Surely more than one misses the mythical Windows 7 desktop gadgets . These little tools allowed us to add a series of widgets to the desktop from which we could see the time, the calendar and even always have the hardware status in view from the PC. Today, these gadgets have passed away, as Microsoft discontinued them a few years ago. However, thanks to the Windows 10 Game Bar , the company has some very interesting projects on its hands. And one of them is this new process viewer that we will be able to anchor to the desktop.
One of the reasons that a computer can malfunction or be slow is because a process is consuming much more CPU or memory than it should. Especially while we are playing, since the smallest unnecessary expenditure of resources is directly reflected in the game’s own FPS.
It is always possible to use the keyboard shortcut Control + Shift + Esc to open the Windows task manager and control all the processes that are running. But this is not the optimal way to do it, especially if we are playing games. For this reason, Microsoft has developed a new gadget for the Windows Game Bar that will allow us to always have in view all the processes that are running, computer in different categories, to be able to control everything that is running on the PC in a way we’ve never seen before.
This is the new gadget of processes of the Game Bar of Windows 10
The new Windows resource monitor for the Game Bar is by default within Game mode. We don’t have to install anything on our own to make it work. We will simply open the game bar with the Windows + G keys (or the shortcut that we have changed) and we will look for it in the list.
By default, we will see a small box in which the complete list will appear with all the processes that are open on the computer, ordered from the one that consumes the most to the least. We can see that, next to each process, a color indicator appears that will indicate how much impact each one has on the general performance of the PC. Also an X that will allow us to automatically close the process in question.
If we click on “Show more” we can see the expanded version of this gadget. In this view, in addition to having each process arranged in categories (applications, background processes, Windows, etc.) we will be able to see how much CPU, RAM, GPU and disk each one of them is consuming . Of course, the close button on the right will allow us to end any process that is spending more than the account.
The thumbtack icon will allow us to anchor said gadget to the desktop so that we can always have it at hand in the area we want on our monitor. In this way, we will now be able to control all the PC processes and the use of the hardware from the Game Bar.
How to test it
This new add-on is available to all Windows 10 users, using the latest version, without having to be an Insider user. What we will need to be able to start using it from now on is to install the Xbox Insider App on our computer, and from this app sign up for the Insider beta of the Game Bar that we will find inside.
Once we have signed up for this beta, we can update the Game Bar from the Microsoft Store to download the latest version. When it is ready, we restart the computer and, when we reopen the game bar (using the Windows + G keyboard shortcut, by default) we will be able to start testing this new resource monitor.
It is true that it still has some small bugs, that the configuration does not work well, and that it has some work ahead of it. But, remember, it is a beta. A beta of a feature that, without a doubt, will help us notably while we play to have our processes controlled from the Game Bar.