Task Manager not Showing Tabs on Windows: Fix
The Task Manager program found in Windows is one of the most useful tools, especially for forcefully terminating a hung program. Back in the days of the Windows 98 era, a program that has hung cannot be terminated with the close button located at the top right and the process can only be forcefully ended from the Task Manager.
From Windows XP until Windows 7, there is a common problem where by the menu and tabs are missing from the Task Manager. It would be even worse if the Task Manager is not showing either the Applications or Processes tab because it remembers the state it was in when last closed, causing the user problems using the Task Manager to terminate an application.
This is actually a display functionality in Task Manager created by Microsoft and is called the “Tiny Footprint mode”.
The design itself is flawed because most common users would think that their Task Manager has been corrupted possibly caused by computer viruses since there are no visible signs of an accidental switch to a different display mode. To fix the Task Manager by bringing back the menu bar and tabs, all you need to do is double click anywhere at the border which is shown at the screenshot below with the yellow highlight.
If for some unknown reasons you are unable to restore the Task Manager display mode to default, you can simply download the registry file below and run it. It will automatically reset all the settings that were saved from last state.
Download Registry File to Reset Task Manager Settings
Additional Tip: While the Task Manager is in Tiny Footprint mode, you can switch between the tabs by pressing Ctrl+Tab. This allows you to easily and quickly switch between tabs while in Tiny Footprint mode without enabling and disabling the menus/tabs.
There is a hidden registry entry that stores the setting of the Task Manager and cannot be viewed directly from the Registry Editor without changing the permissions. The easiest way to view and even make changes on the hidden registry is by using a free third party tool called AntiSpy. Download the program, run the executable file and click on the Registry tab. Navigate to the following path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\TaskManager
You will see “Preferences” which is in binary value. You can toggle between the different display mode by double clicking on the “Preferences” binary, scroll down to the bottom and change the binary value of 53 to 43.
Alternatively, you can simply delete the whole “Preferences” value which will reset the Task Manager settings and it will automatically recreate the next time you run it again. This is exactly what is done by the registry file that we’ve provided above.
Fortunately the tiny footprint display mode has been improved in Windows 8 by including a button that shows “More details” or “Fewer details”. This is implemented so that standard users can still continue using it to terminate processes without being overwhelmed by the advanced features found in Task Manager.
Thank you so much.
Great Guy, thank you very much for the detailed and well written explanations.
Kudos from a technical writer
Dear Raymond CC & Companions!
Thank You For Resolving This Narrow Well Situation, created by, I assume, Microsoft Developers that seem to have the time to develop and market Bells & Whistles, which, in themselves are fine, But, Microsoft Developers Should possess the ethical and professional depth, to provide an easily accessible Path Back To The Default Mode (graphics, menu bar, etc.). I refuse to accept the “Idea” that the Public Population “Should Know” to double right-click in the margin to access a Return Path. This is Simply Irresponsible Development. Please, Microsoft, Stop Making Things So Hard To Manage! Better Respect And Better Sales In The Future Will Be The Result Of Making Such A Change In Your Development And Marketing Strategy. Irresponsible User-Unfriendly Software Damages A Corporation’s Reputation — And — That Corporation’s Future. Please, Microsoft, Please!
— Thank You, Each And All; God Bless All,
Thank you Raymond for making this tiny foot print EZ fix available. What an idiotic function they programmed in.
Thank you very much for this very clear and complete information.
Thanks a lot for your explanation. If it could always be that simple… Win7.
This was super helpful – thank you!
thanks very mach…..
Good Afternoon Raymond from Malaysia, I am Brian from Charlotte, I rather think I was quite lucky in finding your Website or as you called it your “Blog” . As it seems you started with Computers in a similar fashion as I did…My initial involvement began in Junior college back in 1985 learning BASIC and FORTRAN machine languages while using a Tandy TRS80, I was mostly using this knowledge to write programs for use with general business management and accounting, but did learn enuf to create a couple of computer games to amuse my self and some coworkers (ones that were similar to Asteroids, Galaga and Pac Man) but I didn’t have any access to any 3 Dimensional Graphics back then so my creations were limited to 2D…then I got away from computers for awhile…until the Christmas Holidays of 1998 while I was visiting a friend and started playing “Spades” Online @Yahoo.com on one of his computers, he was quite computer knowledgeable and even had started his own company and eventually got the PATENT for the Door Control Access thru a Digital Card (the kinds without a magnetic stripe) which he eventually sold to some huge company for so much money, that it’s not even funny, then he moved on to composing better Security System for College Campus’ using Triangular Global Positioning (that’s what he calls it) to keep tabs on the students location while they are on Campus (the schools had had several Sexual Assaults) and then after that project sold for more Millions, he disappeared.
…but not before he taught me enuf about modern day computers so that in 1998 I built my 1st computer
(a Beige colored box with a 300Mhz PII with MMX, 8GB HDD, 64MB of Memory, a Floppy drive and a CDRW drive and a 56K modem running Windows 98 SE). It was the “Cats Whiskers” back in those days I tell ya…lol.
Now almost 20 years later I have built 50 or so computers from scratch, upgraded another 100 with better parts or new OS’s and also recovered and brought back from the dead over 100 more computers at my little “Shop”.
So I know a thing or two about what makes a Rig work and it’s abilities…AND I use the “Task Manager” a lot to see what is actually running on the inside, well for some reason, and I say it’s unknown because I don’t remember what I was doing at the time, the “CPU Tracking Column” disappeared on my personal Lappy and I have went for over week trying to recover it…
Then I found your Blog, dear Raymond and used your link to “Reset the Task Manager Settings” and now is all right with My World once again.
Thank You so much Sir and may you have a fantastic day.
Brian
Charlotte, NC – USA
BTW Raymond, for about the last 5 years ( since my friend disappeared ) he sends me a Christmas Card and I am so looking forward to getting one this year, as last year’s showed him catching a Huge Blue Marlin off the coast of New Zealand from his own 60ft yacht…life isgood
thank you! I was sure my OS was on the fritz. Fixed it immediately.
God speed my friend!
Hi there,, thanks very much. the double click method worked fine. I have been unable to remove the task manager panel as the red cross was not displayed and therefore the panel could not be removed. now all is back to normal. ian b.
thanks sir :)
Raymond , Thank You very much. a double click and it’s fixed. I remember that I did close it when it was displaying all services. click-click and all done. I think I can speak for anyone that has used this. I appreciate the help you have given us and also your time to post this and probably many other solutions. I hope this is okay to post , if not , I completely understand and apologize. anyone can correct me if I am wrong , I am no better then anyone above , but I have learned not to jump to the conclusion that I have a virus. don’t stress it and look for an answer. ” the worst thing to happen to you has already happened “. Take Care All of you and thank you Raymond once again. Don B.
Many Many thanks RayMond!!! hahah a blessed Year!!!
am really satisfied by your tutor,
excellent and many thanks working well now
Never had I ever seen that “tiny footprint” display, before today. Almost panicked! Thanks for your very clear and simple hint to double-click TM’s inner border. I’m very much obliged.
Thank you so much! In prior research, I had found out about the tiny footprint display mode so I tried that and it worked temporarily but not permanently. I also had something strange going on in the task bar which I hadn’t read about anywhere. Each process had it’s own window in the task bar! So, I downloaded your registry fix and Task Manager seems to be back to normal. Thanks again!
Many thanks!
I think that it is just necessary to make a double click on the white part at the top, no ?
Yes, anywhere highlighted in yellow will work.
Excellent and easy!!
Thought I had a virus or corrupt Task Mgr – Thanks!!
Paul
Many thanks for this Raymond. As others have already said, I thought I’d been infected with the lurgi!
Very helpful information, thanks for sharing that simple tip and relieving that horrible feeling that one has been got by a virus.
Many thanks for the solution. Such a simple thing yet it freaked me out for a week!
Thank you!
To quote a prior poster, you DEFINITELY saved my sanity. THANK YOU VERY much. Windows has some DUMB new crap I really wish they had never expended the resources to create. This is one of them. If it ain’t broke, DON’T FIX IT, Microsoft!!!! Have a great day, Raymond. :-)
Thanks, I didn’t know this but it worked!
You are a great person…
Tyvm for this. :) Problem solved on my end.
This tip just saved me a ton of time wasted running AV and malware checks. My wife’s Compaq came configured this way from the factory, and I was sure it was a virus. The interface with Win7 looked different, but the fix was the same: double click in the lower left corner. Thank you!
It seems that you don’t have to do this in the lower left corner, specifically. Anywhere outside of the process box will do it as well. Thanks again!
You have saved my sanity. Thank You.
Thank you!!
thanks man, thanks this was giving me a hard time. little did i know it was that simple
thanx very much, master…
Thanks. Wow! Easiest fix ever.
THANK YOU!!!
THANK YOU !!
Such an easy fix… This was driving me crazy!
Have a good day.
MarkmBha.
Thank You!……………………………….
RAYMOND, YOU ARE A LIFE SEND! I RAN A CLEANER, MY GUESS, THIS WIPED SOMETHING OUT THAT ROUTE THAT DISPLAYED THE TOP BAR.
“YOU ARE THE GURU!”
I’M SUBSCRIBING!!!!
THANKS!
Thanks … that was drving me crazy !!!
Wow, I had just wasted 3 days of my life trying to figure this dilly out, now I can die in peace!!!
Raymond you are da man with da plan , you got the cheese brother –
I am hole again thanks to you –
Raymond i love you man huggs all around!
Thank you very much – I have had this issue with WIN7 task manager for a year now, and I was sure that for some reason my operating system became corrupted. I never imagined the the resolution would be as simple as that! Thank you very much for the tip!
Wow! Easiest fix ever for a PC problem! My PC got hit with a virus (even with AV software) while trying to go to a sports website in Europe. I have cleaned it up, but, the Task Manager was missing its tabs. I thought I was going to have to run ComboFix or some sort of XP repair tool.
Thank you very much, I thought that i need to reinstall something :)
4 years after your inital posting and still very useful. Thank you and thanks to Google to bring me quickly to your solution.
Thank You!! Thank You. . .
Great find! I was ready to reinstall win7 thinking I had a virus or other malware installed.
Thank You!
Awesome fix. Unbelievable the MS would have such a weird undocumented feature–then again, I should have expected that I suppose. :/
Many thanks for your method of retrieving the Task Manager to it’s original form.
I look forward to showing my son in law, an I T Support person, how to do it.
thanks…
Thank you you, just gave me peace of mind :)
I thought that I had some kind of virus or trojan because I had the same problem, and my restore no longer works, but no software programs could fix the two problems. I also downloaded TaskManagerFix.exe but it’s for: “Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator“ so luckily before I could try the exe program I found your site using Google. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to fix. Thanks a lot.
Many thanks. I was wondering why my clients PC was like that. Your explanation was easy.
thank you , thank you , thank you !
thank you Raymond,i don’t know how many times for the last ten years or more since i had a computer something like this made me think something got to my task manager.i have spent two days on your site and have found more information than in the last ten years elsewhere.would love to find more sites like yours.don’t know how many pages there are on your site under the one tab i am on,but i am going to go through all them regardless.
I have the same problem with Windows 7.
Thank you for help
Thanks! Even the IT dept at my job was stumped.
Amazing !! Wherever and however did you come with this solution.?? I was beginning to think it was a virus, too. I’ve searched and searched ,,, tried transferring from one computer to another ,,,tried looking for a replacement task manager but never quite satisfied with the resulting programs. YES FOLKS, it pays to just go on-line and search ,,, not for programs but for geniuses like Raymond who are willing to share their expertise. MY HAT’S OFF TO YOU, RAYMOND
I had much the same problem with windows 7 whereas whenever I invoked task manager I would only get the “Performance” graphs with seemingly no way to get into other sections. Clicking (double) at or near the bottom brought up the selection window. Thanks for tip.
Thanks. This totally worked. I wondered why it changed and I couldn’t get it back. :)
Spent 2 hours with virus/malware cleaning ect….boy do i feel dumb. Thanks for fixing something so obvious for all of us
LUV U FOR THIS ……………TON’S OF THANKS
Jolly Good show, Jolly good. Saved me tons of time.
Thank you very much.
hahahah thanks man
You have my gratitude sir.
thanks – never would have thunk it.
Thank you! What a stupid feature. Can’t see why anyone would want it.
You da man….thx
thanks very much
Thanks!
I thought Kaspersky gave me some problem or perhaps the register cleaner.
That is a funny feature, never thought of it.
Thank you again.
Really simple man.
Thanks.
You rock! That was easy.
Thanks for you help!!
Love U !!
Oh shit what a M$ feature. Thanks
Thank you so much
omg, thnx man, I thought i had virus…
You’re a life save man!
tanks !!!!?
thanks man good job…..
thasnkz
thank you!!!
wow this much easy, thanksssssssssss
thanks for giving valuable information
Thanks for that
A real nuisance feature if you are unaware of it.
Wish Microsoft would put some value on minimalism.
thanks u very much yr support
Is it a feature or a glitch…????????? had the shot gun out ready to skeet shoot the win7 disks and revert back to xp pro 64. Have no idea why one would consider TABS MIA without requesting they disappear – a feature. It happened to me this eve… thanks for the tip and thank google the post was indexed.
Ohh.. great.. I had the same issue and fixed it just now with the help of this post.. Its almost a month :):):)
Thank you so much, helped a lot today when I was scrambling to figure out what I did wrong.
Thanks, that was helpfull.
omg do I feel stupid, I have been racking my brains wonder what i did to make it disapear in 1st place. LMAO
thx for the info
Thanks, I was about to freak out like Stu on the Hangover saying to myself “WHAT THE F*** IS GOING ON!” ROFL
Thank you very much!
Thanks so much! Can’t believe how simple the fix was. Thought for sure I had a virus!!
What a stupid and useless feature. Thanks for the help.
thanks mate thats been bugging me for months
Great, thanks for your help :)
thanx for help! ^_^
awesome. thanks for the help. I am also confused why this will be considered a feature.
Thank You!
very nice info..thank you
Thank you!!
Thank you for the cure for this problem.
I had already attempted to cure the lack of the tool bar by doing a system repair.!!!!!
that simple step very help me out. thanks.
i sat with this issue for 5 days, all a sudent this magic stik, thank you very much
I freak out.Thanks vm.
I was worry about it ! Thanks for the help !
Thanks. I love simple fixes.
thank you, thought I’d have to reinstall windows again, as usual!
Thanx, that sorted me out, I was battling with this problem locked into the Services tab only, gave me no way to unfreeze misbehaving programs. Can’t believe I never tried double clicking the frame before.
I wonder if Microsoft knows how to fix this. Thanks for the help. I’ll keep coming back for more. You have made a believer out of me.
In the business for 32 years and still learning!
dude u r the best…………..
saved me……………………..
You saved me hours of work. Thanks
thannnnnks a lot man
Very grateful for your help re Task Manager. Like you cannot believe that this function to toggle between all the tabs and a single tabby a double click. Surely Microsoft should update it. Many many thanks now I can use TM properly again!
this is good . Thanks , been really helpful
thanks for you….
thanks uuuuuuuuuuuuu
Wow! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I thought I had a virus. Can’t thank you enough. Such a stupid thing. Why would windows do that????
Man that “function” freaked me out. For the past year it had been running in the full task manager mode, but for some reason windows decided to change it right after Norton warned me that they had blocked a known attack. Firefox had begun to run sluggish and so I thought I had a virus, but a full system scan and then a quick search to find your excellent article later, I come to find that it’s just windows messing with me…
Thanks a lot! I’m happy :)
Thanks very much – it worked just like you described.
tnx man that worked
Thanks! I got this problem for a month now and it’s good I found the solution here. Thank u so much Raymond.
Thanks for the info it was driving me crazy
Thank you – it was really helpful. My task manager is back again with regular features.
Good Advice!!
thank uuuuuuuuuuuu vryyyyyyyyyyyyy muchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It worked!!!!!!! :P
very nice and very good
Just to say thanks: a double click save my day.
Thank you so much!!! It worked!!!
it’s cool ,thank u !
This was useful, well written and I got my solution very quickly. Thank you!!
hey thanks it worked for me
thnx! i was scared
thanks lifesaver thought i had a virus
thanks……yaar…keep good job going…bye
thanks alot ..it worked .was worried with ths 4 a long time.happy ending
thanks man,
desculpe eu não falo inglês muito bem, mas gostaria de agradeçer porque mesmo nos foruns de meu país (Brazil) não consegui encontrar essa informação, somente aqui
Romania say THANKS , MERSI , Mucios Gracias :)
It work man , thanks , your great man , double click .. yes works … thanks , thanks :)
thanks a ton.
I’ve never seen that before but I’ll remember it thanks for that. Btw I noticed that ctrl+tab works for switching the tabs while in that view.
Brilliant tip Raymond, many thanks from me as well! I’ll try to glue my hair back in. P
that easy tricks… i am laughing to my self, how i was not realize that thing… i used to think it is because viruses…
ha2…,, thanks for tips…
nice. easy fix for a change!
thanxs ray
THANK YOU!! You just saved me what was getting ready to be, I am sure, hours of “troubleshooting” in the wrong direction!!
Thanks for that info.Thought my New HP Win 7 laptop was corrupted.
Thanks a Bunch! This has happened to me before and I was going absolutely nutz. I tried rebooting, right clicking for a submenu. etc. It’s little things like this that can really drive someone crazy. Again, really appreciate the time you took too explain this.
Cheers! :D
Hi Very very thanks for this useful info.
Infact I was little worried about this behaviour of task manager.
windows 7 user. thank you very much. i thought i did something or worse a virus. i scanned only to find all clean.
thanks again :)
My god, thanks… after a long experience of computers since 15 years… i don’t know this feature… thank you very much dear
Thank You Raymond for this awesome information. No, one would think to click there…
Thanks a lot the info. I couldn’t understand wtf was going on with a Task Manager. Problem is solved now
This also occurs quite frequently when a system is robbed of remaining resources, and other programs begin to drop off key pulldown menu commands, having to constantly clear the screen with a right-click clear the desktop (because the minimize buttons fail)
An example: You are on your 14th rar install with 25 browser windows open and firefox has nearly shutdown..
I too faced this problem some time ago… got fed restoring tskmngr,reformatted my computer….Q.E.D Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity. ..but..
I am wiser now.
Raymond, the first time that I encountered this problem I clicked and double-clicked all over the image taking that the file menu was hidden. Like a fool, I kept doing this for months and the problem never went away. The problem fix in my case did not work. I was bound to have clicked in the correct area a dozen times or more with no positive results. What fixed it? A reinstall of Windows XP Pro.
It seems that the method that you gave in this post work for many others – but didn’t work for me. This type of thing happens to me all of the time.
Interesting. I have never encountered this before. If this ever happens to me in the future, I’ll know what to do.
yap..!! i was aware of this.. actually I faced this a no of times & at last sorted this out. Similarly u can hide the tab area if u double click in the same place..
Thanks a lot Ray!!!
Thank you Raymond – I didn’t know this one. Well done.
thanks for the info Raymond
Amazing , Actually I had this problem so I started to use an software for managing processes, but actually even with that you can go to processes or to services by Right clicking on the columns.
My friend had encountered this problem years ago…He was scared it might be because of a virus…I donno he formatted or not but later informed me that “double clicking””was what was required !! :)
If you’re not using the welcome screen, the official way to get task manager up is CTRL-SHIFT-ESC
Thanks. Did face this problem a couple of times.
thnxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
good information Ray !
another cool one mate, cheers!
very weird !!
thanks for the info Raymond
Actually, I’ve been using this feature when at the performance tab for quite some time. It makes the graphs taller and longer, so if I don’t want to maximize task manager and cover the whole desktop just to see cpu usage history.
the truth is, i have faced this too b4. at first, thought it was because of virus.. luckily, i accidentally double click at the edge, and everything return to normal.. (^_~)v
This tips was valuable.
Thank you for your congratulations
Learning alot from you Ray!!! Thanks!!!
I remember I came across this “problem” a few weeks after buying Windows XP in 2001. I went and posted for help on a tech support forum. My thread received at least 20 replies before someone found out all I had to do was double click the outer area of the taskmanager.
Now I have switched from Windows XP to Windows 7, this “feature” is still included. I really don’t understand why, it causes more bad than good.
I was so scared when this happened to me the first time. It didn’t even fix itself after the computer restarted. I figured out how to fix it after a couple of months, and I too am still wondering whether this is a bug or some feature :-/
it was implemented because some users wanted a clean interface with no extra stuff stucking out. for example if you just want the processes tab and not the rest, wouldn’t it be nicer if it just had that?
Great Ray !!!!!!
i have faced this problems so many times..but never was able to correct it
thanks it will help in future
cool