These days, the Task Manager offers a lot more than a quick CTRL+ALT+DEL out of a crashing program, and includes options to monitor how your CPU, memory, and GPU are being utilised by various applications. That’s useful information when you’re gaming, but it’s tough to get to the Task Manager without interrupting your game. But now it looks like Microsoft plans to make it easier.
A new Task Manager widget has been added to the Xbox Game Bar in the latest Insider beta, as Windows Central notes. This will let you pop open a lightweight version of Task Manager directly through an in-game overlay, see which applications are sucking up CPU, GPU, RAM, or disk resources, and immediately close them.
If you want access to the Task Manager widget now, you’ll need to opt into the early build via the Xbox Insider Hub on the Windows Store. Otherwise, you’ll need to wait for the widget to be properly added via the usual Windows updates. (Eventually.)
Of course, not every performance problem can be solved through resource management. Check out our guide to the best graphics card or best CPU for gaming if you’re feeling due for an upgrade.