KillProcess is an alternative Task Manager with a focus on identifying mystery processes and closing them on demand.

The program opens with some very basic information on your running processes: name, ID, 32/64-bit, path - but clicking any of these displays vastly more: command line, handle count, process creation time, memory stats, version data (as per File > Properties) and a list of loaded modules.

Clicking the "File Data" tab retrieves any available information about the file from FileInspect.com. We clicked on NvTray.exe, for instance, and the program told us this:

The nvTray.exe is a NVIDIA Tray Tools.

This file is part of NVIDIA Tray Tools v. NvTray.exe is developed by NVIDIA Corporation. NvTray.exe is usually located in the %PROGRAM_FILES% sub-folder and its usual size is 512,000 bytes.

Recommendation

The nvTray.exe process is safe, and you can safely disable it.

If FileInspect.com has nothing useful to report, the "Web Data" tab has links to run searches on File.Net or Google, opening your default browser to display the results.

A "Kill" button closes unwanted processes. Select one or more processes, click Kill, and the program sends each process a "close" message. That's the polite option, and may result (for example) in some programs displaying "Do you want to save your work?"-type alerts.

If the first method doesn't work, KillProcess can forcibly close a process. Beware, this may result in loss of data, or even crash your PC if you close some important system component. Use it carefully.

KillProcess can also automate common shutdown tasks with a "Scan and Kill List". Add process names to the list and the program can scan your PC at regular intervals - anything from once a second to once a day - and automatically kill any blacklisted process.

What's New in KillProcess 4.1

Automatic Start of Configured Scan and Kill Feature

New Parameter (/MINIMIZE) to Start KillProcess 4.1 in a Minimized State

Improvement of Scan and Kill Configuration