tasklist

Wrapper for the Windows tasklist command. Returns a list of apps and services with their Process ID (PID) for all tasks running on either a local or a remote computer.

Cleans up and normalizes the data.

Install

$ npm install tasklist

Usage

import {tasklist} from 'tasklist';

console.log(await tasklist());
/*
[
	{
		imageName: 'taskhostex.exe',
		pid: 1820,
		sessionName: 'Console',
		sessionNumber: 1,
		memUsage: 4415488
	},
	…
]
*/

API

See the tasklist docs for more.

tasklist(options?)

Returns a Promise<object[]> that contains the normalized results of the command output.

Examples for options below will use this interface, but you can check tasklist.stream below for usage of the stream interface.

tasklistStream(options?)

Returns a stream.Readable that returns the resulting lines, normalized, one-by-one.

Options are the same as the Promise interface.

import {tasklistStream} from 'tasklist';

tasklistStream({verbose: true}).pipe(process.stdout);
/*
{
    imageName: 'taskhostex.exe',
    pid: 1820,
    sessionName: 'Console',
    sessionNumber: 1,
    memUsage: 4415488,
    status: 'Running',
    username: 'SINDRESORHU3930\\sindre'
    cpuTime: 0,
    windowTitle: 'Task Host Window'
}
…
*/

options

Type: object

Warning

• The system, username, password options must be specified together.
• The modules and services options can't be specified if verbose is set to true.
• The modules and services options can't be specified at the same time.
• When system, username, password options are specified, the filter option can't have windowtitle and status as the parameter.

verbose

Type: boolean
Default: false

Return verbose results.

Without the verbose and apps option, tasklist returns tasks with the following properties:

• imageName (Type: string)
• pid (Type: number)
• sessionName (Type: string)
• sessionNumber (Type: number)
• memUsage in bytes (Type: number)

With the verbose option set to true but the apps option still set to false, it additionally returns the following properties:

• status (Type: string): One of Running, Suspended, Not Responding, or Unknown
• username (Type: string)
• cpuTime in seconds (Type: number)
• windowTitle (Type: string)

Note: It's not guaranteed that the username and windowTitle properties are returned with proper values. If they are not available, 'N/A' may be returned on English systems. In contrast, 'Nicht zutreffend' may be returned on German systems, for example.

Verbose example:

import {tasklist} from 'tasklist';

console.log(await tasklist({verbose: true}));
/*
[
	{
		imageName: 'taskhostex.exe',
        pid: 1820,
        sessionName: 'Console',
        sessionNumber: 1,
        memUsage: 4415488,
        status: 'Running',
        username: 'SINDRESORHU3930\\sindre'
        cpuTime: 0,
        windowTitle: 'Task Host Window'
	},
	…
]
*/

Warning: Using the verbose option may have a considerable performance impact (See: #6).

system

Type: string

Name or IP address of a remote computer (don't use backslashes). The default is the local computer.

username

Type: string
Example: 'SINDRESORHU3930\\sindre'

User specified by User or Domain\User. The default is the permissions of the current logged on user on the computer issuing the command.

password

Type: string

Password of the user account for the specified username.

filter

Type: string[]

Specify the types of processes to include or exclude. More info.

apps

Type: boolean

Displays store apps. Without the verbose option, the command returns the following data:

• imageName (Type: string)
• pid (Type: number)
• memUsage in bytes (Type: number)
• packageName (Type: string)

import {tasklist} from 'tasklist';

console.log(await tasklist({apps: true}));
/*
[
	{
		imageName: 'SearchUI.exe (CortanaUI)',
        pid: 1820,
        memUsage: 4415488,
        packageName: 'Microsoft.Windows.Cortana'
	},
	…
]
*/

With the verbose option set to true, the command additionally returns the following data:

• sessionName (Type: string)
• sessionNumber (Type: number)
• status (Type: string): One of Running, Suspended, Not Responding, or Unknown
• username (Type: string)
• cpuTime in seconds (Type: number)
• windowTitle (Type: string)

Note: It's not guaranteed that the username and windowTitle properties are returned with proper values. If they are not available, 'N/A' may be returned on English systems. In contrast, 'Nicht zutreffend' may be returned on German systems, for example.

Verbose example:

import {tasklist} from 'tasklist';

console.log(await tasklist({apps: true, verbose: true}));
/*
[
	{
		imageName: 'SearchUI.exe (CortanaUI)',
        pid: 1820,
        sessionName: 'Console',
        sessionNumber: 1,
        memUsage: 4415488,
        status: 'Running',
        username: 'SINDRESORHU3930\\sindre'
        cpuTime: 0,
        windowTitle: 'N/A',
        packageName: 'Microsoft.Windows.Cortana'
	},
	…
]
*/

modules

Type: string

List all tasks using the given DLL module name. If an empty string is given, it will list all tasks with the used DLL modules.

Note: You can't use the verbose option with this option set.

import {tasklist} from 'tasklist';

console.log(await tasklist({modules: 'wmiutils.dll'}));
/*
[{
	imageName: 'chrome.exe',
    pid: 1820,
    modules: ['wmiutils.dll']
}, …]
*/

services

Type: boolean

Displays services hosted in each process. Note: You can't use the verbose option with this option set.

import {tasklist} from 'tasklist';

console.log(await tasklist({services: true}));
/*
[{
	imageName: 'lsass.exe',
    pid: 856,
    services: ['KeyIso', 'SamSs', 'VaultSvc']
}, …]
*/

Related

• taskkill - Wrapper for the Windows taskkill command

Maintainers

• Sindre Sorhus
• Mark Tiedemann