QuickLink for Accessing Info on a Specific Process

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Adds Info button for every process in Task Manager
  • (4 more, see all...)

As intricate and complicated the task of identifying the processes on your computer is, one thing is certain: at one moment or another you will still have to face your fears and take a look in Windows Task Manager to see what goes wrong. But if you do not know what to look for then you are definitely in need of some professional help.

And as strange as it may sound, you do not have to pay a dime and stand the mock of an IT professional that probably knows a bit more than you when it comes to analyzing processes. With the solutions on the market today you no longer have to bow and pay the cost to the "boss" as you can very well take care of the processes yourself.

Uniblue's Process QuickLink takes care of this by providing online information on almost any process running on your computer. The application is free and acts as an add on to Windows Task Manager, the first step to seeing what is wrong with your system.

Process QuickLink is designed to work on both Vista and XP as well as on Windows 2K and 2003, it installs easily and through the icon placed on the desktop you can quickly access Windows Task Manager. At the end of the short installation process the application will place itself in startup for loading with Windows and providing its services each time you boot your computer.

There is no interface for Process QuickLink and the only trace of it once launched is the small green icon in system tray. The moment it is launched Windows Task Manager will pop up on the screen and you will soon notice the change as for each of the listed processes there is a green little icon acting as a link between the running process and the details available in ProcessLibrary database.

Clicking on the side icon will open a ProcessLibrary web page in the default browser with important details on the corresponding process. All details displayed are extremely easy to interpret and generally leave no room for ambiguities. Users will benefit from a security risk rating and a popularity level (depending on the number of searches).

To make all things crystal clear, in the lower part of the window a brief description of the process follows, lifting the fog on its origins, manufacturer and in some cases there is an explanation on what it is good for. This small description is more than sufficient for the average user to gain insight on the validity of the item and its purpose in the system.

If unsure of its validity a recommendation from ProcessLibrary stands to help in your decision of disabling or not the process. The recommendation can in some cases be the only information you need in this regard as it tells you straight out if it is a critical component that should be get rid of as soon as possible or if it should not be disabled as it is required by essential applications.

In most cases this is all you need in order to decide on the fate of a running process, but you will benefit from additional information like the path to its location, name of the developer and the application it is part of. As the database is quite large, most of the searched processes will be present here and users will have information on them.

An additional option included in Process QuickLink is the search function that acts as a direct search in ProcessLibrary database. You can enter any process name and soon the results on it will open in the default web browser with complete information on your query.

The bottom line is that Process QuickLink stands as a more comfortable way to query ProcessLibrary.com on specific processes, either running on your computer or by using the included search function. Its advantage is that it saves time with opening ProcessLibrary page and typing in the name of a running process. With Process QuickLink integration in Task Manager all you need to do is click the icon next to the process you want information on and the details web page will open automatically. It'll also act as a shortcut to Windows Task Manager.

There are no glitches and during our testing it functioned with the same rate of success on both Vista (tested on Business and Basic editions) and XP (tested on Home Edition and Professional). It represents an easy way to retrieve information on specific processes available in Task Manager in order to help you with identifying them.

The Good

Easy to install and even easier to use. Users need no special training for interpreting the results on ProcessLibrary.com.

It allows searching in ProcessLibrary for a specific process with a single click.

Process QuickLink automatically opens Windows Task Manager.

The Bad

I wish the search function would also be integrated in Task Manager, just like shown in the image on the website.

The Truth

Process QuickLink acts as a good process identifier by displaying the information included in ProcessLibrary database. It does not require too much RAM to function and it automatically launches Task Manager.

All in all it is a good tool to gain insight on the legitimacy of a running process and requires little effort from the user.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 3
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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