Dave Plummer, the man who authored the original Windows Task Manager, has returned with a 21st-century take on the classic utility. Called TMOG (Task Manager OG), the tool is a modern replacement that reportedly shows far more detail about running tasks than the Task Manager built into Windows — and it runs on Windows 10 as well as newer versions.
As reported by Ben Myers in AskWoody’s Issue 23.39 (2026-09-28), TMOG is aimed at users who feel the built-in Task Manager has grown too thin. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Plummer is leaning on decades of experience with the very tool he first built, delivering what he’s framed as the “original gangster” of task management.
Who is Dave Plummer?
For those who don’t recognize the name, Dave Plummer is a longtime Microsoft engineer best known as the author of the original Windows Task Manager. He built the utility during the Windows NT era, when it became the go-to way to inspect running processes, monitor resource use, and force unresponsive programs to close.
Plummer stayed with Microsoft for many years, working on a range of infrastructure and developer-tools projects before moving on to independent work. His name remains attached to the Task Manager in a way that’s rare in the industry — he’s the person who actually wrote the thing millions of people open by right-clicking the taskbar.
That history matters here. TMOG isn’t a random third-party clone; it comes from someone who shaped the tool’s original design philosophy and has watched how it evolved — and, in some users’ eyes, degraded — over the decades.
What Task Manager OG does differently
The core pitch, according to the report, is information density. Plummer’s TMOG provides “far more information about tasks than Windows’ own built-in Task Manager.” In practice, that suggests power users get a richer, more granular look at what’s actually running on their machine — the kind of detail that the modern Task Manager tends to simplify away.
The built-in Windows Task Manager has been the subject of ongoing criticism. Since it was overhauled for Windows 10 and again for Windows 11, many users have complained that it hides advanced columns, compresses the process list, and pushes a more consumer-friendly layout over the technical controls that power users relied on. TMOG appears to target exactly that frustration.
What “far more information” means in concrete terms hasn’t been fully spelled out in the source, so treat specific feature lists as unconfirmed. What is clear is that the tool’s angle is depth over simplicity — a return to the information-heavy approach that defined the original Task Manager.
Runs on Windows 10 and 11
One detail worth noting is that TMOG installs and runs on a Windows 10 system, according to Myers’ writeup. That’s notable because much of the push toward “modern” utilities assumes Windows 11, but Plummer’s tool appears designed to work across both the long-lived Windows 10 and the newer Windows 11.
This matters for a large installed base. Windows 10 is still running on a significant share of machines even as Windows 11 grows, and a task manager that works on both means you don’t have to swap utilities when you change systems.
What This Means for You
If you’ve ever felt that the built-in Task Manager shows too little, TMOG is worth a look. It’s aimed at the crowd that wants to see more columns, more detail, and more control over the process list — the users who open Task Manager to dig into what’s eating their CPU or memory, not just to close a frozen app.
For everyday users, though, the built-in Task Manager is usually plenty. It’s free, preinstalled, and handles the common jobs — ending a hung task, checking what’s booting, watching resource use. TMOG is for people who want more, and who trust a tool built by the person who wrote the original.
What to Do
Since TMOG is a third-party utility from an individual developer rather than a Microsoft product, treat it the way you’d treat any standalone tool: verify its source, check where it’s hosted, and be mindful of what permissions it requests. If you’re curious, the best first step is to read Ben Myers’ full writeup in AskWoody Issue 23.39, which links to the tool and explains how to get it.
Until Microsoft decides to bring the richer, information-heavy task view back into the built-in Task Manager, tools like TMOG fill a real gap for power users who want the old-school depth back.
Source: AskWoody
Over to you: Would you swap the built-in Task Manager for a third-party tool built by its original author, or stick with what’s already in Windows?
