Battle One free software better than Process Hacker

[ocsi]

Is there any free software better than Process Hacker? If so ... which is it?

 

[Littlebits]

I like Comodo for forcing things shut. I like Process Hacker II for its services tab and interface; easy to read and view.

Who makes System Explorer? I have never heard of it.

No one is mentioning XueTr, A.K.A. PCHunter. It gives you a lot of intel that the others spoken of cannot.
Now that I have gone there, I will go so far as to say that PCHunter would run circles around all of 'em, esp. when considering the mass intel that PCHunter relays.

More info on System Explorer- http://www.howtoanswer.com/view-and-manage-processes-like-a-pro-with-system-explorer--125.html

System Explorer is made by the Mister Group founded in 1999.
It was the very first full functional process monitor for Windows.

I used it on Windows 98 before Microsoft made a full task manager, all you had was Ctrl + Alt + Delete.

All of the others either used technology or ideas from it including Microsoft. It has receive more awards then any other process monitor.

A lot of you are young and think Killswitch is a new idea, this technology has been around for many years, Comodo is the last to implement it.

When Comodo released KillSwitch everyone was acting like wow what a excellent new product, I'm thinking to myself where have they been, another process monitor? these kind of products have been out since the start of 2000. A lot of them are no longer in development.

System Explorer and AnVir Task Manager are the oldest still in development. Both have similar and/or same features as KillSwitch.

Comodo just re-introduced the idea of a security process monitor when they released KillSwitch. Almost of the features plus more were already available in others for many years.

For a complete list- http://alternativeto.net/software/process-explorer/?platform=windows

Thanks.

 

[HeffeD]

A lot of you are young and think Killswitch is a new idea, this technology has been around for many years, Comodo is the last to implement it.

I would be extremely surprised if anyone here thought it was a new idea...

When Comodo released KillSwitch everyone was acting like won what a excellent new product, I'm thinking to myself where have they been, another process monitor? these kind of products have been out since the start of 2000. A lot of them are no longer in development.

:huh:

I had a jaw drop moment when I read the comment I've highlighted.

It's a good thing most software developers (or even the general public) don't think like you, or the software industry would stagnate and we would never progress!

Software Developer: An operating system? Those have been around since the 60's! Why do we need another one of them?

Software End User: I'm not going to use a new AV. The Atari ST version of G Data that I bought in 1987 is more than adequate for my needs!

People always get excited about new products. It doesn't matter whether or not it's a new idea. (And I think it's a gross generalization to assume that people who are excited about something feel it's a new idea...) Look at all the new posts each new iteration of an AV product brings. AV's are nothing new, they've been around since the late 80's. And more often than not, the product itself isn't even new. It's just a newer version of an existing product.

I welcome any and all versions of any type of product.

 

[jamescv7]

Well that's how user interprets, cannot prevented that when something new then everything is really a first time product + trends which are catching up from companies to others and vice versa for implementing the type of products.

The thing here is, a way of understanding/interpreting a new product which goes around on the modern technology years.

 

[Littlebits]

A lot of you are young and think Killswitch is a new idea, this technology has been around for many years, Comodo is the last to implement it.

I would be extremely surprised if anyone here thought it was a new idea...

When Comodo released KillSwitch everyone was acting like won what a excellent new product, I'm thinking to myself where have they been, another process monitor? these kind of products have been out since the start of 2000. A lot of them are no longer in development.

:huh:

I had a jaw drop moment when I read the comment I've highlighted.

It's a good thing most software developers (or even the general public) don't think like you, or the software industry would stagnate and we would never progress!

Software Developer: An operating system? Those have been around since the 60's! Why do we need another one of them?

Software End User: I'm not going to use a new AV. The Atari ST version of G Data that I bought in 1987 is more than adequate for my needs!

People always get excited about new products. It doesn't matter whether or not it's a new idea. (And I think it's a gross generalization to assume that people who are excited about something feel it's a new idea...) Look at all the new posts each new iteration of an AV product brings. AV's are nothing new, they've been around since the late 80's. And more often than not, the product itself isn't even new. It's just a newer version of an existing product.

I welcome any and all versions of any type of product.

There nothing wrong with software evolving with technology but when a new product comes out which is an exact copy of what is already available with no new original or updated features that is not nothing to get excited about. KillSwitch offers nothing new or original, except for the fact it manages to use a ton of resources to do simple tasks. I guess you could call that new.

Thanks.

 

[HeffeD]

There nothing wrong with software evolving with technology but when a new product comes out which is an exact copy of what is already available with no new original or updated features that is not nothing to get excited about. KillSwitch offers nothing new or original, except for the fact it manages to use a ton of resources to do simple tasks. I guess you could call that new.

Interesting then that they've applied for patents on some of the technology. That's tough to do on exact copies of existing products.

 

[Littlebits]

There nothing wrong with software evolving with technology but when a new product comes out which is an exact copy of what is already available with no new original or updated features that is not nothing to get excited about. KillSwitch offers nothing new or original, except for the fact it manages to use a ton of resources to do simple tasks. I guess you could call that new.

Interesting then that they've applied for patents on some of the technology. That's tough to do on exact copies of existing products.

Applying for patents and actually getting patents are not the same.
I see they did get their patent for Comodo Autoruns which was released much latter then KillSwitch, however KillSwitch is still pending for some reason or other. Whether that raises your eyebrows or not, it dosen't seem logical that a product developed much later already has a patent then one that was developed first. It is because they are still having problems with copyrights on the technology. After they fork over some cash to copyright owners, I'm sure they will get their patent for KillSwitch.

Just because a product has a patent, doesn't mean they developed all the technology inside, sometimes developers will buy or lease technology and still can get a patent on their product if they include a disclaimer.

Thanks.

 

[Littlebits]

Here is some image comparisons.

[attachment=4146]
[attachment=4145]
[attachment=4144]
[attachment=4147]
[attachment=4143]

Why does KillSwitch need to use that much memory just for a process monitor? This is on a system with 8GB of RAM, I would hate to see what it would be like on a system with only 2GB of RAM.

Thanks.

 

[McLovin]

Geez, by looking at what Littlebits provided, Process Explorer uses the less the the actual Windows Task Manager.

 

[HeffeD]

Applying for patents and actually getting patents are not the same.

You think?

Of course they aren't... But someone isn't going to waste time and money (yes, filing for patents costs money) to file for something that they know already exists. (You need to pay for a patent search before you can file)

I see they did get their patent for Comodo Autoruns which was released much latter then KillSwitch, however KillSwitch is still pending for some reason or other. Whether that raises your eyebrows or not, it dosen't seem logical that a product developed much later already has a patent then one that was developed first. It is because they are still having problems with copyrights on the technology. After they fork over some cash to copyright owners, I'm sure they will get their patent for KillSwitch.

You tend to assume a great deal of the time, don't you? Patent approval time is by no means the same for every product. And who's to say that Autoruns didn't start development first?

If something has had the patent application denied, it would be illegal to still label it as "patent pending".

Just because a product has a patent, doesn't mean they developed all the technology inside, sometimes developers will buy or lease technology and still can get a patent on their product if they include a disclaimer.

Actually, I think it means exactly that. A patent proves that you are the sole owner of a particular piece of technology. If someone else holds the patent, the best you can do is license it from them. Individual patented parts can be assembled to make up a final product, but you can't patent the product as a whole unless you are the sole owner. Licensed technologies would not apply.

If you ever see something like, this product is protected under the patents: and then it lists a bunch of numbers, it means that many of the parts are patented, but the product as a whole is not. A single patent number would be the product as a whole is patented.

 

[Deleted member 178]

all this discussion about KS and PH is "déjà vu", since last time nothing changed between the 2 companies.

No offense, but does it deserves 5 pages again?

 

[Littlebits]

Geez, by looking at what Littlebits provided, Process Explorer uses the less the the actual Windows Task Manager.

Yes Process Explorer is lighter then Windows Task Manager and KillSwitch is the heaviest (uses more resources then Windows Media Player does playing a video). Talk about bloatware for a process monitor. Now if you had several malware processes running on your system eating up resources, how would would kill them with KillSwitch? Your system might not have enough resources left to launch it and if it did then it would be very slow and buggy.

Thanks.

 

[nnq2603]

Voting for better in malware detection or generally more advanced tool?... Malware detection or analysis isn't only about process managerment tools..., then surely there're tools out there better than Process Hacker or Process Explorer

But IMO, considering about some advanced features, Process Hacker and Process Explorer still offer more than the rest... Example process hacker can view into process, zoom-in each thread of that given process, and even zoom-in to view Stacks of each thread in given process... and all of those multi-level viewing in realtime. Apps like System Explorer and such similar apps not be able to do that. Sometime it's easy to find out which driver cause cpu raising ~100% abnormally just with ProExplorer or ProHacker - you can review system threads, (system process itself, ntkrnlpa.exe in my PC, not those general windows system processes), and look at thread that consume highest CPU usage, then suspend it if it's some driver such as ACPI.sys or similar, leave system idle cpu again without even restart windows... Of course, in case you find out driver, you should search about it more to deal with the problem, suspending is only a temporary method to get back PC to work with idle cpu for a while.

Because Process Exp and Pro Hkr build heavy toward windows process management task in realtime, so they're very good at that... but can't compare to rootkit detection power of Gmer or XueTr or similar tools because they're made for that, (Gmer or XueTr has less info about processes management to compare ProExplorer/ProHacker, they can't display cpu usage realtime, can't view threads inside process or stacks inside threads in realtime, edit:just check and xueTr be able view threads and handles of process). But Gmer or XueTr offer a lot more info about hook and other things that more advanced system internal working space such as SSTD, shadow SSTD, FSD, kernel hook, ITD, kernel callback table etc... which Process hacker has no offering at all, and not even build to do.

 

[Deleted member 178]

just general task manager i presume

 

[woomera]

too bad they havent fixed killswitch memory leak bug yet or it would have been my first choice.

 

[Deleted member 178]

Killswitch is just Process Hacker on steroids ^^

 

[Prorootect]

I vote for Process Hacker - it's the best I think - it's Working Set (Memory Use) 3.5 - 3.9 MB here ..

XueTr / PcHunter or better: PowerTool - are anti-rootkits / antimalware tools rather, so not comparable in fonctionalities to task managers genre Process Hacker.

 

[Neiltullio]

ProcessExplorer, good and stable software from reputable source.
I would never choose any Comodo product - in my eyes this is shady company, AFAIK KillSwitch was made on Process Hacker sources violating open source license..

 

[Prorootect]

Sorry, I forgot this: I use Process Hacker v2.23. Nevest versions have complicated System Information window, so I stick with the v2.23 (much lighter on system resources) ..

Download link for v2.23: http://processhacker.sourceforge.ne...p?p=1369&sid=f612e11bb53948421d9a5e74876b79af

 

[Oxygen]

Process Hacker is the only one i've used & i like it.

 

[Amiga500]

ProcessExplorer, good and stable software from reputable source.
I would never choose any Comodo product - in my eyes this is shady company, AFAIK KillSwitch was made on Process Hacker sources violating open source license..

This is incorrect.killswitch is based on the process hacker true enough,However the developer of process hacker was at the start in collaboration with comodo and was given due credits when killswitch was first released.