Hidden Secret Hotkey to Reset Task Manager to Default Settings in Windows 10

In this article, we’ll tell you how to reset or restore Task Manager tool to default factory settings in Windows 10. Once you follow the trick mentioned in this tutorial, it’ll remove all customization and changes you made in Task Manager. It’ll restore Task Manager to factory defaults just like you got after clean installation of Windows 10.

If you are using Windows 10 operating system in your computer and you are having issues with Task Manager such as taking lots of time in launching, frequent crashing, showing error messages, not able to access some tabs such as processes, startup, details, etc, you can reset Task Manager to default settings to fix all such kind of problems.

We can open Task Manager by right-clicking on Taskbar and selecting “Task Manager” option. We can also launch Task Manager directly using Ctrl+Shift+Esc hotkey which is my favorite.

When you open Task Manager, it remembers your last customization and settings such as window size, window position, etc. Although it doesn’t remember maximized window state. We shared a workaround to fix this issue at following link:

[Windows 10 Tip] How to Always Open Task Manager Maximized

In past, we also shared a Registry tweak to reset Task Manager to factory defaults which can be found at following link:

[Tip] How to Reset or Restore Task Manager to Default Settings in Windows 10

If you don’t want to modify Registry, you can use a simple hotkey to reset Task Manager to default settings in Windows 10.

Yes, there is a keyboard shortcut to restore Task Manager to default settings in Windows 10. You just need to press the hotkey and open Task Manager and it’ll automatically reset to default settings.

So here is the trick:

You need to open Task Manager while pressing and holding a special hotkey. You can open Task Manager from Start Menu -> Windows System -> Task Manager menu or you can open it by typing taskmgr.exe in RUN dialog box (WIN+R) or Start search box or using Taskbar context menu.

But remember you need to press and hold ALT+CTRL+SHIFT keys together while selecting Task Manager option.

For example, you open Start Menu, go to Windows System menu and then press and hold ALT+CTRL+SHIFT keys together and click on Task Manager shortcut.

Similarly, open RUN dialog box by pressing WIN+R keys together, type taskmgr.exe, press and hold ALT+CTRL+SHIFT keys together and click on OK button.

OR open Start search box, type taskmgr.exe, press and hold ALT+CTRL+SHIFT keys together and click on Task Manager option.

PS: You can also press and hold ALT+CTRL+SHIFT keys and then right-click on Taskbar and select Task Manager option.

Once you press and hold the above mentioned hotkey and click on Task Manager shortcut, it’ll forget all customization and changes and will open fresh using factory default settings.

That’s it. Whenever you face problems with Task Manager, you can reset it to default settings using above mentioned method.

Thanks to our reader “Deepak” for sharing the tip…

Also Check:

[Windows 10 Tip] Force Task Manager to Always Open in Your Desired Tab

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