Easily Make a Shortcut to Start Task Manager in Minimized Mode

 Right-click on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut.

In the location box, just type taskmgr and hit next. If you are using XP or this doesn’t work, you can also use the full path to task manager:

C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe

Now that you have a shortcut, right-click and choose Properties.

Now change the drop-down menu under Run to say “Minimized” and then close the dialog.

If you want this shortcut to launch when you start up your computer, right-click on the Startup folder in your start menu and choose to Open, and then drag the shortcut into that folder. (Note that you could also just drag it into there)

Now when you use the shortcut, Task Manager will start up in minimized mode, and you can see the CPU usage meter in the system tray.

Hopefully this will help somebody else as well.