- Apr 25, 2013
- 5,355
Monitoring currently running processes gives us an idea about what Windows is doing in the background and helps us spot resource-demanding applications to either change their priority or affinity, suspend them, or just terminate the ones which are not responding to regular commands. Normally, this is Windows Task Manager's job, but most skilled users do not find it resourceful enough to meet their requirements.
Developed by Sysinternals (which has been acquired by Microsoft), Process Explorer has been around for a pretty long time and has thankfully remained free along the years. Wrapped up in feather-light and portable package, this advanced task manager gives users the possibility to keep track of active processes and tweak their settings, as well as to view extensive information about CPU and RAM usage, among other components. For instance, it is possible to discover all resources used by a process which keep users from launching other programs or removing files.
NOTE: Process Explorer 16.02 was tested on 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro.
The Good
The application worked smoothly on 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro during our evaluation, without triggering the OS to hang, crash or pop up error messages. Owners of older operating systems may use Process Explorer as well (until Windows XP). CPU and RAM consumption was very low in our case.
All processes are color-coded by type, and these colors may be customized. It is possible to set affinities and priorities, kill, restart, suspend and resume processes, create dumps, submit files to VirusTotal for malware scans, as well as to view DLLs, handles and extensive system information and history with CPU, memory, I/O, GPU, disk and physical memory usage (graphs included). Any of these indicators may be shown in the notifications area for quick view.
The utility is portable and free to use.
The Bad
It did not display all data for processes in our tests, such as descriptions and company names. It did not even show CPU usage for some of them.
Process Explorer implements an option that allows users to quickly look up selected processes online by just clicking an entry from the context menu. However, there is a bug. Instead of searching for information using Google or other engine, it pastes the processor file name and extension in the address bar as if it were an actual web address (e.g. www.services.exe), which is obviously ineffective.
The Truth
Firstly, Process Explorer is ideal for older operating systems when it comes to monitoring and manipulating processes. Secondly, although Windows Task Manager has been significantly improved in Windows 8, it still lacks some features found in Process Explorer.
In conclusion, this small, light and portable utility comes in handy to all power users who want to find out in-depth information about running processes and control their behavior, even if it's not the most attractive one out there.
Other similar system info, monitoring and tweaking applications include Process Hacker (free), Free Extended Task Manager (free), System Explorer (free), Process Lasso (not free) and Advanced Task Manager (not free).
EDITOR'S RATINGS:
User Interface:
(3/5)
Features:
(5/5)
Ease of use:
(3/5)
Pricing/Value:
(5/5)
Overall:
(5/5)
Full Article
Developed by Sysinternals (which has been acquired by Microsoft), Process Explorer has been around for a pretty long time and has thankfully remained free along the years. Wrapped up in feather-light and portable package, this advanced task manager gives users the possibility to keep track of active processes and tweak their settings, as well as to view extensive information about CPU and RAM usage, among other components. For instance, it is possible to discover all resources used by a process which keep users from launching other programs or removing files.
NOTE: Process Explorer 16.02 was tested on 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro.
The Good
The application worked smoothly on 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro during our evaluation, without triggering the OS to hang, crash or pop up error messages. Owners of older operating systems may use Process Explorer as well (until Windows XP). CPU and RAM consumption was very low in our case.
All processes are color-coded by type, and these colors may be customized. It is possible to set affinities and priorities, kill, restart, suspend and resume processes, create dumps, submit files to VirusTotal for malware scans, as well as to view DLLs, handles and extensive system information and history with CPU, memory, I/O, GPU, disk and physical memory usage (graphs included). Any of these indicators may be shown in the notifications area for quick view.
The utility is portable and free to use.
The Bad
It did not display all data for processes in our tests, such as descriptions and company names. It did not even show CPU usage for some of them.
Process Explorer implements an option that allows users to quickly look up selected processes online by just clicking an entry from the context menu. However, there is a bug. Instead of searching for information using Google or other engine, it pastes the processor file name and extension in the address bar as if it were an actual web address (e.g. www.services.exe), which is obviously ineffective.
The Truth
Firstly, Process Explorer is ideal for older operating systems when it comes to monitoring and manipulating processes. Secondly, although Windows Task Manager has been significantly improved in Windows 8, it still lacks some features found in Process Explorer.
In conclusion, this small, light and portable utility comes in handy to all power users who want to find out in-depth information about running processes and control their behavior, even if it's not the most attractive one out there.
Other similar system info, monitoring and tweaking applications include Process Hacker (free), Free Extended Task Manager (free), System Explorer (free), Process Lasso (not free) and Advanced Task Manager (not free).
EDITOR'S RATINGS:
User Interface:
Features:
Ease of use:
Pricing/Value:
Overall:
Full Article
