How to Open Task Manager on Mac

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macos activity manager

Anyone moving to Mac OS from Windows will definitely spend some minutes look for the all so powerful Task Manager. Mac OS has something similar to the Task Manager only that it is called an Activity Monitor.

The Activity Monitor lets you view, manage and end tasks, applications or processes running processes on your Mac. It can also monitor resource usage and give you an idea of what is making your Mac slower and what you must consider when doing your tune-ups.

Read Also: How to fix Mac Spotlight when it is not showing applications

Windows users migrating to Mac insist on calling it the Task Manager even though the right name is an Activity Manager.

 How to Open Task Manager on Mac

The traditional way is to launch the application by visiting its containing directory. You can also launch it through LaunchPad, dragging it to the Dock or use Spotlight to set a keyboard shortcut.

Opening Mac Activity Manager With Keyboard Shortcuts

Launching activity manager via spotlight search is easier and faster since you don’t have to navigate to the apps folder

  • Press Command+Spacebar to launch Spotlight search field
  • Type ‘Activity Monitor’ in the search bar
  • Once Activity Monitor populates the Spotlight results, hit Return Key
  • This will have you enter the Activity Monitor that lets you manage and manipulate tasks

kill tasks on macOSAlternatively, you can launch a limited Task Manager that lets you force quit an application by hitting COMMAND + OPTION + ESC. This brings a mini-dialog that lets you select specific applications and pressing the force quit button to kill these applications.

The quickest way to access the complete Task Manager on Mac is by searching for it or navigating to its folder. The fact that you can’t create keyboard shortcuts for opening an app or to run other general purpose tasks means that Mac users don’t have a viable alternative to the popular CTRL + Shift + ESC Windows users have learned to love.