System Informer is a free tool that shows in detail what a Windows computer is doing: the running programs, how much they consume, their network connections and the files they keep open. It is published by the American company Winsider Seminars & Solutions under the MIT licence. The project was known for years as Process Hacker, created by the developer wj32 and registered on SourceForge in 2008, before being renamed System Informer.
Development is active. The latest stable build released on GitHub is version 4.0, dated 29 August 2026 according to the repository, and intermediate canary builds are offered alongside it for anyone who wants to follow the code closely.
What System Informer is for
System Informer belongs to the family of advanced task managers. Where the tool built into Windows offers little more than a process list and a few graphs, System Informer shows a full tree of programs, colours each line according to its nature and opens up a wealth of detail the system usually hides. You can see the memory in use, the threads, the loaded libraries, the registry keys in play and the file handles held by each program.
Several features are aimed squarely at analysis. The tool finds which process is holding open a file you cannot delete, lists active network connections and lets you close them, shows disk access in real time and reconstructs call stacks with kernel support. It can also create, edit and control Windows services, including driver services. This ability to reach into the core of the system rests on a component that runs in kernel mode, which sets System Informer clearly apart from a simple process viewer.
Version 4.0 widened that scope with an event log called Process Monitor, which continuously records what programs do to processes, the registry, files and handles, and with an optional link to the Hybrid Analysis service for checking the reputation of an executable. In our software library System Informer sits among the forensics and analysis tools, not far from Volatility, which works on a frozen memory image where System Informer watches the system live.
The tool is fully portable. It can run without installation, from a USB stick for instance, keeping its settings in a file placed next to the executable. That flexibility makes it a common companion for analysts who work on a suspect machine without wanting to leave a lasting trace on it.
Who is it for?
System Informer is aimed at system administrators, developers debugging a program, security analysts examining the behaviour of unknown software and advanced users who want to understand what is slowing their machine down. Its detailed reading of the system also makes it a well-liked learning aid for anyone studying how Windows works internally.
Its limits come first from its richness. The amount of information on screen can bewilder a newcomer, and several features assume an understanding of the system’s inner workings before they can be used safely. The kernel-mode component and the power to act on any process also lead some antivirus programs to flag the tool, a known false positive tied to its capabilities. Finally, System Informer runs on Windows only, from version 10 onward, so on Linux or macOS other instruments are needed.
Download System Informer safely
The downloads page on systeminformer.com offers the stable version in two shapes: a classic installer and a portable archive to unzip, both hosted on SourceForge, with their SHA-256 checksums linked to a public analysis on VirusTotal. The tool is also distributed through the Microsoft Store and the winget package manager under the identifier WinsiderSS.SystemInformer. The source code lives on the winsiderss/systeminformer repository on GitHub. The software is free and has no paid edition, its development being supported by the software company JetBrains.
Because System Informer installs a driver and acts at the core of the system, an executable fetched from a dubious download site is a genuine danger, since a malicious driver would gain exactly the same rights as the legitimate tool. The Winsider addresses, the Microsoft Store and the official GitHub repository are the only sources to trust, and comparing the published checksums confirms the integrity of the file.
Frequently asked questions
Is System Informer free?
Yes. System Informer is free software released under the MIT licence, with no paid version. It can be downloaded from systeminformer.com, the Microsoft Store and GitHub, and its development is supported by JetBrains.
What is the difference between System Informer and Process Hacker?
They are the same project. Process Hacker, created in 2008, was renamed System Informer and continues under that name at Winsider Seminars & Solutions. The old Process Hacker releases are no longer updated.
Why does my antivirus flag System Informer?
The tool installs a kernel-mode driver and can act on every process, a level of access that some antivirus programs treat as suspect out of caution. It is a known false positive when the file comes from an official source.
