When you’re working on your Mac and it starts acting up, the first instinct is to open the task manager. The task manager allows you to see what applications or processes are taking up resources on your Mac. However, unlike a Windows computer, it’s not that easy to find the task manager on a Mac. Here’s a quick guide on how to open the task manager on a Mac.

1. Use the Activity Monitor

The activity monitor is the equivalent of the task manager in Windows. To open the activity monitor, press Command + Space to open Spotlight Search. Type activity monitor and press enter. This will launch the activity monitor in a new window. Here, you can see a list of processes running on your Mac and how much CPU or memory they’re taking up. You can also force quit applications from the activity monitor if they’re not responding.

2. Use the Dock

If you have an application that’s frozen and won’t quit, you can use the dock to force quit the application. Simply right-click on the application icon in the dock, and click on Force Quit. This will launch the task manager and you can select the frozen application and force quit it.

3. Use the Terminal

If you prefer using the terminal, you can also use it to launch the task manager. Open the terminal and type the following command: top -o cpu. This will launch the task manager, and you can see the processes running on your Mac sorted by CPU usage.

4. Use a Third-Party App

If you’re still having trouble finding the task manager on your Mac, you can use a third-party app. There are several free and paid apps that are available on the Mac App Store that you can use to monitor your Mac’s performance. Some popular options include Disk Inventory X, iStat Menus, and CleanMyMac X.