Windows users can open the task manager with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Esc, or by selecting its entry in the context menu after right-clicking the taskbar in the operating system. Those who have tried to reduce the size of the task manager window have without doubt noticed that it has a fixed minimum size that prevents reducing the window further than that size.
Most users do not know that it is possible to reduce the size of the task manager beyond that point to make it usable for users with specific window size requirements.
The compact mode of the program can be activated by double-clicking the inner border of the task manager, take a look at the screenshot below to see the area.
task manager
A double-click on that border switches to ultra-compact mode which removes the tabs and menu bar in the Windows Task Manager.
windows task manager compact
That alone would not be helpful but the new mode allows to reduce the window size of the task manager further.
windows task manager
The task manager window can be reduced to an absolute minimum this way. It is possible to switch modes again by double-clicking a second time on the border. This however resizes the window to the minimum allowed size of that mode.
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:O I didn’t know this, works in Windows XP too.
You are welcome, and the layout stays, at least in the same session.
And use Ctrl+Tab to switch between applications, processes, and other stuff.
I really do not know until now that it is possible to re-size the task manager.
Thanks for this blog
Who would know that it is possible to hide the task manager just by double clicking the border. wow amazing
The most common way of accessing Task Manager is to hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE and select it from the security dialog; hitting CTRL_SHIFT-ESC is much better, IMHO. The CTRL-SHIFT-ESC and Taskbar shortcuts, as well as the double-click “minimal window” trick, also work in Windows 2000.