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What is Task Manager?
You must be very familiar with the Task Manager as you use a desktop, laptop, or MacBook. If not, no worries, let us tell you what the Task Manager is. Task Manager, as the word implies, is an interface or a tool for managing tasks of the computer.
It is a built-in software program in an operating system that becomes available just after the installation of that operating system on your PC.
Task Manager provides utility to monitor the active jobs that the PC performs regarding CPU, Memory, Hard Disk, and other essentials. By operating a Task manager Mac, one can go through all the figures that a particular task carries.
This includes CPU usage percentage, CPU Time, Memory Usage, Network Information, Energy Impact, and even the Threads of the CPU processes.
Focusing on the Mac Operating System, in this article, we shall discuss and describe different Panels that the Mac Task Manager carries. In addition, you will also get to know about how to open a task manager on Mac, plus the Force Quitting procedure of an application through the iMac Task Manager.
What are Different Monitoring Panels in iMac Task Manager?
When taking a deep look at the Apple Task Manager, the most important thing is to consider its different monitoring panels. As it is a known truth about a full-stack PC that it contains numerous parts including hardware and software.
All of these parts have been allotted a specific task to accomplish. For monitoring these scores of tasks, the Mac Task Manager has separate monitoring panels (or we can say separate windows) within it. Let us take a brief look at these different Monitoring Panels.
CPU Panel:
One of the five panels of the Mac Task Manager is the CPU Panel. In this panel, you can see a sequence of processes that the CPU is currently running including the effect of these processes on the CPU.
The effects like performance, CPU load, CPU usage, runtime, threads, and CPU Idle Wake-Ups sum up the monitoring functionality of this Task Manager Mac Panel.
Memory Panel:
The Memory Panel in the Mac Task Manager defines information about the memory. This shows different memory-related stats like Current Memory Usage, Current Application Memory that different programs are using, Memory Pressure (the available memory), Swap Used Memory (used by OS), and the Total Physical Memory Space (Available RAM).
Disk Panel:
It is all about the Hard Disk as the Disk Panel shows the data amount which has been read from or written on the disk. It handles the Input and Output of your disk in the form of reading and writing the data.
Moreover, it also monitors how many times the Mac has accessed the disk I/O including the total activity of the disk involved in all of the running processes.
Energy Panel:
The essential panel concerning the potential of the system that each of your processes is utilizing. It also displays the overall energy consumption by all the processes running. The processes can be sorted in ascending order according to the value of the energy consumed.
This sorting process can be carried out by clicking the column heading. Besides all that, this panel also contains some other entities like Graphics Card Installed, Remaining Charge, Energy Impact, Time on Battery, Time on AC, Time until Full, etc.
Cache Panel:
The Cache Panel of the iMac Task Manager displays end-to-end information about the Cache memory. How much cache is utilized, how much the local networks and devices have used cache, including the total information about uploading and retrieval of the data on the cache or from the cache respectively.
How to Open Task Manager on Mac?
If you are a regular user of the Mac Operating System, it is most probably possible that you know the Mac Task Manager (also called Activity Monitor) and how to open Task Manager in Mac.
As in the Windows Operating System, there is a simple shortcut key for opening the Task Manager i.e. “Ctrl + Alt + Delete”, but, in the Mac Operating System, things are different.
Not to worry if you do not know about it as we are here to give you a proper guide in this regard. Without wasting our time, let us move on to the steps that enable you to operate the Task Manager on Mac:
Through Spotlight:
- Firstly you have to open the Spotlight Option. This can be done by pressing ⌘ the + Space button.
- Now type “Activity Monitor” on the bar given.
- You will see the Activity Monitor Option recommended. Simply click on it.
- You have successfully opened Task Manager/Activity Monitor on Mac.
Through Finder:
- In the Dock Option of your Mac Operating System, Press the Finder option.
- On the sidebar, you will see a list of different options, Select Applications.
- The Application Window appears. Now Click on Utilities.
- Here you will see the Activity Monitor Option. Simply click on it.
- The Mac Task Manager will fortunately appear.
Through Dock:
- Firstly, you have to apply one of the above methods.
- Secondly, you have to right-click on the Activity Monitor option present in your Dock.
- You will see a drop-down. Click on Options.
- Now press on the “Keep in Dock” option.
- The Activity Monitor shall be saved in your Dock now. You can easily access it with a single click anytime.
How to Force Quit a Running Application Through Mac Task Manager?
Force Quitting a process is much easier in the Apple Task Manager. What you have to do is to follow the given steps:
- Click on the process you need to quit from the CPU panel or Memory Panel.
- Now click on the “x” button given on the toolbar at the top.
- A confirmation pop-up shall appear, Click OK to proceed.
- The process is successfully Force Quitted.
Wrapping Up:
So this was all about the Task Manager/Activity Monitor of the Mac Operating System. You have victoriously come to know some parts of the Task Manager, in addition to the procedure of how to open Task Manager on Mac.
In the end, we found it interesting to share a brief method to force quit any running process. Have a good time using Mac OS.
I’m a writer, artist, and designer working in the gaming and tech industries. I have held staff and freelance positions at large publications including Digital Trends, Lifehacker, Popular Science Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, IGN, The Xplore Tech, and others, primarily covering gaming criticism, A/V and mobile tech reviews, and data security advocacy.