Once in a while programs and processes get hung in Ubuntu, and when they do, it’s sometimes difficult the terminate or kill them without a simple tool like Task Manager found in Windows systems. In Windows systems when a program or process hangs, in almost all cases all you have to do is press Ctrl –> Shift –> Esc keys to bring up Task Manager and then use Task Manager to kill the rogue program or process.

This brief tutorial is going to show you how configure similar function in Ubuntu by creating a key combination that will quickly bring up Gnome Monitor which is used to view system’s resources as well as kill and end tasks in Ubuntu. Using this method will let you quickly terminate rogue programs that are not responding and affecting the stability of other programs that are currently running on the system. It’s one of the things that if you’re running Ubuntu, you may want to enable.

So, without wasting anymore of your precious time, let’s going.

To get started, go to System Settings

 

kill_task_ubuntu12

 

Next, select ‘Keyboard’ from System Settings page

 

 

 

Then select ‘Shortcuts’ tab and click on ‘Custom Shortcuts’, then click the plus button ( + ) to create a custom key shortcut. This is how you create a custom key shortcut in Ubuntu. You can use it to create as many key combinations as you wish to launch program or processes.

 

 

Next, type in the name of the shortcut and the command. The name can be anything you want it to be, but the commands must be what is used to launch a particular program or process. The command for System Monitor is what’s below: The p switch will show the process tab when it launches.

gnome-system-monitor –p

 

 

After type, select the shortcut you just created and it will change from Disable to New accelerator’. As soon as it changes, begin typing the key combination you wish to use.

 

 

Like the one below. Once it’s added you can close out.

 

kill_task_ubuntu12_1

 

To quickly launch Gnome Monitor, type the key combination you created which will open it and right-click on the process you wish to kill and kill it.

 

 

Enjoy!