winsiderss/systeminformer

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 14,626CAudience · ops devopsComplexity · 4/5LicenseSetup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((systeminformer))
    Inputs
      Running processes
      Open file handles
      Network sockets
      Disk I/O
    Outputs
      Resource graphs
      Stack traces
      Service status
      Process tree
    Use Cases
      Find a runaway process
      See who locks a file
      Inspect malware
      Manage Windows services
    Tech Stack
      C
      Win32
      Visual Studio

mindmap root((systeminformer)) Inputs Running processes Open file handles Network sockets Disk I/O Outputs Resource graphs Stack traces Service status Process tree Use Cases Find a runaway process See who locks a file Inspect malware Manage Windows services Tech Stack C Win32 Visual Studio

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Find which process is using too much CPU, memory, or disk on a Windows machine

USE CASE 2

Discover which process is holding a file open when Windows refuses to delete or edit it

USE CASE 3

Inspect kernel-mode, WOW64, and .NET stack traces while debugging or analysing malware

USE CASE 4

Create, edit, and control Windows services beyond what services.msc allows

What is it built with?

CWin32Visual Studio

How does it compare?

	winsiderss/systeminformer	haiwen/seafile	spacehuhntech/esp8266_deauther
Stars	14,626	14,705	14,769
Language	C	C	C
Setup difficulty	easy	hard	moderate
Complexity	4/5	4/5	3/5
Audience	ops devops	ops devops	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

The prebuilt binary is portable and needs no install, but building from source requires Visual Studio 2022 and running build_init.cmd first.

MIT lets you use, modify, and ship this in commercial products as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

System Informer is a free Windows utility for monitoring what is happening inside a computer. The README describes it as a tool that watches system resources, helps with debugging software, and assists in detecting malware. It is published by Winsider Seminars and Solutions, Inc., and the project is the successor to an older tool that the README still references by name under download statistics, called Process Hacker. It runs on Windows 10 or later, on both 32-bit and 64-bit machines. The features list is the bulk of the README. It promises a detailed overview of system activity with color highlighting, graphs and statistics that let users find processes that are using too many resources, and a way to discover which process is holding a file open when Windows refuses to let you edit or delete it. It can show which programs have active network connections, with the option to close those connections. It reports on disk access in real time. It can display detailed stack traces, including kernel-mode code, code running through Windows' WOW64 compatibility layer for 32-bit programs, and .NET code. It exposes service management beyond what the built-in services.msc console offers, allowing services to be created, edited, and controlled. The program is small, portable, and needs no installation, and is released as free software under the MIT license. The build section is short. The project requires Visual Studio 2022 or later, which can be downloaded as the free Community Edition. After cloning the repository, a script called build_init.cmd in the build folder sets up dependencies, it only needs to run again when tools or third-party libraries change. Then build_release.cmd compiles the project, or developers can open SystemInformer.sln and Plugins.sln inside Visual Studio. A separate readme inside the build directory has more detail for troubleshooting. Bugs and feature requests are tracked on GitHub Issues. The README ends with a small but practical tip for running the program from a USB stick: create an empty file named SystemInformer.exe.settings.xml in the same folder as the executable, and the program will store its settings there instead of in the user's profile. Step-by-step Windows Explorer instructions are included, with a reminder to first turn off the option that hides known file extensions, so that the new file actually ends in .xml rather than .xml.txt.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Walk me through cloning systeminformer and building it with Visual Studio 2022 Community using build_init.cmd and build_release.cmd

Prompt 2

Show me how to run systeminformer in portable mode from a USB stick using SystemInformer.exe.settings.xml

Prompt 3

How do I use systeminformer to find which process has a lock on a specific file and release it

Prompt 4

Explain the difference between systeminformer and Windows Task Manager in terms of what it can show me

Prompt 5

How do I capture a kernel-mode stack trace of a hung process in systeminformer

Frequently asked questions

What is systeminformer?

Free portable Windows utility, successor to Process Hacker, that monitors processes, services, disk, and network activity and helps with debugging and malware detection.

What language is systeminformer written in?

Mainly C. The stack also includes C, Win32, Visual Studio.

What license does systeminformer use?

MIT lets you use, modify, and ship this in commercial products as long as you keep the copyright notice.

How hard is systeminformer to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is systeminformer for?

Mainly ops devops.

Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

This repo across BitVibe Labs

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