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Process Monitor (ProcMon) see which programs are slowing down computer

Process Monitor

Process Monitor by SysInternals.com made By Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell is a program which shows what programs are running on your computer. ProcMon shows which programs are accessing the registry, file system, network, and processes and threads. It also shows profiling events. It logs all the registry, file system, network, and processes and threads events as they happen on your computer in real time.

What I like about Process Monitor is it does not require installation, and all you need to do is unzip it from the zip file and open Procmon.exe, and it starts logging File, registry, network, processes and activity by programs which are currently open in Windows.

ProcMon requires very little user interaction, and it is possible to save the logs. There are also a lot of options if you need more in depth and technical information about processes which are currently open on your computer. I also like how each process has an shortcut icon of the program beside each entry in ProcMon, so it is easy to see what program is accessing the registry, file system, network, and processes and threads.

Procmon is a good way of finding out which programs are using the most resources and accessing your registry, file system, network, and processes and threads the most. Procmon automatically updates its log every second. You can turn off Auto-scroll if you want, so it will continue logging, but won’t scroll to the most recent events.

Explorer.exe, svchost.exe, and other Microsoft Windows’ processes can’t be stop or uninstalled since  they are needed for Windows to run properly. Process Monitor is more useful for monitoring third party software like “Google Desktop Search, YIM, AIM, etc which you can easily uninstall, or disable during startup with MsConfig, Services.msc, or the third party program options. Better yet, find a low resource program like Foobar2000 music player and VLC media player instead of Windows Media Player.

Precess Monitor is also good for finding unwanted network connection which might be sending your personal data to another computer on the internet, or a computer is sending unwanted files to you. It can be a good way of looking for potential viruses, malware, spyware, and other unwanted programs which your security software missed or does not categorize as malware, virus, or spyware.

Process Monitor is only 1.26MB and works on Windows XP and newer operating systems. I like using it to quickly find out what programs are using system resources like registry, file system, CPU cycles, and accessing the internet/network.

Download Process Monitor at microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

2 comments… add one
  • Laptop Repair August 12, 2010, 8:49 am

    This is very simlar to Process Explorer. Great tool

  • Johnson Yip August 12, 2010, 4:21 pm

    Indeed, it is, but it creates a second by second log on what is going on in your registry, file system, threads, processes, and network activity on Windows. Thanks for commenting!

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