Preventing data loss is never an easy job because there are so many things that can go wrong but Active@ Disk Monitor goes a long way to giving you peace of mind.

Active@ Disk Monitor is a disk utility that checks and monitors the status of hard drives to help prevent data loss using S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology). This program relies on your hardware supporting SMART so if it doesn't, it won't be of much use to you.

Active@ Disk Monitor monitors hard disk parameters such as Temperature, Head Flying Height and Spin-Up Time but most importantly, notifies you when a critical moment is approaching on your hard drive. Active@ Disk Monitor also displays hard disk information, current S.M.A.R.T. attributes and the overall status of the hard disk's health.

The only problem you may experience is when Active@ Disk Monitor kicks in while you are using your PC - it can seriously slow down whatever you are doing if it performs a full scan.

Active@ Disk Monitor is a useful tool to warn of impending disk failure before the worst happens.

Download Active@ Disk Monitor 1.2.648 in Softonic

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.

The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.

Download Process Explorer 11.21 in Softonic

One of most common reasons for your PC slowing down is processes that are hogging your system and taking all your CPU.

Process Lasso aims to solve this problem by reducing the priority of those processes that are not important and returned to a responsive level. It also works with multiple processes that are causing a problem so it can deal with more than one program at once. If you think that the program is prioritising the wrong processes, then you can define default processes that you want to be controlled or kept an eye on. Process Lasso also displays graphs and other graphical represeantations to show you which processes are requiring the most CPU usage. You can blacklist those processes that are showing rather high graph readings or that are clearly taking up more CPU usage than they deserve. Although the program requires no experience, it does offer advanced settings and twesking options to make sure that it only blocks those processes that are specified or targeted by yourself. Fortunately, the program itself is very low on resources so it will not add to your CPU hogging problems.

A very useful process monitor than will ensure your CPU only dedicates itself to those programs that really need it.

Download Process Lasso 3.04 in Softonic

System Explorer could be defined as the standard Windows Task Manager on steroids.

This full-featured system analyzing tool lets you take a sneak peek at everything that’s going on in your system, from currently active processes to installed drivers, including also network collections, startup applications and Internet Explorer add-ons, if you have any.

The good thing about System Explorer is that it enables you not only to see what's brewing in your system, but also take action. That is, you can end any active process or delete items from the startup menu, to name a couple of examples. Another feature I specially liked is the possibility to obtain more information about each process from Google, or check it for virus with an online antivirus tool. The program includes loads of other interesting features, for which having a bit of documentation would have been great.

System Explorer doesn't require installation, so even if you're happy with the Windows Task Manager, which I doubt, you should definitely give this great app a try. You have nothing to lose!

System Explorer is a full-featured task and process manager that gives you an exhaustive view of all the activities currently going on in your system.

Download System Explorer 1.5 Beta in Softonic

WinPatrol uses a heuristic approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment. Traditional security programs scan your hard drive searching for previously identified threats. WinPatrol takes a snapshot of your critical system resources and alerts you to any changes that may occur without your knowledge. You'll be removing dangerous new programs while others download new reference files.

When you run WinPatrol, you should notice that Scotty the Windows Watch Dog is standing on your Windows System Tray/Taskbar in the right lower corner of your screen. Probably next to your clock or speaker icons. He loves music.

Just double click on Scotty to see the valuable information he has found out about your computer. If you hold down the right mouse button you'll see a menu pop up with additional features. Using this menu you can select to have Scotty installed so he's always watching out for you. You can always go back at any time and change your mind and uncheck the "Always Run WinPatrol" menu option. This menu also provides a way to Exit WinPatrol anytime you want.

Download WinPatrol 15.0.2008.0 in Softonic

Have you ever been in a situation where even Windows Task Manager can't close a process or program that has crashed?

Chances are you have because it's one of the curses of Windows but fortunately, there is a way to get round this problem. ProcessKO is a far more powerful alternative to Windows Task Manager because it kills those hard to close processes that simply won't go away. The program sits discreetly in the system tray and requires simply clicking on (so no keyboard use is required) to activate in times of trouble. It shows a list of processes that are operating at any one time but note that you'll need to understand the generic names Windows assigns to your programs to know exactly what you are closing.

Process KO closes instantly those programs that you select even if they've been impossible to kill in any other way. In addition, the program "learns" which processes regularly cause you problems. In this way, it allows you to instantly access those programs that frequently crash your system and close them instantly without going through a huge process list. Even better, it fits on a USB stick so it's perfect for network administrators that need to go around rescuing blocked PCs.

A much better option than Windows Task Manager although if your mouse crashes, then it's not much use at all since you can't access it.

Download ProcessKO 1.24 in Softonic

The apparent limitations in Windows standard Task Manager have encouraged many developers to create their own version of this tool, usually providing more information and more advanced tools.

This is the case of Security Process Explorer, a full featured task manager created by Glarysoft (who you may already know for their awesome Glary Utilities). This tool analyzes your system and creates a list with all the currently active applications and processes, each one of them complemented with extra data such as CPU and memory usage, threads, priority and also a rating according to the level of trust given by this program's users themselves. There's also a link to obtain more information about the selected process on the web, which takes you to a knowledge database created by Glarysoft (although the button clearly says "Google it!").

Security Process Explorer includes the usual set of features you find in this kind of apps: possibility to set priority, end any given process or see the associated files (DLL) linked to it. However, there are other Windows Task Manager replacements far more complete than Security Process Explorer.

Security Process Standard is a good alternative to the standard Windows Task Manager but it falls short of expectations when compared to other replacement tools.

Download Security Process Explorer 1.6 in Softonic

Systemometer is a unique monitoring tool that shows system activity and resources as a screen saver or a thumbnail window. It allows you to create different monitoring profiles out of the Windows performance counters available on your system or remote hosts. The interface displays the values of monitored parameters connecting all measured points in one polygon - a snapshot view that helps to read the overall system status at a glance. This method is also suitable for understanding load balance of a specific parameter (e.g. CPU utilization) among several items like computers or applications.

Different shapes of monitoring polygons draw visual patterns associated with normal or critical system states. One look at the screen will tell you what is happening with the system. The history of counter values can be recorded to the log file in either HTML or CSV format. Systemometer is helpful for system administrators working in Windows environment with network, printers, databases, Web servers, etc. It is a nice toy for your home office.

Download Systemometer 1.6.2 Personal in Softonic

System Explorer Portable is a special version of the excellent task manager System Explorer that you can carry around anywhere with you in your USB memory device, and run it right away on any computer.

Like its older cousin, System Explorer Portable is a much more complete, reliable and advance task management tool than the standard app that comes bundled with Windows. With this full-featured system analyzing tool you can take a sneak peek at everything that's going on in your system, from currently active processes to installed drivers, including also network collections, startup applications and Internet Explorer add-ons, if you have any.

But System Explorer still has an ace up its sleeve: not only does it let you see what's brewing in your system, but also take action. This means that you can end any active process or delete items from the startup menu, to name a couple of examples. Another feature I especially liked is the possibility to obtain more information about any given process from Google and ProcessLibrary.com, or check it for viruses with an online antivirus tool. The program includes loads of other interesting features, but unfortunately lacks documentation about them so you'll have to learn how to use them on the move.

System Explorer is a full-featured task and process manager that gives you an exhaustive view of all the activities currently going on in your system.

Download System Explorer Portable 1.4 in Softonic

The Windows Task Manager is quite a limited tool when it comes to check what's going on in your computer. Besides a long active process list, there's really nothing you can learn from this tool: no related applications, no libraries in use, not even the application those processes belong to.

This is why ProcX can easily become your favorite alternate task manager from now on. This excellent tool analyzes and displays all active processes on your system at any moment, including details about their use of CPU and RAM, their full path and many other useful data.

But the ace up this program's sleeve is the context menu you open by right clicking on any process. From here you can terminate it in several ways (though the differences among them are not that clear), search for more information about this process on Google and also mark the file to be deleted on next system startup. I personally found this last option simply brilliant, as it'll enable you to delete files that can't be touched because they're in use. ProcX also shows associated DLL files to each process and includes the option to set it as the default task manager – which I would definitely do. Plus, it doesn't require installation.

If you're looking for a serious, full featured alternative to the standard Windows Task Manager, ProcX is an excellent choice.

Download ProcX 1.000 in Softonic

Windows process manager has become one of my most essential tools enabling me to kill all those processes and running tasks that hang-up my PC.

However, the problem is it's way too basic and sometimes ineffective because it simply can't open when you've suffered a particularly bad crash. Bill2's Process Manager gives you far more control over this tool helping you to manage, rule, and memorize the priority of tasks running on your machine. Apart from displaying processes in much cleaner detail, the program makes it possible to create rules to indicate in which priority a program must be carried out, and even which processors it can use. This is excellent if you're running two processors and one is getting constantly overloaded although that probably only applies to a minority of users on very high-spec machines (in which case, crashes caused by running processes will not affect you much anyway).

There's no danger of malware affecting these rules either as they are automatically safeguarded. Of course apart from this, you can also kill processes on demand no problem although sometimes, you may have problems getting the dialog window to open during heavy crashes.

A great application for those with more than one processor or those on limited processor power that constantly experience RAM overload and crashes.

Download Bill2's Process Manager 3.1.1.0 in Softonic

Process Library is an online service that lets you search for and identify all the processes running on your computer. Just use the search engine to look for that process you just discovered on your system and Process Library will display all the available information.

Taking advantage of its large online database, this small utility brings new interactive functionality to the Process Library. Simply click on the scan button and the Process Scanner deep scans your system online to provide within seconds a complete list of all the processes, .dlls and other items that open on your system on startup, while the system is running, or even those which are programmed to run later.

This is what Process Scanner has to offer:

• Allows you to share reports
• Displays a results page that lists all the processes found on your system
• Advises you what action you should take concerning the listed processes
• Gives you clear, categorized information on the task functions of each process listed
• Provides color coded information on the threat risk on all processes - from safe to dangerous

Download Process Scanner 1.1 in Softonic

While Windows features its own task manager, there's always the possibility to use better tools with extended functionality like Webkeysoft Process Manager.

This piece of software displays a list with all the applications and processes that are currently active in your system. So far, there's nothing different from the Windows standard tool. But Process Manager goes a step beyond and offers extended information about each process, as long as some interesting options like the ability to show the file responsible for each process or a list of dependencies for each active process. This last feature comes in especially handy when you can't delete a file because it's being used by some unknown application.

The program includes some other nice details, such as a couple of meters to show CPU and RAM usage and a startup list where you can see the processes that are run when Windows launches. You can even configure it to replace the Windows standard task manager. But if there's something I would definitely change in Process Manager is its interface. The usual XP look would fit the program much better than that blueish skin.

Process Manager enables you to see what's going on in your computer with a high level of detail.

Download Process Manager 2.0 Lite in Softonic

DTaskManager is a stand-alone Task-Manager specifically engineered to give additional functionalities that the Windows bundled TaskManager does not have.

There are three different ways to close a process: termination request, forced termination and the forced termination of any type of process bypassing all permissions which can even terminate a system processes.

It allows to suspend and reactivate a process (like in Linux), which can be useful to temporarily suspend a task that use system resources but you don't want to terminate like when you are encoding a movie file.

It allows you to select more than one process at a time to terminate all of them and does not require a useless confirmation message. It also has a port monitor, usefull for finding viruses and spyware.

Download DTaskManager 1.51 in Softonic

While Windows already features a task manager that enables you to kill any active process in the system, it's always good to have other alternatives like KillProcess. This simple, intuitive application also allows you to kill active processes but has certain advantages over the Windows standard tool.

Some of these advantages are the ability to kill processes right away (no waiting times), the possibility to kill several of them simultaneously by using the so called kill lists and a small info window that displays extended information about the selected process, although we must say this wasn't really that helpful at all.

One last tip: disable the program's sounds if you don't want to be startled by an annoying gun shot every time you kill a process.

Download KillProcess 2.42 in Softonic

Performance Monitor is a small program that shows you the CPU, Memory, Disk and Network utilization under Windows NT platforms (2000, XP+). It's composed by four fully configurable small graphs and it can work in the tray area also. The windows are fully anchorable and by moving the "CPU" window you'll move the other attached windows.

Performance Monitor can become transparent and permits you to forward left-mouse clicks so you can place it anywhere. You can also change the program priority saving CPU work and double its size for big monitor resolutions.

Download Performance Monitor 3.6 in Softonic

DN Sys Info is a nice tool to monitor your CPU and memory performance, both RAM and virtual. For novice users, you can just use it as it is. For expert users, DN Sys Info proves to be a great tool to follow a hundred settings, HDD, processes, connections, Read/write times for HDD, network, Internet, etc-. It works both for local users or through a network.

A lot of customization options are available:

• Refresh rate
• Choice between gradient and linear progress bars
• Progress bars colors choice easy through pre-defined colors
• Advanced colors settings to fully customise bars
• Background and fonts colors
• Display %
• Possibility to hide / unhide display depending on load values
• 2 different display sizes
• Smooth and normal sizing modes
• Online check for updates
• Lock display to certain position
• Auto-run possible
• Possibility to log the results

Download DN Sys Info 1.0 in Softonic

Serious Samurize is a handy tool to customize statistical information on your hardware and software. Highly configurable, you can add a background image, colors or shapes. Users will also appreciate the ability to see information such as CPU usage, memory available, hard drives or new email.

Serious Samurize attempts to woo overclockers, developers and computer aficionados with the number of statistics it can generate on your computer. For example, you can find out how much gigabytes of traffic your ADSL connection uses in a week. Serious Samurize also gives you the option to monitor others over a network, great when you are administrating multiple machines.

Serious Samurize’s strongest asset is also its weakness. While fervent computer users will quickly get to grips with the personalization, we think it might deter first time users, especially those who don’t know VBScript.

Download Serious Samurize 1.64.3 in Softonic

SysMetrix is a skinnable clock and metering application. Its purpose is to provide system metrics in a variety of interesting, useful, and cool ways.

It can monitor and report on the hundreds of statistics including date, time, CPU usage, user name, IP address, machine name, Windows uptime, data about memory usage, drive space statistics and a lot more, up to more than 60 different kinds of data.

The good thing about SysMetrix is that you can easily customize its appearance by using themes which completely change the program's interface and sometimes even add new functions to it.

Download SysMetrix 3.41 in Softonic

Full hard disk? Immediately identify the problem with HDGraph!

HDG is a tool allowing to graphically display the hard disk space usage. It shows all the directories and subdirectories of the hard drive on a single graph, allowing to see the largest directories at a glance.

This is what HDGraph has to offer:

• Draw all the subfolders of a given folder (the "parent" folder) on a pie chart, with a rings style, proportionally with the space of this parent folder
• Draw "n" levels of the folders tree on a single chart. The number of levels is fully customizable a takes effect immediately
• Integration on the windows explorer, to load HDGraph on a single right clic on a folder
• The chart can be saved, and can be loaded later, in order to be able to compare the filesystem between different dates
• The chart can be exported on an image format (BMP)
• The Chart can be used interactively
• Auto-refresh of the graph when switching from one to another folder (if the destination folder hasn't been loaded yet)
• Scanned folders' paths are saved in a "scanned directories history list"
• Multilingual graphical user interface. Changing language takes effect immediately

Download HDGraph 1.0.1 in Softonic