March 3rd, 2008
My 10 favorite Windows programs of all time
Process Explorer (Sysinternals/Microsoft)
Info/Download
Price: Free
System requirements: Windows 95 or later
When Microsoft bought Sysinternals and its library of amazing Windows utilities in 2006, some feared that development would stop cold. Thankfully, that fear turned out to be misplaced. Mark Russinovich is now a Microsoft Fellow, the Sysinternals website is still alive and well, and its flagship program, Process Explorer, is now up to version 11.11. (Cue the Spinal Tap jokes.)
You can think of Process Explorer as Task Manager on steroid. It provides system information, a hierarchical view of all running processes (including services), and an overwhelming number of technical details about how each process uses CPU and memory. It all runs in real time, making it an ideal troubleshooting tool
The main Process Explorer window contains two panes. The top pane shows all active processes, while the bottom pane shows either handles or DLLs. When you right-click any entry in the process list, you get a dialog box with an amazing amount of information about the process. You can kill, suspend, or restart a process any time. The search/filtering tools are superb.
Process Explorer is a must for anyone who is trying to pin down performance problems on any Windows version or is just curious about what’s going on under the hood.
Bonus: No installation required. You just copy this program and run it. When you close it, it leaves no traces behind.
Process Explorer image gallery
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Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 03/03/08
