The best way to handle Process Monitor to its full extent is to read the help file with due diligence. What we miss there is a column sorting feature, but it is possible to show or hide columns. There are filters users can apply to sort the collected data. Process Monitors sports a Spartan spreadsheet looking interface sufficient to display the massive amount of data. The ‘Capture’ button start or stops the data collection.

You will see the growing list of processes in the main window. As soon as the window opens, the tool starts capturing information about Registry, Files and Process/Thread activity.

Depending on the user account, you may be asked to grant permissions to the utility. Once you extract the files, you can run Procmon.exe to launch the application. There is no installation as such because the download is a zip archive. Process Monitor runs on Win 2004 SP4, Win 2003 SP1, Win XP, Vista, Win 7. It is worth mentioning that Process Monitor is an heir to Sysinternals’ utilities Filemon and Regmon, but with advanced and enhanced features. Besides monitoring, Process Monitor troubleshoots many issues, which makes it a core utility for sysadmins.

Process Monitor offers comprehensive tools to filter, search and create reports about system and registry activities. The information it provides can be too much for an inexperienced user. This tool as an exhaustive control manager tracking Windows file system activity and Registry in real time. Novice users may find it overwhelming, and we strongly recommend they spend some time reading instructions that can be found both on Microsoft’s website and other reputable online resources. Microsoft Process Monitor is by far an advanced tool sufficient for systems administrators and technically advanced users. ' An advanced monitoring tool for Windows.'

Process monitor tool for windows