Summary
- A bug in Windows 11 prevents the Task Manager from closing correctly, resulting in multiple background processes.
- The flaw is associated with the October 2025 update KB5067036, which was automatically downloaded to some users’ PCs.
- There is no official solution yet, but alternatives include using the “taskkill” command in the Command Prompt.
Windows 11 users who installed the optional October 2025 Update (KB5067036) are experiencing a new bug in Task Manager. When trying to close the window by clicking on the “X”, the application remains active in the background.
Repeated attempts to open and close the tool result in the process multiplying, which may affect system performance. The strange behavior was reported by some users on Reddit.
What causes Task Manager to crash?
The specific problem is that the Task Manager executable process (taskmgr.exe) does not terminate when the user tries to just close the window.
It remains active in the “background processes” list, consuming resources. Multiple instances running at the same time can lead to crashes, slowdowns and instability.
The error is linked to update KB5067036 (Build 26200.7019 or 26100.7019), made available by Microsoft last Tuesday (10/28) as a preview. For users with the “get the latest fixes and performance improvements” option enabled in Windows Update, the update has been downloaded automatically.
Interestingly, Microsoft mentions a specific update for the Task Manager in the official notes. The objective would be to resolve a problem in which some applications were not correctly grouped with their respective processes, but the suspicion is that this change introduced the bug.
How to identify and fix the problem?
First, users can check if they are affected with a simple test:
- You need to open the Task Manager (by pressing the shortcut “Ctrl+Shift+Esc”)
- Close using the “X” button in the top right corner, then open again
- When checking the “Processes” tab, if more than one entry for “Task Manager” appears in the list, the system has been affected.
The count of duplicate processes rises with each repetition of this cycle. For now, there is no official solution, as Microsoft has not yet commented on the flaw. But there are two alternative solutions, listed by the specialized website Windows Latest:
- By the Manager himself: avoid using the “X” button. Instead, select Task Manager from the “Applications” list and click the “End task” button. If duplicate processes already exist, terminate each one individually.
- Via Command Prompt: open the Command Prompt (if you prefer, as an administrator) and type “taskkill /im taskmgr.exe /f” (without the quotes). This command forces the immediate termination of all instances.
As of this writing, the official update log on Microsoft’s support site states that the company is “not aware of any issues with this update.”
This is not the first technical error introduced in Windows 11 in October. Earlier this month, another security update affected the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), prompting Microsoft to release an emergency fix.
Source: https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/bug-no-windows-11-quebra-o-fechamento-do-gerenciador-de-tarefas/
