How to save a list of running processes to a file in Windows

Sometimes, it seems that there are so many processes running on the computer that you're not sure if everything is okay. It is very likely that something suspicious or malicious has appeared on the system.

The first step you should take is to create a list of running processes and put them into a text file, so you can analyze which processes are running. Normally, people use Task Manager to view all processes, but this tool does not allow you to print a list of processes.

Thankfully, saving a list of running processes to a text file in Windows is very simple. You can save both the process ID (PID) and the size of each process in use.

Note : The steps below to save progress to an active file for all versions of Windows, including Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.

Export the list of processes from the Tasklist command

The easiest way to get a quick list of processes running on a Windows system is to use the tasklist command. To run the command properly, you need to run it from the Command Prompt with admin rights.

Once the Command Prompt is opened, enter tasklist and click Enterto see a list of the processes running on the system.

Type tasklist and press Enter to see a list of processes running on the system

This tool is very useful, but it does not give you a list of running processes in a text file. To save the process to the file, repeat the process above, but this time type the command:

tasklist > c:process_list.txt

This command will export a text file named process_list.txt to drive C :. You can change C: to any other path you want to put the file, if you like.

To view the file, just open Windows Explorer and browse to the location where you saved the process list file.

To view the list of processes in Notepad, right-click the file, select Open with> Notepad .

Select Open with> Notepad

This is the quickest and easiest way to see the processes running in Windows through a text file. It will show you the PID, session name, session number and memory usage.

Save progress to file using Powershell

Another tool that you have available to save the list of running processes to a text file in Windows is Powershell.

Powershell includes a command called get-process that provides a list of all processes running on the local computer. To see this in practice, launch Powershell by selecting the Start menu and entering Powershell.

When the blue Powershell window opens, enter get-process and click Enter. This will display a list of all processes that are active on the Windows system.

List of all processes that work on Windows systems

This gives a little more information about the processes compared to the tasklist. However, you need to know the meaning of the headers.

1. Handles: The number of handles the process has opened
2. NPM (K): Non-paged memory (not paged) that the process is using (in kilobytes)
3. PM (K): Pageable memory that the process is using (in kilobytes)
4. WS (K): Pages in memory recently used (in kilobytes)
5. VM (M): Virtual memory used by processes (in megabytes)
6. CPU (s): Processing time used by processes on all processors (in seconds)
7. ID: The process ID
8. ProcessName: The process name

This is great, but all the information is displayed on the screen, not in a file. To export this information to a file, you need to add the Out-File parameter to the Get-Process command .

Return to the Powershell screen, type the following command and press Enter:

Get-Process | Out-File -FilePath .Process_list.txt

The .Process_list.txt parameter places the file in the path where you run the command, so note that path to know where to find the process list file. After you run the command, use the same process as above to open the process list file in Notepad.

Process list file in Notepad

You will notice that the data in the file looks identical to the Get-Process output in the previous Powershell window.

Save progress to file using WMIC

The last tool you have in Windows is the Windows Command Line Utility (WMIC).

You can only use WMIC commands if you are running the Command Prompt with local admin rights. To do this, use the steps in the first section of this article to launch the Windows Command Prompt with admin rights.

WMIC gives you more information about operating processes than any other command or tool in Windows. If you only run the WMIC Process command in the Command Prompt, you will see a maximum of 44 parameters are returned for each active process.

The problem with running a command in the Command Prompt is that the output is separated by cluttered and disorganized spaces.

The output is very messy

The WMIC command is a perfect example of when the output file becomes useful. You can export a list of WMIC processes to a file with the command:

wmic /OUTPUT:C:ProcessList.txt PROCESS get /all

This will export the whole list into a text file on the C :, drive called ProcessList.txt. Instead of opening this file in Notepad, you'll want to open the file in Excel, because Excel can properly format files delimited by tabs.

1. Open Excel.

2. Select Open to open the new file

3. Select Browse and browse to the ProcessList.txt file

4. Select the file and click Open (if you do not see the file, change the file type to All Files ).

5. In the Text Import Wizard window , select Delimited> My data has headers> Next to continue.

Select Delimited> My data has headers> Next

6. In the next wizard screen, select the Space check box in the Delimiters section and select the Treat consecutive delimiters as one checkbox . Click Next to continue.

Select the Space and Treat consecutive delimiters as one checkbox

7. Select Finish to complete.

Now you will see everything you need to know about all the processes that work on your Windows system.

You will see everything you need to know about all the processes that work on Windows systems