The collection of freeware (not to mention the commercial software) at Sysinternals is awesome. If you’re a Windows guru (or a wanna-be guru), you should have this site on your bookmarks list. Their latest addition is a wonderful utility called Process Explorer, which is now up to version 8.35.
Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you’ll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you’ll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.
You really have to see the Process Explorer window to appreciate how much more readable it is than the old Task Manager. (Oh, and it works with all versions of Windows, not just XP.) Choose Options, Replace Task Manager to make it pop up in response to Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Highly recommended.
Ed Bott 