Maintaining your computer at high performance is a job accomplished by a cumulus of factors working together towards the same purpose. No need to say that the registry needs to be cleaned regularly of invalid entries with the utmost care and junk files also play a role in crippling the good shape of the system. But there is another aspect to be taken into consideration, represented by the running processes. While most of them are righteous and the system cannot do without, some may bring your computer to a crawl.

With the new Task Manager sported by Vista, identifying the rotten ones is a piece of cake, but the application limits to the surface of the activity of the process, not providing a set of information that may be of the uttermost importance.

Process Viewer is a little instrument that comes to cover Task Manager's shortcomings by providing extensive view of a process, its threads and modules, child processes and handles. The application won't cost you a dime and downloading it takes a little over 200KB. No installation is required as a simple launch of the executable begins the interface and scans all running processes.

Its interface is a simple one displaying only the strict necessity, with no bells and whistles to hinder the use. From the beginning MiTeC's Process Viewer dives directly into action displaying all running processes, drivers and services available to the system. The amount of items displayed is shown between the brackets of the corresponding tab, thus giving you a first impression with the effort of a simple glance.

Unlike Task Manager in Windows MiTeC's Process Viewer does not offer the possibility of showing all processes, system included, as it displays only those belonging to the current user. However, you will benefit from PID, memory usage and CPU time (amount of time for the CPU to actually execute instructions). But the interesting part comes at double clicking a process in order to take a look at its details. The operation can also be launched from Details button in the lower right hand corner of application window or from Process menu in the upper part and choose the option.

Process Details window brings the most information to the eye of the user, listing all the handles of the process, windows, modules, threads, or child processes. General tab gathers common details such as version number, name of the product and the company, PID, Parent PID, command line, user it runs under, priority (4 representing "low" and 8 being "normal"), number of threads and handles.

Checking out Performance tab gives you a pervasive view over CPU times (kernel, user and current), I/O counters (read and write operation, read and write transfer) and Virtual Memory counters (page fault, virtual size, working set size, quota peak paged pool usage, page file usage, etc.). For each of them Process Viewer record the peak so that performance log is complete. All information can be manually refreshed for the latest details.

The list of modules provides comprehensive view at all executables and DLL files necessary for running a certain application the right way. Process Viewer allows full view at all modules of a process together with the compete path of residence on disk and entry point, address or size in bytes.

Threads running in the selected process are also presented in a tab of their own, with information such as start address, base priority, dynamic priority, state, kernel and user time. The list supports refreshing for the most accurate display.

Details about process handle is limited to type, access and name. However, all these details present little importance to the average Joe, but in some cases are essential for experienced users in order to pinpoint a malfunction. The same goes for Windows section that presents the number of windows of a process.

MiTeC Process Viewer's detail listing capabilities do not stop here, providing the user comprehensive examination of groups and permissions in security token of the process. Any other process created by the parent (child process) is also available for view in the application. This way, the user knows exactly which processes belong to which running application, with the least effort.

Besides enumerating running processes, the software will also show all the drivers and services on the system, but in their case, the amount of information is much more limited. The extent of details stops at displaying the name, base address, load order and location in the case of drivers and name, status and the way they start in the case of services. There is no description and in both cases some of the drivers' and services' Properties could not be accessed on Vista while XP recorded a more successful rate (the same is available for Details as well).

At the bottom of the interface, you'll have the total number of threads, handles and windows related to running processes, so you know with a simple look the stress they put on the system.

The application offers more details on the process than the solution integrated in Windows allowing full view of the threads of a process as well as its modules, loaded windows or handles. You can terminate process, but unfortunately the process is not available in a context menu for easier access. There are plenty of issues to be fixed, but for its incipient start Process Viewer does a pretty good job.

The Good

A single glance on the interface will suffice to learn the amount of processes currently running on your system or the number of drivers and services present.

The details offered in the case of process are overwhelming it presents all threads, modules and handles and child processes, performance or privileges.

The Bad

For more functionality, it would be better to integrate process termination option in a context menu. Also, providing more details in the case of drivers and services, like a brief description or allowing the stopping of a service would greatly increase its value.

Refresh takes a bit to complete, it is not automatic and depends entirely on the user.

The Truth

The application sure is useful considering that it runs without installation and its size is extremely small. However, there is much room for improvement in order to become a fully fledged Process Viewer.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: