The Process Explorer window shows by default two panes: the upper pane is always a process list and the bottom either shows the list of DLLs loaded into the process selected in the upper pane, or the list of operating system resource handles (files, Registry keys, synchronization objects) the process has open; the view mode determines which information is shown in the bottom pane. To switch the view, use the View|Lower Pane View menu item, the corresponding toolbar button (which toggles), or the Ctrl+D (DLL view) and Ctrl-H (handle view) accelerator keys.
If you are only interested in seeing the processes running on your system You can hide the lower pane by selecting View|Hide Lower Pane, the corresponding toolbar button, the Ctrl+L accelerator, or by dragging the pane divider to the bottom of the Process Explorer window. You can bring back the lower pane by selecting View|Show Lower Pane, typing Ctrl+L or selecting the toolbar button again.
Process Explorer includes a toolbar and a mini-CPU graph at the top of the main window. Both can be resized with respect to one another or dragged such that each is on a separate row. The mini-CPU graph shows the CPU usage history of the system and hovering the mouse over a point on the graph displays in a tooltip the associated time and the process that was the largest consumer of CPU at that point in time. Clicking on the mini-CPU graph opens the System Information dialog, described next.
The information Process Explorer displays in its main window is fully configurable. You can reorder columns by dragging them to their new position. To select which columns of data you want visible in each of the views and the status bar, choose View|Select Columns or right-click on a column header and use Select Columns from the resulting context menu. A column selection editor opens that let's you pick the columns you want to enable for the Process, DLL, handle panes, and status bar.
Configure the rate at which Process Explorer refreshes its window by using the View|Update Speed menu item. You can refresh the view manually at any time with View|Refresh, the refresh toolbar button, or by pressing F5. Some checks, such as whether a process is part of a Job object or uses the .NET runtime, only occur during process startup. Press F5 to have Process Explorer recheck the status of all processes.
Process Explorer uses difference highlighting to help you see what items change between refreshes. Items, including processes, DLLs, and handles, that exit or are closed show in red and new items show in green. If the refresh rate is not paused the highlighting remains in effect for the interval specified by the Options|Difference Highlight Duration dialog, which has a default value of 1 second. If you pause the display the difference highlighting is in effect only until the next time you manually refresh.
You can make the Process Explorer window partially transparent so that windows beneath it show through on systems that support it by making a selection under the View|Opacity menu item.
When you choose File|Save Process Explorer saves the contents of the Process and lower pane, if it is showing, as a tab-delimited text file.
Shutting
Down or Logging Off
Use the File|Shutdown menu items
to shutdown, reboot, lock or logoff the system. When available, the menu
also offers options for hibernating and suspending the system.