Task Manager Lagging or too Slow to Respond [Fixed]

If Task Manager is lagging or is too slow to respond, it’s probably due to your antivirus or PowerShell interference. We’ll explain below all the steps you have to follow to fix it quickly.

How to fix Task Manager lagging

1. Disable Powershell

1. Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and hit Enter.
2. Go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Software Restriction Policies.
3. If no policies exist, right-click Software Restriction Policies and choose New Software Restriction Policies.
4. Under Additional Rules, right-click and choose New Path Rule.
5. Enter:
   • C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe.
6. Set Security Level to Disallowed and hit Apply.
7. Restart your PC.

Powershell can sometimes cause issues with Task Manager on your PC. This is an unusual issue, but if your Task Manager is slow to open, you might be able to fix the problem simply by disablingit.

2.Create a new user account

1. Open the Settings app and navigate to the Accounts section. To open the Settings app quickly, you can just use Windows Key + I shortcut.
2. Choose Family & other people from the menu on the left. Click Add someone else to this PC in the right pane.
   
3. Select I don’t have this person’s sign-in information.
4. Now choose Add a user without a Microsoft account.
5. Enter the desired username and password for the new account and click Next.
   

Once you create a new user account, switch to it. If the issue with Task Manager doesn’t appear on the new account, you should move your personal files to it and use it instead of your old account.

4. Perform a chkdsk scan

1. Open Command Prompt as administrator. To do that, press Windows Key + X or right-click the Start button. Now choose Command Prompt (Admin) or PowerShell (Admin) from the menu.
   
2. Once the Command Prompt opens, type chkdsk /f :X and press Enter. Be sure to replace :X with your system drive letter. In most cases, that would be C.
   
3. Command Prompt will now ask you to schedule a scan during the next restart. Press Y to confirm.

5. Use Safe Mode

1. Open the Settings app and navigate to the Update & Security section.
2. Now select Recovery from the left pane and in the right pane click the Restart now button.
3. Choose Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings. After doing that, click the Restart button.
   
4. Once your PC restarts, you’ll be presented with a list of options. Choose the desired version of Safe Mode simply by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard.

If the issue doesn’t appear in Safe Mode, it means that the problem is related to your settings or to your user profile, so you can start troubleshooting the issue.

6. Perform SFC and DISM scans

1. Open Command Prompt as administrator.
2. When the Command Prompt starts, enter sfc /scannow and press Enter to run it.
   
3. The scan will now start. This process can take about 15 minutes or more, so don’t interfere with it.

Once the SFC scan is finished, you need to check if the problem is still there. If SFC didn’t fix your problem, or if you can’t run SFC scan at all, you’ll need to use DISM instead:

1. Start Command Prompt as an administrator.
2. Now enter DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth command and press Enter to run it.
   
3. DISM scan will now start. This scan can take about 20 minutes or more, so try not to interrupt it.

Once the scan is finished, check if the problem is still there. If you weren’t able to run an SFC scan before, try running it now and check if that helps.

7. Install the latest updates

1. Open the Settings app and go to the Update & Security section.
2. Now click Check for updates button.
   

If any updates are available, they will be downloaded automatically in the background and installed as soon as you restart your PC. Once your system is up to date, check if the problem is still there.

There are many problems that can appear with Task Manager, and if Task Manager is slow to open or slow to respond on your PC, the issue is most likely related to your antivirus or to file corruption. However, you should be able to fix the problem using one of our solutions.