Pviewer Remarks

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

PViewer Remarks

The Process Viewer dialog box contains the following elements:

Memory Detail
Click this button to see details about memory use for the selected process.

Kill Process
Click this button to stop the selected process. Caution
- Do not attempt to stop processes required for running Windows 2000 or Windows NT. Make sure you understand which program owns a process before attempting to stop it.

Computer
Shows the name of the computer whose processes are currently displayed (default=local computer). To view the processes on a remote machine, type the UNC path to the computer in the space provided and then click the Connect button.

Process
The name of the process followed, in parentheses, by the process ID number in hexadecimal format.

Privileged Time
Privileged Time is the percentage of elapsed time that the threads of the process have been executing code in Privileged Mode, a processing mode that allows direct access to hardware and all memory. Privileged Mode is designed for operating system components, but Windows system services often run in Privileged Mode to gain access to data that is not accessible to User Mode threads. This value does not include Privileged Time that Windows components spend on behalf of the process.

User Time
User Time is the percentage of elapsed time that the threads of the process execute code in User Mode. User Mode is a restrictive processing mode designed for applications and environment subsystems. Application and system service threads spend most of their time executing in User Mode, but the operating system switches threads to Privileged Mode to gain access to operating system services.

Process Memory Used
The current number of bytes in the Working Set of this process. The Working Set is the set of memory pages touched recently by the threads in the process. If free memory in the computer is above a certain threshold, pages are left in the Working Set of a process even if they are not in use. When free memory falls below the threshold, pages are trimmed from Working Sets. If they are needed, they will then be soft-faulted back into the Working Set before they leave main memory.

Process Priority
The current base priority of this process. Threads within a process can raise and lower their own base priority relative to the base priority of the process.

Threads
Thread State is the current state of the thread. It is 0 for Initialized, 1 for Ready, 2 for Running, 3 for Standby, 4 for Terminated, 5 for Wait, 6 for Transition, 7 for Unknown. A Running thread is using a processor; a Standby thread is about to use one. A Ready thread is waiting for a processor because none are free. A thread in Transition is waiting for a resource in order to execute, such as waiting for its execution stack to be paged in from disk. A Waiting thread has no use for the processor because it is waiting for a peripheral operation to complete, or a resource to become free.

Thread Priority
The current base priority of this thread. The system might raise the thread's dynamic priority above the base priority if the thread is handling user input, the priority can be lowered agian when a user is no longer interacting with the thread. Windows will never lower the thread below the base priority level.

Thread Information
Context Switches is the rate of switches from one thread to another in a second. Thread switches can occur either inside of a single process or across processes. A thread switch can be caused either by one thread asking another for information, or by a thread being preempted by another, higher-priority thread becoming ready to run.