Windows Process Viewer

Programs running on your computer doesn’t just mean a visual interface you can interact with. The gears that keep it alive are actively performing under services and processes, with the Task Manager letting you view and handle them. There are also various alternatives like Windows Process Viewer, placing processes in a clearer environment to for better analysis.

One of the application’s advantages refers to portability, meaning you don’t have to go through a setup process for it to work. It can easily be stored and used from an USB flash drive, even on other computers. Registries are not tampered with, thus having minimum impact on the system it’s used on.

Once it runs, the main window shows up, with processes already collected and shown in a list. Corresponding details like name, file path, and size make up several columns. The main window is split into two panes, one of which is the process list, and the other to provide more details about the process you select.

However, in order to view any details, you need to be connected to the Internet, since info is grabbed from an online service. It can take a bit of time to understand a process, with all descriptions being rather difficult to come across, even if the selected process is automatically looked up.

Moreover, the application comes with no built-in management options whatsoever, meaning it only serves as a way to view running processes other than opening up the Task Manager. The list can be set to show icons, and thumbnails, but this makes little difference on practicality and functionality.

Comparing the list at your disposal with the one generated by Task Manager leaves a bit more to be desired, since not all processes are detected. What’s more, you can’t trace a specific file to have destination opened automatically, cutting even more out of practicality.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Windows Process Viewer is not quite the Task Manager alternative you were probably expecting. Not all processes are successfully detected, with only little details provided, even by the online service, while no management options are implemented.