I got super tired of Microsoft seemingly being determined to make the app you turn to when your computer locks up and is laggy laggy itself with screen readers, so I wrote my own task manager. It's pure C ,not even linking against a CRT, meaning the current binary is around 20 KB including a complete, sortable process list. You can also customize what columns the list shows and how often you want it to refresh, if at all. I personally keep auto refresh off and just manually refresh with f5, and the list keeps your exact place whenever it refreshes. Pressing escape minimizes it to the system tray, while alt+f4 closes it. I want to do much more with this, such as binding it to a hotkey, but I think it's good enough for a first release. Source code: https://github.com/trypsynth/taskmon , 0.1.0 release: https://github.com/trypsynth/taskmon/releases/download/0.1.0/taskmon.exe , Enjoy!
Edit since this is blowing up: if you like all the hacking I do in my downtime, please consider donating on PayPal or GitHub sponsors so I can keep making teeny pieces of software that just work exactly as they should. GitHub: https://github.com/sponsors/trypsynth PayPal: https://paypal.me/tygillespie05 Thanks everyone!
GitHub - trypsynth/taskmon: Lightweight task manager replacement for Windows.

Lightweight task manager replacement for Windows. Contribute to trypsynth/taskmon development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
@TheQuinbox It really says something when 1 person can make a utility that opens before you've even thought about hitting Enter on the executable, is responsive as fuck, takes as much disk space as a 20000 character text file and just works, while an entire engineering team seems to think that a utility that is laggy as fuck with NVDA, has a clunky UI and is about 5 times larger than the character limit of this Mastodon instance passes for innovation.
@cubic @TheQuinbox I just downloaded this and my Windows Defender flagged it as a threat. Not sure why: Detected: Trojan:Win32/Ulthar.A!ml Status: Quarantined Quarantined files are in a restricted area where they can’t harm your device. They will be removed automatically. Date: 3/22/2026 6:20 PM Details: This program is dangerous and executes commands from an attacker. Affected items:
Affected items: List box
file: C:\Users\Al\Downloads\taskmon.exe
@alpuzz @cubic Ugh, Microsoft. Notice the ML at the end? That stands for machine learning, and means they're using shitty AI to detect viruses. Go into Windows security settings and turn off cloud-delivered protection (internally called spynet), but be sure to keep real-time protection on. That'll protect you from real threats as long as you keep your Windows up to date, and lead to way less false positives.
@TheQuinbox @cubic LOL okay thanks.
@alpuzz @TheQuinbox Disable that smart app control bullshit as well while you're on your feet. Not related but still a stupid security misfeature.
@alpuzz @TheQuinbox Modern AV being hyperparanoid as usual.