How to Restore the Default Task Manager Settings in Windows 10

[The AchieVer]

How to Restore the Default Task Manager Settings in Windows 10 

As I said several times before, the Windows 10 Task Manager is one of the apps I use on a daily basis, and I’m very sure there are many users out there that do the same.

In fact, Task Manager is a valuable Windows 10 tool that always provides us with essential information on the performance of the device, while also making it possible for the most tech-savvy of us to monitor the resource usage of running processes.

Like Windows 10 altogether, the built-in Task Manager is evolving too, and most importantly, it’s getting new features that allow users to customize the way it looks and works.

The upcoming Windows 10 version 1903, for instance, will allow users to change the default tab where Task Manager opens, which technically means they should be able to find the information they’re most often interested in much faster.

Plus, you can customize Task Manager with the typical options, like the size of the window and the sorting order of the information it displays. All of these are saved locally, so that you’ll get your customized Task Manager experience every time you launch it.

Restoring the default Task Manager configuration, however, isn’t the most straightforward thing to do, mostly because there’s no such option in Windows 10. At least, it’s not available in Settings or in a different menu, so basically, you have to do the whole thing the hard way.
 

 

 

Since there’s no dedicated option for resetting Task Manager, more steps are required, and as posted on TenForums, you need to delete a specific registry key to restore the default settings.

First and foremost, make sure that you are logged in with an administrator account because, otherwise, you are not allowed to make changes to the Windows registry. Next, launch the Registry Editor by clicking the Start menu or pressing Windows key + R and then typing regedit.

In the Registry Editor, you need to navigate to the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TaskManager

Select the Task Manager key in the left side of the screen, right-click it > Delete. You can create a registry backup before deleting the key to make sure you can recover at a later time if something goes wrong.

Here’s how the whole thing works. By removing the said key, Windows 10 deletes all configuration files and preferences that you set for the built-in Task Manager. In other words, all your settings will be gone, so what Windows 10 does next is to automatically load the default configuration when you launch Task Manager.

So basically, when you open Task Manager, the key that you just removed should be generated automatically in the Windows registry with the default settings. This way, you can return to the original configuration anytime you wish simply by following the same steps.
 

 

 

This simple trick works in all Windows 10 version, and the tutorial you see here was tested on Windows 10 version 1903 (19H1) preview builds, and everything was working correctly. I tried the same steps on the latest stable version of the operating system, namely Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809), and Task Manager was reset to the default configuration as well.

If you’re afraid that deleting the registry key could break something in the OS, you should just create a system restore point.

There’s no need to reboot your system after deleting the registry key, as the changes are applied automatically. Task Manager shouldn’t be running when doing it, however, because otherwise the settings might be restored by the active instance of the app.

 

 

Source