microsoft / microsoft/PowerToys
Feature Request: Integrate Process Explorer as a PowerToy (next Sysinternals integration after ZoomIt)
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Description
Description of the new feature / enhancement
Following the successful integration of ZoomIt into PowerToys (v0.88), I'd like to propose bringing Process Explorer into the PowerToys suite as the next Sysinternals tool integration.
Process Explorer is one of the most widely used Sysinternals tools among power users and developers. It provides critical capabilities that go well beyond what Task Manager offers, including:
- Identify Window's Process — drag a crosshair onto any window to find out which process owns it (as also requested in #37664)
- Detailed process tree view — hierarchical view of parent/child process relationships
- DLL and handle search — find which process has a file or directory locked
- Per-process GPU, CPU, I/O, and memory usage with historical graphs
- VirusTotal integration — verify running processes against malware databases
- Process properties — threads, TCP/IP connections, security attributes, environment variables
Scenario when this would be used?
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Identifying unknown windows/popups — A window appears and you don't know what process spawned it. The crosshair drag feature instantly identifies the owning process (see #37664 for multiple users requesting exactly this).
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Troubleshooting file locks — "This file is in use by another process" — Process Explorer can find exactly which process holds the handle, saving significant debugging time.
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Security investigation — Quickly checking running processes against VirusTotal, inspecting process origins and digital signatures.
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Developer workflow — Understanding process trees, inspecting loaded DLLs, checking TCP connections per process — all common developer scenarios.
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Performance diagnostics — Identifying which specific process or thread is consuming resources, with much more granularity than Task Manager.
Supporting information
Precedent: ZoomIt was successfully integrated into PowerToys in v0.88, following the community request in #149. In the closing comment on that issue, @crutkas invited the community to suggest which Sysinternals tools should come next: "If there are other features you want in, lets be hyper focused on which :)"
Existing demand:
- Issue #37664 specifically requests the "Identify Window's Process" crosshair feature from Process Explorer
- Issue #149 (66 reactions, 49 thumbs up) was the original umbrella request for Sysinternals integration — Process Explorer was one of the most mentioned tools in the discussion
Integration approach: Similar to ZoomIt, Process Explorer could be integrated as a standalone PowerToy module with its own settings page, hotkey configuration, and on-demand activation. A lightweight or subset approach could also work — starting with the most-requested features like the window-to-process identifier and DLL/handle search, rather than the full tool.
Note: I understand that Sysinternals tools use undocumented APIs (as @crutkas noted in #149), so a phased approach — starting with the highest-value features that use documented APIs — would be a pragmatic path forward.
Related: #37664, #149
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
No files, tests, or entry points are identified. Start by reviewing the related issues #37664 and #149, then establish whether the intended scope is full Process Explorer integration or a smaller subset using documented APIs. Done would require an agreed feature scope and corresponding PowerToys integration, but this issue does not define acceptance criteria.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Domain
- desktop, operating-systems
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 20/100