If Task Manager Extension is Task Manager on steroids, then Mark Russinovich's Process Explorer is Task Manager in a ripped anabolic fury, fueled by high octane rage. In other words, it's extreme:
Definitely a SWEET tool, and I second Darrell’s thoughts. Another Great tool is “WhoLockMe” - Handy when you can’t figure out why a file is locked:
http://www.dr-hoiby.com/WhoLockMe/index.php
(Just a happy user - not a shill)
Process Explorer can tell you who has a file locked.
Create a new Word doc called “LockedDoc.doc” on your desktop and open it in Word.
Try to delete the document. Should fail.
In Process explorer, choose Find Handle (CTRL+F, or the little binoculars icon)
Enter “lockeddoc” and press ENTER
winword.exe shows up, double-click on it. This will highlight the process and handle.
You can theoretically force the handle closed by using the Handle, Close Handle menu at this point, but Word is awfully feisty…
Everything on sysinternals’ site is worth it’s KB in gold!
so true…
For the life of me I cannot find out where the hightlight color codes are in any help files. Does any body know what they are.
@Wrangler - You can change the colour of the highlighted text by going to Options - Configure Highlighting.
I’ve been using Process Explorer for nearly as long as I can remember! It’s one of those truly great applications.
I’ve also been using it a couple years, still use task manager for most things, but sometimes you need more information for debugging and optimizing and process explorer is great for that. Although on one or two occasions (primarily when monitoring a process which then ends) the app sucks up 99% cpu and eventually I have to use task manager to kill it. Not sure why this happens and it has only happened a couple times so no real issue.
Updated url for process explorer
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx
Still using the most recent Process Explorer in 2019. It’s a classic!