FastTaskMgr

FastTaskMgr is a fast, lightweight Windows 11 Task Manager alternative built with C#, .NET 10, and WinForms.

Status: early public build. The app is usable, but the parity target is Windows 11 Task Manager and some pages are still partial.

Features

• Processes page with search, sorting, CPU, memory, and process I/O columns, plus end task, end process tree, and go to details.
• Fast process sampling: one system snapshot call per refresh instead of per-process handle queries.
• Performance page with CPU, memory, disk, and network tiles and graphs.
• Details page with user, architecture, description, company, command line, priority, and affinity, including set priority, set affinity, and end process tree.
• Users page with per-session process, CPU, and memory rollup plus disconnect and sign off.
• Services page backed by Service Control Manager APIs, with group column and go to details.
• Startup apps page for registry and startup-folder entries.
• Settings for theme, update speed, always-on-top, admin startup, and end-task confirmation.
• Tray icon restore when hide-on-minimize is enabled.
• Signed update checks against GitHub Releases.

Download

Get the latest build from GitHub Releases.

Recommended asset:

• FastTaskMgr-Setup.exe - installer, requires admin.

Portable asset:

• FastTaskMgr.exe - framework-dependent single-file executable.

FastTaskMgr targets Windows x64 and requires the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime when using framework-dependent builds.

Build From Source

Requirements:

• Windows x64
• .NET 10 SDK
• Inno Setup 6, only if building the installer locally

Build:

dotnet build FastTaskMgr.sln

Run:

dotnet run --project src/FastTaskMgr/FastTaskMgr.csproj

Run the diagnostic self-check:

dotnet run --project src/FastTaskMgr/FastTaskMgr.csproj -- --self-check

Create local release artifacts without incrementing the project version:

.\build.ps1 -NoIncrement

Artifacts are written to artifacts\.

Release Notes For Maintainers

Release tags use vX.Y.Z.W. Add user-visible changes to the Unreleased section of CHANGELOG.md as you go. release.ps1 promotes those notes to a versioned section, and the release workflow publishes them as the GitHub release notes. If no notes are present, GitHub's auto-generated notes are used instead.

.\release.ps1 -Version 0.1.0.30

Tagged releases are built by GitHub Actions. Signed update manifests require the FASTTASKMGR_UPDATE_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PEM secret.

Known Gaps

• Exact Windows Task Manager grouping is not implemented.
• GPU per-process usage, per-process network, startup impact, dump creation, and wait-chain analysis are not implemented yet.
• Some process and service actions require elevation. Access denied is expected for protected or elevated targets.

See PARITY.md for the detailed parity matrix.

Privacy

FastTaskMgr uses native Windows APIs and .NET libraries for routine data collection. Network access is limited to GitHub release update checks and user-triggered "search online" actions.

License

No license file is currently included.