The critical path marks activities and milestones, which in case of delay immediately lead to the exceeding of the planned project end. A critical path exists only, if there is a dependency between the activities in a project, i.e. task B follows task A. The critical path is defined by a clear progression of activities without any chronological buffer, i.e. time between task A and task B is equal to zero.
You can display the critical path only in an already existing planning.
For more information on how to create a planning, see the category Create planning elements.
Open an existing project or create a new one.
For more information on how to create a project see Create a project.
On the View tab, in the Details group, click Show Critical Path.