocate the time to that tab. Similarly, if you are jumping in between different pages, then Chrome would distribute the time accordingly.

Start time

Chrome shows the exact time any process is started. This value changes each time you restart Chrome. A few extensions begin at the beginning of a session. Similarly, a page start time indicates when you opened it first. The entry should disappear once you close a process.

Network

This column shows how much internet is any page is using in realtime. It does not have a static value. Instead, it fluctuates continually as a webpage is using the network. 

A video tab should show a hike once in a while. In contrast, a static page should not show any amount in the Network section once the loading is complete.

Process ID

This column shows the process ID for each task. Any operating system or kernel defines different process IDs to various functions for structural flow. The process ID or PID in the Chrome task manager and Windows task manager should be the same for a particular activity. 

There are many more columns available in Chrome task manager that shows usage statistics related to image cache, script cache, and more. Developers often use such data to understand if a process is working correctly or not. Therefore, I won’t bore you with technical stuff.

I have mentioned all the essential columns from the Chrome task manager that you would ever require to know the reason for improper working.

Wrap Up

We saw how to open the Chrome task manager and understand each process in this article. You can use it to identify and kill any rogue process causing trouble on your computer. Google Chrome task manager is also useful to check if you have any malicious extensions in your browser. I hope you find this article helpful. Feel free to comment below any query you have related to the topic.