Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Process Hacker VS Winspector Spy

Compare Process Hacker VS Winspector Spy and see what are their differences

Process Hacker logo Process Hacker

Process Hacker is a feature-packed tool for manipulating processes and services on your computer.

Winspector Spy logo Winspector Spy

Have you ever used Spy++ that comes with MSVC?
  • Process Hacker Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-01
  • Winspector Spy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-19

Process Hacker features and specs

  • Open Source
    Process Hacker is an open source project, which means that its source code is freely available for anyone to inspect, modify, and distribute. This enhances transparency and community involvement.
  • Feature-Rich
    The software offers a comprehensive set of features, including process management, memory viewing/editing, and system monitoring. These features can be particularly useful for advanced users and IT professionals.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The application has a clean and intuitive interface that allows users to navigate through various functionalities with ease. This makes it accessible even to less experienced users.
  • Customization
    Users have the ability to customize various aspects of the application, such as the appearance and behavior of the interface. This allows for a more personalized user experience.
  • Performance Monitoring
    Process Hacker provides detailed performance metrics for processes, which can help in diagnosing bottlenecks and resource-heavy applications. This is valuable for system optimization.

Possible disadvantages of Process Hacker

  • Security Concerns
    Because it provides advanced system-level capabilities, there is a risk that it could be used for malicious activities if it falls into the wrong hands. Users need to exercise caution.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Some users have reported compatibility issues with certain versions of Windows or specific hardware configurations. This can limit its effectiveness on those systems.
  • Resource Usage
    Running Process Hacker itself requires a fair amount of system resources, which may affect the performance of older or less powerful machines.
  • Learning Curve
    While the interface is user-friendly, the depth and breadth of features can be overwhelming to new users. A period of learning and acclimatization may be required.
  • Support
    As an open source project, Process Hacker relies heavily on community support. Users may find that official support options are limited compared to commercial software.

Winspector Spy features and specs

  • User Interface
    Winspector Spy provides a user-friendly interface that makes it accessible for those familiar with Windows-based applications. Its design is straightforward, facilitating ease of navigation and use without extensive training.
  • Real-time Monitoring
    The tool offers real-time monitoring of message traffic, allowing users to inspect the inner workings of applications and understand message flows as they happen.
  • Detailed Analysis
    Winspector Spy provides detailed information about the messages, making it easier for developers or advanced users to diagnose issues or understand the message structure within applications.
  • Custom Filtering
    Users can set custom filters to isolate specific messages or types of messages, aiding in the efficient analysis of relevant data without the distraction of unrelated information.
  • Lightweight
    The software is relatively lightweight and doesn’t put a heavy load on system resources, making it suitable for monitoring tasks without significant performance degradation.

Possible disadvantages of Winspector Spy

  • Compatibility Issues
    Some users may experience compatibility issues with newer versions of Windows, as the tool was primarily designed for older systems.
  • Limited Support and Updates
    There is limited support and updates for Winspector Spy, leading to potential security vulnerabilities and lack of improvements over time.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its interface, there's an inherent learning curve for users unfamiliar with message monitoring and Windows internals, which may require additional learning to use effectively.
  • Potential for Misuse
    As a powerful monitoring tool, there is a risk that it could be used maliciously to spy on legitimate applications, posing a potential security threat if misused.
  • Stability Issues
    Some users have reported instability and crashes, which can be problematic during extended analysis sessions where data integrity is crucial.

Process Hacker videos

What is Process Hacker Explained

More videos:

  • Review - Detectando procesos con process hacker 2
  • Review - Using Process Hacker 2

Winspector Spy videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Process Hacker and Winspector Spy)
Monitoring Tools
71 71%
29% 29
Command Line Tools
72 72%
28% 28
Performance Monitoring
66 66%
34% 34
Utilities
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Process Hacker and Winspector Spy

Process Hacker Reviews

8 Best WinPatrol Alternatives
Process Hacker is a free, open-source system monitoring, management, and security tool for PCs. The main service of this utility is like the Task Manager of Windows with some extra features. The tabbed interface shows a list of processes, a services list, a screen showing disk activity, and another that shows disk activity.

Winspector Spy Reviews

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Process Hacker seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 40 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Process Hacker mentions (40)

  • Show HN: Appstat – Process Monitor for Windows
    For advanced end users? Why would they ditch: https://systeminformer.sourceforge.io/ ? - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • System Informer
    System Informer is a versatile system management tool designed to seamlessly monitor and analyze system resources, troubleshoot software issues, and identify potential malware threats. Offers system activity overviews, intuitive graphs, real-time statistics, active network connection monitoring, detailed disk access information, intricate stack trace analysis, and much more. Evily2k describes it "like process... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Today I learned you can pause the Windows Task Manager moving apps around
    Or Process Hacker (https://processhacker.sourceforge.io/) which IMO is even better. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Windows Explorer memory leak (Windows 10)
    I can use Process Hacker and run "Reduce working set" on it, which makes explorer.exe instantly go down to ~100MB. However, it just starts leaking RAM again and it's a matter of hours until it grows back to several GB. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • FACEIT Anti-cheat - Secure boot requirement update!
    I can't have a task manager style tool installed? It's completely safe and does NOTHING in terms of cheating, no other game has ever flagged it as false positive. Is this AC so bad that it sees the word "h4Ck3R" and thinks it needs to be removed? What else is this thing needlessly scanning my computer for? Source: almost 2 years ago
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Winspector Spy mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Winspector Spy yet. Tracking of Winspector Spy recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Process Hacker and Winspector Spy, you can also consider the following products

Process Explorer - The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'l…

WinSpy - Retrieve window information.

TeraCopy - TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, providing the user with a lot of features.

Window Detective - Window Detective is a programmer's tool used to "spy" on an application's windows...

htop - htop - an interactive process viewer for Unix. This is htop, an interactive process viewer for Unix systems. It is a text-mode application (for console or X terminals) and requires ncurses. Latest release: htop 2.

Microsoft Spy++ - Spy++ (SPYXX.EXE) is a Win32-based utility that gives you a graphical view of the system’s...