Task Manager on Mac | What is Task Manager&How to Open it – Full Guide

Task Manager on Mac is one of the most common and essential features of an operating system as it allows users to monitor and track the resource consumption of their PCs. Sometimes, even high-end PCs can act weirdly which would yield performance-related issues in the end. Most of the users on Windows PC rely on Task Manager as a last resort to terminate an app or process that is running in the background. As a user, you might have noticed certain apps or games become unresponsive at times and end up consuming way more resources than it is supposed to be.

In such instances, you’ll notice a significant drop in terms of performance and speed, the only way to get back your PC to its normal state is by terminating the application or process directly from the Task Manager. A lot of people are already well aware of Windows Task Manager, but most of them have barely heard of Task Manager that is available on Mac.

Task Manager on Mac

As you may know already, Task Manager is an in-built component of both Windows and Mac, however, it’s called Activity Monitor on Mac. The Task Manager or Activity Manager (whatever you may want to call it) allows you to view and track the applications or Softwares or processes that are consuming resources of your PC. To explain it in simpler words, the Activity Monitor lets you check and evaluate all the activities that are currently running on your Mac.

You can do a lot of things with Activity Monitor on your Mac, such as, view your CPU utilization, RAM usage, Disk Usage, Network Usage, etc. Moreover, the Activity Monitor allows you to forcefully terminate an app or software or activity with just one click, it’s quite similar to the Windows Task Manager.

How To Open Task Manager On Mac

As I’ve stated in the earlier section, the Activity Monitor is a utility that shows you the number of resources being used by Apps or activities that are currently running on your Mac.  Using this information, you can choose to either forcefully terminate an app or let it run in the background.

There are multiple ways to open Task Manager / Activity Monitor on Mac, here are some of the easiest and quickest ways to access it.

Open Task Manager From Finder On Your Mac

One of the most well known and probably the quickest methods of opening the Task Manager is by going into the Finder application. Here are the steps that you need to follow.

1. Turn ON your Mac and click on the “Finder” app icon in the dock.
2. Locate the “Applications” option in the left menu bar of your screen and open it up.
3. In the applications window, you will have to select the “Utilities” option to proceed.
4. On the next screen, you will be provided with a list of utility icons.
5. Double click on the “Activity Monitor” icon to open it up.

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Opening the Task Manager From Spotlight On Your Mac

Here is another way of accessing the Task Manager or Activity Monitor on your Mac. Spotlight is another well-known feature that allows you to instantly find your desired apps and files.

1. Press the ⌘ + Space key at the same time on your keyboard.
2. Wait for the Spotlight to open up and type “Activity Monitor” in it.
3. As you start typing, relevant apps and files will show up in the results.
4. Select the “Activity Monitor” option from the results and hit enter.
5. That’s it, the Activity Monitor or Task Manager will now open up.

How to open Task Manager From Dock On Mac

The Dock feature of Mac allows you to open up a variety of applications in an instant. You can access the Activity Monitor from Dock using the following steps.

1. Go to your Dock and locate the Activity Monitor icon over there.
2. Double click on the “Activity Monitor” icon to open it up. That’s all!

Additionally, you can customize the Activity Monitor simply by right-clicking on the icon and select what you wish to monitor or check such as CPU utilization, Memory usage, etc.

How To Forcefully Kill An App or Activity Using Task Manager

Certain applications, at times, may end up stalling and you won’t be able to close it normally. In such situations, you will have to force close the application by going into the Activity Monitor of your Mac.

1. Firstly, launch the Activity Monitor utility on your Mac using the above-mentioned methods.
2. Move to the CPU or the Memory tab in the Activity Monitor window to proceed further.
3. Now find the application or activity that is slowing down your Mac on the list.
4. Highlight the application or process by clicking on it and select the “X” icon.
5. Confirm the action of closing the process in the next prompt, that’s it!.

Activity Monitor is the best way to force close certain applications that are stalling. However, we’d recommend the use of the Activity Monitor as a last resort.

Checkout: Remove Startup Items on your Macbook

Alternatives(iStats)

The Activity Monitor of Mac is equally good as the Task Manager of Windows. Both of them are very useful, however, some people may want to monitor the resources of their PCs in real-time. The native Activity Monitor feature of Mac is quite decent, but not good enough to provide you updates in real-time.

iStats is probably the best alternative to Task Manager on Mac, it provides instant updates on what applications are using the resources of your Mac. Moreover, iStats for Mac also provides visual graphs for almost all the applications and activities, which makes it easier for the user to understand. Give it a try if you’re looking for a Task Manager alternative on Mac.

iStats for Mac

Wrapping Up

The inbuilt Activity Monitor component of Mac is sufficient for those who simply want to terminate an application or activity. Power users who are looking for a way to monitor their PC or windows closely and in real-time can check out the iStats application.

I hope we’ve covered pretty much everything regarding the Task Manager on Mac. In case if you have anything else to ask, feel free to drop it in the comment section below.