I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit diagnosing stubborn Windows problems: sluggish laptops, desktop crashes, weird startup behavior, you name it. Over the years, I’ve used plenty of different tools, from flashy “PC optimizers” that promise too much, to hidden system utilities that actually deliver. What I’ve learned is that many of the best ones are lightweight, reliable, and give you a clear view of what’s really happening under the hood, so to speak.
Instead of relying on Windows’ built-in diagnostic tools and utilities, or worse, having to scramble to find the right application or utility when something breaks, I keep some trusted, third-party tools on my USB drive. These four tools are free, lightweight and portable, and they’re always helpful when Windows starts acting out.
Sysinternals: The free Microsoft Windows toolkit
More people should know about these official tools
If you’ve spent any amount of time digging into Windows problems, then you’ve likely heard of Sysinternals Suite. The handy toolkit was originally built by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell, then it was later acquired by Microsoft. It consists of a free collection of utilities that give you a deeper layer of insight into Windows that you can’t quite get with Windows built-in tools and utilities.
The suite has dozens of utilities, but these are the three I use primarily.
Process Explorer
Process Explorer is a more advanced version of Task Manager. It shows you exactly what processes are running, what resources they’re using, along with which files or DLLs they’ve locked, and other interesting details. If a system seems sluggish or bogged down, or you can’t delete a file, this is a good place to start your analysis.
Autoruns
Process Monitor
Windows has a habit of loading things in the background, and Autoruns gives you all the details. It shows every startup item, scheduled task, and shell extension. This tool makes it easier to identify bloatware or malware in your system.
Process Monitor (ProcMon)
This utility gives deep insight into Windows processes. It logs real-time file system, registry, and process activities. If you’re troubleshooting an application that keeps crashing, or having application installation problems, this tool can help you track down the problem.
Everything
Where Sysinternals helps analyze what’s happening in Windows, Everything helps search my hard drives. Yes, Windows search has gotten better, but it’s still slow, resource-intensive, and tied to Bing and Start menu results. When I need to know where a file is, especially on someone else’s PC, I use Everything.
Unlike Windows built-in search, Everything doesn’t crawl the contents of your files. Instead, it quickly builds an index of filenames and paths, resulting in nearly instantaneous search results as you type. There’s no lag, or background indexing, just fast search results. If you’re like me, after you use it a few times, Windows search will feel slow and clumsy.
HWiNFO
A utility for checking temps, fans, and voltages
Source:
https://www.howtogeek.com/free-tools-i-keep-on-my-usb-drive-to-fix-any-windows-pc/
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