Can Task Manager show the total memory usage for a group of processes?

Some applications like Google Chrome and TweetDeck show up as several processes in Windows Task Manager. This means that the memory reported in each row is only part of the overall amount used by that application. Is there some way to view the total memory usage of an application or a group of related processes?

For example, in the screenshot below the total of all of the chrome.exe instances is 708,308 K, but I had to add that up manually as I can't find a way to get that total within Task Manager.

Screenshot of Task Manager

I have tried some alternatives such as Resource Monitor, Process Explorer and Process Hacker, but none of them seem to able to give the total either. I am using Windows 7 (Professional).

Liam

Posted 2014-04-01T14:18:49.117

Reputation: 2 160

This has been answered already in the following thread

https://superuser.com/questions/269059/is-there-a-modern-process-manager-supporting-things-like-grouping-imagine-tens

– Pretzel – 2014-04-01T14:25:50.083

1https://superuser.com/questions/269059/is-there-a-modern-process-manager-supporting-things-like-grouping-imagine-tens only answers grouping. Process Explorer does not total the values of a group. – Cees Timmerman – 2014-04-17T10:08:21.990

Answers

Use PowerShell:

(Get-Process chrome | Measure-Object WorkingSet -sum).sum
(Get-Process tweetd* | Measure-Object WorkingSet -sum).sum

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

Posted 2014-04-01T14:18:49.117

Reputation: 103 763

7You can also add / 1GB to the end to get the total in GB instead of Bytes. – Greg Bray – 2016-08-08T17:41:06.463

1add / (1024 * 1024) to get the total in MB – rahulg – 2018-05-06T07:25:45.397

3Thanks, that gets some of the data I need, but I would not be able to use this method to find the process group with the highest total. I want to be able to sort them like in Task Manager. – Liam – 2014-04-02T09:36:55.327

Process Hacker shows memory usage grouped per process on its Tray Icon and added the Option to the Main Window as per user request in January 2016. Here's an example screenshot:

The Main Window Option is configured in:

Options->Advanced->Include CPU (and other) usage of children in collapsed processes

With this option enabled, when you collapse a process tree, you see metrics for its entire tree.

g0h

Posted 2014-04-01T14:18:49.117

Reputation: 311

3Brilliant ! I have been looking for this for ..well..forever..ever since Chrome decided to scuttle the about:memory and its variations and Task Manager in Windows is crap, and Process Explorer too doesn't give a group solution. I had to hunt for the option you mentioned, wonder why it isn't the default. I had been cussing FF taking 1.4G now I see Chrome with 1.95 and growing ! This should be the accepted answer. – killjoy – 2017-06-21T13:38:44.617

1Process Hacker is a great tool - essentially a big "upgrade" of Process Explorer, with new open source code base, and lets you also see disk I/O (helped spot excessive I/O to pagefile.sys), manipulate Windows services, and much more. Great tip, and this should be accepted answer - PowerShell is not that easy to install for most people and Process Hacker is very flexible. – RichVel – 2018-04-15T09:17:19.580

1This should be the accepted answer – Oliver – 2018-04-26T13:49:31.403

Microsoft added this capability to Task Manager as of the Insider build 16226. The feature will go out to everyone with the next major update of Windows 10, scheduled for September/October 2017.

rseiler

Posted 2014-04-01T14:18:49.117

Reputation: 31

Update: Doesn't work since Chromium 51.

Enter about:memory in Google Chrome and you'll be redirected to chrome://memory-redirect/

That page has totals for all popular running browsers:

enter image description here

Google Chrome's about: Pages

Cees Timmerman

Posted 2014-04-01T14:18:49.117

Reputation: 1 240

These pages aren't accessible anymore. Chrome 73 – Pavel Vlasov – 2019-04-09T15:17:44.513

1That is useful, thanks. But I don't want just browsers. – Liam – 2014-04-17T10:48:38.963

This has been answered already in the following thread

Is there a modern Process Manager supporting things like grouping (Imagine tens of chrome.exe's)?

Task manager in Windows 7 does not support grouping, but now does group processes in windows 8.

Process Explorer or Process Hacker appear to be good alternatives for what you are looking to do. As well as system explorer.

Resource Monitor can show memory usage, but for a process as a whole. enter image description here

Pretzel

Posted 2014-04-01T14:18:49.117

Reputation: 468

@Pretzel, The resource monitor doesn't group Chrome process either: http://clip2net.com/clip/m485571/3802c-clip-96kb.png

– Victor Marchuk – 2016-04-26T07:23:24.007

4I can group processes in both Process Explorer and Process Hacker, which allows me to kill a group easily, or hide child processes to avoid clutter. But both programs will show only the memory usage of the parent process, not the total of the group. – Liam – 2014-04-01T15:33:51.287

Use resource monitor, memory tab – Pretzel – 2014-04-01T15:43:10.540

Thank you @Pretzel but Resource Monitor also does not show me the total for a group of processes. If it works for you I would love to see a screenshot! – Liam – 2014-04-01T16:00:43.107

@Liam Provided one. Under memory, it provides the total amount being used for that process. Ex: I currently have multiple instances/tabs of firefox open, which resource monitor shows the total memory usage for. Shows the process as a whole. – Pretzel – 2014-04-01T16:17:54.670

That seems to be because there is a single Firefox process. Have a look at mine with many chrome.exe and only one firefox.exe http://i.imgur.com/EV83noj.png

– Liam – 2014-04-01T16:31:38.450

@Liam If I open new instances of firefox, it adds onto the same sum of memory usage. But after checking, it appears that this is strictly firefox. Unfortunately, aside from the information I have provided, I've hit a dead end :( – Pretzel – 2014-04-01T16:35:16.917