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I've been spending the last few hours with procmon trying to get the registry key for the "Number of running APPLICATIONS" (Not processes).

The value I'm talking about is the number of lines in the Applications tab in task manager.

I would like to know where task manager is getting this value from.

Thanks

Joe Miller
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    related: [How do you list all processes on the command line in Windows?](https://superuser.com/questions/914782/how-do-you-list-all-processes-on-the-command-line-in-windows) – Mokubai Sep 09 '17 at 17:20
  • From [Use Windows PowerShell to count the number of unique processes](http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/WindowsServer2012/AdminTips/Miscellaneous/use-windows-powershell-count-number-unique-processes.html) the command `get-process | Sort-Object name | Get-Unique | measure` in PowerShell will give you the count of processes on your system. – Mokubai Sep 09 '17 at 17:23
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    Why do you think that value is stored in the registry? – DavidPostill Sep 09 '17 at 17:39
  • Where is the application tab? I do not see any application tab in task manager. – Biswapriyo Sep 10 '17 at 02:47
  • @Biswa In Windows 10 "Applications" is renamed to "Processes" and "Processes" was renamed to "Details" (the change took place in Windows 8). – Alberto Martinez Sep 10 '17 at 12:30

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I'm afraid than the answer is "no" because:

  • The registry is primarily used for storing settings, not information about the current state of the operating system (Windows 98 had special branch of the registry for performance info, but NT versions of Windows never had it AFAIK, they use performance counters).

  • In Windows there is no "low-level" concept of application (in the broad sense, not Windows Store Apps), they are just processes. The concept of applications the Tasks Manager use is more or less "processes associated with a window visible to the user", maybe with some tweaks.

For example, run a program that has the option of maintain an icon in the notification (tray) area next to the clock when its main window is closed, like Keepass. When the main window is visible the program appear in the application list, but if you close the main window the program disappear from the applications list, and reappears when the main window is shown again (although the same process has been running the whole time).

Edit: In Windows 8 with the revamp of the Task Manager the "Applications" tab was renamed to "Processes" and the "Processes" tab was renamed to "Details". Note that this only changed the name, not the contents, the full list processes is still in Details and Processes only shows processes with visible windows (I suspect that the change was to differentiate "regular" apps from Windows Store Apps).

Alberto Martinez
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