Microsoft Task Manager update will show Neural Engines in Windows 11 with more detailed monitoring for NPUs and other AI acceleration hardware
The change is part of Windows 11 Insider Experimental (Future Platforms) Preview Build 29576.1000, which was released yesterday. Microsoft says these release notes apply to users in the Canary 29500 series channel, which is being moved to Experimental (Future Platforms) as part of the Windows Insider channel changes.
Changes to Task Manager
Task Manager now includes optional NPU and NPU Engine columns on the Processes, Users and Details pages. The Details page also adds optional NPU Dedicated Memory and NPU Shared Memory columns, giving users a clearer view of how AI workloads are using NPU resources.
[Task Manager]
We’re making a few improvements to Task Manager:
- We’re updating Task Manager to provide better insight into NPU usage for PCs that include an NPU. New optional NPU and NPU Engine columns are now available on the Processes, Users, and Details pages. The Details page also adds NPU Dedicated Memory and NPU Shared Memory optional columns to give you deeper visibility into how workloads are using NPU resources. Additionally, if there are neural engines that are part of a GPU, they will now appear on the Performance page, providing a more complete view of AI‑related system activity.
- We’re also adding a new optional Isolation column to the Processes and Details pages, allowing you to see which apps are running in an AppContainer.
© WindowsCentral GPU Tensor/AI cores in Task Manger
Microsoft is also expanding the Performance page. If a GPU includes neural engines, those engines will now be displayed there . This should make Task Manager more useful on modern AI PCs where AI workloads may run on a CPU-integrated NPU, a GPU block, or other dedicated acceleration hardware.
The same build adds a separate optional Isolation column to the Processes and Details pages. This column shows which apps are running inside an AppContainer. Users can enable the new columns by right-clicking a Task Manager column header and selecting them from the list.
Source: Microsoft
Many thanks to Rickyxds for the tip!
