The first major update of the year, Windows 11 version 22H2, is expected to start rolling out in a few weeks, and Windows Preview users are already experiencing new features such as an upgraded taskbar with drag-and-drop functionality, faster context menu operations, and a new Task Manager.
One of the notable changes in Windows 11 version 22H2 is the new Task Manager, which is getting a Microsoft Fluent Design system design, a WinUI 3.0 revamp and more. The Task Manager now looks more modern and uses a new layout with all the key options in the left column, similar to the Settings app.
More common tasks have been moved to the top bar to make room for new options in the Task Manager. In Windows 11 Preview Build 22588, Microsoft is testing a new feature that allows users to generate kernel or full fail dumps through Task Manager. When Windows fails to run properly due to a BSOD blue screen of death, a dump file is automatically generated.
The dump file generated by this event is called a system failure dump. Failure dumps can be generated using the control panel.
Starting with the next feature update, users will be able to use Task Manager to generate a crash dump, as shown in the screenshot. This feature is particularly useful because it makes it easy to solve multiple problems, as the crash dumps include the system memory records at the time of the crash.
Kernel Memory dumps contain all the memory used by the kernel at the time of the crash.
Such dump files are significantly smaller than full memory dumps. Typically, the size of a dump file is about one-third the size of the system’s physical memory. This amount can vary greatly, depending on your situation.
This dump file does not include unallocated memory or any memory allocated to user mode applications. It includes only memory allocated to the WINDOWS kernel and hardware abstraction layer (HAL), and memory allocated to kernel-mode drivers and other kernel-mode programs.
In most cases, this fault dump is the most useful. It is significantly smaller than a full memory dump, but it omits only those portions of memory that are less likely to be involved in a crash.
Since such dumps do not contain images of any user-mode executables that reside in memory at the time of the crash, it may also be necessary to set the executable image path if these executables are important.
By default, the kernel memory dump file will be written to % SystemRoot%\Memory.dmp.
If a second bug check occurs and another (or full memory dump) is created, the previous file will be overwritten.
To disable the display of missing page error messages when debugging kernel memory dumps, use the .ignore_missing_pages command.
Other new changes to Task Manager
As mentioned at the beginning, the Windows 11 Task Manager is being newly designed with Microsoft Fluent Design to make it more consistent with the rest of the operating system.
The Task Manager now looks more modern, and it resembles the Settings application.
As a result of these changes, Task Manager is now more touchscreen-friendly and Windows 11 continues to push the development of touch-friendly user controls.
In addition to the Fluent Design makeover, Microsoft has added “Mica,” a virtual design material that matches the background of an application to the desktop. And of course, there’s support for Dark Mode, which looks great against mica and bright desktop backgrounds.
One of the new features of Windows 11 Task Manager is “Efficiency Mode”, which allows limiting the system resources (CPU) of a specific program or process. This feature is particularly useful for improving battery efficiency, as it allows users to manually limit the CPU usage of selected processes while determining the priority of the desired process.
