What is the purpose of the Windows Task Manager?

The Windows Task Manager is a powerful tool primarily designed to monitor system performance and manage running applications and processes. It provides real-time information about the computer's performance, including CPU, memory, disk, and network usage. This enables users to understand how resources are being allocated among various processes and applications.

In addition to monitoring, Task Manager allows you to end tasks or processes that are unresponsive and gives you the ability to start new applications. It also provides insights into what applications are currently running and their resource consumption, which can be crucial for troubleshooting performance issues. Overall, its functionality centers around managing and optimizing system resources, making it an essential utility for users wanting to ensure their system is running efficiently.