How to use the Chromebook’s task manager

ChromeOS has two task management systems. You can use both to manage your Chromebook’s RAM, battery life, and more.


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Chromebooks and ChromeOS tablets offer much more than just a web browsing experience in 2023. The operating system has evolved to include many features that rival even macOS and Windows devices, such as the Phone Hub and even a full-featured video editor. One of the smaller features is the task manager.


Although Chromebooks are known to be more lightweight and powerful than Windows laptops and MacBooks, there are actually two task managers in ChromeOS that you can use to your advantage. One is easy to access and is designed to see the status of the Chrome web browser and other apps, and it can even kill problematic web pages. The Secondary Diagnostics app lets you peek at CPU usage and battery statistics, peek at other system stats, and run diagnostics you’re probably familiar with from your Windows machine.

So if you just got a new Chromebook or are already a professional Chromebook user, here are some tips on how to use them to peek into system tasks, determine why your Chromebook is running slow, and more.


How to use the basic ChromeOS task manager

The main ChromeOS task manager

The first task manager we’ll get into in ChromeOS is what we call the “Basic” task manager. This provides a look at your Chromebook’s total memory footprint, CPU usage, as well as network usage. You can also get a ProccessID to help distinguish Linux and Android web apps and Progressive Web Apps. This is the primary task manager to go to if you want to kill a rogue task or kill an unresponsive rogue tab or app.

  1. Open ChromeOS Task Manager by clicking File Search button And Exit on your keyboard.
    • Alternatively, you can open Chromeright-click on the menu bar and select Task Manager, also.
  2. There will be four main pillars. Mission is the name of the running task. memory footprint It is the total memory used by the application. network Shows how much network the app is using. Process ID The process ID.
  3. To end an unresponsive process, click on that process first, so it is highlighted in blue, then choose Terminate the process.
    Expanded view in ChromeOS Task Manager

  4. You can add additional details to the Task Manager. Just right click on any task Choose one of the options from the list. You can choose things like Profile, swap memory, image cache, GPU memory, And more technically experienced things like CSS cache or NaCi debugging port.

That’s all for the basic ChromeOS task manager. It’s pretty basic compared to the Windows task manager, but you get the necessary functionality like killing an unresponsive webpage or a Linux or Android app that might be freezing. However, when paired with the ChromeOS Diagnostics app, you can get a better overview of system performance, as we’ll move on to the next step.

How to use the diagnostic application

ChromeOS Diagnostics application

For a more in-depth (and graphical) look at how your Chromebook works, you’ll need to use the ChromeOS Diagnostics app. This app displays things like a graph of total CPU usage, battery health, and how much RAM your Chromebook has installed. Other than that, you can also use it to see information about the local network, such as your IP address and SSID. Unlike the basic task manager, though, there’s no keyboard shortcut for this, and you’ll have to find it manually. Here’s how to get started.

  1. Open the ChromeOS launcher by clicking on the circular icon at the bottom left of the screen. You can also click File seek or button everything on your keyboard.
  2. Write down the term Diagnosis And click on the first result.
  3. You will see the primary System tab on the left. Under battery, You’ll see information like battery size, battery life, discharge/charge status, and number of cycles. Then under CPU, You’ll also see a graphical display of how your CPU is being used. memory It is where you see how much RAM is being used.
  4. For each of these categories, you can run diagnostic tests by clicking Testing Range. ChromeOS will show you if it passed or failed. You can save the results as a txt file. by clicking Save test details. It can then be emailed to a technician or administrator.
    ChromeOS Diagnostics application with the results page open

  5. Under Connection you will see basic network information.

So if your Chromebook isn’t working properly, or something seems to be slow, this is how you can use the task manager or diagnostics app to peek at the system status. It’s so easy, and there’s not much to it! Even though I’m using a Chromebook with 16GB of RAM, I often use the diagnostic app myself to see how much RAM my Chromebook is using at any given moment. I also love the battery diagnostics, because it’s a great way to see how your screen brightness and browsing habits are affecting your overall battery health.

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