Process watcher · v0.1.0
The plain-English Task Manager.
Task Manager shows you 390 processes. Culprit answers one question first, "what's slowing my PC down?", in a single sentence, then shows the apps behind it and fixes the problem in one click.
Free · Windows 10 & 11 · No admin rights needed
Culprit Process Watcher
The story
When a PC slows down, Task Manager lists 390 processes, 102 of them called svchost.exe, and leaves you to work out which one matters. Most people close it again.
Culprit answers with a sentence: what's wrong, which app is doing it, and a button that fixes it. I designed and built it in six days, and it now lives in my tray, keeping an eye on things.
What it does
Built for people who aren't sure what they're looking at. It says what's wrong, who's doing it, and what to do about it.
Overview leads with one sentence, such as "Google Chrome is slowing your PC", and the fix as a button. It also spots a nearly full drive or a restart waiting for updates.
30 copies of chrome.exe become one Google Chrome row, with its real name and icon. Windows' own background processes fold into a single row.
Apps are flagged when they hog the processor, memory, graphics card or disk, freeze, or leak memory. Close, or close and reopen, in one click.
Finds the space that fills up by itself, such as temporary files, browser caches and old updater leftovers, and clears it in one click.
Reads each drive's own health report: life left, temperature and its own warning that it's failing. A failing drive tops Overview with "Back up files".
Switch the apps that open when you sign in on and off, just as Task Manager does.
The last 30 minutes, and when each app was flagged, so you can see what happened while you were away.
Close the window and a small widget sits above the taskbar. A desktop alert only appears for problems that last.
Screens
Culprit watching my own PC. Click any screen to see it full size.
Built with
A 6 MB app that runs from the tray, with Windows 11's frosted Mica glass behind it.
No UI kit: the rings, sparklines and charts are drawn live, every second.
Reads processes, graphics use and drive health the way Task Manager does.
Tests for grouping, the verdict, alerts and clean-up, plus checks on real hardware.
Behind the build
Culprit reads processes from the same source as Task Manager, so even protected Windows services report what they use. No admin prompt, ever.
Health tools usually need administrator rights. Culprit asks each drive for its report in a way Windows allows for everyone, and only hourly, so sleeping drives stay asleep.
One click can delete gigabytes, so it only touches a fixed list of known caches, never follows links, and skips anything in use or from the last day.
