You might know that I regularly check all running processes as part of a cleanup process. It is also important from a security point of view. I spotted the file vssvc.exe today running on my computer and I was pretty sure that it was not running last time I checked. A quick check reveled that it was related to the Volume Shadow Copy Service in Windows XP.
Kill Tasks from the System Tray
Task Killer is a small but very useful Windows software which places a small icon in the system tray. Clicking that icon reveals all running processes, open windows and services in an easy to use interface. The processes give details about memory usage and name of course.
Process Lasso a Process Manager
I read a very interesting comment from Roman Sharp in my article that explained how to automatically terminate hung applications in Windows XP. He recommended the software Process Lasso and guess what, it was a great recommendation.
Process Lasso can probably be described as a application that manages processes. This is however not a task manager replacement but a software that can be configured to automatically react in certain situations.
Find out if a process is malicious
You see lots of processes when you start your taskmanager, svhost.exe, csrss.exe, winlogon.exe and many more. A user who never dealt with those executables before has a hard time figuring out which are safe and which could be malicious because normally you can’t say which program is using those files. A question like “Is svhost.exe a virus, is it safe ?” is normal and can be answered using the methods described below.
What is running on my system ?
What´s running 2.2. gives you an insight look into what is running on your system. It is completly free to use for non commercial usage and includes information about processes, services, modules, connections, drivers, startup and system. You can control everything with what´s running, e.g. start and stop services and processes.
What is that file ?
When I look at my taskmanager I sometimes see filenames that I don´t know. What is that file gives you the answer to the question. It´s solely based on user submissions, just like wikipedia for instance. Just enter a filename and the following information will be displayed: Name, purpose, description and if its safe or a malicious one. Great if you are not sure why a file is running on your system.
Process Patrol
Process Patrol allows you to manage the Windows processes on your computer. You can set stop lists for spyware, adware, and virus programs that will be automatically killed. Program files are renamed to prevent restarts.
