A glitch in Windows 11's recent update is causing Task Manager to spawn multiple instances, impacting system performance. This issue affects devices that installed the optional October 24H2 and 25H2 preview updates.
Process Accumulation Issue
Closing the Task Manager fails to terminate its process, keeping it running in the background. Each time the application is reopened, a new process starts, leading to multiple instances. This accumulation can consume significant resources as each instance uses approximately 20 MB of RAM and intermittently 0-2% CPU.
System Impact and Response
The resource drain from multiple Task Manager instances can degrade performance and battery life. More users continue to report this issue after enabling the 'get the latest updates as soon as they’re available' setting. Despite wide acknowledgment, Microsoft has not released a patch to resolve the problem.
Temporary Workarounds
- Use command line to close all open instances:
taskkill /im taskmgr.exe /f. - Manually end each Task Manager instance through Task Manager itself.
While Microsoft develops a permanent fix, these workarounds offer temporary relief from the resource issues caused by this bug.
