System Informer

An open-source Process Explorer alternative that monitors resources, debugs software and helps detect malware, with no installation needed.

FreeOpen sourceWindows
Official websitesysteminformer.comDownload pagesysteminformer.comSource codegithub.comDocumentationsysteminformer.com

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About System Informer

System Informer, formerly Process Hacker, does much of what Process Explorer does and some things it does not, with the advantage of being MIT-licensed open source. It gives a detailed, colour-highlighted overview of system activity, with graphs and statistics for tracking down resource hogs and runaway processes.

Practical capabilities: discover which process is using a file you cannot delete, see which programs have active network connections and close them, get real-time disk access information, view detailed stack traces with kernel-mode, WOW64 and .NET support, and create, edit and control services beyond what services.msc allows.

It is small and portable with no installation required, and needs Windows 10 or later in 32-bit or 64-bit.

Strengths

  • Open source under the MIT licence, unlike the Sysinternals equivalents
  • Detailed stack traces with kernel-mode, WOW64 and .NET support
  • Create, edit and control services beyond what services.msc allows
  • Small and portable, with no installation required

Limitations

  • Windows 10 or later only
  • Its kernel driver is sometimes flagged by security software
  • Depth of detail assumes real familiarity with Windows internals
  • Windows-only, with no equivalent elsewhere

Details

Pricing
FreeFree and open source under the MIT licence.
License
MIT
Developer
Winsider Seminars & Solutions
Platforms
Windows
How it runs
Downloadable app
Account
Not required
Works offline
Yes
Best suited for
Investigating processes, services and network connections on Windows with an open-source tool
Last verified
Added
Provenance
Selected from the TechWalrus downloads catalog (System Monitor); facts checked against the developer's own pages, 3 sources on file.

Alternatives to System Informer

Compare all

Software that can replace System Informer for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.

  • Process Explorer

    Task Manager with the lid off: shows which process has a file open, which DLLs it loaded, and the full parent-child tree.

    FreeProprietaryWindows

    Process Explorer from Microsoft shows handles, loaded DLLs and the process tree without installation, but is closed source rather than MIT licensed.

  • Sysinternals Suite

    Microsoft's bundle of Sysinternals troubleshooting and diagnostic utilities for Windows in a single download.

    FreeProprietaryWindowsCommand line

    Sysinternals Suite bundles dozens of Microsoft diagnostic tools including Process Explorer in one closed-source download of about 192 MB, with ARM64 and Nano Server builds.

  • NeoHtop

    Inspect running processes in a desktop system monitor.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    NeoHtop is a simpler MIT-licensed desktop process monitor for Windows, macOS and Linux with CPU and memory views, search and filtering, without service or kernel detail.

  • bottom

    A graphical system monitor for the terminal, with charts for CPU, memory, network, temperature and disk over time.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxCommand line

    bottom moves process monitoring into a terminal on Windows, macOS and Linux, with sorting, tree mode and kill signals plus resource charts over time.

Similar software

Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.

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