Process Explorer is an advanced task manager. It is an indispensable tool for both beginners and power users. I use it all the time to kill tasks that refuse to be killed, or find what which processes are still holding on to a particular file or DLL so it refuses to be deleted.
Alternatively, Process Explorer Portable is also available, which is stealth.
| Category: | |
| System Requirements: | WinXP / Vista / Win7 |
| Writes settings to: | Windows registry |
| Stealth: ? | No |
| Unicode support: | No |
| License: | Freeware |
| How to extract: | Download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch procexp.exe. |
| What's new? |
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This program rocks. Ever try to find that pesky virus that won't go away? Squash it with this program. Tells you everything about everything going on inside you machine. All of it.
nice prog to see what''s happened with process
when you set it up just the way you like it.. then suddenly all the custom settings have magically dispeared! that is freaking annoying, other then that it's a very good program, but could be better with more process manulipation features (free memory, crash process, ect)
There's a BUNCH of great standalone apps are SysInternals, but this is the one I use almost every day at work. When trying out this app, make sure you right-click on the column headings, and check the Command Line checkbox, which will tell you where the listed process' file actually resides (makes it much easier to figure out which is the virus or spyware, if the file is sitting in the root or temp folders of the drive). "A"'s comment is correct about the settings, but they're "per-machine." Not entirely sure what they mean by "crash process" but you can "kill" processes and ever entire process trees (the process and every process it may have spawned).
All in all though, a great utility for anyone's "pocket-toolkit."
Great just what I was looking for for my portable collection. Smart prog. Thanks.
The only thing this beauty lacks is an INI file to store your custom settings, including visible columns and column widths. Then it would be truly portable.
GBJ, one posting in this thread http://portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1542 says that JPE can be used to make process explorer truly portable
Since Micro$oft took this great utility over, you can not kill several MS processes, like WPALogon.dll.
Guess why.... ;-)
would you kindly support INI file?
saving is a must i would say
Is there a pre-MS version still available?
I've got some older versions if you want it. Back when it was split into 4 different versions. 9x, Amd64, Ia64, Nt
Erm... email would probably help, eh? a s c h e e l (at) g m a i l (dot) c o m
Or find me on AIM JohnC256
Like others before, I must say this is one of my essential utilities. I run it permanently on all my computers!
Although I haven't had that problem, I am really disapointed by what Lego revealed ("Since Micro$oft took this great utility over, you can not kill several MS processes, like WPALogon.dll") which I find a serious breach of confidence -- we're so used to get 'coned' by M$, aren't we?
Does anyone know, which was the last version that wasn't crippled in this way? I might still have it laying around...
10.2 - Jul 14 2006 - Final version prior to acquisition by Microsoft
:)
Look at the screenshot;
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
"Micro$oft took this great utility over", incorporated their own 'taskmgr.exe' and called it a new version
Re:avoidz: 10.2 - Jul 14 2006 - Final version prior to acquisition by Microsoft
http://www.filehippo.com/download/b1ccff64d93539021e5d35ad2c08b3ef/download/
Where's the changelog? Is it really worth getting the M$ bloat instead of keeping the version Bigoeuf kindly put at our disposal?
First, this is one GREAT utility. However, that being said, how anyone can consider it 'portable' (as it indeed writes all settings to the registry) simply blows my mind. Hello ? It is NOT PORTABLE ! ! Just TRY running it from a USB stick and see if your views and column settings remain ! PLEASE learn the true meaning of 'portable.' You cannot change the definition based on your personal taste and whether or not you like one app over another.
My take on Portable Software is programs that just work when I run them without installing... Features like INI file based settings, stealth and removable drive awareness are very welcome pluses, but they don't change that basic tenet.
Just my 2 cents.
Does anyone know of a changelog for PE? Thanks...
be cautious of some of these programs from sysinternals, i've had some restarts, bsod, crashes, freeze ups, and lingering processes from using their utilities, never had this problem with any other software. i'm a fan of process explorer, procmon, autoruns, and a few others.. but man do they have issues. i suppose because i have older versions or whatnot. more reason to not use the registry for settings!
Writes to the registry - NOT PORTABLE.
Like GBJ says....GREAT utility. However, that being said, how anyone can consider it 'portable' (as it indeed writes all settings to the registry) simply blows my mind.
Will not use until really is made portable - why is it even on this site?????????????
@Samalama It's on this site because it's useful, simple as that. Despite writing registry keys, I now use it daily on multiple machines, and in my USB Toolkit, most SysInternals have become more stable now days.
V14.1
The latest version - 14.1 - is a CPU cycle hog. HUGE difference between 11.1 and 14.1 in cycles the app uses.
V14.1
@Shodan, I've noticed that too, that's the why I use 11.x on my laptop. I updated to 14.x on my other pc and I haven't noticed the CPU issues, since then, perhaps it has been fixed.
V14.12
15.02 Better check the site again
V15.02
Site says: V15.01 ... TPFC says: V15.02 ... Download is: V15.03
TPFC-DB updated ;-)
V15.03
Link to website seems to be broken.
V15.11
emka: modified link, should work now
V15.11
giving me the following download error:
This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
OutOfRangeInputOne of the request inputs is out of range.
RequestId:***Time:***
V15.13
Seems that dreadful "unreadable memory" error has FINALLY been fixed in this version.
V15.13
\Files\ part of the URL needs to be lower case \files\ I can't change the entry until I spam the forum with 50 posts, so...
here's the proper link:
http://download.sysinternals.com/files/ProcessExplorer.zip
V15.13
abc - I fixed it.
V15.13
I've changed the 'Download' link as it hasn't been updated to reflect the 'Live' site
From:
http://download.sysinternals.com/files/ProcessExplorer.zip
To:
http://live.sysinternals.com/files/ProcessExplorer.zip
V15.2
PA.c released a wrapper (online installation) that makes Process Explorer truly portable: http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/process-explorer-portable
v15.23
For correct Process Explorer "Configure Symbols..." options check, for instance, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vijaysk/archive/2009/04/02/getting-better-stack-traces-in-process-monitor-process-explorer.aspx
For a portable, this essentially means you have to get an updated 'dbghelp.dll' file to place alongside the PE executable, and then point to it in the "Debug.dll path" field; in the "Symbols path" field, after creating a 'symbols' folder inside the one you keep PE in, you could paste the following:
SRV*symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
(You can change the part amidst stars (the cache path) to whatever you want or leave it out for no caching.)
v15.23
You can really tell this is an Advanced Task Manager! It by far surpass Windows Task Maganer! Give it a try!