This isn't the first video he has made stating that. He is a pretty decent guy. His name is still in some source code so yes I'm fairly certain he did.
You got it all wrong with your sports analogy. For example let's look at today's NBA. There is a lot of superstars playing right now. LeBron, Curry, Gianis, Luca, Jokic, KD... being introduced to hall of fame is next level. It's acknowledgment of their impact on game when they played and acknowledgment of their impact on future generations. And then there are people like Dave. They live outside of realm of mere mortals. Superstars and hall of famers are just entertainers. Very talented and very hard working people but bottom line is they are here just to entertain us. Their impact on our daily lives, our future and lives of future generations is insignificant when compared to importance of what people like Dave do every day.
yes, me too. and the argument, that it is overly nerdy? let's compare it to a car. sure, you want to have a comfortable car. it is nice to drive it. but at some point, you need to look under the hood. and there is the engine, the battery, the other components, etc. so? it is a tool that really helps but isn't the most beautiful one...
Agreed. I have been using Task Manager from W95 right up to W10. I pretty much keep it running 24/7 on the task-bar, so I can kill any process that gets out of hand, or to simply monitor system resources. BRILLIANT addition to the OS, and I thank you - not that my one single voice matters - for having it included in the OS. One of Windoze's most useful things, even up to and including today.
@@VauxhallViva1975 on an older laptop with overheating issues, I used taskmanager for something slightly different: I actually put some processes that were causing massive loads on a lower priority and found a system setting where I could reduce the overall CPU load. this made overheating less of a problem without sacrificing speed.
I worked at Bell Labs in the mid '80s as part of the Unix System V R4 C compiler team. One day when I was working on a port to the Intel i860 processor, I wrote a small assembler debugger because the symbolic debugger was not finished yet. I named my debugger "fred", just because. It soon spread throughout the department, and I would occasionally get a call or email question about it. No problem. Somehow, fred got included on the Unix source tape that ended up being shipped around the world. One day I got an email from someone in Italy asking a question about something that wasn't completely clear in the manual page I had written. I answered the question, then asked how they knew about fred. That's how I found out it had gone out with the source code.
A modern OS without a task manager is just unthinkable, and it's one of the few things in Windows 11 that still focuses on functionality over form. Quite a legacy you built there.
doesnt even tell me what all is running. you must not know much about computers. its even worse in the lgbtpedo age of jeffery epstein /bill gates windows 10/11. at least older windows allowed you to see things. even if some were hidden behind the word sys32, which is pretty pedo like to have to hide i think people who control this tech should be thrown into car crushers.i bet if pedotubes supreme race didnt own everything i could run a pool an over 50% of people would say ibll gates should be excommunicated from earth. im not sure i see things the way you easter bunny an santa clause worshippin npc do.
Microsoft didn’t invent the idea. All Unix and RTOS’s have had them way before Microsoft implemented it. Dave did good work for sure but it’s not a new idea.
@@GodzillaGoesGaga @SkeletonBill didn't even say that the whole idea was from him. Just that he built it in a way that is legendary nowadays, and I too think that he deserves all the credit and respect he gets for this.
it was interesting to hear how that was added to the Windows Logon process, since it should always be running. I love the deep-dive esoteric coding style, not including libraries to maintain a light footprint. And, "it's pointless to pretend you can't do that, so Task Manager just does it for you."
Yeah agreed, I can't believe that their were people trying to get it removed in the beginning. What a loss that would have been. Imagine how much damage idiots can do if no one stops them.
Most reliable? Well it's surely a great tool but it has some shortcomings. For example, I upgraded to an i9 13900K, but some programs like Discord or Jdownloader sometimes will hang on launch, Jdownloader refuses to get it's process taken down sometimes even by taskmanager. This is a weird behaviour. But System Informer, the new successor to Process Hacker, is able to successfully terminate these frozen processes. It is unclear why taskmanager is unable to quit these processes. The CPU is however stable despite all the reports as there's no BSODs or anything during heavy stress. Another thing I dislike since Windows 8 is that the CPU graphs do not represent the actual CPU usage as we've seen on Windows 7 and prior, it reports higher percentages than what is actually used, sometimes up to double. So a 100% CPU load does not have to be 100% CPU when checking it through third party tools that report the CPU usage the way the Windows 7 and older taskmanagers did. That is a difference between CPU utility usage and actual processor time where the utility usage is normally significantly larger. This gives a skewed view of the system performance in my opinion as 100% is not actual 100% load and means the system has more capacity. It doesn't lag at 100% like it used to in the old days because the metrics are different. You can compare this by either loading the old Windows 7 taskmanager in Windows 10/11, or use 3rd party tools such as HWMonitor or HWiNFO, System Informer, System Information Viewer etc. Another bothersome issue is that the new Windows 8+ taskmanagers has severage performance issues when opening the process list to the point where the cursor is actually frozen and delayed on a fresh start causing even the entire system to a slowdown. This is unacceptable. The old taskmanger in Windows 7 was always instant and wasn't bloated with metrics that slowed it down. It is so bad I've resorted to setting the performance tab as the default upon opening, but System Informer I would recommend as a great responsive alternative.
Most reliable? Well it's surely a great tool but it has some shortcomings. For example, I upgraded to an i9 13900K, but some programs like Discord or Jdownloader sometimes will hang on launch, Jdownloader refuses to get it's process taken down sometimes even by taskmanager. This is a weird behaviour. But System Informer, the new successor to Process Hacker, is able to successfully take down these frozen processes. It is unclear why taskmanager is unable to quit these processes. The CPU is however stable despite all the reports as there's no BSODs or anything during heavy stress. Another thing I dislike since Windows 8 is that the CPU graphs do not represent the actual CPU usage as we've seen on Windows 7 and prior, it reports higher percentages than what is actually used, sometimes up to double. So a 100% CPU load does not have to be 100% CPU when checking it through third party tools that report the CPU usage the way the Windows 7 and older taskmanagers did. That is a difference between CPU utility usage and actual processor time where the utility usage is normally significantly larger. This gives a skewed view of the system performance in my opinion as 100% is not actual 100% load and means the system has more capacity. It doesn't lag at 100% like it used to in the old days because the metrics are different. You can compare this by either loading the old Windows 7 taskmanager in Windows 10/11, or use 3rd party tools such as HWMonitor or HWiNFO, System Informer, System Information Viewer etc. Another bothersome issue is that the new Windows 8+ taskmanagers has severage performance issues when opening the process list to the point where the cursor is actually frozen and delayed on a fresh start causing even the entire system to a slowdown. This is unacceptable. The old taskmanger in Windows 7 was always instant and wasn't bloated with metrics that slowed it down. It is so bad I've resorted to setting the performance tab as the default upon opening, but System Informer I would recommend as a great responsive alternative.
Most reliable? Well it's surely a great tool but it has some shortcomings. For example, I upgraded to an i9 13900K, but some programs like Discord or Jdownloader sometimes will hang on launch, Jdownloader refuses to get it's process taken down sometimes even by taskmanager. This is a weird behaviour. But System Informer, the new successor to Process Hacker, is able to successfully take down these frozen processes. It is unclear why taskmanager is unable to quit these processes. The CPU is however stable despite all the reports as there's no BSODs or anything during heavy stress. Another thing I dislike since Windows 8 is that the CPU graphs do not represent the actual CPU usage as we've seen on Windows 7 and prior, it reports higher percentages than what is actually used, sometimes up to double. So a 100% CPU load does not have to be 100% CPU when checking it through third party tools that report the CPU usage the way the Windows 7 and older taskmanagers did. That is a difference between CPU utility usage and actual processor time where the utility usage is normally significantly larger. This gives a skewed view of the system performance in my opinion as 100% is not actual 100% load and means the system has more capacity. It doesn't lag at 100% like it used to in the old days because the metrics are different. You can compare this by either loading the old Windows 7 taskmanager in Windows 10/11, or use 3rd party tools such as HWMonitor or HWiNFO, System Informer, System Information Viewer etc. Another issue is that the new Windows 8+ taskmanagers has severage performance issues when opening the process list to the point where the cursor is actually frozen and delayed on a fresh start causing even the entire system to a slowdown. This is unacceptable. The old taskmanger in Windows 7 was always instant and wasn't bloated with metrics that slowed it down. It is so bad I've resorted to setting the performance tab as the default upon opening, but System Informer I would recommend as a great responsive alternative.
A few thoughts I didn't mention in the video that might be of interest: I'm not a UI designer. I make good UI for me, but not for "regular people". I once tried to design the Photos UI and it looked like Visual Studio 6, since I'm a "power user" but it wouldn't be a good way to do it for all Windows users, for example. But Task Manager was one of those cases where the thing I wanted turned out to be something that a lot of other people wanted too. Most things require a good designer, but I think they'd come at the problem very differently. So this was perhaps a unique case of where having an engineer who understood the system make the UI, rather than the user experience folks dictating what you could do... if that makes sense. It's by no means unique, but I think the defensive programming approach I took within it has proved useful in the long run, since Task Manager is pretty well respected for being robust. It takes extra time and effort to handle every error case gracefully, and to check every return value, etc... but that's why you never see it get into a bad state. If you ever get "Task Manager (Not Responding)", at least in the older versions of Windows, I'd almost guarantee the system itself is borked at that point, and not Task Manager. Small consolation when it's your machine, though, I know! Long story short, I made it for me, and I'm super grateful that so many others have found it useful over so long a period of time!
As someone who mostly moved to Linux some time ago, I think its given me more appreciation for task manager as its one of the places where things are a lot more fiddly to do on Linux. The irony being that almost everywhere else in Windows, things have gone backwards for what seems the reason you described, its UI focused not "what does a user getting to this point NEED". The sheer number of different places in Windows you can access network settings for example, when the thing you want to change is still hidden in device manager.
May I have one question, please? How different is the taskmgr from windows 7 compared to the original one from windows NT? I have a suspicion that they are mostly the same thing.
As a current Sys Admin, I can say that Task Manager is probably the single most useful thing, Powershell probably being the only thing I'd put above it, included in Windows so thanks for the work you did 27 years ago when I was still a toddler lol
This might sound insane, but when you said you wrote the Task Manager, I had this feeling like you're the biggest celebrity in the world (to me). Your work has DEFINITELY stood the test of time, and you've saved millions of people hundreds of hours with it. Cheers!
i feel the same way, I got a chance to work with the lawyer who convinced Bill Gates to license microsoft when he was a jr law associate at his firm. He ended up writing me a beautiful recommendation that Im sure would get a felon the job.
I hope it says "Father of Task Manager" on your business card. My company once worked with the "Father of Uninstall" who wrote the uninstall sequence for Windows apps. Still to this day probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen on a business card
You've saved me from many system lockups and a potential ass-whooping from my parents when they walked in on me viewing naughty materials that wouldn't close properly without Task Manager. You're the hero we needed, but the one we don't deserve!
@@wladynoszhighlights5989 Some sites can be so heavy they take a decent while to close, task manager forces the entire browser to close, which even if it doesnt close the site instantly it'll make the browser black screen on the spot.
@@TheGreyLineMatters And Linux still haven't figured out how to make system updates without braking entire drivers and other functionalities to make it user friendly
@@MrGTAmodsgermanWhat, there have been plenty of Windows updates that have bricked or crippled many machines. Win NT left a navy ship dead in the water in the 90s.
Your comment about "End Process" vs. "Kill Task" reminded me of something. Years back I worked for a company that makes automated blood testing machines for medical laboratories. One product's software would, now and then, pop up a message: "Child is killed." This caused some consternation among our customers as a report of a child dying is rather a big deal when you work in a hospital. It caused more than a few calls to product support before the software group fixed it.
No day has gone by without me opening Task Manager at least once. Setting startup programs, Fixing audiodg issues, Ending stubborn programs, Monitoring system components, etc. You are my hero.
That program did more to make PCs usable for the average person than nearly anything else, it was a masterclass in simple, powerful, and user friendly software design
@Jk he could have also not thought of it! I feel comfortable thanking him for it. Thanks to his work I benefited and I'm thanking his contribution to my productivity and for making windows a better product. Of course I paid for it, but it's thanks to people Iike him I continue to use windows every day
You know you’re doing something right when Dave Cutler approves. Been a big fan of CTRL+SHIFT+ESC for a long time but I wasn’t aware of holding CTRL whilst launching a new task. Great little hidden feature!
@@stephenhunter70 Are you asking? The login screen runs as SYSTEM so if you get task manager you can easily launch a full privilege command prompt. The end task function could also be used to stop services, or the process list can reveal incriminating information.
Not saying you deserve a Nobel Peace Price for Taskmanager since I'm sure it prevented a lot of anger in the world, but I'm saying that some recipients of that price did less for people's inner peace than you did with creating Taskmanager. Legend.
Don't belittle what you've done! There's been so many computer sessions that went to hell and the only save was the task manager. You help me monitor my computers basic health and strains it's under. That's magic. I still use the task manager regularly to monitor various aspects of my experience. Thank you man, so much.
I’m so happy that there were employees around in that era that challenged the over-simplification of the OS. Catering to the power user while still making the OS approachable is what made Windows stand out. Thank you for your hard work on this.
Very good comment, I thought the same, when I watched this video! I started in the windows 3.0 times, and I loved the many ways, that you could change soo many things without knowing much about programming. And that's basically, why I hate the secretive, closed down, restricted Apple ecosystem to this day. I know these machines work very relieable, but my windows machines do that as well - and I can tweak them to behave like I feel is convenient. Apple decides that for you. I got Chills, when David listed the 10 ways how you can start the task manager. I love that freedom! I still remember how I went after a virus, that shut down my computer after a little period of time - so at startup I quickly started the task manager, closed the malicious process - and then I had plenty of time to set the machine back to a former state, before it had been infecting my computer. Windows Vista had the most powerful "set all pragrams back" to a certain time stamp, removing EVERYTHING that had been installed in between. Even the most hidden things, but left all static data alone. I loved Vista for its exceptional stability as much as I loved XP before.
@@PanosPitsi Oh, you are absolutely right! I always referred to myself as a "DAU". That's a german abbreviation for "Dümmster Anzunehmender User" which translates to "most stupid user imaginable". I USE Windows, and so far all experiments to switch to other ecosystems like Linux, OS 2 and Mac OS have failed miserably. When I have to switch to a new computer, I take 2 to 3 days to heavily modify it (install ancient and new special programs and little helpers, modify the UI to my needs) and then I use it for at least 5 years. If it works. Lately I purchased a high end Dell Laptop, that refused to work the way I need it (some of the ancient programs crashed). Its the most expensive and most powerful machine I own, but it got downgraded to be a Laser Cutter Server, because it was the only spare machine I had. The 13 inch 4K Dell Laptop of the same era has to fill the gap until I have the money to start a new approach with a different new machine.
I still fondly remember how, even on the most broken, messed up or OOM Windows XP, Task Manager was the _one_ thing that _never_ let me down. I always appreciate when people go the extra mile to do their job not only right but extremely well, and here the perfectionism truly shows :)
@@tehs3raph1m til it's a hardware issue and you get a bsod even on a different ssd/ram combo :p t540p can't open the preformance tab anymore but works great still for most things, better than a cheap laptop from Walmart even still for day to day tasks.
@@Luzgar Working as a developer is different from just studying development. In the real world you have people chasing you to deliver yesterday and stuff is not "graded" as long as it works. Code quality does not matter to the people who talk to clients, the only care about delivering.
My friends and I used to play a game on LAN partys which consisted of taking turns ending processes in Task Manager until your system crashes. Like a "Last Task Manager standing". Anyway thanks for your service, Dave! I am glad you came up with that sweet little program.
I hope every programmer from your era makes videos like this. So many amazing stories It’s wild how robust the QA process was, yet the initial releases were still so buggy. I think it really goes to show the true complexity of an operating system. All that time and energy spent to QA yet things still got through
@king6530 the sad part is that we should be going back to phase 1 and birthing new technology. Instead we seem to put most of our recourses into iterating on existing technology, not truly creating new stuff. AI is the most fitting ‘new technology’ to be big right now. It just spits out existing shit really fast and isn’t truly creating anything new.
I’ve only use task manager about 62,000 times. RUclips is so cool. This is my favorite kind of content. Over the years, I’ve learned from the horses mouth about so many things that I’ve used my whole life. It’s just such a interesting, feeling taking something that feels so huge corporation and breaking it down to a single person. Thanks.
FYI, if anybody is looking for another really cool insider story. Check out the story of crash bandicoot and the PlayStation. Amazing story of how they reverse engineered and hacked into the PlayStation from the game itself in order to make the game much bigger than it should’ve been and perform much better than other games.
The task manager is one of the most important parts of PC history, congratulations. The organization and systemic approach you took helped people like me learn through "osmosis". I still remember opening task manager as a small child and being in awe, the graphs... the buttons... the organization... I just wanted to know more.
@@DavesGarageyou are exactly what I aspire to become in the future. Even if I don't get to contribute something as huge as you have, I hope I can tell my children in the future about things I made that brought a positive impact to the world
I strongly believe that Taskmgr is what kept Windows users patient about the Os through it's early years, users felt always they had this powerfull tool as their last resort to "terminate" all sorts of misfunction and that's what software craft is all about. Congratulation Sir, you may talk modestly about it but for us it's a lifetime achievement and you're a Legend.
I agree. Sometimes Chrome crashed, or Microsoft office, and Task Manager helped with closing out of the programs. Plus also, the CPU and RAM usage graphs are pretty cool. The Wi-Fi speed graph is useful also.
I find that it's still one of the only reasons why the OS is semi sustainable to use in long multipurpose sessions... Windows resource management is alright, but still not bulletproof on its own.
As a lifetime IT Support on personal and professional level, I can't express how grateful we're for your service to humanity. Honestly Task manager is the #1 tool I use to correctly troubleshoot any kind of issue. Thanks to the reliability and exstensive features of it, you just know you'll solve the issue eventually. Again, thank you for your service in making IT Support more achievable on a daily basis. ❤
I just came on to make a similar comment. No way my life would’ve been easy without it. And it makes you look like a magician when you access it and use it correctly against a layman.
As much as I've complained about Windows over the years, I have no idea how something so complex could ever work as well as it does. Very interesting to hear from someone directly involved in such development. Well done!
The fact that wrote task manager makes you a minor celebrity in my book. I went from win3.1 to nt4 and when i discovered task manager, it blew my mind. Its the first place i go for troubleshooting. And it has helped me resolve so many problems over the years. I love it, Dave!
Yeah I find it weirder and weirder it's next impossible to know the names of wrote the tools we use and rely on everyday because they are not baked into the UI or about menu.
Dave. Don’t know if you’ll see this but as a small time computer repair tech, I’ve always appreciated how lightweight and fast the early derivatives of your work was in XP, and at home as a teen your inclusion of the ability to end Explorer.exe and manually restart it was super convenient when after usually alt-tabbing out of a game, on the rare occasion Windows Explorer would lockup. I appreciate the behind the scenes details for an important component of the OS.
Oh yeah, even today being able to close the Explorer.exe has been a blessing. I'm thankful they never added arbitrary limitations besides crazy ones that can crash the whole os. Unfortunately, I don't like that with Task Manager I can't set the CPU core affinity and process priority and it saves it after system or process restart.
RUclips algorithm brought me here, I watched this video from you, and then another, and then another, and another... My GOSH your videos are so interesting! I normally wouldn't be very interested in someone rambling in front of a camera for 20 minutes, but the things you talk about related to the early days of Windows development or even modern Windows systems, and THE WAY in which you explain everything, something about it all is just so captivating. Keep it up!
It always feels so distant as if these core system concepts were created by intricate wizards hiding in an underground headquarter whilst never showing themselves to the public, but seeing you talk about it makes me appreciate it more
@@ReverseEngineering-gv8bu No man I was commenting specifically on how I imagine the windows development environment to have been at that time. Linus Torvalds was his name, and I have tons of respect for his work.
The task manager is perhaps one of the most useful and powerful tools the Windows user could ask for and all thanks to this man! I can't thank you enough
Thank you Dave. I've used your stuff as a Windows user all my life. Today I'm a hobbyist game dev and this is a master class in how to build something critical that doesn't break when you kick it. I've ranted at tons of programs and features through my short life, but Task Manager has never been one of them. I've always intuitively counted on it as my "ace in the hole," and I've never been wrong. It's fascinating to see how many features have been built into it to make it lightweight, accessible from any imaginable state, and both honest and true as much as it can be. Great video, and I laughed so many times!
Holy cow i'm in this exact same case! Used it for 25+ years as a user/IT, and now I look at it code wise, in the endless quest of writing better code...
I used to volunteer at my kid's school and teach computers to the 3rd graders and so on. Ironically, the admin policy on all the computers prohibited task manager entirely, which was always annoying to me! As a random recollection, this was in the XP days. The kids all knew I worked for Microsoft, but nobody cared because around here lots of people do! But when the kids found out I'd worked on Pinball, it gave me some serious cred with the 8 year olds :-). As always, I like to note that the pinball game shipped first for Win95, I did the port/re-write of it for what shipped in Windows itself. Which meant rewriting the x86 asm parts in C, porting it to MIPS, etc... but all the graphics and design was there before I got there!
My pastime in computer science class at high school was always finding ways to abuse the badly made user rights to go where I shouldn't. Like launching a disabled task manager or the group policies, maybe even trying to look at the teachers' resource folder.
I still have pinball on windows 11 and linux haha When are you going to update it to run fullscreen on large resolutions though? Patch is 15 years overdue
I just want to say, thank you Dave! I've been using Windows since 3.1 era and the Task Manager is my favorite part of the OS. I feel like it's the same as if you open the hood of your car and take a look inside trying to find something wrong. It's super helpful to find strange faults happening, and I can't think of how I could use Windows without it. Just weeks ago I found the origin of a problem on my brother's laptop using Task Manager info. Super helpful.
From Win95 onward, TaskManager is my single most-used tool in the Windows suite, and in these days of removing the user from the OE, I feel like it's the last simple thing left that I can use to monitor what the software is doing. Thanks for years of me watching the CPU spike :D
Yeah, I leave it running most of the time. @schroeder9999, I mean, I do the same thing in Linux too, so like. It's just a useful kind of tool. I wish the (default) one in ubuntu showed a graph of disk access/usage, though.
After decades as a dev & admin I burned out and switched careers. Less money, less stress, _much_ happier, better muscle tone. Dave, basically a legend, manages to re-awaken that dormant little nerd inside me. The insider stories are damn fascinating. I used wonder about that stuff all the time lol. Apparently I still enjoy geeking out occasionally . . now when I _feel_ like it, no pressure 😄
RUclips recommendations once again steering me towards absolute legends like yourself. Beyond grateful that you share stories and experiences for everyone.
The Windows Task Manager is arguably the most used piece of software in Windows OS. In may case Task Manager is always open and ready to be utilized wherever reason arise. Its safe to say I'm a heavy Task Manager user. Dave you played your part in computer history and you will always be remembered for your contribution.
Wow Dave as a fellow developer it was interesting hearing your story. Developers going rogue and designing something technical and nerdy that is beyond beneficial is a lost art! Wild west as you called it!
So true, i miss the days when the Dev guys were visionaries for "what's next" and "what should be". Now every thing is a money grab iteration for something that already exists. There really hasn't been anything new in Tech that has shifted they way we do things in years.
We're all like that when we're Young Guns... We just love to code and innovate. But the reasons it's not good for you is: 1) You direct boss will feel threatened by your talent and subvert your career, 2) You just gave away your million dollar idea away to a corp that wants to replace you with anyone cheaper they can find. In the beginning of the video he says many were opposed to his project being included... those were the snakes seeking to elevate their careers only, and supress all others.
@@GregMoress Do bosses really feel threatened like that? I'm sure it happens, but in my experience, most of my bosses liked it when their employees innovate. It looks great on their resume if they can say they "led the team that developed Windows Task Manager".
@@monkemode8128 It's not at all uncommon for the narcisistic personality-types to strive to have power, so they see all others as threats. They don't hide this, so it will be easy enough to spot if you keep an eye open for it. But I've had a few really good bosses too.
Task Manager is the most useful tool I constantly use. As an administrator of several Windows servers I love that I can remote in pop open the task manager and figure things out quickly. Even back in the windows 95 days and before it was still very useful in figuring out what the heck the computer was doing. Thank you Dave! You created a tool that I bet has helped so many administrators save so much time.
You made the most essential tool on a computer. Ive used this thoroughly for my entirety of my windows and even Mac use, windows being first. Thank you for your skill and talent I owe you big time
Those annectotes on Task Manager and Windows history are very interesting as they reveal aspects of Windows' history that have never been shared. I hope you can share more videos like those in the future Dave!
So many proprietary tools don’t remember user preferences after closing the application but I am glad and impressed to know that you spent a good deal of time and effort to make sure user settings are gracefully saved to disk.
I couldn't imagine windows without task manager. I think it was a big part of why I was the type of kid teaching myself how to write HTML at 9 years old back in the 90s. Just having all that information right there at my fingertips was the most fascinating thing and was definitely a big part of what got me "into" computers. Never thought I'd run into a RUclips video from the guy who wrote the program, but genuinely - good job, and thank you!
It's unreal seeing the creator of the software that's served so many on RUclips. People who make the little things we use everyday don't get nearly a fraction of the credit they deserve! Thank you for sharing the creation story of Task Manager. An essential for both a newbie and power user on windows!
The task manager is one of my favorite tools in all of windows, ever made. Killing explorer.exe and then being able to launch it again has so many beneficial uses when a machine is bogged down and you don’t want to restart it. Thanks for this. As someone who’s been a systems administrator at more than one company, it’s my first go to when I need to figure out what’s going on
I have never felt like such an IT rock-star as when you listed the 10 ways to open Task Manager, and not only did I know all of the them... but I used to wow people with the single-handed Ctrl-Shift-Esc opening of Task Manager, like I was doing some sleight-of-hand to open it! Absolutely a critical piece of code over the years, and stunning to me that it started life as a side-project. As others have said, its stuff like that which makes me so humbly grateful for your (and your compatriots') work. Cheers!
Dave, a big thank you for your work. I've used your tool countless times, both at home and on the job. Please allow me to remember here a funny one, circa 1999. A customer needed to use Task Manager but didn't know how, since they had a custom NT installation, with greyed out items in the Ctrl-Alt-Del menu and whatnot. So I suggested trying the Ctrl-Shift-Esc shortcut... the expression on their face when that did work: priceless! 😊
Task Manager was truly inspired genius! I've used it more times than I even care to remember, to help users recover from locked screens without having to do a hard reset. Thanks for your hard work, dedication, inspiration and attention to detail!
I didn't know CTRL+SHIFT+ESC was a winlogon hook! That's nifty. I also really like the bits about how it is built to do everything in its power to bring up a working Task Manager and help you rescue your system if you REAAAAAAALLY need to
I've been a hardcore task manager lover for decades. All of this was just me nodding until you mentioned CTRL+SHIFT+ESC... I love it! I've learned something new today! Thanks Dave!
as a longtime windows user, task manager has been an actual lifesaver, i never thought i'd have the opportunity to show appreciation toward its legendary creator but thank you so much for your hard work !
Dave, I came across your channel and learned everything I needed to know about 10Gbe networking. And now I am completely blown away that you are behind one my favorite highly used programs. You are building quite the legacy here on YT.
I work for a major university at their help desk. We have over 33,000 employees. I handle on average 40 -60 calls a day. I use task manager on 60-70% the most often reason is to check the liars, I mean callers, uptime. Which then usually leads to the proverbial "did you restart?" (yes, they did three months ago) Thank you for one of if not the most important Windows tools EVER! Ctr+Alt+Delete for life!
YES, they always say they restarted. To be fair, many of them do click shutdown, then turn it back on, and that's a restart to them... but with fast startup it never actually shut down.
probably one of the best TOOLs used on windows os, with minor changes and modifications over time, and should be cont maintained and improved for all future msft os.
Task Manager has been the single most reliable tool in everyone's tool box. It is a masterpiece and a life saver, thank you and Mark for all you have done in making everyone's lives that much easier.
I remember using Task Manager to manage the memory of my 2 GB RAM laptop. I used to keep it running in the background to kill any stray process that took up memory. It's impressive knowing the care and dedication that you took in writing this important program! Makes Windows all the better, and usable! A BIG thank you!
Arguably the best "comes in the box" everything manager out there. Its strong use until this day is testament. My hat is off to you, thank you making this amazing tool.
One more piece of trivia... a couple of years ago I tracked down and conneccted with the author of htop so we could chat. His name is Porto Alegre and I still think htop under Linux is the most amazing console based app I've ever seen!
@@ko-Daeguif you play around in taskmgr while having unsaved work its kinda your fault if you loose it hehe. Crashing the system is an annoyance risk at most
An enduring legacy, no doubt. One of the first things my dad taught me when we first got a computer and I was learning to use it. This was in 2003, 2004 I think. The computer was THE most interesting thing in my life.
Wow, your computer way started just about the same time mine did. But in my case, I had to learn almost all the stuff myself. I remember a situation when I turned off the PC and my dad became a little angry at me because he thought I just pulled the cord from the wall socket. He was going to demonstrate to me my fault by showing me Scandisk run during boot. He was surprised Win98 booted just normally without a disk scan.
Working in tech support I use your application every single day! It’s something we all take for granted now - instilled as part of the OS. So great to hear from the person who actually wrote it. Hats off to you, sir 👍
I chuckled when you mentioned being able to start task manager from the login screen. That actually saved my ass a few months ago when my computer went nuts and for some reason my desktop became totally unusable. I'll spare you the details, but just know that you singlehandedly saved me from a devastating loss of very important data. Thank you, Dave!
Dave, what a blast from the past! I remember the error bug w/ your number on it as at the time we were transitioning from 3.51 to 4.0 and were running the beta to make sure some internal apps would still work. No idea that was actually you. Thanks for the videos, the LED constructs, and memories of long past days in IT.
I appreciate you and others fighting for Task Manager to be, as you said, a blade. I cannot count the number of times the humble TM has saved me from having to do a total reboot because this or that wasn't operating correctly. It's as essential to the Windows experience as the Start menu.
Well, love your work. First time I saw a colleague restoring a crashed explorer via task manager my mind was blown. It's one of my favourite parts of windows and it always served me well.
Dave, I read an interview about Task Manager that you gave a few years back. I am very happy to see you making such a fantastic video on it. You made all of our lives much easier in support. Thank you for your "Passion project".
Sir, you have my eternal respect. Task manager is my first go to for diagnosing literally any computer problem due to how much info it gives. Thank you so much.
As an IT professional, I couldn't live without Task Manager. I can still remember the first time I used it NT 4.0 and how it changed my life. Thank you, Dave.
I can't even imagine how computing, and modern progress as a whole would be worse off if task manager didn't exist. Thanks Dave. Also, thanks every member that kept pushing this through. Invaluable tool.
Thank you for task manager! One thing I wish task manager would have if it’s even possible is dedicated resources to run with. If it had its own dedicated section of RAM and CPU to use meaning it would never be slow even if there’s a memory leak or 100% of both the CPU and RAM are being used.
Sir! The word "Thank You" is not enough to show you gratitude for how many times it saved my life and my works throughout the years. I will forever cherish this work of yours!
It is absolutely legendary already with what he has accomplished in his career, what is more impressive is how even remotely he is attached to the notion of smiling even when narrating the most funniest of incidents
Task Manager is one of those tools that I am so comfortable with that it almost seems primitive, like a hammer. That's not to say that Task Manager is primitive, it just feels like a foundational tool at this point. And I never thought I'd see the man who made the thing. It's like meeting the guy who invented the hammer, very bizarre haha
16:00 ctrl+shift+esc really is the way all the kids are doing it now, I love this method of opening task manager and I haven't done it differently in years
Task manager has hands-down been my favorite tool in Windows. I also miss when Task Manager was powerful enough to bluescreen yourself if you weren't careful. While it isn't user-friendly, you could end some high-level tasks if you had the know-how, which made it feel like your computer is actually yours and you're not just running a leased OS which is basically what Windows is nowadays.
@@muhammadluqman3452 using task manager i've saved myself from a ransomware once. i'd installed some shit I kinda knew it'd not be benign and when I've seen a suspect process consuming a lot of CPU I've just shut it down. I've lost a few unimportant files only! Since then I fully trust my intuition and have stopped "experimenting". It was fun though :)
I find it amazing that Microsoft didn't find Task Manager an important feature for Windows due to simplification of the OS. Any person who ever uses Windows knows the importance of Task Manager. I've personally used Task Manager numerous times of the years to solve the issues of hung programs or processes. Great work Dave on explaining the ins and outs of Task Manager in which we sometimes take for granted.
You are a legend. I don't use my computer without task manager open on one of my monitors. You have single-handedly created one of the most useful pieces of software I and most of the world have ever used. Thank you.
The Task Manager has not once let me down. If anything fails and crashes, only the Task Manager was there to get me out of the deepest trouble. Thank you 🙏
Forget the critics, Dave! You designed task manager with user control as a top priority. It's up to the user to understand and use their PC correctly. Now all we've got is less and less control available to the user, and endless hoops to jump through (or not) to do what we used to take for granted.
No, it's not up to the user to be tech people and understand and use their PC correctly, but it's also not up to devs to treat users like infants and make Fisher-Price systems. The correct solution is to DEFAULT to safe but allow users to CHOOSE to change things. This works best with GOOD UI/UX to make it hard to accidentally change things and to make it easy to undo changes. Sadly, Big Tech fails at all of these steps these days. 🤦
I don't have less control of my windows 11 installation that I did my xp system 20 or whenever years ago. If your windows experience is different, that's a you problem.
@@I.____.....__...__ It's so bad that you can't even use non-store extensions in 99% of browsers, without receiving a debility warning at startup, which cannot be turned off in any way, they literally lead users by the hand...
@@I.____.....__...__ I have a few self-written extensions to perform specific small functions and I do not want to publish them in their store, but damn it, even in the dev version they continue to get this notification you have installed an extension not from the store blah blah blah it can be dangerous blah blah blah, please turn it off blah blah blah... Damn it, even my parents aren't that boring...
Whoa, cool! I didn’t even know you guys were still alive or if anyone would ever know who created stuff like this! It’s amazing you can do a review on it decades later!! This is gold!
Task Manager has always been our go-to lifesaver of closing applications that hang, restarting explorer and monitoring CPU performance. We are blessed to have a talented individual like yourself!
As a programmer since windows early days. I especially appreciated the flicker issue since I have been there myself, a true programmer could never just let the controls flicker! Your other comments about the code and having your app in front of so many eyes. Great stuff. Also congrats on the app. I have used it from from the beginning and I used it yesterday. I really enjoyed your video. Thank s for the App!!
![[#2024MAMA] G-DRAGON - 무제(Untitled, 2014)+POWER+HOME SWEET HOME+뱅뱅뱅+FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ox29z5Nf1Uk/mqdefault.jpg)
You made THE task manager? Jesus Christ, that's something
No, he made the other task manager.
Sorry, I had to do it.... 😂
@@volvo09 😆😆😆
This man is bigger than Jesus, Jesus only gave us bread an wine... Dave gave us Task Manager 😍
You must be new here.
This isn't the first video he has made stating that. He is a pretty decent guy. His name is still in some source code so yes I'm fairly certain he did.
Wish there could be like a hall of fame for programmers. People like Dave are the real super stars.
In a hundred years they will be in textbooks, but for now they are just legends for us in IT and other computer nerds.
@iPriv33 more like it'll be in the training data of some AI we can query lol
you can thank Gates and Jobs for destroying the industry for oligopoly re: open source and credit
You got it all wrong with your sports analogy. For example let's look at today's NBA. There is a lot of superstars playing right now. LeBron, Curry, Gianis, Luca, Jokic, KD... being introduced to hall of fame is next level. It's acknowledgment of their impact on game when they played and acknowledgment of their impact on future generations.
And then there are people like Dave. They live outside of realm of mere mortals. Superstars and hall of famers are just entertainers. Very talented and very hard working people but bottom line is they are here just to entertain us. Their impact on our daily lives, our future and lives of future generations is insignificant when compared to importance of what people like Dave do every day.
Every Microcenter i've been in has a wall with all of the main guys
Task Manager has saved me more times than I could possibly count. Great job. I'm grateful for your work!
It’s a really useful and reliable tool.
Also built right into Windows. That’s a rare combination of things to see.
yes, me too.
and the argument, that it is overly nerdy? let's compare it to a car. sure, you want to have a comfortable car. it is nice to drive it. but at some point, you need to look under the hood. and there is the engine, the battery, the other components, etc.
so? it is a tool that really helps but isn't the most beautiful one...
It's the one thing I truly miss whenever I'm using Linux instead. No distro I've found has a feature even remotely comparable.
Agreed. I have been using Task Manager from W95 right up to W10. I pretty much keep it running 24/7 on the task-bar, so I can kill any process that gets out of hand, or to simply monitor system resources. BRILLIANT addition to the OS, and I thank you - not that my one single voice matters - for having it included in the OS. One of Windoze's most useful things, even up to and including today.
@@VauxhallViva1975 on an older laptop with overheating issues, I used taskmanager for something slightly different: I actually put some processes that were causing massive loads on a lower priority and found a system setting where I could reduce the overall CPU load.
this made overheating less of a problem without sacrificing speed.
I worked at Bell Labs in the mid '80s as part of the Unix System V R4 C compiler team. One day when I was working on a port to the Intel i860 processor, I wrote a small assembler debugger because the symbolic debugger was not finished yet. I named my debugger "fred", just because. It soon spread throughout the department, and I would occasionally get a call or email question about it. No problem. Somehow, fred got included on the Unix source tape that ended up being shipped around the world. One day I got an email from someone in Italy asking a question about something that wasn't completely clear in the manual page I had written. I answered the question, then asked how they knew about fred. That's how I found out it had gone out with the source code.
Pretty cool!
A modern OS without a task manager is just unthinkable, and it's one of the few things in Windows 11 that still focuses on functionality over form. Quite a legacy you built there.
doesnt even tell me what all is running. you must not know much about computers. its even worse in the lgbtpedo age of jeffery epstein /bill gates windows 10/11. at least older windows allowed you to see things. even if some were hidden behind the word sys32, which is pretty pedo like to have to hide i think people who control this tech should be thrown into car crushers.i bet if pedotubes supreme race didnt own everything i could run a pool an over 50% of people would say ibll gates should be excommunicated from earth. im not sure i see things the way you easter bunny an santa clause worshippin npc do.
Microsoft didn’t invent the idea. All Unix and RTOS’s have had them way before Microsoft implemented it. Dave did good work for sure but it’s not a new idea.
@@GodzillaGoesGaga @SkeletonBill didn't even say that the whole idea was from him. Just that he built it in a way that is legendary nowadays, and I too think that he deserves all the credit and respect he gets for this.
@maksa22242 yeah I couldn't imagine using windows without the ability to kill stuff when it freezes up lol...
Its functionality is garbage.
The CREATOR OF IT condoned my use of Ctrl+Shift+Escape. I feel so validated. I love you.
Now you can stop being mocked among your circle????
@@quantumblur_3145 correct.
i always use this keyboard shortcut to access it too!
it was interesting to hear how that was added to the Windows Logon process, since it should always be running.
I love the deep-dive esoteric coding style, not including libraries to maintain a light footprint. And, "it's pointless to pretend you can't do that, so Task Manager just does it for you."
I use CTRL+ALT+DEL
Task Manager is one of the single most important tools in the OS ever created. Well done!
Yeah agreed, I can't believe that their were people trying to get it removed in the beginning. What a loss that would have been. Imagine how much damage idiots can do if no one stops them.
Only because windows is a piece of shit, you should see what Linux can do
@deadlock_problem Could you perhaps find something better to do with your life other than going around being a missionary for an operating system?
Yeah linux is good if you're pretty experienced with this kind of stuff butttt if you're just the average user go windows.@@deadlock_problem
@wikingkrig5801 Yes My windows is very not *stabil* , I wish I could also use Linux to be *Stabil* just like your mental health
Task manager; the most reliable asset in Windows when all of your media programs crash and lock up👌🏽you’re a gift, sir. Thank you
Everything in existence: ceases to respond.
TASKMANAGER : You have 2 seconds to comply.
Most reliable? Well it's surely a great tool but it has some shortcomings.
For example, I upgraded to an i9 13900K, but some programs like Discord or Jdownloader sometimes will hang on launch, Jdownloader refuses to get it's process taken down sometimes even by taskmanager. This is a weird behaviour. But System Informer, the new successor to Process Hacker, is able to successfully terminate these frozen processes. It is unclear why taskmanager is unable to quit these processes.
The CPU is however stable despite all the reports as there's no BSODs or anything during heavy stress.
Another thing I dislike since Windows 8 is that the CPU graphs do not represent the actual CPU usage as we've seen on Windows 7 and prior, it reports higher percentages than what is actually used, sometimes up to double. So a 100% CPU load does not have to be 100% CPU when checking it through third party tools that report the CPU usage the way the Windows 7 and older taskmanagers did.
That is a difference between CPU utility usage and actual processor time where the utility usage is normally significantly larger. This gives a skewed view of the system performance in my opinion as 100% is not actual 100% load and means the system has more capacity. It doesn't lag at 100% like it used to in the old days because the metrics are different.
You can compare this by either loading the old Windows 7 taskmanager in Windows 10/11, or use 3rd party tools such as HWMonitor or HWiNFO, System Informer, System Information Viewer etc.
Another bothersome issue is that the new Windows 8+ taskmanagers has severage performance issues when opening the process list to the point where the cursor is actually frozen and delayed on a fresh start causing even the entire system to a slowdown. This is unacceptable. The old taskmanger in Windows 7 was always instant and wasn't bloated with metrics that slowed it down.
It is so bad I've resorted to setting the performance tab as the default upon opening, but System Informer I would recommend as a great responsive alternative.
Most reliable? Well it's surely a great tool but it has some shortcomings.
For example, I upgraded to an i9 13900K, but some programs like Discord or Jdownloader sometimes will hang on launch, Jdownloader refuses to get it's process taken down sometimes even by taskmanager. This is a weird behaviour. But System Informer, the new successor to Process Hacker, is able to successfully take down these frozen processes. It is unclear why taskmanager is unable to quit these processes.
The CPU is however stable despite all the reports as there's no BSODs or anything during heavy stress.
Another thing I dislike since Windows 8 is that the CPU graphs do not represent the actual CPU usage as we've seen on Windows 7 and prior, it reports higher percentages than what is actually used, sometimes up to double. So a 100% CPU load does not have to be 100% CPU when checking it through third party tools that report the CPU usage the way the Windows 7 and older taskmanagers did.
That is a difference between CPU utility usage and actual processor time where the utility usage is normally significantly larger. This gives a skewed view of the system performance in my opinion as 100% is not actual 100% load and means the system has more capacity. It doesn't lag at 100% like it used to in the old days because the metrics are different.
You can compare this by either loading the old Windows 7 taskmanager in Windows 10/11, or use 3rd party tools such as HWMonitor or HWiNFO, System Informer, System Information Viewer etc.
Another bothersome issue is that the new Windows 8+ taskmanagers has severage performance issues when opening the process list to the point where the cursor is actually frozen and delayed on a fresh start causing even the entire system to a slowdown. This is unacceptable. The old taskmanger in Windows 7 was always instant and wasn't bloated with metrics that slowed it down.
It is so bad I've resorted to setting the performance tab as the default upon opening, but System Informer I would recommend as a great responsive alternative.
Most reliable? Well it's surely a great tool but it has some shortcomings.
For example, I upgraded to an i9 13900K, but some programs like Discord or Jdownloader sometimes will hang on launch, Jdownloader refuses to get it's process taken down sometimes even by taskmanager. This is a weird behaviour. But System Informer, the new successor to Process Hacker, is able to successfully take down these frozen processes. It is unclear why taskmanager is unable to quit these processes.
The CPU is however stable despite all the reports as there's no BSODs or anything during heavy stress.
Another thing I dislike since Windows 8 is that the CPU graphs do not represent the actual CPU usage as we've seen on Windows 7 and prior, it reports higher percentages than what is actually used, sometimes up to double. So a 100% CPU load does not have to be 100% CPU when checking it through third party tools that report the CPU usage the way the Windows 7 and older taskmanagers did.
That is a difference between CPU utility usage and actual processor time where the utility usage is normally significantly larger. This gives a skewed view of the system performance in my opinion as 100% is not actual 100% load and means the system has more capacity. It doesn't lag at 100% like it used to in the old days because the metrics are different.
You can compare this by either loading the old Windows 7 taskmanager in Windows 10/11, or use 3rd party tools such as HWMonitor or HWiNFO, System Informer, System Information Viewer etc.
Another issue is that the new Windows 8+ taskmanagers has severage performance issues when opening the process list to the point where the cursor is actually frozen and delayed on a fresh start causing even the entire system to a slowdown. This is unacceptable. The old taskmanger in Windows 7 was always instant and wasn't bloated with metrics that slowed it down.
It is so bad I've resorted to setting the performance tab as the default upon opening, but System Informer I would recommend as a great responsive alternative.
I love task manager as a laymen. It just works. I love it.
A few thoughts I didn't mention in the video that might be of interest: I'm not a UI designer. I make good UI for me, but not for "regular people". I once tried to design the Photos UI and it looked like Visual Studio 6, since I'm a "power user" but it wouldn't be a good way to do it for all Windows users, for example.
But Task Manager was one of those cases where the thing I wanted turned out to be something that a lot of other people wanted too. Most things require a good designer, but I think they'd come at the problem very differently. So this was perhaps a unique case of where having an engineer who understood the system make the UI, rather than the user experience folks dictating what you could do... if that makes sense.
It's by no means unique, but I think the defensive programming approach I took within it has proved useful in the long run, since Task Manager is pretty well respected for being robust. It takes extra time and effort to handle every error case gracefully, and to check every return value, etc... but that's why you never see it get into a bad state. If you ever get "Task Manager (Not Responding)", at least in the older versions of Windows, I'd almost guarantee the system itself is borked at that point, and not Task Manager. Small consolation when it's your machine, though, I know!
Long story short, I made it for me, and I'm super grateful that so many others have found it useful over so long a period of time!
That's how the best programs with the best UIs are created: a single person writing single program that they want to use.
As someone who mostly moved to Linux some time ago, I think its given me more appreciation for task manager as its one of the places where things are a lot more fiddly to do on Linux. The irony being that almost everywhere else in Windows, things have gone backwards for what seems the reason you described, its UI focused not "what does a user getting to this point NEED". The sheer number of different places in Windows you can access network settings for example, when the thing you want to change is still hidden in device manager.
May I have one question, please?
How different is the taskmgr from windows 7 compared to the original one from windows NT?
I have a suspicion that they are mostly the same thing.
As a current Sys Admin, I can say that Task Manager is probably the single most useful thing, Powershell probably being the only thing I'd put above it, included in Windows so thanks for the work you did 27 years ago when I was still a toddler lol
Can you make a C++ programming series Dave? Would really appreciate it mate
This might sound insane, but when you said you wrote the Task Manager, I had this feeling like you're the biggest celebrity in the world (to me). Your work has DEFINITELY stood the test of time, and you've saved millions of people hundreds of hours with it. Cheers!
Hopefully hundreds of hours EACH
He literally made Windows useable....
Huge admirations to you and your work making that program working until now, and btw i am pretty shure it will for 100 more years Job well done !
i feel the same way, I got a chance to work with the lawyer who convinced Bill Gates to license microsoft when he was a jr law associate at his firm. He ended up writing me a beautiful recommendation that Im sure would get a felon the job.
Well, my mom thinks so. But that's about it :-)
I hope it says "Father of Task Manager" on your business card. My company once worked with the "Father of Uninstall" who wrote the uninstall sequence for Windows apps. Still to this day probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen on a business card
maybe it says "kill all children" too
thanks for making this mr dave i use windows now
You should be embarrassed not proud.
You sound 70 years old
The Uninstall would leave half of the files and registry entries on harddisk,would never hire the "Father of Uninstall"
Imagine having the creator of the Task Manager on your resume.
You've saved me from many system lockups and a potential ass-whooping from my parents when they walked in on me viewing naughty materials that wouldn't close properly without Task Manager. You're the hero we needed, but the one we don't deserve!
would’ve just unplugged the computer at that point lmao
Why couldn't those sites close properly, were they infected with viruses and Trojans?
@@wladynoszhighlights5989 probably. And windows 95/98 machines weren't exactly the best with performance and handling pop-ups. XD
@@wladynoszhighlights5989 Most likely those websites that lock your browser with infinite popups, and popup blockers used to not be as effective.
@@wladynoszhighlights5989 Some sites can be so heavy they take a decent while to close, task manager forces the entire browser to close, which even if it doesnt close the site instantly it'll make the browser black screen on the spot.
For all the faults Windows has had over the years, the Task Manager was always a feature I was tremendously grateful for. Thank you sir!
@@TheGreyLineMatters prime example of a basement dwelling Linux fanboy, take a shower my man
@@TheGreyLineMatters And Linux still haven't figured out how to make system updates without braking entire drivers and other functionalities to make it user friendly
@@MrGTAmodsgermanWhat, there have been plenty of Windows updates that have bricked or crippled many machines. Win NT left a navy ship dead in the water in the 90s.
You're very welcome! It's flattering to know that someone I wrote so long ago, and put my best effort into, has had such staying power!
@@MrGTAmodsgermanskill issue
Your comment about "End Process" vs. "Kill Task" reminded me of something. Years back I worked for a company that makes automated blood testing machines for medical laboratories. One product's software would, now and then, pop up a message: "Child is killed." This caused some consternation among our customers as a report of a child dying is rather a big deal when you work in a hospital. It caused more than a few calls to product support before the software group fixed it.
lol heard this before before
That’s hilarious 😂
Was the kid ok?
Nope dead.@@annoyingbstard9407
@@annoyingbstard9407 sh-she died Jill
No day has gone by without me opening Task Manager at least once. Setting startup programs, Fixing audiodg issues, Ending stubborn programs, Monitoring system components, etc. You are my hero.
That program did more to make PCs usable for the average person than nearly anything else, it was a masterclass in simple, powerful, and user friendly software design
The task manager has been immensely useful through the years. I can’t thank you enough for your work.
@Jk he could have also not thought of it! I feel comfortable thanking him for it. Thanks to his work I benefited and I'm thanking his contribution to my productivity and for making windows a better product. Of course I paid for it, but it's thanks to people Iike him I continue to use windows every day
You know you’re doing something right when Dave Cutler approves. Been a big fan of CTRL+SHIFT+ESC for a long time but I wasn’t aware of holding CTRL whilst launching a new task. Great little hidden feature!
I wasn't aware either, but never needed it. I do have the command line on a keyboard shortcut and as an Explorer context menu item, though.
this doesn't seem to work currently on Windows 10 from login screen.
@@xeridea You can't launch Task manager from the logon screen because that would let you bypass nearly all the system's security measures.
@@eDoc2020 And the problem would be!
@@stephenhunter70 Are you asking? The login screen runs as SYSTEM so if you get task manager you can easily launch a full privilege command prompt.
The end task function could also be used to stop services, or the process list can reveal incriminating information.
Not saying you deserve a Nobel Peace Price for Taskmanager since I'm sure it prevented a lot of anger in the world, but I'm saying that some recipients of that price did less for people's inner peace than you did with creating Taskmanager. Legend.
They gave Obama a Nobel prize for being black, talk about patronizing.
Better him than Kissinger, though that's not saying much.
At least he stopped short of calling it Dave's Tool
😂😅. @dancroitoru364
Don't belittle what you've done!
There's been so many computer sessions that went to hell and the only save was the task manager. You help me monitor my computers basic health and strains it's under. That's magic. I still use the task manager regularly to monitor various aspects of my experience.
Thank you man, so much.
Also, he's the reason why i can't move windows to linux. I genuinely admire him
I’m so happy that there were employees around in that era that challenged the over-simplification of the OS. Catering to the power user while still making the OS approachable is what made Windows stand out. Thank you for your hard work on this.
Very good comment, I thought the same, when I watched this video! I started in the windows 3.0 times, and I loved the many ways, that you could change soo many things without knowing much about programming. And that's basically, why I hate the secretive, closed down, restricted Apple ecosystem to this day. I know these machines work very relieable, but my windows machines do that as well - and I can tweak them to behave like I feel is convenient. Apple decides that for you. I got Chills, when David listed the 10 ways how you can start the task manager. I love that freedom!
I still remember how I went after a virus, that shut down my computer after a little period of time - so at startup I quickly started the task manager, closed the malicious process - and then I had plenty of time to set the machine back to a former state, before it had been infecting my computer. Windows Vista had the most powerful "set all pragrams back" to a certain time stamp, removing EVERYTHING that had been installed in between. Even the most hidden things, but left all static data alone. I loved Vista for its exceptional stability as much as I loved XP before.
We probably would've gotten that asinine thing mac os has whereby you can't see the transfer speed in the transfer dialogue.
I understand why people want over-simplified UI, but that's where apple comes in 😂
@@genius1a if you need a ui to change your desktop and you are a windows user you are not a power user you are a Redditor.
@@PanosPitsi Oh, you are absolutely right! I always referred to myself as a "DAU". That's a german abbreviation for "Dümmster Anzunehmender User" which translates to "most stupid user imaginable". I USE Windows, and so far all experiments to switch to other ecosystems like Linux, OS 2 and Mac OS have failed miserably. When I have to switch to a new computer, I take 2 to 3 days to heavily modify it (install ancient and new special programs and little helpers, modify the UI to my needs) and then I use it for at least 5 years. If it works. Lately I purchased a high end Dell Laptop, that refused to work the way I need it (some of the ancient programs crashed). Its the most expensive and most powerful machine I own, but it got downgraded to be a Laser Cutter Server, because it was the only spare machine I had. The 13 inch 4K Dell Laptop of the same era has to fill the gap until I have the money to start a new approach with a different new machine.
I still fondly remember how, even on the most broken, messed up or OOM Windows XP, Task Manager was the _one_ thing that _never_ let me down.
I always appreciate when people go the extra mile to do their job not only right but extremely well, and here the perfectionism truly shows :)
if task manager locks up, you know its time for a format and reinstall :D
Or just give him a call on his home number! lol
@@tehs3raph1m til it's a hardware issue and you get a bsod even on a different ssd/ram combo :p t540p can't open the preformance tab anymore but works great still for most things, better than a cheap laptop from Walmart even still for day to day tasks.
Hear hear. Task Manager was the last word. If the problem locked up Task Manager, you know it was a serious problem
If every developer took that much care and pride in their work, the world would be a very different place.
Oh, hi Mark!
*Says someone who has no idea how programming is done*
@@AndroWax-qy8ky I will graduate next year as a software engineer, so I know a thing are two about programming.
@@Luzgar Working as a developer is different from just studying development. In the real world you have people chasing you to deliver yesterday and stuff is not "graded" as long as it works. Code quality does not matter to the people who talk to clients, the only care about delivering.
@@p003872 I know, that's why I'm saying that. What's your point ?
My friends and I used to play a game on LAN partys which consisted of taking turns ending processes in Task Manager until your system crashes.
Like a "Last Task Manager standing".
Anyway thanks for your service, Dave! I am glad you came up with that sweet little program.
This sounds like fun :D
this is the best idea ive heard in a long long time
Redmond Roulette?
@@allah_2 Thank you, yeah it was hella fun.
I hope every programmer from your era makes videos like this. So many amazing stories
It’s wild how robust the QA process was, yet the initial releases were still so buggy. I think it really goes to show the true complexity of an operating system. All that time and energy spent to QA yet things still got through
It's really not that complex when you make it work and not push BS on your consumer. Have you seen windows 11? full of ad's wtf ?
these guy's didn't spend their time selling dsa courses
@king6530 Nirsoft never continued to phase 3, which is why Nirsoft software will always be my favorite!
@king6530 the sad part is that we should be going back to phase 1 and birthing new technology. Instead we seem to put most of our recourses into iterating on existing technology, not truly creating new stuff. AI is the most fitting ‘new technology’ to be big right now. It just spits out existing shit really fast and isn’t truly creating anything new.
@@Bewefau this video is about windows 95 though
You absolute legend. Force quitting programs in task manager was probably my first introduction to how computers really work as a child
And still useful to this day when some of the official software at my workplace misbehaves.
I’ve only use task manager about 62,000 times.
RUclips is so cool. This is my favorite kind of content. Over the years, I’ve learned from the horses mouth about so many things that I’ve used my whole life. It’s just such a interesting, feeling taking something that feels so huge corporation and breaking it down to a single person. Thanks.
FYI, if anybody is looking for another really cool insider story. Check out the story of crash bandicoot and the PlayStation. Amazing story of how they reverse engineered and hacked into the PlayStation from the game itself in order to make the game much bigger than it should’ve been and perform much better than other games.
I've used it 62,001 times! I win! 😁😆
I have task manager set to immediately open when i start my computer.
@@tlpineapple1 how would you do that?
@@o45032put it on run at start up in taskmanager
The task manager is one of the most important parts of PC history, congratulations. The organization and systemic approach you took helped people like me learn through "osmosis". I still remember opening task manager as a small child and being in awe, the graphs... the buttons... the organization... I just wanted to know more.
My first time watching one of your videos, and I feel like I've met a rockstar! So cool that you wrote the OG Task Manager! 👍😊
Welcome aboard!
Really brilliant and cool indeed
@@DavesGarageyou are exactly what I aspire to become in the future. Even if I don't get to contribute something as huge as you have, I hope I can tell my children in the future about things I made that brought a positive impact to the world
I strongly believe that Taskmgr is what kept Windows users patient about the Os through it's early years, users felt always they had this powerfull tool as their last resort to "terminate" all sorts of misfunction and that's what software craft is all about. Congratulation Sir, you may talk modestly about it but for us it's a lifetime achievement and you're a Legend.
I agree. Sometimes Chrome crashed, or Microsoft office, and Task Manager helped with closing out of the programs. Plus also, the CPU and RAM usage graphs are pretty cool. The Wi-Fi speed graph is useful also.
Yep, and being able to restart with two CTRL ALT DELs (although man that was annoying when you only meant to press it once)
Bingo - humans love to have some agency.
@@mikelastname ok redditor
I find that it's still one of the only reasons why the OS is semi sustainable to use in long multipurpose sessions... Windows resource management is alright, but still not bulletproof on its own.
As a lifetime IT Support on personal and professional level, I can't express how grateful we're for your service to humanity.
Honestly Task manager is the #1 tool I use to correctly troubleshoot any kind of issue. Thanks to the reliability and exstensive features of it, you just know you'll solve the issue eventually.
Again, thank you for your service in making IT Support more achievable on a daily basis. ❤
Seconded. No hesitation at all!
I just came on to make a similar comment. No way my life would’ve been easy without it. And it makes you look like a magician when you access it and use it correctly against a layman.
As much as I've complained about Windows over the years, I have no idea how something so complex could ever work as well as it does. Very interesting to hear from someone directly involved in such development. Well done!
You know you have developed a masterpiece, when your software is running close to 3 decades.
Hats off to you sir!
The fact that wrote task manager makes you a minor celebrity in my book. I went from win3.1 to nt4 and when i discovered task manager, it blew my mind. Its the first place i go for troubleshooting. And it has helped me resolve so many problems over the years. I love it, Dave!
Yeah I find it weirder and weirder it's next impossible to know the names of wrote the tools we use and rely on everyday because they are not baked into the UI or about menu.
Dave. Don’t know if you’ll see this but as a small time computer repair tech, I’ve always appreciated how lightweight and fast the early derivatives of your work was in XP, and at home as a teen your inclusion of the ability to end Explorer.exe and manually restart it was super convenient when after usually alt-tabbing out of a game, on the rare occasion Windows Explorer would lockup. I appreciate the behind the scenes details for an important component of the OS.
Oh yeah, even today being able to close the Explorer.exe has been a blessing. I'm thankful they never added arbitrary limitations besides crazy ones that can crash the whole os. Unfortunately, I don't like that with Task Manager I can't set the CPU core affinity and process priority and it saves it after system or process restart.
Thanks! Keeping it lightweight was a major goal, as we were quite memory constrained at the time. Now I have 32 cores and 128GB!
@@DavesGarage Thanks, task manager has saved so much work from being lost!
What was the reasoning behind its use, first being deployed on NT?
Closing and restarting explorer.exe has been my go to tech tip for years
RUclips algorithm brought me here, I watched this video from you, and then another, and then another, and another... My GOSH your videos are so interesting! I normally wouldn't be very interested in someone rambling in front of a camera for 20 minutes, but the things you talk about related to the early days of Windows development or even modern Windows systems, and THE WAY in which you explain everything, something about it all is just so captivating. Keep it up!
It always feels so distant as if these core system concepts were created by intricate wizards hiding in an underground headquarter whilst never showing themselves to the public, but seeing you talk about it makes me appreciate it more
He's the king wizard, he's allowed to leave.
I'm a Linux engineer. It's difficult to imagine what it was like working in windows development at that time. Respect.
bro you forget about linux tranaldo writing linux kerneal himself alone
@@ReverseEngineering-gv8bu No man I was commenting specifically on how I imagine the windows development environment to have been at that time. Linus Torvalds was his name, and I have tons of respect for his work.
brutal, horrific and awful.. just like modern times..
Linux has to be one of the dumbest and impractical systems ever. Takes 10x longer to achieve anything practical that you could easily do in win98 😂
@@ChessJourneyman Clearly coming from someone that never touched Linux.
The task manager is perhaps one of the most useful and powerful tools the Windows user could ask for and all thanks to this man! I can't thank you enough
Thank you Dave. I've used your stuff as a Windows user all my life. Today I'm a hobbyist game dev and this is a master class in how to build something critical that doesn't break when you kick it. I've ranted at tons of programs and features through my short life, but Task Manager has never been one of them. I've always intuitively counted on it as my "ace in the hole," and I've never been wrong. It's fascinating to see how many features have been built into it to make it lightweight, accessible from any imaginable state, and both honest and true as much as it can be. Great video, and I laughed so many times!
Holy cow i'm in this exact same case!
Used it for 25+ years as a user/IT, and now I look at it code wise, in the endless quest of writing better code...
I used to volunteer at my kid's school and teach computers to the 3rd graders and so on. Ironically, the admin policy on all the computers prohibited task manager entirely, which was always annoying to me!
As a random recollection, this was in the XP days. The kids all knew I worked for Microsoft, but nobody cared because around here lots of people do! But when the kids found out I'd worked on Pinball, it gave me some serious cred with the 8 year olds :-).
As always, I like to note that the pinball game shipped first for Win95, I did the port/re-write of it for what shipped in Windows itself. Which meant rewriting the x86 asm parts in C, porting it to MIPS, etc... but all the graphics and design was there before I got there!
My pastime in computer science class at high school was always finding ways to abuse the badly made user rights to go where I shouldn't. Like launching a disabled task manager or the group policies, maybe even trying to look at the teachers' resource folder.
@@RomanTheNotARoman sameee
Hey Dave. Excellent video. Just out of curiosity, do you happen to have a TIX clock in the background there? It looks like it!
I still have pinball on windows 11 and linux haha
When are you going to update it to run fullscreen on large resolutions though? Patch is 15 years overdue
I just want to say, thank you Dave! I've been using Windows since 3.1 era and the Task Manager is my favorite part of the OS. I feel like it's the same as if you open the hood of your car and take a look inside trying to find something wrong. It's super helpful to find strange faults happening, and I can't think of how I could use Windows without it. Just weeks ago I found the origin of a problem on my brother's laptop using Task Manager info. Super helpful.
you are genious how you use window 3. good to see you live
From Win95 onward, TaskManager is my single most-used tool in the Windows suite, and in these days of removing the user from the OE, I feel like it's the last simple thing left that I can use to monitor what the software is doing. Thanks for years of me watching the CPU spike :D
Aww come on. Windows ain't that bad that you need to use it all the time =þ
Yeah, I leave it running most of the time.
@schroeder9999, I mean, I do the same thing in Linux too, so like. It's just a useful kind of tool. I wish the (default) one in ubuntu showed a graph of disk access/usage, though.
Windows explorer...
@@AbdallahMehiz Huh, maybe ...
After decades as a dev & admin I burned out and switched careers. Less money, less stress, _much_ happier, better muscle tone. Dave, basically a legend, manages to re-awaken that dormant little nerd inside me.
The insider stories are damn fascinating. I used wonder about that stuff all the time lol. Apparently I still enjoy geeking out occasionally . . now when I _feel_ like it, no pressure 😄
RUclips recommendations once again steering me towards absolute legends like yourself. Beyond grateful that you share stories and experiences for everyone.
The Windows Task Manager is arguably the most used piece of software in Windows OS. In may case Task Manager is always open and ready to be utilized wherever reason arise. Its safe to say I'm a heavy Task Manager user. Dave you played your part in computer history and you will always be remembered for your contribution.
Wow Dave as a fellow developer it was interesting hearing your story. Developers going rogue and designing something technical and nerdy that is beyond beneficial is a lost art! Wild west as you called it!
So true, i miss the days when the Dev guys were visionaries for "what's next" and "what should be". Now every thing is a money grab iteration for something that already exists. There really hasn't been anything new in Tech that has shifted they way we do things in years.
We're all like that when we're Young Guns... We just love to code and innovate.
But the reasons it's not good for you is:
1) You direct boss will feel threatened by your talent and subvert your career,
2) You just gave away your million dollar idea away to a corp that wants to replace you with anyone cheaper they can find.
In the beginning of the video he says many were opposed to his project being included... those were the snakes seeking to elevate their careers only, and supress all others.
Microsoft treated me well! No complaints!
@@GregMoress Do bosses really feel threatened like that? I'm sure it happens, but in my experience, most of my bosses liked it when their employees innovate. It looks great on their resume if they can say they "led the team that developed Windows Task Manager".
@@monkemode8128 It's not at all uncommon for the narcisistic personality-types to strive to have power, so they see all others as threats.
They don't hide this, so it will be easy enough to spot if you keep an eye open for it.
But I've had a few really good bosses too.
Task manager is probably my most consistently used program on my computer. It’s pretty much unthinkable to imagine a world without it. You’re the GOAT
Task Manager is the most useful tool I constantly use. As an administrator of several Windows servers I love that I can remote in pop open the task manager and figure things out quickly. Even back in the windows 95 days and before it was still very useful in figuring out what the heck the computer was doing. Thank you Dave! You created a tool that I bet has helped so many administrators save so much time.
You made the most essential tool on a computer. Ive used this thoroughly for my entirety of my windows and even Mac use, windows being first. Thank you for your skill and talent I owe you big time
Plus the video is dope, haha right on!-
Dave should thank the other Windows devs for making the OS unreliable😂
I kid, I kid
Those annectotes on Task Manager and Windows history are very interesting as they reveal aspects of Windows' history that have never been shared. I hope you can share more videos like those in the future Dave!
annecdote
So many proprietary tools don’t remember user preferences after closing the application but I am glad and impressed to know that you spent a good deal of time and effort to make sure user settings are gracefully saved to disk.
I couldn't imagine windows without task manager. I think it was a big part of why I was the type of kid teaching myself how to write HTML at 9 years old back in the 90s. Just having all that information right there at my fingertips was the most fascinating thing and was definitely a big part of what got me "into" computers.
Never thought I'd run into a RUclips video from the guy who wrote the program, but genuinely - good job, and thank you!
your first paragraph hits home really 🙏
Task Manager has been the single most consistently great tool with every Windows OS I've ever used.
Thank you for creating this thing.
True. And that means MS will probably remove or hide it eventually. :(
@@Version135 It's not going anywhere. It may morph over time, but it has proven invaluable in saving peoples' systems when they get out of whack.
you are not just an amazing programmer, but an awesome story teller too!! So nice to discover you!
This is fascinating! As a long long time Windows user, it's very interesting to hear these stories from a creator.
It's unreal seeing the creator of the software that's served so many on RUclips. People who make the little things we use everyday don't get nearly a fraction of the credit they deserve! Thank you for sharing the creation story of Task Manager. An essential for both a newbie and power user on windows!
The task manager is one of my favorite tools in all of windows, ever made.
Killing explorer.exe and then being able to launch it again has so many beneficial uses when a machine is bogged down and you don’t want to restart it.
Thanks for this. As someone who’s been a systems administrator at more than one company, it’s my first go to when I need to figure out what’s going on
this is also what i do back in my kid days haha now it dont happens tech this days are fast
I have never felt like such an IT rock-star as when you listed the 10 ways to open Task Manager, and not only did I know all of the them... but I used to wow people with the single-handed Ctrl-Shift-Esc opening of Task Manager, like I was doing some sleight-of-hand to open it! Absolutely a critical piece of code over the years, and stunning to me that it started life as a side-project. As others have said, its stuff like that which makes me so humbly grateful for your (and your compatriots') work. Cheers!
Dave, a big thank you for your work. I've used your tool countless times, both at home and on the job. Please allow me to remember here a funny one, circa 1999. A customer needed to use Task Manager but didn't know how, since they had a custom NT installation, with greyed out items in the Ctrl-Alt-Del menu and whatnot. So I suggested trying the Ctrl-Shift-Esc shortcut... the expression on their face when that did work: priceless! 😊
Task Manager was truly inspired genius! I've used it more times than I even care to remember, to help users recover from locked screens without having to do a hard reset. Thanks for your hard work, dedication, inspiration and attention to detail!
I didn't know CTRL+SHIFT+ESC was a winlogon hook! That's nifty.
I also really like the bits about how it is built to do everything in its power to bring up a working Task Manager and help you rescue your system if you REAAAAAAALLY need to
I've been a hardcore task manager lover for decades. All of this was just me nodding until you mentioned CTRL+SHIFT+ESC... I love it! I've learned something new today! Thanks Dave!
I think you made what we need most. I'm glad windows has Task Manager.
as a longtime windows user, task manager has been an actual lifesaver, i never thought i'd have the opportunity to show appreciation toward its legendary creator but thank you so much for your hard work !
Dave, I came across your channel and learned everything I needed to know about 10Gbe networking. And now I am completely blown away that you are behind one my favorite highly used programs. You are building quite the legacy here on YT.
Favorite?
@@subhamdhar683Yes? How is that weird? It genuinely was one of my favourite programs too as a teen and beyond.
@@subhamdhar683it was a necessity at one point in time if you utilized some of the older windows operating systems
I work for a major university at their help desk. We have over 33,000 employees. I handle on average 40 -60 calls a day. I use task manager on 60-70% the most often reason is to check the liars, I mean callers, uptime. Which then usually leads to the proverbial "did you restart?" (yes, they did three months ago) Thank you for one of if not the most important Windows tools EVER! Ctr+Alt+Delete for life!
not Ctrl+Shift+Esc...............? why go through the extra screen if you just need task manager?
@@supremebuffalo6322 I just right click the task bar and click on task manager myself. I find it fastest.
YES, they always say they restarted.
To be fair, many of them do click shutdown, then turn it back on, and that's a restart to them... but with fast startup it never actually shut down.
@@supremebuffalo6322 old school lol
@@jeremypilot1015damn ... Imagine
probably one of the best TOOLs used on windows os, with minor changes and modifications over time, and should be cont maintained and improved for all future msft os.
Task Manager has been the single most reliable tool in everyone's tool box. It is a masterpiece and a life saver, thank you and Mark for all you have done in making everyone's lives that much easier.
I remember using Task Manager to manage the memory of my 2 GB RAM laptop. I used to keep it running in the background to kill any stray process that took up memory. It's impressive knowing the care and dedication that you took in writing this important program! Makes Windows all the better, and usable! A BIG thank you!
2gb? Try 8mb of system ram XD
And even that was a lot of ram at the time
As someone who works in IT support, Task Manager is one of the most basic and useful tools of my trade. Thank you for adding this invaluable tool!
Arguably the best "comes in the box" everything manager out there. Its strong use until this day is testament. My hat is off to you, thank you making this amazing tool.
One more piece of trivia... a couple of years ago I tracked down and conneccted with the author of htop so we could chat. His name is Porto Alegre and I still think htop under Linux is the most amazing console based app I've ever seen!
13:00 it's more than just "Bad PR" it's a security hazard and you know it
Htop and taskmgr devs, literal meeting between legends
@@ko-Daeguif you play around in taskmgr while having unsaved work its kinda your fault if you loose it hehe. Crashing the system is an annoyance risk at most
An enduring legacy, no doubt. One of the first things my dad taught me when we first got a computer and I was learning to use it. This was in 2003, 2004 I think. The computer was THE most interesting thing in my life.
Wow, your computer way started just about the same time mine did. But in my case, I had to learn almost all the stuff myself.
I remember a situation when I turned off the PC and my dad became a little angry at me because he thought I just pulled the cord from the wall socket. He was going to demonstrate to me my fault by showing me Scandisk run during boot. He was surprised Win98 booted just normally without a disk scan.
Working in tech support I use your application every single day! It’s something we all take for granted now - instilled as part of the OS. So great to hear from the person who actually wrote it. Hats off to you, sir 👍
I chuckled when you mentioned being able to start task manager from the login screen. That actually saved my ass a few months ago when my computer went nuts and for some reason my desktop became totally unusable. I'll spare you the details, but just know that you singlehandedly saved me from a devastating loss of very important data. Thank you, Dave!
Endlessly fascinating stuff from Dave. Always has me reminiscing of the wild west days of computing. They were fun.
Dave, what a blast from the past! I remember the error bug w/ your number on it as at the time we were transitioning from 3.51 to 4.0 and were running the beta to make sure some internal apps would still work. No idea that was actually you. Thanks for the videos, the LED constructs, and memories of long past days in IT.
I appreciate you and others fighting for Task Manager to be, as you said, a blade. I cannot count the number of times the humble TM has saved me from having to do a total reboot because this or that wasn't operating correctly. It's as essential to the Windows experience as the Start menu.
Well, love your work. First time I saw a colleague restoring a crashed explorer via task manager my mind was blown. It's one of my favourite parts of windows and it always served me well.
Dave, I read an interview about Task Manager that you gave a few years back. I am very happy to see you making such a fantastic video on it. You made all of our lives much easier in support. Thank you for your "Passion project".
Sir, you have my eternal respect. Task manager is my first go to for diagnosing literally any computer problem due to how much info it gives. Thank you so much.
As an IT professional, I couldn't live without Task Manager. I can still remember the first time I used it NT 4.0 and how it changed my life. Thank you, Dave.
I can't even imagine how computing, and modern progress as a whole would be worse off if task manager didn't exist. Thanks Dave. Also, thanks every member that kept pushing this through. Invaluable tool.
You have not only managed my tasks, but you have managed my heart!
Hopefully not to end it 😅💔
@@Inda1 If that happens I hope it can be restarted
Can't thank you enough for making this video.
Honestly, it feels like the one honest choir boy in the cathedral speaking out.
Thank you for task manager! One thing I wish task manager would have if it’s even possible is dedicated resources to run with. If it had its own dedicated section of RAM and CPU to use meaning it would never be slow even if there’s a memory leak or 100% of both the CPU and RAM are being used.
Sir! The word "Thank You" is not enough to show you gratitude for how many times it saved my life and my works throughout the years. I will forever cherish this work of yours!
It is absolutely legendary already with what he has accomplished in his career, what is more impressive is how even remotely he is attached to the notion of smiling even when narrating the most funniest of incidents
Task Manager is one of those tools that I am so comfortable with that it almost seems primitive, like a hammer. That's not to say that Task Manager is primitive, it just feels like a foundational tool at this point. And I never thought I'd see the man who made the thing. It's like meeting the guy who invented the hammer, very bizarre haha
16:00 ctrl+shift+esc really is the way all the kids are doing it now, I love this method of opening task manager and I haven't done it differently in years
Task manager has hands-down been my favorite tool in Windows. I also miss when Task Manager was powerful enough to bluescreen yourself if you weren't careful. While it isn't user-friendly, you could end some high-level tasks if you had the know-how, which made it feel like your computer is actually yours and you're not just running a leased OS which is basically what Windows is nowadays.
i have actually located malware only by using task manager, its a very powerful tool if you know how to use it
@@muhammadluqman3452 using task manager i've saved myself from a ransomware once. i'd installed some shit I kinda knew it'd not be benign and when I've seen a suspect process consuming a lot of CPU I've just shut it down. I've lost a few unimportant files only! Since then I fully trust my intuition and have stopped "experimenting". It was fun though :)
Exactly, I clean my PC with task manager ☑️ @@muhammadluqman3452
I find it amazing that Microsoft didn't find Task Manager an important feature for Windows due to simplification of the OS. Any person who ever uses Windows knows the importance of Task Manager. I've personally used Task Manager numerous times of the years to solve the issues of hung programs or processes. Great work Dave on explaining the ins and outs of Task Manager in which we sometimes take for granted.
You are a legend. I don't use my computer without task manager open on one of my monitors. You have single-handedly created one of the most useful pieces of software I and most of the world have ever used. Thank you.
The Task Manager has not once let me down. If anything fails and crashes, only the Task Manager was there to get me out of the deepest trouble. Thank you 🙏
Forget the critics, Dave! You designed task manager with user control as a top priority. It's up to the user to understand and use their PC correctly. Now all we've got is less and less control available to the user, and endless hoops to jump through (or not) to do what we used to take for granted.
No, it's not up to the user to be tech people and understand and use their PC correctly, but it's also not up to devs to treat users like infants and make Fisher-Price systems. The correct solution is to DEFAULT to safe but allow users to CHOOSE to change things. This works best with GOOD UI/UX to make it hard to accidentally change things and to make it easy to undo changes. Sadly, Big Tech fails at all of these steps these days. 🤦
@@I.____.....__...__ Yup, a car engine has a hood but you have to know where the latch(es) is to touch the battery or the running engine.
I don't have less control of my windows 11 installation that I did my xp system 20 or whenever years ago. If your windows experience is different, that's a you problem.
@@I.____.....__...__ It's so bad that you can't even use non-store extensions in 99% of browsers,
without receiving a debility warning at startup, which cannot be turned off in any way,
they literally lead users by the hand...
@@I.____.....__...__ I have a few self-written extensions to perform specific small functions and I do not want to publish them in their store, but damn it, even in the dev version they continue to get this notification
you have installed an extension not from the store blah blah blah
it can be dangerous blah blah blah, please turn it off blah blah blah... Damn it, even my parents aren't that boring...
Whoa, cool! I didn’t even know you guys were still alive or if anyone would ever know who created stuff like this! It’s amazing you can do a review on it decades later!! This is gold!
Dawg how old do you think Windows is? Why wouldn't he be alive? 😂😭
Smh. Dumb kids.
Task Manager has always been our go-to lifesaver of closing applications that hang, restarting explorer and monitoring CPU performance. We are blessed to have a talented individual like yourself!
Thank You for coding the best program to keep our systems running ❤
As a programmer since windows early days. I especially appreciated the flicker issue since I have been there myself, a true programmer could never just let the controls flicker! Your other comments about the code and having your app in front of so many eyes. Great stuff. Also congrats on the app. I have used it from from the beginning and I used it yesterday. I really enjoyed your video. Thank s for the App!!