Microsoft is bringing a search feature to Task Manager in Windows 11 -- but you can enable it now

For those who like a glimpse of the future of Windows, the Insider program is the place to be. Microsoft frequently experiments with new features and functionality in preview builds, and the latest releases are no different.

With the release of Windows 11 2022 Update, we have already seen Task Manager receive a much-needed revamp and the latest Insider builds show that a search option is coming to the utility too. But the feature is hidden by default, and you will need to take action to unlock it.

See also:

• Microsoft warns that October 2022 security updates can cause problems joining domains in Windows 11 and older
• Microsoft issues emergency patch after breaking OneDrive with Windows 10 update
• Microsoft is annoyed with security firm that discovered misconfigured server exposing sensitive customer data

The new functionality is to be found in Windows 11 build 25231 and above, and it makes it significantly easier to find a particular app or process that you need to interact with in Task Manager. The ability to search in Task Manager is much faster than scrolling through a lengthy list of everything that you have running!

The feature can be unlocked using the useful utility ViVeTool, which we have looked at several times before. It offers a means of enabling and disabling features of Windows using text-based commands. The command you need to run to enable Task Manager search is:

vivetool /enable /id:39420424

Should you change your mind and want to disable it, you can simply use the command:

vivetool /disable /id:39420424

If you are unfamiliar with ViVeTool, here are some more detailed instructions:

1. Start by downloading the tool from GitHub
2. Extract the contents of the zip file to, for example, C:\ViVeTool
3. Open the Command Prompt with administrator privileges
4. Type cd C:\ViVeTool and press Enter (changing the path if necessary)
5. To enable the search feature of Task Manager, type vivetool /enable /id: 39420424 and press Enter
6. Restart Windows
7. To disable the search feature of Task Manager, type vivetool /disable /id: 39420424 and press Enter
8. Restart Windows

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