
Give the shortcut a name, such as "Task Manager shortcut," and click Finish. Type taskmgr in the location field and click Next. Right-click in the right pane and choose New > Shortcut. Click or double-click the Programs folder and then the start-up folder. Start by right-clicking the Start button and choosing Open. Add Task Manager's CPU graph to the taskbar's notification area. Unfortunately, getting a CPU-usage indicator in the mix isn't one of the prefab customizations available. Windows gives you lots of options for altering the shortcuts on your Start menu (more on these below). All I did was add a Task Manager shortcut to Windows' start-up folder and set the shortcut to open minimized.


Now the notification area gives me the lowdown on my processor as well. Is my network link live? How's my notebook's battery? Is there really yet another Windows update ready to be installed?īut one bit of information I often want to know is how much of my CPU is in use at any given time.

The icons that reside in the Windows notification area (near the clock in the taskbar) convey much useful information at a glance.
