When handle mode is enabled, selecting a process in the top portion of the window will show you the handles that the process has open. The bottom pane has two modes of operation, handle mode and DLL mode. The top pane shows currently active processes on your system and includes information about the name, the account that owns the process, and the CPU usage of the process. The utility has two panes of information. It is a GUI-based utility and can be used as a Task Manager replacement.

Trying to open a file, but getting a notification that it’s already open? Process Explorer can help determine which application or process has the file open. Process Explorer is a great tool for digging into open files or resources. PsKill works similarly to PsList except it is used to terminate processes by process ID. There are quite a few ways to return information with PsList, and the best part is that it works on local and remote machines.

The goal here is to see processes on a machine - with PsList, I find the process ID, and then use PsKill to terminate the process.

I listed these together because I typically use them in this order. Note: This article is also available as a TechRepublic photo gallery. Here’s a look at my favorite tools in the Sysinternals collection (or the ones that I use the most). While this is the easiest way to get the tools because they are bundled together, there are some tools that I find myself using far more than others. The entire suite of products is available for download. These are great little tools for getting some heavy-hitting Windows things done and sometimes done better than when using the built-in tools for a task. Sysinternals has been around for quite some time and was acquired by Microsoft in 2006. Derek Schauland zeroes in on the ones he finds most useful. The Sysinternals utilities offer a powerful, convenient way to knock out all kinds of Windows tasks. 10 Sysinternals tools you shouldn’t be without

Sysinternals file access monitor