How to Use Get-Process in PowerShell: Syntax and Examples

Use the Get-Process cmdlet in PowerShell to list all running processes or filter specific ones by name or ID. You can run Get-Process alone to see all processes or add parameters like -Name to target specific processes.

Syntax

The basic syntax of Get-Process allows you to retrieve information about running processes. You can use it without parameters to get all processes or specify parameters to filter results.

• Get-Process: Lists all running processes.
• -Name <string[]>: Filters processes by their names.
• -Id <int[]>: Filters processes by process IDs.
• -ComputerName <string[]>: Gets processes from remote computers.

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Get-Process [-Name <string[]>] [-Id <int[]>] [-ComputerName <string[]>]

Example

This example shows how to list all running processes and then filter to show only the processes named notepad.

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Get-Process

Get-Process -Name notepad

Output

Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K)     CPU(s)     Id  ProcessName
-------  ------    -----      -----     ------     --  -----------
    123      10     15000      20000       0.03   1234  powershell
    200      15     25000      30000       0.10   5678  explorer

Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K)     CPU(s)     Id  ProcessName
-------  ------    -----      -----     ------     --  -----------
     30       5      5000       7000       0.01   4321  notepad

Common Pitfalls

One common mistake is using -Name with incorrect or partial process names, which returns no results. Also, forgetting that process names are case-insensitive but must be exact can cause confusion. Another pitfall is expecting Get-Process to show services; it only shows processes.

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Get-Process -Name note

# Correct usage:
Get-Process -Name notepad

Output

Get-Process : Cannot find a process with the name "note".
At line:1 char:1
+ Get-Process -Name note
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (note:String) [Get-Process], ProcessCommandException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoProcessFoundForGivenName,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetProcessCommand

Quick Reference

Parameter	Description
-Name	Filter processes by name (e.g., notepad, chrome)
-Id	Filter processes by process ID
-ComputerName	Get processes from remote computers
No parameters	List all running processes

Key Takeaways

Use Get-Process without parameters to list all running processes.

Filter processes by name using -Name with exact process names.

Process names are case-insensitive but must be exact to return results.

Get-Process shows processes, not Windows services.

Use -Id to target processes by their process ID.