How to use Sysinternals Process Monitor for Troubleshooting

Autodesk Support

Nov 1, 2017

When troubleshooting application behavior it's often a mystery on what the software is doing (or trying to do) in the background. One free utility that we often use within Product Support here at Autodesk is Sysinternals Process Monitor. Process Monitor allows real-time capture for all file system and Windows registry read / write operations on your local system. Process Monitor is something you can run on your own as part of general troubleshooting, but it can also be useful in providing Autodesk Product Support staff with details for troubleshooting a root cause.

Is an application producing a repeatable crash? Perhaps there is a file, folder, or registry key where the application is being denied access due to restricted user privileges. Maybe a security software such as a virus scanner is blocking the application from access to a critical configuration file. This is just one example where having additional visibility into the background processes can help to pinpoint the cause of the undesired behavior.

The utility is available for download from the link below:

Sysinternals Process Monitor

This is a Screencast video that will walk you through setting up Process Monitor for application activity capture:

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