To start with the direct answer right away, the Chromebook Task Manager keyboard shortcut is the Search key + Esc. It used to be Shift + Escape back in the day just like on Chrome for PC, but Google changed it a couple of years ago. So, pressing the Search key + Escape will bring out the Task Manager on your Chromebook. Learn more about it below.
How to use Task Manager on a Chromebook
An alternative way to open Task Manager on your Chromebook besides the keyboard shortcut is to open Chrome and then click/tap on the vertical 3-dots menu at the top corner and open More tools > Task manager.
The Task manager is pretty scarce features-wise in comparison to Windows. However, it should give you good enough insight into RAM, CPU, and Network usage for both apps, system processes, and Chrome itself. In addition, a right-click (Alt + click) will bring out more options like Profile, Image Cache, Idle wake-ups, etc.
From there, you can click on Memory footprint, CPU, Network, or Process ID to sort usage from higher to lower and vice versa. You can, of course, end processes. By holding Shift, you can select multiple processes and stop them instead of stopping one by one. We don’t suggest ending processes if you’re not absolutely sure what they do.
Obviously, if the system or Chrome starts slowing down and freezing, killing off apps in Task Manager is faster than waiting for them to load so you can click/tap that X at the top right corner. Task Manager is especially useful if your Chromebook is on the low-end and runs into a hiccup or two from time to time.
If you have issues with Chrome extensions, you can find them at the bottom with processes unsorted. If a rogue extension wreaks havoc on your Chromebook and takes too much memory, this is where you can terminate it.
To get a list of every Chromebook keyboard shortcut, navigate to Settings > Device > Keyboard > View keyboard shortcuts.
Thank you for reading what is, we hope, a useful article. What are your favorite Chromebook shortcuts? Tell us in the comments section below.
