Task Manager, which goes by the name of Activity Monitor on Mac OS X, is an application that allows you to view and monitor all active processes running on your computer. If your computer is running slow or inefficiently, you can open Activity Monitor to determine which applications are consuming the highest amount of resources. Sadly, there’s no direct shortcut to open the Task Manager on a Mac. However, you can use a shortcut to force quit applications, which is one of the things the Task Manager in Windows is capable of. Press the ⌘-Option-Esc shortcut on your Mac to bring up the Force Quit utility. Search a portfolio of Task Management software, SaaS and cloud applications for Mac. Save time with reviews, on-line decision support and guides.
If your computer system’s performance is too slow or if it suddenly keeps freezing, you need to ask yourself: are undetectable programs or processes running in the background that are putting a strain on the system? And are they eventually causing these problems? The task manager (also known as 'process manager'), can answer this question. Since it collects information about all the active system processes, it presents them in a graph and distinguishes the problem at hand. In addition to this monitoring function, task managers are also able to manage these processes: you can not only determine which programs and services are exerting a particular strain on your system, but you can also terminate them.
- Task manager provides all kind of information about systems and programs in your Mac. Task manager easily views and manages tasks, applications in your system and any other active processes that are running in Mac OS X. It manages all activities on your Mac.
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htop: the open source solution with thread itemization
Current operating systems have process managers installed by default. If the operating system does not, they provide corresponding commands to display and manage processes. There are also alternative programs like htop, which are known to represent processed data in a better way and are much easier to use. Originally developed exclusively as a Linux task manager, the GNU-licensed tool fulfills the tasks of the command top, which is used to display active processes on Unix-like systems. Furthermore, the terminal is replaced by a text interface based on the C library, ncurses. In this manner, htop can be operated easily using the keyboard and without having to enter cumbersome commands.
The process manager, which was published by Hisham Muhammad in 2004 and has been constantly evolving ever since, doesn’t just show the active tasks, but also their individual threads. These implementations provide a more detailed description of the process in question, meaning that they allow an even more accurate evaluation. There are some keyboard shortcuts for htop; in a desktop environment, the process manager can even be operated by mouse. If you use the latest ncurses library, you can use the mouse to scroll through the process overview. In addition to Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, the task manager is also available to use on the Unix derivatives, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Mac OS X.
The structure of the task manager for Linux
The htop interface is divided into three sections:
- Header
- Main section
- Footer
By default, the two-part header shows the percentage of the various processor cores as well as the capacity of the memory ('mem') and the swap file ('swp') in megabytes (MB) on the left. The right part provides information about the number of active tasks and threads, the status of the system battery, the system’s 'uptime' and the average 'system load' specified in three values. The header can be freely configured so that, for example, instead of using the individual processor cores, the respective average value can be displayed.
The main area lists all active processes using the following values:
PID | The process' ID |
---|---|
USER | The process' owner |
PRI | The process' priority (the lower the number, the higher the priority) |
NI | The nice value of the process (responsible for the priority) |
VIRT | How much virtual memory is being used |
RES | How much physical RAM the process is using (measured in kilobytes) |
SHR | How much shared memory is being used |
S | The current status of the process (e.g. zombied, sleeping, running, etc.) |
CPU% | The percentage of the processor time used by the process |
MEM% | The percentage of physical RAM the process is using |
TIME+ | How much processor time has been used by the process |
COMMAND | The name of the command that started the process |
The htop footer has different buttons that can be selected by mouse click. They can also be accessed using the function keys F1 to F10.
htop: function keys and other key commands
While other areas of the tool are only concerned with collecting processes and statistics, the last-mentioned buttons on the footer are what are used to operate htop. It doesn’t matter whether you use the mouse or the keyboard. However, if you decide to use the keyboard, you will have a number of useful key commands that go beyond the possibilities of the function keys and make task manager work extremely easy. The ability of each function key and additional shortcuts are summarized here:
Key or key combination | Alternative(s) | Function |
---|---|---|
[F1] | [?] or [h] | Displays the help menu |
[F2] | [Shift] + [s] | Opens the configuration menu |
[F3] | [/] | Opens the search process |
[F4] | [] | Filters the processes according to name |
[F5] | [t] | Activates/deactivates the tree view |
[F6] | [>] | Opens the sort menu |
[F7] | ] | Reduces the nice value of the selected process |
[F8] | [ | Increases the nice value of the selected process |
[F9] | [k] | Ends the selected process |
[F10] | [q] or [Strg] + [c] | Ends htop |
[Space bar] | Tags the selected process(es) | |
[Shift] + [u] | Removes all tags | |
[Shift] + [p] | Sorts processes according to CPU usage (CPU%) | |
[Shift] + [m] | Sorts processes according to memory usage (MEM%) | |
[Shift] + [t] | Sorts processes according to processor time (TIME+) | |
[u] | Allows a particular user to be selected | |
[Shift] + [k] | Hides kernel threads (system-specific) | |
[Shift] + [h] | Hides user threads (application-specific) | |
[Shift] + [f] | Attaches the cursor to the selected process |
How to install htop
As is common for open source programs, you can install htop using either source files or binary files and the package manager of each distribution. Download and install the former with the following commands:
If, on the other hand, you prefer the variant with the package manager, you should first ensure that the current htop version is included for your distribution. If it is, then simply follow the usual installation pattern for your system. For example, in Ubuntu, the task manager is set up by entering the following command:
Conclusion: self-explanatory and clear process manager
htop is a good example of the classic Unix command top and scores plus points with its ncurses-based text interface. As a result, the individual processes and threads are not only presented in an appealing manner, but operating with a mouse or keyboard is a lot more intuitive than with pure command line tools. The clever use of function keys and various additional key commands simplifies navigation and configuration, no matter whether processes should be terminated, or priorities should be changed. Besides top (that is already installed by default), there are alternatives for experienced administrators. This includes the similar process manager atop as well as the cross-platform tool Glances.
Task Management For Mac Os X 10.10
We never like to have problems with our computers, right? However, some of them are inevitable. Sometimes your apps don’t work, your Mac gets slow, you see a spinning wheel of death, and more. Understanding the root of some problems can be difficult; fortunately, there are some troubleshooting tools to diagnose what’s wrong with your Mac.
One of such tools is the Activity Monitor, and in this article we’ll tell you how to use it, what alternatives are out there, and how to maintain your Mac to avoid different problems. So let’s start!
Activity Monitor — The Task Manager for Mac
If you’re familiar with the Windows Task Manager, then you may wonder whether there is a twin for Mac. Don’t worry, a Task Manager exists on Macs but it has another name — Activity Monitor. Just keep in mind that Activity Monitor is the Mac Task Manager equivalent and functions in a very similar way as it does in Windows.
Activity Monitor shows the processes that are running on your computer, so you can see how they affect your Mac’s performance. This important tool will help you manage your Mac’s activity, so you should know how to use it at its full potential.
How to open Task Manager on Mac
Chrome For Mac Os X
Activity Monitor is located in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and there are a few ways to launch it. The simplest one is to use Spotlight for a quick search.
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![Task management software mac os x Task management software mac os x](/uploads/1/0/6/1/106106069/842429212.jpg)
Here’s how to access Task Manager on Mac using the Spotlight:
- Press Command+Spacebar to get the Spotlight search field.
- Start typing “Activity monitor.”
- Select the Activity Monitor when it comes up. This will take you to the app.
However, if Spotlight doesn’t work or you just want to try another way to open Task Manager Mac, do the following:
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- Click on the Finder icon in the Dock.
- Choose Applications from the side menu of the window that appears.
- In the Applications folder, select the Utilities folder and open it.
- Double-click on the Activity Monitor icon to launch it.
Good news, you can avoid the long ways of opening a Task Manager by pinning it to the Dock. Once you do it, you’ll be able to access the Activity Monitor by simply clicking on its icon.
Follow these steps and you won’t keep asking yourself how to start Task Manager on Mac every time you need to check some processes:
- Open the Activity Monitor using one of the ways described above.
- Right-click on the Activity Monitor icon in the Dock.
- In the menu, choose Options and then click Keep in Dock.
That’s it! The Activity Monitor will be available from the Dock of your Mac, so you can view it easily.
How to use the Activity Monitor
The Activity Monitor is a simple but very important tool. Find out what you can do with its help.
Monitor the system parameters
Once you open the Activity Monitor on your Mac, you’ll get access to the five tabs: CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, and Network. By analyzing the data, you can identify what processes affect your Mac performance.
- The CPU pane shows how processes are affecting the processor activity.
- The Memory pane shows how the RAM is used by apps on your Mac.
- Tap on the Energy pane and you’ll see the overall energy use and the energy used by each app.
- The Disk pane shows the amount of data that each process has read from your disk and has written to it.
- Use the Network pane to identify which processes send and receive the most data.
View additional info about an app or process
The Mac Task Manager also allows you to check the additional information about every application or process on your Mac. Here’s how to view it:
- Click on the application or process you’re interested in.
- Click on the i button in the top left corner of the Activity Monitor window.
- You’ll see a pop-up window showing additional information about an app or process.
As you see, the Activity Monitor is a real gem. It helps you gain insight into many useful things. Therefore, it will be much easier to diagnose any problem your Mac has.
How to Force Quit applications from a Task Manager in Mac
If some application or program freezes and you can’t quit it normally, you can use the Activity Monitor to shut it down. To force quit an app from a Mac Task Manager, do the following:
- Open the Activity Monitor on your Mac and click on the application you want to force quit.
- Then click on the X button in the top left corner of the Activity Monitor window.
- You will see a pop-up window asking if you want to quit this process.
- Click Quit to close the unresponsive app.
- If the app is still open, choose Force Quit to immediately end the process.
What’s a Control+Alt+Delete equivalent on Mac?
All Windows users know this magic combination: Control+Alt+Delete. The first thing they do when an app or program hangs is using this keyboard shortcut. Fear not: there’s the similar shortcut for Macs.
In addition to the Activity Monitor, Macs have a Force Quit Applications Manager that allows to close the frozen apps and programs. To open it, hold down the Command+Option+Escape keys.
If you just need to force quit an application and don’t care how much CPU or Energy it is using, then you should launch a Force Quit Applications Manager to perform the task. It gives an immediate access to all apps, so you can quickly solve the problem of an unresponsive program.
Maintain your Mac a whole lot easier with CleanMyMac X
What if we tell you that there is a way to avoid all those frozen apps, unresponsive programs, and spinning beach balls? Most likely, you won’t even need to know how to get Task Manager on Mac because everything will work smoothly. Sounds attractive?
The secret is the regular maintenance of your Mac. And a smart utility like CleanMyMac X will help you keep an eye on your computer and take its performance to a new level. You can download it for free here.
CleanMyMac can not only clean up the system from all the junk, but also free up RAM, delete and reset apps, manage the startup items, remove cache files, and speed up your Mac with its maintenance scripts. That’s what will ensure the good health of your Mac and its top performance.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!