TaskExplorer

Power full Task Manager

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Quick Overview

TaskExplorer is an advanced task manager and system monitoring tool for Windows. It provides detailed information about running processes, system resources, and network activity, offering features beyond the standard Windows Task Manager. TaskExplorer is designed for power users, system administrators, and developers who need in-depth system analysis capabilities.

Pros

Comprehensive system information display, including detailed process, thread, and module data
Advanced features like memory analysis, file system monitoring, and network activity tracking
User-friendly interface with customizable views and color-coded indicators
Regular updates and active development

Cons

May be overwhelming for casual users due to the abundance of information and features
Requires elevated privileges for some advanced functions, which could be a security concern
Limited documentation for some of the more advanced features
Windows-only, not available for other operating systems

Getting Started

To get started with TaskExplorer:

Visit the GitHub repository: https://github.com/DavidXanatos/TaskExplorer
Download the latest release from the "Releases" section
Extract the downloaded archive to a folder of your choice
Run the "TaskExplorer.exe" executable
For full functionality, run the application as an administrator

Note: TaskExplorer is a standalone application and does not require installation. However, some features may require additional system access or driver installation, which will be prompted during use if necessary.

Competitor Comparisons

systeminformer

15,655

A free, powerful, multi-purpose tool that helps you monitor system resources, debug software and detect malware. Brought to you by Winsider Seminars & Solutions, Inc. @ https://windows-internals.com

Pros of System Informer

More comprehensive system monitoring features, including detailed network and disk activity
Larger and more active community, resulting in frequent updates and improvements
Better integration with Windows internals, providing deeper insights into system processes

Cons of System Informer

Steeper learning curve due to its extensive feature set
Potentially higher resource usage, especially when monitoring multiple aspects of the system
More complex user interface, which may be overwhelming for casual users

Code Comparison

TaskExplorer:

void CTaskExplorer::OnMenuAction(const QString& Action)
{
    if (Action == "Exit")
        close();
    else if (Action == "Options")
        ShowOptions();
    // ...
}

System Informer:

VOID NTAPI PhSvcApiCallback(
    _In_ ULONG ServiceId,
    _In_ PVOID Context,
    _In_ PVOID Buffer,
    _In_ ULONG BufferLength
    )
{
    // Handle various service requests
    switch (ServiceId)
    {
        case PhSvcGetProcessInfoServiceId:
            // Process information handling
            break;
        // ...
    }
}

The code snippets show different approaches to handling user actions and system events. TaskExplorer uses a Qt-based approach with a menu action handler, while System Informer employs a lower-level Windows API callback function for processing system information requests.

systeminformer

15,655

A free, powerful, multi-purpose tool that helps you monitor system resources, debug software and detect malware. Brought to you by Winsider Seminars & Solutions, Inc. @ https://windows-internals.com

Pros of System Informer

More comprehensive system monitoring features, including detailed network and disk activity
Larger and more active community, resulting in frequent updates and improvements
Better integration with Windows internals, providing deeper insights into system processes

Cons of System Informer

Steeper learning curve due to its extensive feature set
Potentially higher resource usage, especially when monitoring multiple aspects of the system
More complex user interface, which may be overwhelming for casual users

Code Comparison

TaskExplorer:

void CTaskExplorer::OnMenuAction(const QString& Action)
{
    if (Action == "Exit")
        close();
    else if (Action == "Options")
        ShowOptions();
    // ...
}

System Informer:

VOID NTAPI PhSvcApiCallback(
    _In_ ULONG ServiceId,
    _In_ PVOID Context,
    _In_ PVOID Buffer,
    _In_ ULONG BufferLength
    )
{
    // Handle various service requests
    switch (ServiceId)
    {
        case PhSvcGetProcessInfoServiceId:
            // Process information handling
            break;
        // ...
    }
}

ProcMon-for-Linux

4,721

A Linux version of the Procmon Sysinternals tool

Pros of ProcMon-for-Linux

Developed by Microsoft, potentially offering better support and integration with other Microsoft tools
Specifically designed for Linux systems, providing native support for Linux processes and events
Offers real-time monitoring of system calls and file system activity

Cons of ProcMon-for-Linux

Limited to Linux systems, while TaskExplorer supports Windows
May have a steeper learning curve for users familiar with Windows-based process monitoring tools
Fewer features compared to TaskExplorer, which offers a more comprehensive set of system monitoring capabilities

Code Comparison

TaskExplorer (C++):

void CTaskExplorer::OnMenuProcess()
{
    QList<CProcessPtr> Processes = m_pProcessTree->GetProcessList();
    if (Processes.isEmpty())
        return;
    // ...
}

ProcMon-for-Linux (C):

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    struct procmon_user_config config = {0};
    config.capture_syscalls = true;
    config.capture_fileio = true;
    // ...
}

Both projects use low-level programming languages for system-level interactions. TaskExplorer uses C++ with Qt for GUI, while ProcMon-for-Linux uses C for a more lightweight, command-line oriented approach.

fibratus

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Security sensor for realtime threat detection and protection

Pros of Fibratus

More comprehensive system tracing capabilities, including kernel events and file system operations
Better suited for advanced security analysis and threat hunting
Offers a powerful filtering mechanism for precise event capture

Cons of Fibratus

Steeper learning curve due to its more complex architecture
Requires elevated privileges to run, which may be a concern in some environments
Less user-friendly interface compared to TaskExplorer's GUI

Code Comparison

TaskExplorer (C++):

void CTaskExplorer::OnMenuProcess()
{
    QList<CProcessPtr> Processes = GetSelectedProcesses();
    if (Processes.isEmpty())
        return;
    CProcessPtr pProcess = Processes.first();
    // ...
}

Fibratus (Python):

@property
def pid(self):
    return self._pid

@pid.setter
def pid(self, value):
    self._pid = value
    self._name = None
    self._ppid = None
    self._thread_id = None

While TaskExplorer focuses on process management through a GUI, Fibratus provides a more programmatic approach to system event tracing. TaskExplorer's code snippet shows a method for handling process selection, while Fibratus' code demonstrates its object-oriented design for managing process information.

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README

TaskExplorer

Task Explorer is a powerful task management tool designed not only to monitor running applications but to provide deep insight into what those applications are doing. Its user interface prioritizes speed and efficiency, delivering real-time data on processes with minimal interaction. Instead of requiring multiple windows or sub-windows, Task Explorer displays relevant information in accessible panels. When selecting a process, detailed information is displayed in the lower half of the screen, allowing you to navigate through the data seamlessly using the arrow keys. The dynamic data refresh allows users to observe changes in real-time, offering additional clarity and insight into system performance and behavior.

Task Explorer runs on Windows and Linux, on x86-64 and ARM64.

Features

Task Explorer offers an array of advanced features to provide comprehensive visibility into the system. The Thread Panel displays a stack trace for the selected thread, offering immediate insights into the current actions of an application, which is particularly useful for diagnosing deadlocks or performance bottlenecks. The Memory Panel allows users to view and edit process memory, featuring an advanced memory editor with string search capabilities. In the Handles Panel, all open handles are displayed, including essential details such as file names, current file positions, and sizes, giving a clear view of the disk operations a program is performing.

The Socket Panel provides visibility into all open connections or sockets for each process, with additional data rate information. It also has the option to show pseudo UDP connections based on ETW data, allowing users to monitor network communications effectively. The Modules Panel lists all loaded DLLs and memory-mapped files, with the ability to unload or inject DLLs as needed. Additionally, the application includes a variety of other useful panels, including Token, Environment, Windows, GDI, and .NET panels.

By double-clicking a process, you can open the Task Info Panels in a separate window, enabling the simultaneous inspection of multiple processes. The system monitoring capabilities are robust as well, featuring toolbar graphs that show real-time usage of system resources such as CPU, handles, network traffic, and disk access. The System Info Panels display all open files and sockets and allow users to control system services, including drivers. Dedicated performance panels for CPU, Memory, Disk I/O, Network, and GPU resources offer detailed graphs, making it easy to monitor and optimize system performance.

For users who need more screen space, the System Info Panel can be fully collapsed or opened in a separate window, maximizing the available area for the task panels.

Screen Shots

The same application on Linux. The Pressure graph, the Daemons tab and the Control Group and Security panels have no Windows counterpart, and the process tree follows the systemd hierarchy:

Linux

The Linux port is a native backend, not a compatibility layer: processes, threads, open files, modules, memory maps and windows come from /proc, sockets from sock_diag netlink, services from systemd over D-Bus, and thread stack traces are unwound with libdwfl from elfutils, complete with symbol offsets and file:line where debug information is available.

Two process panels have no Windows counterpart and appear only here:

Control Group â the unified cgroup this process belongs to, with its cpu, memory, io and pids accounting and limits
Security â the LSM profile (AppArmor or SELinux), seccomp mode and filter count, capability sets, and the no-new-privs flag

The toolbar gains a Pressure (PSI) graph, the share of time work was stalled waiting for cpu, memory or io â a figure Linux exposes and Windows has nothing like. Alongside those, the Services panel is presented as Daemons and drives systemd units, the process tree understands containers and sandboxes, and Create Crash Dump writes a real ELF core file â the same format the kernel and gcore produce, openable with gdb <executable> <core>.

Some things a task manager can show on Windows simply do not exist on Linux, and their panels are compiled out rather than left blank: Token, Job, GDI, .NET, RPC, Pool and Atom are Windows kernel concepts. The Heap panel is empty because glibc publishes no enumerable arenas to an outside observer, and UDP sockets carry no transfer rates because the kernel keeps no tcp_info equivalent for them.

Privileged operations

Task Explorer runs unprivileged. Reading another user's I/O counters, open files or memory â and stopping a process to write its core dump â needs privileges that a task manager should not hold all the time, so those are delegated to a small helper process started on demand under Tasks â Use Privileged Helper. It is off by default, because switching it on raises an authentication prompt, and a task manager should not do that merely because it was started. Restart Elevated remains available for a fully privileged session.

Wayland

Under a Wayland session Task Explorer runs through XWayland and works normally, with one exception: the Windows panel is empty, because Wayland deliberately provides no way for one client to enumerate another client's windows. Everything else is unaffected.

System Requirements

Windows â Windows 7 or higher, on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

Linux â glibc 2.35 or newer, and an X11 or XWayland session. The published builds are made on Ubuntu 22.04 for both x86-64 and ARM64, which covers Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm, Fedora 36 and later releases of each. The ARM64 build is tested on a Raspberry Pi 4.

Qt and the other libraries that cannot be relied upon are shipped alongside the executable and found relative to it, so the archive is self-contained: unpack it anywhere and run it, with no installation, no wrapper script and no LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Optional integrations degrade rather than fail â without systemd the Daemons panel is empty, without systemd-resolved the DNS cache is.

Building

Both platforms build from the same CMake description and need Qt 6.5 or newer.

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build

On Linux the build also assembles the self-contained output directory described above. Installer/README-portable.md covers how that works and, importantly, why the minimum glibc is decided by the machine the build runs on rather than by what gets bundled. LINUX_TESTING.md records what has been verified, what is empty by design, and what is still outstanding.

Additional Information

Task Explorer is built using the Qt Framework. On Windows it leverages the Process Hacker library and uses a custom-compiled version of the systeminformer.sys driver from the SystemInformer project, ensuring robust performance and system monitoring capabilities. On Linux it needs no kernel module at all, reading everything the kernel already exposes through /proc, /sys, netlink and D-Bus.

Support

If you find Task Explorer useful, please consider supporting the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DavidXanatos

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