What do you need Task Manager on Mac for

Most users, after moving from Windows to Mac OS, are wondering how to get Task Manager on Mac? Well, Activity Monitor is the Mac Task Manager equivalent of Windows and is the most powerful utility for managing applications and processes in the OS X. It displays not only all running and active applications but also all active and inactive processes. In other words, Activity Monitor shows almost everything that works on a Mac, including the aforementioned window applications, background applications, menu bar items, system-level processes, other user processes, inactive processes, service daemons — or almost everything that works as a process. Activity Monitor offers many tools and options, it is the most advanced way to view extended information on all active processes without having to use the Command Line. This utility allows you to forcibly end task on Mac and close applications, sort processes by name, by PID, by the user, by CPU usage, etc. Moreover, Activity Monitor will also provide you with general statistics on CPU usage, memory, disk and network activity, which is necessary when solving various problems, ranging from identifying the causes of inadequate use of system memory to the concept of causes of system slowdowns.

How to open Task Manager in Mac OS

1. You can find Activity Monitor in Finder - Applications - Utilities. Navigate to this folder and double-click the icon to launch the application.

2. However, a quicker way to open Task Manager Mac solution will be by using Spotlight search. Just click on the search icon in the menu bar on the right and start typing “Activity Monitor” to quickly find the app and start it. As a variant, you can press the following shortcut CMD + Space to open Spotlight. Then type the first few letters of the application and press Enter.

3. If you need to launch the Task Manager frequently, you can drag the Activity Monitor icon from Applications to the Dock to make it always available within reach.

How to close a program in Task Manager for Mac

If you want to close a program that is hung or takes a large amount of memory, you should select the necessary line and choose "Quit" or “Force Quit”. The first one initiates a simple closing of the program, and the Mac Task Manager Force Quit option closes even a hung program that does not respond to normal actions.

There are other ways to quickly end task on Mac. If the program cannot cope with its task, you need to press and hold the following key combination Cmd + ⌥Option (Alt) + ⇧Shift + Escape. After that, the program that hangs will close.

Another way to quickly close a hung program is to force it out of the Dock. To close a hung application, click the application icon in the Dock, then press and hold the Option (Alt) key combination. After that, the program closes.