Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
If Windows Task Manager doesn't have a menu or tabs, then it is probably running in what's called "Tiny Footprint" mode.
Why does Task Manager suddenly have no menu or tabs?
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Windows Task Manager has a mode that maximizes the data display by hiding the menu and title bar.
It's easy to accidentally get Task Manager into that mode.
It's just as easy to get it out.
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Task Manager
This is what you normally see when you open Task Manager. It varies slightly from version to version of Windows, but the issue that we're dealing with here has not.
Here's the version that you're probably seeing:
Note that there is no menu bar or window title bar. This is the so-called "tiny footprint"† mode.
Switching modes
Double-click anywhere in the empty area around the information display:
This is actually a toggle - double-click in normal mode and you'll get tiny footprint. Double-click in tiny footprint and you'll get normal.
Typically, that's the accident that got you here - somehow, the window was double-clicked on.
There's actually a Knowledgebase Article on it, based on Windows XP.
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† No, I don't know why it's called "tiny footprint". It's certainly not smaller; in fact, the displayed data takes up more, not less, of the display area. Perhaps the idea is that you can then resize the tiny footprint window to be significantly smaller and still display meaningful data.
(This is an update to an article originally published June 20, 2004.)
Article C2076 - May 28, 2011
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Wow.. When I did the "double click fix" I felt just a teeny weeny bit dumber.. Ha!
I searched for a couple of hours yesterday and just got on it fresh today.
Ran across your fix after opening about three pages of runaround and cannot believe how straight forward and easy your site is.
Leo! you stand way above the rest!
Thanks!
James T. Shue
* Oh, and to the fine folks reading this , if you feel it appropriate check out the "Tip Jar" at the bottom right of this page. I don't mean to be cheap but I'm in for a "Cup-o-Joe"
Posted by: Jim Shue at December 16, 2011 9:28 PMThanks again Leo!
JTS
Thanks So Much Leo..
Posted by: Muhummed at December 17, 2011 2:08 AMI thought my PC was hacked... and it was just this simple..
This really Helped...
Thank you so much Leo, I thought my pc has virus. You same me a lot of time.. thanks again
Posted by: Coymax at January 14, 2012 12:02 AMThanks, I had no idea. It goes in to tiny mode depending on which tab you start out on it will be different. I was on the applications tab when it went to tiny mode.
Posted by: April at February 16, 2012 10:18 AMThank you so much. You will think that this feature should be on the top of the form, not the side.
Posted by: JPLeighton at April 24, 2012 7:14 AM