• Process Explorer is a free utility that can be downloaded from Microsoft
When you start Process Explorer, you'll see a list of processing running, both system and user processes. Double-click on a process for more information about it. You can see the command line used to start the process, various types of performance information - also graphed over time, information about the threads used by the process, and information regarding the processes secutity context and environment. The lower pane shows objects in use by the process, including files, registry keys, and other system objects.
Click on the CPU column to see who's hogging your processor. Click on the Virtual Memory column nd you'll see who's filling up your swap space. Click on the Working Set column and you'll see who's eating up your RAM. Click on the Process column to return to the process tree.
If you've ever wondered what services svchost provides, double-click on it and select the Services tab. Any process that provides services to the operating system will have a Services tab. Lsass is another example.
Who's got a file open? Find Handle, open the filename and search. Double-click on the File tab to get even more information.
More Windows Troubleshooting Articles:
• How to Create a Windows XP Boot Disk
• Diagnosing and Troubleshooting Computer Hardware
• The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)
• Stop Hard Disk Thrashing
• MSCORSVW.EXE Hogging CPU resources?
• How to Fix Hard Drive Errors and Slowdown
• Run Old Programs in Windows Vista
• Understanding the boot.ini File
• How to Fix propsys.dll Error
• How to Troubleshoot a Document Scanner
