Microsoft Process Explorer

 

Editorial review

Process Explorer is a free Windows task manager and system monitoring tool that details which programs in a user's system have a specific file or directory open. Anyone can download the utility for free from Microsoft. Process Explorer provides more visual, in-depth reports than Windows Task Manager. It is part of the Sysinternals Process Utilities suite, which has a selection of tools to give IT more control and options for better Windows performance. Process Explorer has two windows of colorful information. The top window shows a real-time list of active processes, a description of what the processes are doing, the CPU and memory usage, and the software company name. The processes are set up in a hierarchical view with parent processes on top and child processes beneath them. It can customize what information the columns include based on preference.