Task Manager Free Does Better Windows Process Management

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Commercial, Freeware

Task Manager Free Does Better Windows Process Management

by Lee Mathews Oct 1st 2008

Though Brad just covered a nice enhancement for the Windows Task Manager yesterday, I came across something that may make you forget all about using good ol' taskmgr.exe - even in tweaked form.

While I don't normally go for the "this app is free, but the paid version is better" thing, AnVir Task Manager Free really surprised me. It's got an insane number of useful features. Apart from performing the usual process monitoring chores, AnVir also packs integrated startup control (a la MSconfig) and service manager, and log viewer.

Click any process, and AnVir's bottom pane will display everything from an application's creator and signing authority to how many active internet connections it has. It'll also display a full list of DLLs and other files in use by the selected app.

Task Manager Free's connection tab provides detailed port monitoring, giving you a quick look at which of your processes are accessing the 'net. A quick right-click allows you to kill any process or active TCP connection.

It also monitors your system's workload, dropping icons in the system tray that indicate CPU usage (including a breakdown by application) and hard drive temperature, free space, and activity levels (again with per-application info).

Now, it does use about twice as much memory as task manager. I'm more than willing to overlook that because of the number of features that I find useful. You can check out some screenshots on the AnVir product page to see it in action before you download.

According to the publisher, AnVir works on 32 and 64-bit Windows XP, 2003, and Vista.

Tags: task manager, TaskManager

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

polobunny said 2:01PM on 10-01-2008

How often do you need to kill an active TCP connection? Or view which DLL files are being used by the process? Or view the author of the executable?
Those functions might be useful under certain conditions, but on a daily basis... hardly.

MrLunk said 3:37PM on 10-01-2008

Well its a free trial version ...
limited functionallity...

not really what I call a free product ;)

but yes a good product ;)

Max said 2:43PM on 10-02-2008

I've learned about this wonderful app few months ago. And since that time I'm a registered user of AnVir Task Manager Pro.
It gives me full info about processes, services, startups. For example it shows which process created a tray icon - this is unique feature.
When any program adds itself to startup it shows alert with description from its internal database.

Jason said 9:30PM on 10-02-2008

My firewall at work blocked it out saying is rogue spyware.

Peter said 9:58AM on 10-03-2008

The SysInternals tools do all this and more, and do a better job of it.
ProcessMonitor FTW!

Lee Mathews said 10:00AM on 10-03-2008

In a single app? IME Sysinternals apps are pretty singular in function...

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