Windows Task Manager has come a long way. It now conforms to the Windows 11 UI standards, supports theming, and has better visualization and process control. Whenever a process acts up, or I see some questionable performance drops, I visit it to check what’s going on. Most of the time, I end a process that’s not useful or belongs to an app I don’t need at the moment. But it has its fair share of problems, and some processes don’t terminate even if I want to. As a result, I switched to Process Explorer some time back, and Task Manager looks pale in comparison.

Process Explorer is a part of Microsoft’s SysInternals suite, which cements my trust in it. I also cannot ignore its better feature set, well-thought-out interface, and micro-tools that do a better job of process management than Windows’ default tool. Let’s look at how Process Explorer changed the way I manage processes and find culprits on my PC.

Clean interface

No confusion or tab switching

I’m usually not the one to pick an app for its UI. Process Explorer doesn’t have the fancy visual effects that you get with a native Windows 11 app. Despite that, its interface is interesting enough to see everything at a glance. The hardware graphs are laid out on the top bar, so I don’t need to switch to the performance tab like I do in the Task Manager to inspect the activity. It’s right there at the top and visible to me whenever I need it.

Similarly, a collection of all the stats appears at the bottom bar, making it incredibly easy to understand what’s going on. Task Manager doesn’t have a summary view at the bottom, and your only option is to look at the columns to see the stats. It’s not bad, but it could be better if a single bottom bar were there at the bottom. Task Manager conveniently skips mentioning the total number of active processes, but Process Explorer mentions the number at the bottom.

Process Explorer also has a System Information view, which is basically a graph of all the hardware components combined into a single tabbed window. You can switch tabs to see what’s going on with each component, which is similar to the Performance section of the Task Manager.

Even hovering over a process shows its path and other details. It saves me the effort of even opening the properties many times just to get a simple piece of information.

Detailed statistics and control

Nothing remains hidden

Task Manager showcases limited information, and that’s a good approach, but only for some users. I need a complete list arranged in a hierarchical view of all the active processes, and the tool does it better. Hovering over any process reveals its path and a few more details, and I can switch to properties view and learn all the nitty-gritty about it.

Often, you need to know the source of the process with a weird name, and the tool can reveal its location and package name. Task Manager hides the details, and you need to switch to the context menu to open the properties. Process Explorer opens the properties when I double-click on it, which is very convenient. I can also add a column to show each process’s path name and related services, which is not possible in Task Manager.

Another great approach is integrating the graphical view tabs inside the **Properties **window. You see each process’s visualization and GPU graphs if it’s using the hardware. Task Manager doesn’t show GPU graphs for each process and can only show the GPU usage and GPU engine usage in the columns.

Some Microsoft processes run unnecessarily on the system, and Task Manager limits me from terminating them. I avoid this blockage by running Process Explorer with admin rights, which helps me kill most of the processes I dislike. I also use Suspend mode for processes that respawn even after terminating them. Task Manager hides the Kill process tree option in the **Details **tab, while I can do the same action directly in Process Explorer. I can even change the process refresh duration to as low as 0.5 seconds.

One more difference is in the graphical stats reporting. You can only see the current 60-second graphs in Task Manager, while Process Explorer shows the graph since the system booted up. It’s easy to identify the peaks, and the tool shows the process that caused the sudden spike in usage. So, I can know which process suddenly became resource-hungry at a point in time.

Additional features and virus scanning

No more sketchy processes

Ever had malware disguise itself as a legitimate process? It’s become less rampant now, but Process Explorer has an integration to identify any such nefarious process. It includes the Virus Total integration, using which you can check all the processes on the database to learn more about it.

Virus Total helps spot these questionable processes and marks them automatically in the column. By default, if you see a zero next to a process, it’s safe. You can also view the Virus Total listing page to learn more about the process and what other users say about it.

Another small tool called Find Window’s Process enables you to search for a process directly on the web. You don’t need to copy the process name or visit the location. I use the tool often to learn what the process is designed to do and whether it’s from a trusted source.

There’s also a lens tool that can identify the process name in the list if you drag it onto an active app window. Not all apps operate under the same process name, and the tool is useful in such cases. For example, the Messenger app operates under the msedge.exe name, and I came to know about it only after using the tool. Otherwise, I would have kept guessing which process belonged to this app.

You can also find related DLL files using the tool, but I seldom use it. My focus is on the list and graphs, and Process Explorer does a good job in such use cases.

A worthy replacement

Process Explorer is definitely for advanced users who cannot get the job done with the Task Manager. Its hierarchical view, rich graphs, and detailed component statistics are better than Task Manager, and the Virus Total integration is the icing on the cake.

There’s even an option to replace it as the default process management tool. I don’t use that because I need Task Manager sometimes for managing startup apps, especially after installing something new. If Process Explorer adds startup apps management, I would use the Task Manager even less than I do now.