Processes are system services and programs that run in the background on your computer. Every time you boot up your Windows computer, dozens or even hundreds of different processes start alongside it. These could be parts of the operating system, such as Explorer, or your printer software that allows other programs to recognize it.

Knowing how to monitor the active processes on your computer can make solving problems such as crashes and performance drops easier.

Why Monitoring Processes Can Be Useful

Processes are an integral part of how Windows and other operating systems work. Each running process uses varying amounts of system resources. Too many processes running can cause performance issues, as can badly-optimized or malfunctioning processes.

The Windows Task Manager is an easy way to view all the processes running on your computer. It allows you to see the resources they are using in real-time, and can also be used to stop processes from running.

The Windows Task Manager

When troubleshooting a problem on your computer, checking your running processes is often the first step. Unfortunately, there are limitations with Task Manager. Although a particular process may be causing the problem, it can be easy to miss unless you are in Task Manager at exactly the right time.

You can't monitor processes over time, which can be useful if a problem is intermittent or happens randomly. This is where a utility such as Kiwi Application Monitor can help.

How to Monitor Processes With Kiwi Application Monitor

Kiwi Application Monitor is a handy tool for monitoring specific processes and apps. Although it is now several years old, Kiwi is still a good way to troubleshoot problems with processes. This is especially true if Task Manager isn't giving you the information you need.

  1. Download the Kiwi Application Monitor.
  2. Open Kiwi Application Monitor and click the Add button.
  3. Click the Process explorer button near the top of the new window that opens.
    The Kiwi process explorer screen
  4. A list of running processes will then load, similar to Task Manager. Find the process you suspect of causing problems, select it, and click the Add button.
  5. Enter a description of the process, or just its name, to make it easier to manage in the list of monitored processes. Then click Add.
  6. Repeat this for as many processes as you want to monitor, then close the Process explorer.

The added processes are now being monitored. You can select any processes in the list to see resource usage information.

A list of processes in the Kiwi app

The longer you monitor a process, the more information you will have about it. You can then compare stats such as current and average memory usage, and how long it runs for each day.

How to Set Up Actions and Triggers in the Kiwi Application Monitor

Kiwi not only lets you monitor processes and apps but can also automatically react to process behavior. Once you have identified a rogue process, you can set up triggers to perform certain actions. These include alerts when the process starts or ends, or closing the process when it exceeds preset resource use amounts.

  1. Select the process in the list you want to set a trigger and action for, and then click Edit.
  2. In the new pane that opens you will see tabs for basic and advanced rules. Advanced rules are only available in the pro version of the software, but there are several useful actions in the basic rules.
  3. Check a box next to an action and then change the parameters if needed. For example, if you saw that a process normally has a memory load of 50MB, you can set a rule to close the process if it exceeds 60MB.
  4. When you have set up your rules for a process, click the Save button.
Setting actions and triggers in Kiwi

How to Monitor Apps With Kiwi Application Monitor

As well as being able to monitor processes, Kiwi Application Monitor also lets you monitor your installed apps. The steps for setting up monitoring of apps are similar to those for monitoring processes, with a few differences.

  1. Open Kiwi and click the Add button. In the next pane, instead of opening the Process explorer, click the Browse button.
  2. Browse to and select the EXE file of the application you want to monitor.
  3. Click Open and then click Add. The application will be added to the monitoring list, allowing you to see resource usage information about it.

Having unwanted apps on your computer is never a good idea. Check out our guide to uninstalling unnecessary Windows programs and apps to see if you can save space and improve performance.

How to Check the History of Your App's Resource Use

Many of the statistics tools are unavailable in the free version of Kiwi, but you can see a comparison of the monitored processes. This can make it easier to spot processes that are using unusual amounts of system resources.

The process comparison screen in Kiwi

You can see this comparison by clicking the Statistics tab > Compare. Click the Process run time button to choose the type of comparison you want, and then click Show. The bar graph that appears shows the resource use of all of your monitored processes.

Monitoring Windows Processes When Troubleshooting

Being able to accurately monitor the processes that run on your computer can make troubleshooting problems much easier. Task Manager is a good first step, but not if you need to monitor specific processes for a longer period. Kiwi Application Monitor is a useful app for more prolonged process monitoring.