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Editors’ Review

Download.com staff

Process Explorer stands out as an advanced system monitor and task manager designed for power users and IT professionals. Its detailed process tracking and handle/DLL inspection tools provide transparency into running applications and system behavior, making it a staple among advanced Windows users and system administrators.

Process Explorer enhances workflow with hierarchical process view and VirusTotal integration, offering deep insights without unnecessary complexity. Users value its live monitoring of threads, real-time resource graphs, and process metadata for troubleshooting tasks. Its single-executable design ensures portability and consistent performance, ideal for users needing robust, flexible diagnostic tools without extra software bloat.

Why experts trust Process Explorer

Process Explorer shows comprehensive process data with a hierarchical view that reveals parent‑child relationships and allows suspending or terminating specific threads. The lower pane offers a handle and DLL inspection, helping locate locked files or dependencies. Its search function speeds up the identification of problematic processes. Compared with Task Manager, this tool exposes more in-depth system metrics, making it valuable for diagnosing issues that built-in tools can’t surface.

Offers helpful tooltips, icon indicators, and thread stack displays within process details for smoother navigation and better user control. Users can easily check memory usage, security parameters, and command-line data. While not available across platforms, its accuracy on Windows remains unmatched and dependable. Real-time error flags, task priority controls, and the ability to terminate process trees give users greater command. Antivirus programs may slightly delay initial loading at times.

Built-in VirusTotal checks streamline malware detection with single-click file scans, significantly improving safety. Users benefit from continuous CPU graphing, accurate RAM tracking, and detailed I/O performance data, all delivered with minimal resource use and background strain. It avoids unnecessary bloat by excluding cloud sync and themes, but frequent improvements ensure it stays lightweight and effective. This makes it a trusted tool for system stability, diagnostics, and power-user-level task management.

Enlarged image for Process Explorer
Process Explorer 0/1
  • Pros

    • Offers a live hierarchical process view and resource graphs
    • Enables handling and DLL inspection to locate locked files
    • Integrates with VirusTotal for on-the-fly malware analysis
    • Portable executable with minimal system impact
  • Cons

    • Only available on Windows
    • Initial startup may lag under antivirus interference
    • Lacks themes or cross-device syncing features

Bottom Line

A must-have for system diagnostics

Process Explorer merges low-level process inspection, real-time resource visualization, and VirusTotal integration into a powerful toolset. Its hierarchical process tree and lower-pane handle/DLL view offer deep debugging clarity. Though limited to Windows, its consistent performance, detailed reporting, and low overhead make it essential for advanced users. With a no-frills, portable design, it delivers serious diagnostic capabilities without unnecessary features or bloat slowing down critical workflows.

What’s new in version 17.06

  • Updated to version 17.06, optimized for Windows 10 and later
  • Improved stability when loading large process trees
  • Enhanced detection of handles and threaded call stacks
  • Added GPU monitoring and process-tree process suspension tools


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Full Specifications

GENERAL
Release
Latest update
Version
17.06
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Platform
Windows
Operating System
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 7
  • Windows 10
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows 8.1
POPULARITY
Total Downloads
1,824,348
Downloads Last Week
51

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User Reviews

4.2/5

459 User Votes


Developer’s Description

Get detailed info about which handles and DLL processes are opened or loaded on your system.

Process Explorer is an advanced process management utility that picks up where Task Manager leaves off. It will show you detailed information about a process including its icon, command-line, full image path, memory statistics, user account, security attributes, and more. When you zoom in on a particular process you can list the DLLs it has loaded or the operating system resource handles it has open. The top always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window, which you can close, depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in if it is in handle mode you will see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened, if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you will see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded.


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