How can I determine what process a window belongs to?

Question

Every time I start up windows vista lately, I see a random floating window. It is a tiny little window with no title, and only the resize, maximize and restore buttons. I'd post an image, but I don't have reputation here yet.

I can close it, and it does indeed go away, but I would love to figure out what it is and stop it from popping up at all. I used Autohotkey's window spy on it and all I learned is that it is a swing window, which doesn't help me out a whole lot.

Is there a good way to identify which process it belongs to and figure out how to kill it?

Answer 1

Use Process Explorer, it allows you to identify the window and then you can check the properties of the process to figure out the command line used. This command line will help you determine what exactly has been launched, this helps to figure out where Java applications and scripts are located...

Just drag the icon over the window.

For a complete list of start-up applications, services and drivers; check Autoruns.

Answer 2

I'm not too sure if this works for Java applications, but you can call up Task Manager, under the Applications tab, right-click Go to process, which highlights the offending process in the Processes tab. You can then kill it.

For Windows 10

You can call up Task Manager, under the Users tab (or Processes tab, either is fine), right-click Go to details, which highlights the offending process in the Details tab. You can then kill it.

Answer 3

Swing seems it belongs to JAVA. Look for a java(w).exe. You can also see what process it belongs to by using the task manager. Go to "tasks", right click the window and choose "switch to process", it'll show you what process it is.