Microsoft Task Manager now tasking PCs with running multiple copies of itself

The once fearsome process killer is now a leaker of resources

Microsoft's ability to add bugs in the most unexpected of places has continued into its latest update to Windows 11, which spawns multiple copies of Task Manager, sucking down resources you'd normally use Task Manager to kill.

The issue, which turned up in the non-security preview update for Windows 11 (KB5067036), manifests itself as multiple versions of the utility.

Close the process killer via the close button on the window, and then reopen it, and... a new process is spawned. While initially amusing, it can quickly consume resources, particularly for users (such as this writer) who are accustomed to using the Task Manager to terminate errant processes.

The previous incarnations of Task Manager, which reside in the background list, can be terminated with a single click of End Process, but it is disconcerting to see the list increase every time Task Manager is opened.

Too many task managers (pic: Richard Speed) - Click to enlarge

It's not clear precisely what is happening, but it might be connected to a fix rolling out in the update for Task Manager: "Some apps might unexpectedly not be grouped with their processes." If somebody were tinkering with Task Manager, we'd hope a thorough dose of testing would be administered afterward. But then again, this is Microsoft, and the company has a particular reputation when it comes to quality control, as many an administrator looking glumly at their Azure management portal this week will confirm.

The Register asked Microsoft if this was expected behavior or a bug introduced with this update, but the company has yet to respond. According to the known issues list, the company says, "Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update."

Over on X (formerly Twitter), the author of the original Task Manager, Dave Plummer, commented, "Code so good, it refuses to die!" It's unclear how much of Plummer's code remains in the current iteration of the Task Manager. We'd wager not much, since Plummer comes from an era at Microsoft when applications needed to be lean and mean, rather than buggy and bloated.

Plummer told El Reg, "You could always run the NT4 task manager, it still works! But it can only display the first 8 CPUs, then it wraps the others into those graphs. So if you have 16 cores, each graph represents TWO cpus.  But that it works at all is kinda neat. Other than that, not sure what they broke or why it went wrong! There's some code in Task Manager that causes it to hide when you press ESC instead of exiting, maybe they broke that!"

Microsoft is unlikely to issue an out-of-band update to fix this particular bit of borkage, which only affects a subset of users, as it is one part of a bunch of changes subject to a gradual rollout. However, the spawning of zombie or dead Task Manager processes evokes a particular Christopher Nolan film.

That said, there is nothing prestigious about releasing an update with such an obvious oversight. ®