Task Monitor

A modern, powerful cross-platform terminal-based task monitor designed to provide real-time monitoring and management of a computer's performance, active processes, and resource utilization. Originally inspired by tools like top, htop and the Windows Task Manager, it provides performance monitoring at-a-glance for system resources (including CPU, GPU, Memory, Swap, Disk and Network) and process management functions.

Features

• No sudo or administrator privilege required - Native platform APIs used on each platform.
• Written in C# using platform native interop for maximum performance and minimum memory overhead.
• Real-Time System Monitoring: Live updates of CPU, GPU, memory, swap, disk I/O and Network I/O.
• High resolution charts in 24-bit colour.
• Switch layouts (F8) to focus charts on specific system metrics.
• Real-Time Process Monitoring: View Process, Pid, CPU%, Avg CPU%, Max CPU%, Threads, GPU%, Avg GPU%, Max GPU%, Memory, Avg Memory, Max Memory, Disk MB/s, Avg Disk MB/s, Max Disk MB/s and Command Path.
• Process list formatted similar to the original htop and top.
• Process CPU% defaults to IRIX mode for *nix systems.
• Process deep dive (F5) to view live thread times and loaded libraries (system and user).
• Module Analysis: Full dynamic and static library enumeration for selected process.
• Multiple process selection (enabled through the F2 Setup function).
• Customise update interval (default 1500ms).
• Customise top number of processes to display (default unlimited).
• Customise number of process iteration loops.
• Windows Services: Show service names and startup parameters, not just generic svchost.exe entries.
• Select and terminate multiple processes simultaneously (F6).
• Filter by process name, username, command path or PID (F4).
• Sort the process list by any visible column (F3).
• Toggle process sorting between ascending (using the 'a' key) and descending (using the 'd' key).
• Navigate scrollable lists using the ↓, ↑ arrow keys and Pg Up and Pg Down keys.
• Multiple Themes: Ships with dozens of popular, modern 24-bit colour themes.
• Modern terminal detection to support colour desaturation.
• Customise Configuration: Manage configuration settings using the (F2) Setup function. Interactive UI for modifying and saving settings.
• System profile: Display machine name, OS name and version, CPU name and clock speed, top resource consumers (Avg and Max) (using the F9 function).

Cross-Platform Native Performance

• Platform-specific optimizations using native APIs (Win32, Mach kernel).
• .net native with small memory footprint.
• No dependencies on libraries such as ncurses.

Installation

macOS on Apple Silicon

The easiest way to install on macOS ARM64 (Apple Silicon) isusing homebrew:

brew tap jchas2/taskmon
brew trust jchas2/taskmon
brew install taskmon

To update to the latest version:

brew update
brew upgrade taskmon

Task Monitor does not require sudo permission on MacOS for system monitoring, however some system process detail won't be available unless run with sudo.

Windows on x64 and ARM64

The easiest way to install on Windows isusing chocolately (pending):

choco install taskmon

To update to the latest version:

choco upgrade taskmon

Windows (Direct Download)

• Windows x64
• Windows ARM64

After downloading:

1. Extract the archive
2. Run PowerShell or Command Prompt, then run .\taskmon.exe

Task Monitor does not require elevated permission on Windows for system monitoring, however some system process detail won't be available unless run as Administrator.

Linux Distros

Task Monitor is not yet available on Linux (coming soon).

Usage

Task Monitor supports the following commands on startup. Note these commands can also be configured using the F2 Setup function, and saved to configuration for next run.

Command	What it does
taskmon	Start Task Monitor with configuration defaults.
taskmon --pid <pid>	Automatically monitor the pid nnn on startup.
taskmon --username <username>	Automatically monitor all processes running under user on startup.
taskmon --process <processname>	Automatically monitor all processes with matching on startup.
taskmon --sort <column>	Automatically sort by on startup.
taskmon --ascending	Apply ascending sort order (default descending).
taskmon --delay <delay>	Use in milliseconds between chart and process updates.
taskmon --limit <limit>	Limit the number of iteration loops and then stop.
taskmon --nprocs <nprocs>	Only display the top number of processes .
taskmon --theme <theme>	Load a theme from the available themes. Eg: taskmon --theme "Dracula Official"
taskmon --debug	Signal a debug break on startup and wait for a debugger to attach.
taskmon --version	Print version information and exit.
taskmon --help	Show help and usage information.

Valid sort columns are: AvgCpu,AvgDisk,AvgGpu,AvgMem,Cpu,Disk,Gpu,MaxCpu,MaxDisk,MaxGpu,MaxMem,Mem,Path,Pid,Pri,Process,Thrd,User

Configuration

Task Monitor stores configuration and log files in the following system directories:

Config	Description
taskmon.ini	Primary config file in .ini format.
Theme files	One config file per theme.
Layout files	One layout file per TUI layout. Controls size and types of charts on display.
Log files	One log file per session; logs are rotated > 2MB and routinely deleted.

MacOS

Config	Path
taskmon.ini	~\.config\taskmon
Theme files	~\.config\taskmon\themes
Layout files	~\.config\taskmon\layouts
Log files	~\Library\Logs\taskmon

Windows

Config	Path	Description
taskmon.ini	~\AppData\Roaming\taskmon
Theme files	~\AppData\Roaming\taskmon\themes
Layout files	~\AppData\Roaming\taskmon\layouts
Log files	~\AppData\Local\taskmon\Logs

Theme Files

Theme files control the colour palette behaviour for colour desaturation, background opacity, and the colours applied to the TUI screen elements. There a number of default themes that are pre-loaded when Task Monitor starts. These themes are kept in .ini files and can be customised as required. Additionally, new theme files can be authored and copied to the theme files directory and will automatically be available next time Task Monitor starts.

Below is an example theme file:

[Dracula Official]
colour-mode=indexed
background=transparent
background-highlight=#3b5070
col-cmd-normal-user-space=#50fa7b
col-cmd-low-priority=#0000FF
col-cmd-high-cpu=#ff79c6
col-cmd-io-bound=#bd93f9
col-cmd-script=#e3b341
col-user-current-non-root=#f8f8f2
col-user-other-non-root=#f1fa8c
col-user-system=#ff79c6
col-user-root=#50fa7b
command-foreground=#bd93f9
command-background=#282a36
delta-highlight-colour=#ffb86c
error=#db61a2
foreground=#f8f8f2
foreground-highlight=#ffb86c
menubar-foreground=#f1fa8c
menubar-background=#282a36
range-high-background=#bd93f9
range-low-background=#f1fa8c
range-mid-background=#ffb86c
range-high-foreground=#000000
range-low-foreground=#000000
range-mid-foreground=#000000
header-background=#282a36
header-foreground=#f1fa8c

Example Theme	Description
[Dracula Official]	Theme name, used to identify the theme.
colour-mode=indexed	Indexed means use the colour palette that supports colour desaturation on modern terminals. Truecolour prevents desaturation (by emitting ARGB) escape codes. Auto detects terminal support.
background=transparent	transaparent honours background opacity settings in the terminal. Otherwise use a hex colour.
background-highlight=#3b5070	Row selection background colour in a list.
col-cmd-normal-user-space=#50fa7b	Text colour for user-mode applications.
col-cmd-low-priority=#0000FF	Text colour for applications running at a low priority.
col-cmd-high-cpu=#ff79c6	Text colour for a process running at high CPU%.
col-cmd-io-bound=#bd93f9	Text colour for a process that is IO bound.
col-cmd-script=#e3b341	Text colour for script/shell processes. (not supported yet)
col-user-current-non-root=#f8f8f2	Username colour for current user if not running as root.
col-user-other-non-root=#f1fa8c	Username colour for other non-root users.
col-user-system=#ff79c6	Text colour for system users.
col-user-root=#50fa7b	Text colour for root/admin users.
command-foreground=#bd93f9	Function Key text colour.
command-background=#282a36	Function key background colour.
delta-highlight-colour=#ffb86c	Flash colour when a metric updates in the process list.
error=#db61a2	Text error colour.
foreground=#f8f8f2	Text foreground colour.
foreground-highlight=#ffb86c	Row selection forground colour in a list.
menubar-foreground=#f1fa8c	Menubar text colour.
menubar-background=#282a36	Menubar background colour.
range-high-background=#bd93f9	Chart colour for high-range values.
range-low-background=#f1fa8c	Chart colour for low-range values.
range-mid-background=#ffb86c	Chart colour for mid-range values.
range-high-foreground=#000000	Text colour for high-range values.
range-low-foreground=#000000	Text colour for low-range values.
range-mid-foreground=#000000	Text colour for mid-rage values.
header-background=#282a36	Column header background colour in a list.
header-foreground=#f1fa8c	Column header foreground colour in a list.

Note: colour-mode can be temporarily overriden for ALL theme files by setting the environment variable TASKMON_COLOUR_MODE to one of Indexed, Truecolour or Auto.

Layout Files

Layout files control the number, sequence, rows and columns of the chart layouts on the main process screen. There a number of default layouts that are pre-loaded when Task Monitor starts. These layouts are kept in .ini files and can be customised as required. Additionally, new layout files can be authored and copied to the layout files directory and will automatically be available next time Task Monitor starts.

Below is an example Layout file:

[All Charts]
ratio=0.4
num-rows=2
num-cols=4
; Chart index
; 0=Cpu, 1=Gpu, 2=Disk, 3=NetworkSent, 4=Memory, 5=GpUMemory, 6=VirtualMemory, 7=NetworkRec 
charts=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Example Layout	Description
[All Charts]	Layout name, used to identify the layout.
ratio=0.4	Percentage of the screen Y-axis used to display chart content i.e. 40%.
num-rows=2	Number of rows to split the charts across.
num-cols=4	Number of columns to show each chart.
; Chart index
; 0=Cpu, 1=Gpu, 2=Disk, 3=NetworkSent, 4=Memory, 5=GpUMemory, 6=VirtualMemory, 7=NetworkRec	Chart identifiers.
charts=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7	Array of chart identifiers to render across the rows and columns.