A practical guide to finding the Process ID of any running application, service, background task, or system process using built-in Windows tools.
A PID, or Process ID, is a unique number assigned by Windows to each running process. Every application, background task, service, browser tab group, driver helper, or system component runs under a process, and Windows uses the PID to identify that process internally.
Knowing the PID is useful when you need to close a stuck program, identify which application is using a port, match a service to its executable file, analyze high CPU usage, or run commands such as taskkill, netstat, and PowerShell process-management commands.
| Method | Best for | Tool required |
|---|---|---|
| Task Manager | Quickly checking the PID of visible apps and background processes | Built into Windows |
| Command Prompt | Listing processes, filtering by name, using scripts | tasklist |
| PowerShell | Advanced filtering, sorting, and automation | Get-Process |
| Resource Monitor | Finding the PID of a process using CPU, disk, network, or memory | Built into Windows |
| netstat | Finding which PID is using a TCP or UDP port | Command Prompt or PowerShell |
Task Manager is the easiest way to find the PID of a running process in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The PID column may be hidden by default, but you can enable it in a few clicks.
This method is convenient when you are already investigating CPU, memory, disk, or network usage and need to match a visible process to its exact PID.
Command Prompt is useful when you need a text-based process list or want to combine PID lookup with troubleshooting commands.
Open Command Prompt and run:
The output shows process names, PIDs, session names, session numbers, and memory usage. The second column is the PID column.
Use findstr to filter the list. For example, to find the PID of Notepad:
Another useful example for Microsoft Edge:
To display detailed information, use:
The verbose view can show window titles and other useful details, which helps when several processes have the same executable name.
PowerShell provides a clean and flexible way to view process names, PIDs, executable paths, CPU usage, and other properties. This is the best option for automation and advanced filtering.
For example, to find the PID of Notepad:
To search by part of the process name:
If you need to confirm which file started the process, run PowerShell as administrator and use:
Resource Monitor is useful when you need to identify a process based on real-time CPU, memory, disk, or network activity. It displays PIDs directly in its tables.
resmon and press Enter.Resource Monitor is especially helpful when Task Manager shows high disk or network activity but you need more detail about which exact process is responsible.
Windows services often run in the background and may share host processes such as svchost.exe. To find the PID of a service, use the Services tab in Task Manager or the tasklist /svc command.
Run this command:
This shows processes and the services running inside them. It is useful for identifying which service is associated with a particular svchost.exe instance.
Example:
In this example, wuauserv is the Windows Update service. Replace it with the service name you want to check.
Sometimes you do not know the process name, but you know that a port is busy. For example, a web server, database server, VPN client, or development tool may be using a port such as 80, 443, 3306, or 8080.
Open Command Prompt or PowerShell and run:
The last column shows the PID. To search for a specific port, use findstr. For example, to check port 8080:
After you get the PID, use tasklist to identify the process:
Replace 1234 with the actual PID from the netstat output.
After finding a PID, you may want to close the process. Use caution: ending the wrong process can close applications, interrupt downloads, stop services, or make Windows unstable until restart.
If the process does not close normally, you can force it:
To force termination:
taskkill or Stop-Process.
For everyday use, Task Manager is usually enough. For troubleshooting network ports, use netstat -ano. For services, use tasklist /svc or the Services tab in Task Manager. For advanced filtering, reports, or repeated checks, PowerShell is the most flexible option.
No. A process name is the executable name, such as notepad.exe or chrome.exe. A PID is a numeric identifier assigned to a specific running instance of that process.
No, two running processes cannot have the same PID at the same time. However, Windows can reuse a PID after the original process has exited.
Modern browsers often create separate processes for tabs, extensions, GPU acceleration, audio, networking, and security isolation. That is why Chrome, Edge, and Firefox may appear with multiple PIDs.
PID values are assigned when a process starts. When you close and reopen a program, Windows treats it as a new process and assigns a new PID.
Usually no. Standard users can view many process IDs. Administrator rights may be required to see full details for protected system processes, services, or executable paths.
The quickest way to find a PID in Windows is to open Task Manager, go to the Details tab, and check the PID column. For command-line work, use tasklist in Command Prompt or Get-Process in PowerShell. If you need to identify which process is using a network port, use netstat -ano and then match the PID with tasklist.
Once you know the PID, you can investigate the process, match it to a service, check resource usage, or safely terminate it when necessary.