If you have recently switched from Windows to Mac and missing a few features from the old OS, you’re certainly not the only one. We’re sure that the one you might miss the most is ‘Task Manager’.
There are almost the same functionalities of task manager on Mac as for Windows. For those who do not know what task manager is and what exactly it does here is a complete guide which explains how to use task manager on MacOS X.
What is a task manager?
A task manager is a pre-installed utility in any operating system which enables users to check which all programs or processes are running on their machine and what all resources they are consuming. From here you can force quit or end tasks which are not required to get your computer’s resources more focused on what you are actively doing.
How to Open Task Manager on MacOS X
On macOS X task manager is called as Activity monitor and this activity monitor is in Applications>Utilities>folder. Here is another simplest way to access activity monitor on your Mac.
- Open spotlight Search field by Pressing command and spacebar key.
- Now in the spotlight search box type Activity Monitor and hit Return key.
- You will find activity Monitor Mac open in front of you now you can manage and close unwanted tasks.
So, this was how you can find task manager
Here is what you can do using Activity Monitor
1. Stopping a task or a process
This is what we know task manager in windows for. We can quickly and easily close our tasks using Activity monitor on Mac.
Choose the application you want to quit from the activity monitor and then click on Quit process given in the red color after you will get a warning message you will be able to quit application.
If the case is, you are trying to close an unresponsive application you can click on force Quit given next to the cancel button. But you should remember that Force Quit Will Immediately kill the application and you may not get the chance to save any unsaved information.
2. Get information about CPU, Memory and Network usage
Same as the task manager on windows computer Activity monitor can also give you all the information about system resource usage. It is having a separate grid for checking system resource usage at the bottom. Which is having different tabs naming System Memory, CPU Disk Activity, Disk usage and Network. Here you will find the system usage memory usage and other details about the resource consumption on your system. If you are willing to see live system stats, then you can right click on the Activity Monitor icon in the Dock you will see graphical representation of your system usage.
If you are having an updated version of macOS X, then you may find a different interface of Activity Monitor in which your running processes or tasks are sorted by the resource they are consuming you can simply choose one of them to quit or force quit. You should be extra careful while force quitting a process because doing this with a system process may lead to a sudden shut down on your Mac.
Understanding different tabs of Activity monitor:
In the advanced activity Monitor on macOS X you will find different tabs let’s get an idea what exactly they represent and how to use the activity monitor on updated MacOS X.
CPU:
CPU tab represents what percentage of CPU is used by the application currently running on Your Mac. You can also see the graphical representation at the bottom grid.
Memory:
Same as the CPU tab you will find graphical and quantified representation of the RAM on your Mac.
Disk:
Disk usage tab represents total amount of disk read outs and write outs.
Similarly, other tabs of the activity monitor help you to understand the usage and the functioning of your Mac at any point if you want to quit a process or application you can simply click on it and can click on the close icon given at the top left corner. If you want to obtain more information about any application, you can choose it and can click on i button given next to Quit icon.
This is how Mac task manager or activity monitor on Mac can help you to manage your programs and tasks effectively. Now you can keep your Mac away from being overwhelmed by applications and keep it running as good as new.