Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Commercial, Freeware
Task Manager Free Does Better Windows Process Management
by Lee Mathews Oct 1st 2008 at 12:00PM
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.