Finding the process ID

Each process running in Windows is assigned a unique decimal number called the process ID (PID). This number is used in a number of ways, for example to specify the process when attaching a debugger to it.

This topic describes how you can determine the PID for a given app using Task Manager, the tasklist Windows command, the TList utility, or the debugger.

Task Manager

Task Manager can be opened in a number of ways, but the simplest is to select Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and then select Task Manager.

In Windows 10, first click More details to expand the information displayed. From the Processes tab, select the Details tab to see the process ID listed in the PID column.

Click on any column name to sort. You can right click a process name to see more options for a process.

Some kernel errors may cause delays in Task Manager’s graphical interface.

The tasklist command

Use the built in Windows tasklist command from a command prompt to display all processes, their PIDs, and a variety of other details.

Use tasklist /? to display command line help.

TList utility

Task List Viewer (TList), or tlist.exe, is a command-line utility that displays the list of tasks, or user-mode processes, currently running on the local computer. TList is included in the Debugging Tools for Windows. For information on how to download and install the debugging tools, see Download Debugging Tools for Windows.

If you installed the Windows Driver Kit in the default directory on a 64 bit PC, the debugging tools are located here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\

When you run TList from the command prompt, it will display a list of all the user-mode processes in memory with a unique PID number. For each process, it shows the PID, process name, and, if the process has a window, the title of that window.

For more information, see TList.

The .tlist debugger command

If there’s already a user-mode debugger running on the system in question, the .tlist (List Process IDs) command will display a list of all PIDs on that system.

PowerShell Get-Process command

To work with automation scripts, use the Get-Process PowerShell command. Specify a specific process name, to see the process ID for that process.

For more information, see Get-Process.

CSRSS and user-mode drivers

To debug a user-mode driver running on another computer, debug the Client Server Run-Time Subsystem (CSRSS) process. For more information, see Debugging CSRSS.

How to get process id by its service name with a script to variable

I have service named WinDefend and it runs on process svchost.exe
There other many svchost.exe processes and I need to find a way to get its ID.
when I run tasklist /svc I can see:

I am not sure how can I get it.
I found this command but when I tried the select «PID» it gave me empty column.

I need to get the PID of the process to variable.

6 Answers 6

tasklist is just returning text, not actual objects that have properties you can access. You can use WMI to get this information instead:

Annoying as this is, it requires you to set a unique title for your script if you want the pid for the current process. Then search for that unique title within the list of processes. Thankfully, the Title command allows you to do just that. Also see MagicAndi’s response.

Here is my batch file solution:

BTW, I’ve had the ‘pleasure’ of doing this time and time again over the years, via API, or batch, or ps. Pick your poison — on a Windows platform it’s all the same.

I found an even better way via powershell: $pid returns the current process’ process id.

An alternative way to get a process PID:

Or you can sum it up to:

Note: This will grab the first service that matches your $serviceName , if you run a service that runs several instances of itself (e.x. slack) you’ll only get the first pid. tasklist /v /fi «IMAGENAME eq slack.exe» /fo csv will return an array with each CSV line being an array entry. You can also filter this with findstr to avoid getting the column names.

EDIT: As WinDefend is a subservice of a program (In this case svchost.exe ) you may need to swap the verbose flag for tasklist to /svc like so:

alternatively search for the service’s name through a filter:

And taking into account that the filter returns a row of column names as well as the line you were looking for:

How to get the current ProcessID?

What’s the simplest way to obtain the current process ID from within your own application, using the .NET Framework?

3 Answers 3

Get a reference to the current process and use System.Diagnostics ‘s Process.Id property:

Or, since the Process class is IDisposable , and the Process ID isn’t going to change while your application’s running, you could have a helper class with a static property:

The upcoming .NET 5 introduces Environment.ProcessId which should be preferred over Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id as it avoids allocations and the need to dispose the Process object.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/performance-improvements-in-net-5/ shows a benchmark where Environment.ProcessId only takes 3ns instead of 68ns with Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id .

Not the answer you’re looking for? Browse other questions tagged .net process or ask your own question.

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