Is it you or your OS or some non-responding program?
Quiet often I've come across questions like
- recently my computer have been real slow, like some application is taking up all the memory
- some annoying window keeps popping up every time I do this/that (or at start-up)
- my anti-virus/anti-spyware detects some infected file, but I can't find or delete it
- I'm not able to delete some file on my hard-disk, it says 'file in use'
and the list goes on...
Well, if you have come across some of these warnings go ahead.
Any problem can be effectively solved if you get to the root of the problem and for a computer user, getting to the root of the problem would equally mean identifying which application caused the problem and its exact location. This is exactly where Process Explorer comes in.
Process Explorer is one of the most powerful application available for Windows, one which gives you full details about all running applications at any instant. It is a freeware created by Sysinternals, which was recently acquired by Microsoft Corporation. Almost similar to Task Manager in Windows, the Process Explorer is much more powerful and efficient.
Screenshot 1 - Process Explorer main window
Screenshot 2 - Process Explorer system information
A few good reasons why you should try out Process Explorer
- To track down problems (use Find to list or search for resources, held by a process)
- Can be used to track down what is holding a file open and preventing its use by another program
- Find complete location and command line of a running application (Command Line)
- To find a process that is maxing out the CPU or the amount of resources used by a process (R.Click and Properties)
- Real time system activity and resource utilization (Ctrl+I)
- Pointing the mouse in the graph of CPU Usage in System Information gives the applications utilizing the CPU
- CPU activity graph for each process (R.Click any > Properties > Performance Graph)
- Suspend, kill or restart a selected process or process tree
- Use Window Title to detect open applications and status at Window status
These are just a few, but the real potential is much more. Just work with it a couple of times (advisable coz it is always good to differentiate between the legitimate applications from illegitimate ones and this comes with experience).
Process Explorer can also be triggered to open up instead of Task Manager when you press 'Ctrl+Alt+Del' and can also be fully customised to show the parameters you want.
There is no installation required, just download from the site (link given below), unzip and run the exe.
More Reading:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx (Download link here)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_Explorer
