Task Manager's most useful function could soon be a right click away

Windows 11 End task
(Image credit: PhantomOcean3)

Rejoice, Windows 11 users, for you could soon be able to end tasks, including apps games and other software, directly from the taskbar via an addition to the "right click" context menu.

Currently, forcing a task to end in this manner requires that you fire up the Task Manager, locate the relevant task, select it and end it. Apart from being more long winded, it also introduces the problem of identifying the correct task.

That sounds simple and usually is. However, tasks aren't absolutely always named in an obvious fashion. Likewise, they can appear in a long list, increasing the possibility of killing the wrong software.

Much easier and more reliable, then, to be able to knock apps and software on the head directly from the Task Bar.

Anyway, the new "End task" entry in the right click context menu for any given app has appeared as a hidden feature in Windows 11 build 25300, available from the Windows Insider developer channel, as identified by user Windows Insider PhantomOcean3

Reportedly, the feature isn't visible by default but must be enabled, which can be done using the ViVe tool developed by Windows enthusiast Albacore and running this command: "vivetool /enable /id:42592269".

It's not clear if this feature is a nailed on certainly for a future full public release of Windows 11. But if it isn't, it absolutely should be.

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Jeremy Laird
Hardware writer

Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars.