Process Explorer Main Screen

Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. 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.

Process Explorer's Stats Screen

When somthing is playing up on my system i reach for this tool, it is handy in killing unwanted processes and even shows you who the process was developped by so you can see if some malware is running when it shouldent and kill it!

Annoying message given by Windows

Its called Unlocker and basically it can run in the background or it can be run manually so that when you delete a file it will let you know if any processes have a lock on that file or not.

Unlocker Right-Click Menu

It then allows you to kill that process and delete the offending file.

You can download Unlocker from here