Windows Process Optimization: Svchost Viewer, Extended Task Manager, Yawffer, Assassin SE

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 03 Feb 2009

Processes in the Microsoft developed Windows operating system can sometimes go awry and annoy the heck out of you; assuming of course they do not cause the OS to become unstable and crash, which drive you up the walls. There are 4 software applications I would like to present to you and all of them will come in handy with your process management.

Svchost Viewer, as the name suggests impacts the svchost.exe process you see in the Task Manager. What I’ve always found intriguing is why the operating system does not offer a bit of insight into what each svchost.exe process actually does, what process it is related to. With Svchost Viewer you can eliminate the guesswork – just let this software application that requires no installation do all the “heavy lifting”.

Extended Task Manager is also pretty much self explanatory; it takes the default Task manager in Windows and enhances it. Amongst the numerous features two caught my eye: network port monitoring and mouse support for the performance graphs (which means that you can simply place the mouse anywhere on the graph and get detailed info on what programs were eating your resources at that point in time). Just like in Windows 7, the extended task manager tells you which program uses the file that you cannot delete.

Yawffer has to be my favorite of the lot, not because it displays CPU usage, available memory and how much data the system is transferring, but because it can put a process on ice, literally. The “Freeze It” tab lets you take charge of runaway processes that cause your system to be sluggish – it simply gives them a timeout without closing them (which would have been the only logical option).

Assassin SE will automatically scan the processes that run on Windows startup and rate them. According to the rating you can find out if a process is “safe” or “malicious”. You can then decide to ignore these processes, close or delete them.

If you would like to get Svchost Viewer, a download location is available here.
If you would like to get Extended Task Manager, a download location is available here.
If you would like to get Yawffer, a download location is available here.
If you would like to get Assassin SE, a download location is available here.


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