Process Monitoring in Windows

Overview

This lecture explains how to monitor and manage processes in Windows using graphical tools and PowerShell commands, emphasizing practical techniques for IT support roles.

Resource Monitoring Tools in Windows

• Resource Monitor is a built-in tool accessible from the Start menu for system resource monitoring.
• Resource Monitor provides five tabs: Overview plus dedicated tabs for specific system resources.
• It displays both resource usage and process information.
• Process Explorer offers another method to view process performance by right-clicking a process and selecting Properties > Performance Graph.

Visualizing Process Data

• Process Explorer’s Performance Graph tab shows CPU, memory (private bytes), and disk (IO) activity visually.
• These tools help quickly identify problematic or resource-hogging processes.

Command-Line Process Monitoring (PowerShell)

• The get-process PowerShell command retrieves a list of running processes and their resource usage.
• Output columns include process details like non-paged memory usage (in kilobytes).
• For full details on each column, refer to the provided Microsoft supplemental reading.

Filtering and Sorting with PowerShell

• To find the top three processes using the most CPU:
  • Use: get-process | sort cpu -descending | select -first 3 -property id,processname,cpu
• get-process gathers process info; output is piped to sort for ordering by CPU usage (descending).
• The select command limits output to the top three results, displaying only process ID, name, and CPU usage.

Key Terms & Definitions

• Resource Monitor — Windows tool for viewing live system resource and process usage.
• Process Explorer — Advanced Windows process viewer with detailed performance graphs.
• PowerShell — Command-line shell and scripting language for Windows system administration.
• get-process — PowerShell cmdlet displaying running process information.
• Pipe (|) — Symbol for chaining commands so one’s output feeds into another’s input.

Action Items / Next Steps

• Practice running and interpreting Resource Monitor and Process Explorer.
• Use the get-process command with sorting and selection in PowerShell.
• Read Microsoft’s documentation for detailed explanations of process information columns.