How to use the Computer Hope process tool

Updated: 01/24/2018 by Computer Hope
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The Computer Hope process and log analyzing tool is a powerful and free online utility provided by Computer Hope. It enables users to look up and identify processes and files on their Microsoft Windows computer. Below are some general guidelines and tips on this tool.

What can it scan?

The Computer Hope process tool can look at an individual process, a list of files or running processes, and complete log files from utilities such as HijackThis and Combofix. As long as the information being searched for has a valid Windows file name, that file name can be extracted and searched.

How do I use it?

Type in the file names or processes you want information about, or, copy and paste the list of file names into the text box, and click the search button.

Understanding the results

If more than one file name or process is searched for, the results of all files show in a table format, as shown in this HijackThis example. The results are broken into six columns that can be sorted in alphabetical order by clicking the column heading. Below is a brief description of each of these columns.

Path icon Path - If a path or additional information related to a log is found, this information is displayed in this section. To view the information, hover the mouse over the folder image.

Process - The name of the process. If this is a known process, clicking the process name opens a new page displaying additional information about that process.

Description - Short information about the file or process.

Type - Displays icons used to identify the file type. Hovering your mouse over the icon shown gives a description of the icon if needed. Below are examples of icons used.

Unknown fileApplication iconWindows fileCan use Internet/networkSecurity related fileDLL fileAssociated with hardwareAntivirus iconCab file iconPrinter related file iconOCX file icon

Required - Displays color-coded icons to help identify if file is required or not.
Red icon = Part of Windows and should not be removed.
Orange icon = Can be removed but may cause issues.
Gray icon = Should have no issues removing or deleting.

Threat - Column to identify threats to your computer.