14 DAY TRIAL // A set of three highly advanced system utilities have been recently updated and are offered as free downloads from Microsoft. The tools support both 64-bit and 32-bit editions of Windows Vista, but also Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Autoruns for Windows v8.72, Process Monitor v1.22 and DebugView for Windows v4.70 are all offered courtesy of Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell from Sysinternals, a company acquired by Microsoft back in July 2006. The system tools are designed to streamline the management, troubleshooting and diagnosing of the Windows platform and the programs running on top of it. Updates for AutoRuns, Process Monitor and DebugView were introduced on August 16.
"DebugView is an application that lets you monitor debug output on your local system, or any computer on the network that you can reach via TCP/IP. It is capable of displaying both kernel-mode and Win32 debug output, so you don't need a debugger to catch the debug output your applications or device drivers generate, nor do you need to modify your applications or drivers to use non-standard debug output APIs. DebugView works on Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows for x64 processors and Windows Vista," reveals the official description of the tool designed by Russinovich.
A comprehensive view of the intricate Windows file system, registry and all the activity around the process/thread requires an advanced monitoring utility. And Process Monitor v1.22 is the right tool for the job. However, the program is not exclusively destined to troubleshooting Windows problems. The fact of the matter is that the information it produces can just as well be used to sniff out malware infections.
AutoRuns "has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP," reads the description of the utility.
You will be able to download DebugView 4.70 from here, Microsoft Process Monitor 1.22 from here and Autoruns 8.72 via this link.