The Google Chrome Task Manager

The Google Chrome Task Manager

Have you ever looked at the Windows Task Manager running the Chrome browser? I remember the first time I did. I became completely befuddled when I noticed multiple instances of Chrome running when I only had one Chrome window open.

Each instance of Chrome in the Windows Task Manager is a representation of each open tab in the browser. This is by intelligent design. Each tab runs in its own sandbox which helps the browser with stability.

How to Access the Chrome Task Manager

Option 1 – Press Shift+Esc while in the browser

Option 2 – Select the 3 dots (hamburger) in the top right-hand corner of the window

- Select tools.

- Select Task Manager.

Additional Details

When the Chrome Task Manager is opened, each running task is shown. Also shown is the process ID of each task and the amount of memory and CPU being utilized. Right clicking anywhere in the window will bring up additional options that are hidden by default. When an additional option is selected, a new column appears with the selection visible.

The available options, including those that appear by default, are:

Task, Profile, Memory Footprint, CPU, CPU Time, Start Time, Network, Process ID, GDI Handles, USER Handles, Image Cache, Script Cache, CSS Cache, GPU Memory, SQLite Memory, NaCI Debug Post, JavaScript Memory, Idle Wake Ups, Hard Faults, Process Priority, Keepalive Count.