Veteran Microsoft Engineer Reveals Ancient Task Manager Secret

Description

A screenshot of a Twitter exchange that solves a long-standing user frustration. The first tweet, from user 'ralph nader ginsburg' (@seaweedanxiety), reads, 'they should invent a task manager that stops FUCKING MOVING'. This expresses the common annoyance of the process list in Windows Task Manager constantly refreshing and reordering, making it difficult to click on a target process. Below this is a reply from Dave W Plummer (@davepl1968), a verified user, who states, 'They did, back in 1994. Press the CTRL key to pause updates. You're welcome.' The technical humor and relevance for senior engineers come from the revelation of a simple, effective, yet widely unknown feature in a core operating system utility. The fact that the solution has existed for decades and is shared by one of the original Microsoft developers who worked on the system adds a layer of historical weight and 'insider knowledge'. It's a classic 'Today I Learned' moment for many experienced tech professionals, highlighting how even the most familiar tools can have hidden depths and that good UX solutions can sometimes get lost to time

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Windows OperatingSystems Debugging HiddenComplexity DevExperience

Comments

Anonymous ★ Top Pick That CTRL key feature has been there since 1994, but the Jira ticket to make it discoverable in the UI is still in the backlog under 'won't fix' because 'real programmers read the source code'

Anonymous ★ Top Pick

That CTRL key feature has been there since 1994, but the Jira ticket to make it discoverable in the UI is still in the backlog under 'won't fix' because 'real programmers read the source code'
Anonymous

Proof that shipping a one-line README beats shipping a whole new feature set - if anyone actually reads the README
Anonymous

After 30 years in tech, you realize the most valuable documentation isn't in MSDN or Stack Overflow - it's in the Twitter replies of retired Microsoft engineers who casually drop features they implemented before your junior devs were born
Anonymous

Nothing quite captures the essence of software archaeology like discovering that the solution to your modern UI frustration was literally implemented before you were born - and documented in exactly zero places you'd ever look. Dave Plummer casually dropping 30-year-old Task Manager lore is the developer equivalent of your grandfather revealing he invented the thing you've been complaining about. The real tragedy? Generations of engineers have rage-clicked at moving processes, never knowing salvation was just a CTRL key away. This is why we can't have nice things: we had them in 1994, but nobody wrote it down where anyone would find it
Anonymous

If your process list keeps re-sorting under your cursor, hold Ctrl - the 1994 feature flag for UI stabilization without debouncing, backpressure, or a single line of JavaScript
Anonymous

Ctrl in Task Manager: the original rate limiter, proving Microsoft's DX peaked when pauses trumped real-time polling
Anonymous

Task Manager is eventual consistency with a 1s refresh; holding CTRL upgrades it to strong consistency long enough to kill the noisy neighbor
@Diotost 2y

Press and hold.
@ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y

Or just switch to the dummy mode by holding Ctrl Alt Shift while its launching.
@kvassilisk 2y

top updates too tho
1. @BearChild 2y
  
  should use ps instead if you do not want dynamic real-time information.
@ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y

Imagine actually using htop to fix something
1. @RiedleroD 2y
  
  …I do
2. @a742883 2y
  
  Never used GUI task manager in Linux, htop does everything I need
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  same. exceeept… I do use system-monitoring-center occasionally. is pretty :3c
  
  @Vlasoov 2y
  
  gnome's one is actually pretty good
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  disagree strongly
@a742883 2y

Windows is just firmware for GPT right now
@TBurZ2NjiJ 2y

Ah, Dave Plummer
1. @TERASKULL 2y
  
  Ah yes, the best flavor of autism - task manager tips and tricks for 30+ years
@CcxCZ 2y

echo i >/proc/sysrq-trigger
@CcxCZ 2y

I know what it does. (Also, it's racy)
1. @RiedleroD 2y
  
  racy?
  
  @CcxCZ 2y
  
  No process other than direct parent can signal processes safely without risking the process dying and PID getting reused.
  
  @RiedleroD 2y
  
  oh hrm
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  umm, pidfd_signal wants to have a chat?
  
  @CcxCZ 2y
  
  I thought Linux missed the point and didn't make the pidfds usefully transferrable unlike capsicum. But at least they made them into ptrace-lite I guess. Been a while since I've talked about it with someone who uses them extensively.
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  i'm not sure what you mean by "transferrable", but unix domain sockets exist
  
  @CcxCZ 2y
  
  Yes. But AFAIK lot of pidfd functions are only allowed from the parent process anyway. Definitely wait()ing, not sure about others.
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  mhm, true. you can poll a pidfd though, that's sorta equivalent to wait() without receiving a status
@CcxCZ 2y

Lol, think again then
@F14_8888 2y

by the way, this guy is the creator of the task manager
1. @RiedleroD 2y
  
  oh, this is the legend who ported space cadet pinball? damn
2. @digital_insanity 2y
  
  He has its own YT channel Nice guy btw
@F14_8888 2y

It seems to me that this makes this situation even more amusing.
@ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y

They are in windows but you need pretty big luck in normal usage. Maybe if you spawn 999999999 processes then it will happen often but who does that
1. @RiedleroD 2y
  
  fork bomb:
  
  @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Lmao
@ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y

Oh there is an upper limit lol
@ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y

On the early nintendo switch os one of the exploits were using a service to initialize a process by calling the lower level functions (cus the whole kernel space was marked executable from user space) and the dude was like but I cant get higher permissions than the service has… Wait what if I dont call InitializeProcId()? And he managed to start a process that had PID 0💀💀💀💀
1. @RiedleroD 2y
  
  lmaoo
@chupasaurus 2y

for 32-bit systems, for 64-bit it's 4194304
@RiedleroD 2y

fr
@RiedleroD 2y

cope
@RiedleroD 2y

imagine caring about what the market share is lmao Linux works for me. I don't give a shit about what you think is viable
@RiedleroD 2y

I am :3 have fun being at the whim of Microsoft
@digital_insanity 2y

> install scriptkiddie detected
@digital_insanity 2y

everyone knows that real chads compile their os on their own
@digital_insanity 2y

also linux is not os lol
@Hollow_Arigo 2y

Arch users when they need to update their kernel 973862328 per day
1. @sylfn 2y
  
  They don't, packages are updated once per day, and kernel (at least the packaged one, not the "tip of the master from get") updates are not that frequent
  
  @Hollow_Arigo 2y
  
  Bruh bro, i use arch, let me get some comedie from myselft, okay?
@digital_insanity 2y

Ok ok, now I believe that you’re AI bot
@digital_insanity 2y

No, I have a life (probably)
@digital_insanity 2y

have read both cringy
@digital_insanity 2y

usage of parentheses as emojis gives away you are from eastern Europe lol
@digital_insanity 2y

captain obvious to the rescue
@digital_insanity 2y

I didn’t say that windows is os, so don’t have an idea what you’re trying to prove to me but ok
@Agent1378 2y

This sounds like one of Rihard "crazy" Stallman's useless rants.
@Agent1378 2y

Shit I got to take a look at this Alpine thing
@Agent1378 2y

Cool. But will it run gui?
@AlexKart20129 2y

Linux itself is pretty much Ok for full-time usage. The problem is special software that is usually not available. I have to run Win in a VM in order to run the CAD software because there is no good CAD for Linux.
@AlexKart20129 2y

FreeCAD is complete crap. 🤷‍♂️
@sylfn 2y

killall5 does
@purplesyringa 2y

well if you're running aix...
@sylfn 2y

You can be affected by *older* CVEs though
1. @ZgGPuo8dZef58K6hxxGVj3Z2 2y
  
  Even newer CVEs can affect deviced back as decaded. Latest PS4 has a 2006 or something cve that is a kernel networking bug
@CcxCZ 2y

You can though. Sometimes it goes undiscovered that long.
1. @sylfn 2y
  
  CVE-2002-something Why is it not from year 2002?
  
  @purplesyringa 2y
  
  "CVE-XXXX" means "bug was introduced in XXXX"
  
  @CcxCZ 2y
  
  I lie corrected (too late to still be standing)
  
  @sylfn 2y
  
  ah yes https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2401745_Security_Issues_in_the_Diffie-Hellman_Key_Agreement_Protocol Published in 2002

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Veteran Microsoft Engineer Reveals Ancient Task Manager Secret

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