14 DAY TRIAL // Task Manager is currently one of the most used apps in Windows, and while the latest versions of the operating system brought more or less substantial changes, it’s still based on the original idea that was introduced so many years ago.
And developer Dave Plummer, who worked for Microsoft for a little over a decade, is the one that built Task Manager from the ground-up, explaining in a post on reddit that the app was initially supposed to be offered as shareware but ended up as a free app bundled with Windows.
In addition to Task Manager, Plummer is also the one who brought us ZipFolders and the super-popular Space Cadet pinball that everybody still loves.
“ZipFolders and Task Manager started as shareware projects in my den, whereas with SCP they gave me a folder with a bunch of art in it! I think it was on a floppy, actually!” the developer explains on reddit.
Task Manager can kill everything
Currently a volunteer to teach kids to code at school and involved in the restoration of muscle cars and pickups, Plummer explains that Task Manager continues to have a special place in his heart.
“TM is one of the apps I'm most proud of because it is probably the first or at least most visually complicated app to ever be fully resizable in all dimensions without any flicker up till then. I was hardcore about memory and flicker in my day, so it was under 100K for the exe and never flashed or crashed, that was my thing! Having the GDI32 and User32 guys down the hall sure helped,” he says.
One thing that Plummer emphasizes and which everybody should keep in mind is that Task Manager should be able to kill pretty much any process running on Windows.
“There should be nothing that TaskMgr can't kill - it will even escalate privilege and (if you have it) enable debug privilege to attach to and kill apps that way if needed. If TM can't kill it, you've got a kernel problem,” he points out.
Task Manager has obviously been improved lately with more information, including GPU details and other data, and Plummer reminds everyone that the app is much more powerful than what you get in the default configuration, as you can add and remove columns, drag them around to reorder everything, and so much more, all with just a few clicks.