Dave Plummer, the former Microsoft engineer credited with creating the original Windows Task Manager, is building a Windows-like process monitor for macOS in Swift. As first reported by Club386, the early prototype already resembles the Windows 11 utility and includes per-core CPU activity monitoring.
Plummer has shown the project publicly, saying Microsoft supplied the Windows XP Task Manager source code and allowed him to demonstrate it on his YouTube channel. But this is not a macOS port of that code: the new application is being written separately in Swift.
The practical appeal is clear for Windows users who administer Macs or simply prefer Task Manager’s compact, graph-heavy view of a machine. Plummer’s prototype is reportedly sampling system information at 60Hz, though he is considering 30Hz or 15Hz to improve stability.
The bigger problem is distribution, not the dashboard. Plummer had considered a free beta release through the Mac App Store, but Apple requires sandboxing for Mac App Store submissions, and its App Sandbox rules prohibit an app from terminating other running applications.
That restriction conflicts with a core expectation of a Task Manager-style utility: selecting a hung process and ending it. An app distributed outside the App Store could potentially retain that capability, subject to normal macOS permissions and signing requirements.
Apple’s built-in Activity Monitor already provides process inspection, CPU and memory information, GPU-related metrics on supported systems, and the ability to quit or force-quit processes. The opportunity for Plummer’s project is therefore less about filling a total feature void and more about delivering a familiar Windows-style workflow, richer at-a-glance visualization, and potentially clearer startup and service management.
For now, this is an experimental personal project rather than a shipping Mac utility. Plummer has also floated the possibility of releasing the code if he loses interest, but the decisive question is whether he chooses an outside-the-App-Store release path—or pares back the tool enough to fit Apple’s sandbox model.
Plummer has shown the project publicly, saying Microsoft supplied the Windows XP Task Manager source code and allowed him to demonstrate it on his YouTube channel. But this is not a macOS port of that code: the new application is being written separately in Swift.
The practical appeal is clear for Windows users who administer Macs or simply prefer Task Manager’s compact, graph-heavy view of a machine. Plummer’s prototype is reportedly sampling system information at 60Hz, though he is considering 30Hz or 15Hz to improve stability.
The Mac App Store is the immediate obstacle
The bigger problem is distribution, not the dashboard. Plummer had considered a free beta release through the Mac App Store, but Apple requires sandboxing for Mac App Store submissions, and its App Sandbox rules prohibit an app from terminating other running applications.That restriction conflicts with a core expectation of a Task Manager-style utility: selecting a hung process and ending it. An app distributed outside the App Store could potentially retain that capability, subject to normal macOS permissions and signing requirements.
Apple’s built-in Activity Monitor already provides process inspection, CPU and memory information, GPU-related metrics on supported systems, and the ability to quit or force-quit processes. The opportunity for Plummer’s project is therefore less about filling a total feature void and more about delivering a familiar Windows-style workflow, richer at-a-glance visualization, and potentially clearer startup and service management.
For now, this is an experimental personal project rather than a shipping Mac utility. Plummer has also floated the possibility of releasing the code if he loses interest, but the decisive question is whether he chooses an outside-the-App-Store release path—or pares back the tool enough to fit Apple’s sandbox model.