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Get-Process

  • Reference
Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Management

Gets the processes that are running on the local computer.

Syntax

Get-Process
   [[-Name] <String[]>]
   [-Module]
   [-FileVersionInfo]
   [<CommonParameters>]
Get-Process
   [[-Name] <String[]>]
   -IncludeUserName
   [<CommonParameters>]
Get-Process
   -Id <Int32[]>
   [-Module]
   [-FileVersionInfo]
   [<CommonParameters>]
Get-Process
   -Id <Int32[]>
   -IncludeUserName
   [<CommonParameters>]
Get-Process
   -InputObject <Process[]>
   [-Module]
   [-FileVersionInfo]
   [<CommonParameters>]
Get-Process
   -InputObject <Process[]>
   -IncludeUserName
   [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Get-Process cmdlet gets the processes on a local computer.

Without parameters, this cmdlet gets all of the processes on the local computer. You can also specify a particular process by process name or process ID (PID) or pass a process object through the pipeline to this cmdlet.

By default, this cmdlet returns a process object that has detailed information about the process and supports methods that let you start and stop the process. You can also use the parameters of the Get-Process cmdlet to get file version information for the program that runs in the process and to get the modules that the process loaded.

Examples

Example 1: Get a list of all active processes on the local computer

Get-Process

This command gets a list of all active processes running on the local computer. For a definition of each column, see the Notes section.

Example 2: Get all available data about one or more processes

Get-Process winword, explorer | Format-List *

This command gets all available data about the Winword and Explorer processes on the computer. It uses the Name parameter to specify the processes, but it omits the optional parameter name. The pipeline operator (|) passes the data to the Format-List cmdlet, which displays all available properties (*) of the Winword and Explorer process objects.

You can also identify the processes by their process IDs. For instance, Get-Process -Id 664, 2060.

Example 3: Get all processes with a working set greater than a specified size

Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.WorkingSet -gt 20000000}

This command gets all processes that have a working set greater than 20 MB. It uses the Get-Process cmdlet to get all running processes. The pipeline operator (|) passes the process objects to the Where-Object cmdlet, which selects only the object with a value greater than 20,000,000 bytes for the WorkingSet property.

WorkingSet is one of many properties of process objects. To see all of the properties, type Get-Process | Get-Member. By default, the values of all amount properties are in bytes, even though the default display lists them in kilobytes and megabytes.

Example 4: List processes on the computer in groups based on priority

$A = Get-Process
$A | Get-Process | Format-Table -View priority

These commands list the processes on the computer in groups based on their priority class. The first command gets all the processes on the computer and then stores them in the $A variable.

The second command pipes the Process object stored in the $A variable to the Get-Process cmdlet, then to the Format-Table cmdlet, which formats the processes by using the Priority view.

The Priority view, and other views, are defined in the PS1XML format files in the PowerShell home directory ($pshome).

Example 5: Add a property to the standard Get-Process output display

Get-Process pwsh | Format-Table `
    @{Label = "NPM(K)"; Expression = {[int]($_.NPM / 1024)}},
    @{Label = "PM(K)"; Expression = {[int]($_.PM / 1024)}},
    @{Label = "WS(K)"; Expression = {[int]($_.WS / 1024)}},
    @{Label = "VM(M)"; Expression = {[int]($_.VM / 1MB)}},
    @{Label = "CPU(s)"; Expression = {if ($_.CPU) {$_.CPU.ToString("N")}}},
    Id, ProcessName, StartTime -AutoSize

NPM(K)  PM(K)  WS(K)   VM(M) CPU(s)    Id ProcessName StartTime
------  -----  -----   ----- ------    -- ----------- ---------
   143 239540 259384 2366162 22.73  12720 pwsh        12/5/2022 3:21:51 PM
   114  61776 104588 2366127 11.45  18336 pwsh        12/5/2022 7:30:53 AM
   156  77924  82060 2366185 10.47  18812 pwsh        12/5/2022 7:30:52 AM
    85  48216 115192 2366074 1.14   24428 pwsh        12/8/2022 9:14:15 AM

This example retrieves processes from the local computer. The retrieved processes are piped to the Format-Table command that adds the StartTime property to the standard Get-Process output display.

Example 6: Get version information for a process

Get-Process pwsh -FileVersionInfo

ProductVersion   FileVersion      FileName
--------------   -----------      --------
6.1.2            6.1.2            C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6\pwsh.exe

This command uses the FileVersionInfo parameter to get the version information for the pwsh.exe file that is the main module for the PowerShell process.

To run this command with processes that you do not own on Windows Vista and later versions of Windows, you must open PowerShell with the Run as administrator option.

Example 7: Get modules loaded with the specified process

Get-Process SQL* -Module

This command uses the Module parameter to get the modules that have been loaded by the process. This command gets the modules for the processes that have names that begin with SQL.

To run this command on Windows Vista and later versions of Windows with processes that you do not own, you must start PowerShell with the Run as administrator option.

Example 8: Find the owner of a process

Get-Process pwsh -IncludeUserName

Handles      WS(K)   CPU(s)     Id UserName            ProcessName
-------      -----   ------     -- --------            -----------
    782     132080     2.08   2188 DOMAIN01\user01     pwsh

This command shows how to find the owner of a process. On Windows, the IncludeUserName parameter requires elevated user rights (Run as Administrator). The output reveals that the owner is Domain01\user01.

Example 9: Use an automatic variable to identify the process hosting the current session

Get-Process pwsh

NPM(K)    PM(M)      WS(M)     CPU(s)      Id  SI ProcessName
------    -----      -----     ------      --  -- -----------
    83    96.21     105.95       4.33    1192  10 pwsh
    79    83.81     117.61       2.16   10580  10 pwsh

Get-Process -Id $PID

NPM(K)    PM(M)      WS(M)     CPU(s)      Id  SI ProcessName
------    -----      -----     ------      --  -- -----------
    83    96.21      77.53       4.39    1192  10 pwsh

These commands show how to use the $PID automatic variable to identify the process that is hosting the current PowerShell session. You can use this method to distinguish the host process from other PowerShell processes that you might want to stop or close.

The first command gets all of the PowerShell processes in the current session.

The second command gets the PowerShell process that is hosting the current session.

Example 10: Get all processes that have a main window title and display them in a table

Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.mainWindowTitle} | Format-Table Id, Name, mainWindowtitle -AutoSize

This command gets all the processes that have a main window title, and it displays them in a table with the process ID and the process name.

The mainWindowTitle property is just one of many useful properties of the Process object that Get-Process returns. To view all of the properties, pipe the results of a Get-Process command to the Get-Member cmdlet Get-Process | Get-Member.

Parameters

-FileVersionInfo

Indicates that this cmdlet gets the file version information for the program that runs in the process.

On Windows Vista and later versions of Windows, you must open PowerShell with the Run as administrator option to use this parameter on processes that you do not own.

Using this parameter is equivalent to getting the MainModule.FileVersionInfo property of each process object. When you use this parameter, Get-Process returns a FileVersionInfo object System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo, not a process object. So, you cannot pipe the output of the command to a cmdlet that expects a process object, such as Stop-Process.

Type:SwitchParameter
Aliases:FV, FVI
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Id

Specifies one or more processes by process ID (PID). To specify multiple IDs, use commas to separate the IDs. To find the PID of a process, type Get-Process.

Type:Int32[]
Aliases:PID
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-IncludeUserName

Indicates that the UserName value of the Process object is returned with results of the command.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-InputObject

Specifies one or more process objects. Enter a variable that contains the objects, or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

Type:Process[]
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Module

Indicates that this cmdlet gets the modules that have been loaded by the processes.

On Windows Vista and later versions of Windows, you must open PowerShell with the Run as administrator option to use this parameter on processes that you do not own.

This parameter is equivalent to getting the Modules property of each process object. When you use this parameter, this cmdlet returns a ProcessModule object System.Diagnostics.ProcessModule, not a process object. So, you cannot pipe the output of the command to a cmdlet that expects a process object, such as Stop-Process.

When you use both the Module and FileVersionInfo parameters in the same command, this cmdlet returns a FileVersionInfo object with information about the file version of all modules.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Name

Specifies one or more processes by process name. You can type multiple process names (separated by commas) and use wildcard characters. The parameter name (Name) is optional.

Type:String[]
Aliases:ProcessName
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:True

Inputs

Process

You can pipe a process object to this cmdlet.

Outputs

Process

By default, this cmdlet returns a System.Diagnostics.Process object.

FileVersionInfo

If you use the FileVersionInfo parameter, this cmdlet returns a FileVersionInfo object.

ProcessModule

If you use the Module parameter, without the FileVersionInfo parameter, this cmdlet returns a ProcessModule object.

Notes

PowerShell includes the following aliases for Get-Process:

  • All platforms:
    • gps
  • Windows:
    • ps

On computers that are running a 64-bit version of Windows, the 64-bit version of PowerShell gets only 64-bit process modules and the 32-bit version of PowerShell gets only 32-bit process modules.

To get process information from a remote computer, use the Invoke-Command cmdlet. For more information, see Invoke-Command.

You can use the properties and methods of the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Win32_Process object in PowerShell. For information, see Win32_Process.

The default display of a process is a table that includes the following columns. For a description of all of the properties of process objects, see Process Properties.

  • Handles: The number of handles that the process has opened.
  • NPM(K): The amount of non-paged memory that the process is using, in kilobytes.
  • PM(K): The amount of pageable memory that the process is using, in kilobytes.
  • WS(K): The size of the working set of the process, in kilobytes. The working set consists of the pages of memory that were recently referenced by the process.
  • VM(M): The amount of virtual memory that the process is using, in megabytes. Virtual memory includes storage in the paging files on disk.
  • CPU(s): The amount of processor time that the process has used on all processors, in seconds.
  • ID: The process ID (PID) of the process.
  • ProcessName: The name of the process. For explanations of the concepts related to processes, see the Glossary in Help and Support Center and the Help for Task Manager.

You can also use the built-in alternate views of the processes available with Format-Table, such as StartTime and Priority, and you can design your own views.