Process Explorer: Task Manager on steriods

I’ve been working on troubleshooting a Netware server issue all morning. I don’t have a copy of AdRem on hand, so I’ve been using rconj.exe instead to access the server console remotely. Usually rconj works well enough, but for some reason it keeps locking up on me today. Rebooting Windows hasn’t made the problem go away. The really annoying thing isn’t just that rconj is crashing, but its crashing so bad Windows Task Manager can’t kill the process. Neither can SysInternal’s pskill (also a part of the excellent PsTools suite), which is really a rare occurrence.

I’ve finally crashed enough times to try and find a resolution to this issue. I’d download AdRem and load the nlm on the server, but the local admin doesn’t want me adding anything to his servers since his network has been so touchy lately.

I decided to try Process Explorer, another SysInternals utility, to kill my crashed rconj processes. I unzipped the program, ran the procexp.exe file, and accepted the license agreement. I was presented with the following screen:

Since rconj is a java based app, it shows up as the bottom process, javaw.exe. I right clicked the process, selected kill process, then selected yes to kill javaw.exe. My rconj program was immediately killed, a feat Windows Task Manager and pskill were unable to accomplish.

I was also able to replace Windows Task Manager with Process Explorer by selecting

Options – Replace Task Manager

Now whenever I do a CTRL-ALT-DEL and select Task Manager, Process Explorer is launched. CRTL-SHIFT-ESC works as well.