From there you can view what’s running and detect if any programs are using too much CPU time or memory, or look suspect and shouldn’t be there.

Process Monitor can help you fix many PC problems that simply couldn't be solved in any other way.One of the first things any knowledgeable user would do if they suspect there is something slowing their computer down or a suspected malicious program might be running in the background, is press Ctrl+Shift+Escape to open the Windows Task Manager.

Windows applets have many undocumented Registry settings, for instance, offering new ways to customise them - Process Monitor can help you spot these, and many other Windows secrets. If there's a missing file then you'll see it here you could also explore the Registry keys it's viewing, just to confirm that any settings are configured correctly.Īnd if you're a geek who just likes to explore, then Process Monitor can give you hours of fun. What's going on? Run Process Monitor first and it can show you exactly which files and Registry keys that app.exe is looking for. Suppose you're trying to run a program called app.exe, for instance, only it crashes immediately, and you don't know why. Process Monitor is even better when it comes to troubleshooting misbehaving applications. If you spot some unnecessary programs, perhaps an application running in the system tray, then removing it should cut any associated activity and speed up the rest of your PC. These will tell you which processes are opening and closing files, checking the Registry and so on. Just launch Process Monitor, click File > Capture Events (if it's not already listing PC activity), and watch the process names listed on the left hand side. Process Monitor is an incredibly useful tool that will report on just about everything your PC applications are doing: the files they're accessing, Registry keys they're viewing, processes they're launching, and much more.Īt its simplest, you can use the program simply to figure out why your hard drive is thrashing, even when you're not at the PC.

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