How do I find out which process owns any given window?

SCENARIO: An error message has popped up on your Windows XP machine, but you don’t know which one of the 30 or so active processes generated the error. You need to resolve the issue.

ANSWER: This exact scenario happened to me last week at one of my clients, and I developed a method that solved that problem, and another one since. I hope it can help you too. Here’s how I did it.

Step 1: visit SysInternals at http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/utilities.shtml and download the current version of Process Explorer. At the time of writing this article the current version is 8.61. Install Process Explorer on the troublesome PC.

Step 2: Since V8.5 of Process Explorer, SysInternals have added the Finder Tool that allows you to identify which process owns any given window. All you have to do is drag the Finder Tool icon over the top of the window in question. If that window happens to be an error message window, then it will tell you what process generated the error. Beautiful!

 

Paul Eddington

KB Keywords: error system process track troubleshoot pid tasklist netstat