Five handy tools for keeping an eye on system processes

Introduction

When a Windows system becomes unresponsive, the Task Manager\r\nis often the go-to tool for figuring out the problem. But as helpful as the\r\nTask Manager can be for tracking down the offending process, a number of other\r\ntools are available that can provide even more insight into what’s going on.\r\nThis article lists five tools for monitoring your system processes.

Note: This gallery is also available as an article.

Microsoft Process Monitor

For\r\ninstance, it will tell you if a process attempts to read a file or query a\r\nregistry value. This makes Process Monitor an excellent tool for gaining\r\ninsight into what is going on with Windows. Process Monitor is free.

Microsoft Process Explorer

Microsoft Process Explorer is another free component of the Sysinternals collection.\r\nThere is some overlap in capabilities between Process Monitor and Process Explorer,\r\nbut the tools were created for different purposes.

Microsoft Process Explorer

Process Explorer has been described as an advanced version\r\nof Task Manager. Like Task Manager, it displays all the running processes and\r\ntheir current levels of resource consumption. It also allows you to terminate\r\nprocesses on an as-needed basis. However, Process Explorer goes beyond Task\r\nManager in that it displays processes in a hierarchical tree and includes tools\r\nfor finding handles and DLLs.

Process Lasso

Process Lasso offers some really cool features, such as the\r\nability to balance processes, park CPU cores, limit process instance counts,\r\nand configure anti-sleep processes. There is even a game mode that gives\r\npreferential treatment to designated processes.

Process Lasso sells for $32.95, but a free 30-day trial\r\nis available for download.

Process Hacker

Process Hacker includes all the functionality you would\r\nexpect, plus some nice extras. For example, it can verify file signatures and\r\nsend a message to a user who is running a particular process.

Process Cleaner

I wouldn’t normally recommend a program like this one\r\nbecause it has an amateurish feel to it. However, Process Cleaner could\r\nprove to be useful for manually combatting malware infections. The tool isn’t\r\nsomething that I would use every day, but if I needed the ability to immediately\r\nshut down large numbers of potentially infected processes, I would definitely\r\ngive Process Cleaner a try.