Why should I use Process Hacker? Why not Process Explorer or some other program?
Process Hacker offers some pretty unique features, like an awesome run-as tool and
the ability to find and terminate hidden processes. The intended users are developers and
people interested in Windows internals. This tool is NOT intended for general system
optimization - if you want to do that, Process Explorer is for you.
Are there any other free and open source software tools like Process Hacker?
As far as I know, the only other open source process viewer that is being actively
developed is YAPM.
Why is there annoying bug X in Process Hacker? Why is Process Hacker missing
feature Y?
Please report any bugs or suggestions to our
tracker. Feel free
to upload patches.
Is Process Hacker a portable application?
It depends on your definition of "portable". If it means "no installation", then of course!
Simply download the "binary .zip" instead of the setup program. However, if "portable" means
"settings are going to be saved on my USB drive", then not yet.
Symbols don't work properly!
Firstly, you need the latest dbghelp.dll version. Install
Debugging Tools
for Windows, open Process Hacker options, click on Symbols, and locate dbghelp.dll.
It is usually in C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86). Next, you need
to configure the search path. If you don't know what to do, enter
SRV*SOME_FOLDER*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols.
Replace SOME_FOLDER with any folder you can write to, like D:\Symbols.
Now you can restart Process Hacker and view full symbols.
I'm a developer. Can I use the various functions provided by Process Hacker in my
own program?
If you're using a .NET-based language (C#, VB.NET), absolutely! Simply download the
source code (or checkout the latest SVN revision), build the solution, and reference
ProcessHacker.Common and ProcessHacker.Native in your project.
Why is Process Hacker so limited on 64-bit systems?
KProcessHacker, the kernel-mode driver used by Process Hacker, is not signed and cannot be
loaded on 64-bit systems unless you disable driver signing. Process Hacker is a non-commercial
free software project and I simply do not have the resources to obtain a code signing
certificate. Thank Microsoft for adding mandatory driver signing.
Process Hacker causes my computer to crash at startup! Help!
This is probably caused by KProcessHacker. Simply navigate to where Process Hacker was
installed (or extracted) and delete kprocesshacker.sys.
Process Hacker can kill my antivirus software! Is this a bug in the antivirus software?
No. Please do not report these incidents as bugs because you will be wasting their time.
Why does Process Hacker use so much [put resource here]?
Stop staring at the CPU and private memory columns.
How do I run Process Hacker at startup with full privileges?
Use the installer and select "Install KProcessHacker as a service".