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The best tool just got better: Process Monitor 2.0

Friday, 10 October 2008 by Michel Roth

I can't count the times that Sysinternals tools have provided me with the much needed insight into Windows and why it insisted on making me pull my hair out. Process Monitor has been the most helpful tool in that respect (probably the sole reason I have any hair left today).Recently it was updated to version 2.0. I always consider Process Monitor the Swiss Army knife equivalent of a software tool. Already in version 1.x it proved to be able to provide a great deal of relevant information that you need to know about when you need to get down and dirty with Windows. This goes for Desktops OSes as well as Server OSes.

In version two these capabilities have been enhanced. For example Process Monitor 2.0 adds real-time TCP and UDP monitoring to its existing process, thread, DLL, file system and registry monitoring. You can now see the TCP and UDP activity processes performed, including the operation (e.g. connect, send, receive), local and remote IP addresses and DNS names, and operation transfer lengths. This is what you needed you use TCPview for in the past. On Windows Vista, Process Monitor also collects thread stacks for network operations.

So basically Process Monitor is combining the functionality of Regmon, Filemon, Process Explorer and TCP view (and some others) into one tool. Highly recommended and thankfully very free. Download Process Monitor v2.0.