I am looking for a PowerShell cmdlet that can provide similar functionality to the Linux Top app. Something that refreshes at some given interval and displays the process list with CPU % util.

I have seen scripts that list CPU % utilization in a loop but something like top would be way more handy as we have setup SSH/Powershell access for management (I still prefer a putty shell!)

4

17 Answers

This is a simple one-liner that will also keep the labels at the top:

While(1) {ps | sort -des cpu | select -f 15 | ft -a; sleep 1; cls}

This works because formatting the table without any parameters just drawls the default table. autosize is used to automatically adjust the column width so all the data can fit on screen.

---

Breakdown of the shortened commands:

• select -f: shortcut for -first
• ft: shortcut for Format-Table
• -a: shortcut for -autosize
• sleep: defaults to using seconds

1

A similar solution as others, but using Get-Counter instead of Get-Process:

While(1) { $p = get-counter '\Process(*)\% Processor Time'; cls; $p.CounterSamples | sort -des CookedValue | select -f 15 | ft -a}

Sample output:

Path InstanceName CookedValue
---- ------------ -----------
\\server_name\process(_total)\% processor time _total 4806.03969127454
\\server_name\process(idle)\% processor time idle 1103.7573538257
\\server_name\process(program2)\% processor time program 749.692930701698
\\server_name\process(program5)\% processor time program 563.424255927765
\\server_name\process(program1)\% processor time program 535.714866291973
\\server_name\process(program6)\% processor time program 455.665518455242
\\server_name\process(program3)\% processor time program 426.416718284128
\\server_name\process(program)\% processor time program 395.628507577693
\\server_name\process(program4)\% processor time program 335.591496700144
\\server_name\process(microsoftedgecp2)\% processor time microsoftedgecp 129.310484967028
\\server_name\process(system)\% processor time system 80.0493478367316
\\server_name\process(chrome8)\% processor time chrome 1.53941053532176

I found most of the other solutions here using Get-Process report the total CPU time since the start of the process, which wasn't useful on my server that stays up 24/7 where the top result was always svchost and system at millions of seconds.

• A true top or Task Manager equivalent would give a snapshot of the CPU usage recorded recently over some fixed time and Get-Counter provides that. I figured this alternative is worth contributing since this question is still the top Google result for powershell top.

---

Based on Example 13 from the Get-Counter docs, a breakdown of the command:

• While(1) {: Creates a loop

• get-counter '\Process(*)\% Processor Time': Selects CPU % data, which takes a significant amount of time to return, so no need to sleep

• cls: Clear for the new table

• sort -des CookedValue: Sort largest on top for CookedValue [field we're interested in]
• select -f 15: Display first 15
• ft -a: Display in formatted table

3

There's nothing that I know of that in single cmdlet form, but like you say, scripts are easy to write to emulate top.

while (1) { ps | sort -desc cpu | select -first 30; sleep -seconds 2; cls }

4

Provides nice headings at the top with every update without needing to clear the entire console:

$saveY = [console]::CursorTop
$saveX = [console]::CursorLeft
while ($true) { Get-Process | Sort -Descending CPU | Select -First 30; Sleep -Seconds 2; [console]::setcursorposition($saveX,$saveY+3)
}

You can try NTop (binaries), an htop alternative for windows, with Vi-emulation for Windows:

• Command line options:
  • C: Use monochrome color scheme
  • h: Display help
  • p <PID>: Show only the given PIDs
  • s <COLUMN>: Sort by this column
  • u <USERNAME>: Only display processes belonging to this user
  • v: Print version
• Interactive commands:
  • ↑, ↓, PageUp, PageDn, j, k: Scroll the process list
  • CTRL+← or →: Change the process sort column
  • g: Go to the top of the process list
  • G: Go to the bottom of the process list
  • Space: Tag a selected process
  • U: Untag all tagged processes
  • K: Kill all tagged processes
  • I: Invert the sort order
  • F: Follow process
    If the sort order causes the currently selected process to move in the list, make the selection bar follow it (moving the cursor manually automatically disables this feature).
  • n: Next in search
  • N: Previous in search
• Vi commands:
  • :exec <command>: Executes the given Windows command
  • :kill <PIDs>: Kill all given processes
  • :q or :quit: Quit NTop
  • /<PATTERN> or :search <PATTERN>: Do a search
  • :sort <COLUMN>: Sort the process list after the given column
  • :tree: View process tree

1

I'm not aware of a PowerShell cmdlet that provides the functionality, but here is a freeware external command that does about what you want, Mark Russinovich's pslist from the Sysinternals suite:

• pslist provides a list of executing processes in a configurable view
• pslist -s provides the sort of continuous update you want, with a default refresh rate of once per second

I prefer to use Mark's GUI Process Explorer, but pslist is handy for console sessions.

This is just a slightly nicer way, as you get to see the headings up top every time:

While (1) { Ps | Sort -desc cpu | Select -first 30; Sleep -seconds 2; Cls; Write-Host "Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) VM(M) CPU(s) Id ProcessName"; Write-Host "------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ -- -----------"
}

This is just a slightly nicer way, as you get to see the headings up top every time

Save the following to mytop.ps1, within a folder in your PATH environment variable, then use one of the following from any PowerShell console:

• mytop: [Defautl] Sort by Memory and show the first 30 lines
• mytop CPU 50: Sort by 'CPU' and show the first 50 lines.
• While(1) {$p = myTop Memory 50; cls; $p}: Refreshes every second

##################################################
# Linux top equivalent in PowerShell
##################################################
if ($args[0] -eq $null) { $SortCol = "Memory"
} else { $SortCol = $args[0]
}
if ($args[1] -eq $null) { $Top = 30
} else { $Top = $args[1]
}
$LogicalProcessors = (Get-WmiObject -class Win32_processor -Property NumberOfLogicalProcessors).NumberOfLogicalProcessors;
function myTopFunc ([string]$SortCol = "Memory", [int]$Top = 30) { ## Check user level of PowerShell if ( ([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent() ).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator) ) { $procTbl = get-process -IncludeUserName | select ID, Name, UserName, Description, MainWindowTitle } else { $procTbl = get-process | select ID, Name, Description, MainWindowTitle } Get-Counter ` '\Process(*)\ID Process',` '\Process(*)\% Processor Time',` '\Process(*)\Working Set - Private'` -ea SilentlyContinue | foreach CounterSamples | where InstanceName -notin "_total","memory compression" | group { $_.Path.Split("\\")[3] } | foreach { $procIndex = [array]::indexof($procTbl.ID, [Int32]$_.Group[0].CookedValue) [pscustomobject]@{ Name = $_.Group[0].InstanceName; ID = $_.Group[0].CookedValue; User = $procTbl.UserName[$procIndex] CPU = if($_.Group[0].InstanceName -eq "idle") { $_.Group[1].CookedValue / $LogicalProcessors } else { $_.Group[1].CookedValue }; Memory = $_.Group[2].CookedValue / 1KB; Description = $procTbl.Description[$procIndex]; Title = $procTbl.MainWindowTitle[$procIndex]; } } | sort -des $SortCol | select -f $Top @( "Name", "ID", "User", @{ n = "CPU"; e = { ("{0:N1}%" -f $_.CPU) } }, @{ n = "Memory"; e = { ("{0:N0} K" -f $_.Memory) } }, "Description", "Title" ) | ft -a
}
myTopFunc -SortCol $SortCol -top $Top

Example output:

Name ID User CPU Memory Description
---- -- ---- --- ------ -----------
sqlservr 7776 NT SERVICE\MSSQLSERVER 0.0% 19,001,488 K SQL Server Windows NT - 64 Bit
python 12872 NA\user1 0.0% 2,159,796 K Python
svchost 3328 NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 1.6% 1,022,080 K Host Process for Windows Services
onedrive 11872 NA\user1 0.0% 423,396 K Microsoft OneDrive
python 13764 NA\user1 0.0% 304,608 K Python
chrome 21188 NA\user1 0.0% 250,624 K Google Chrome
python 28144 NA\user2 0.0% 225,824 K Python
code 21384 NA\user1 0.0% 211,160 K Visual Studio Code
code 27412 NA\user2 0.0% 185,892 K Visual Studio Code
ssms 18288 NA\user1 29.5% 155,452 K SSMS
chrome 7536 NA\user1 0.0% 154,124 K Google Chrome
code 21652 NA\user1 0.0% 149,900 K Visual Studio Code
explorer 3204 NA\user1 0.0% 134,340 K Windows Explorer
python 11712 NA\user1 0.0% 130,624 K Python
chrome 21588 NA\user1 0.0% 107,448 K Google Chrome
code 10152 NA\user1 0.0% 100,880 K Visual Studio Code
code 20232 NA\user2 0.0% 99,124 K Visual Studio Code
python 22184 NA\user1 0.0% 94,800 K Python
code 14828 NA\user1 0.0% 84,872 K Visual Studio Code
searchui 13344 NA\user1 0.0% 78,260 K Search and Cortana application
com.docker.service 10644 NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 0.0% 77,332 K Docker.Service

Additional credit to answers from rokumaru, LotPings, and DBADon

This may also do the trick:

function htopish { Param ( [Parameter(Position=1)] [Alias("l")] [int]$TotalList=24, [Parameter(Position=2)] [Alias("r")] [int]$Invertal=1 ) Begin {} Process { While ($true) { $CounterSamples = Get-Counter '\Process(*)\ID Process','\Process(*)\% Processor Time','\Process(*)\Working Set' | Select-Object -Expand CounterSamples Clear-Host $CounterSamples | Group-Object { Split-Path $_.Path } | Where-Object {$_.Group[1].InstanceName -notmatch "^Idle|_Total|System$"} | Sort-Object -Property {$_.Group[1].CookedValue} -Descending | Select-Object -First $TotalList | Format-Table @{Name="ProcessId";Expression={$_.Group[0].CookedValue}},@{Name="ProcessorUsage";Expression={[System.Math]::Round($_.Group[1].CookedValue/100/$env:NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS,4)}},@{Name="ProcessName";Expression={$_.Group[1].InstanceName}},@{Name="WorkingSet";Expression={[System.Math]::Round($_.Group[2].CookedValue/1MB,4)}} Sleep -Seconds $Invertal } } End {}
}

• Function relies on the Get-Counter samples and will output the ProcessId,ProcessName, ProcessorUsage, and WorkingSet.
• This counter sample could be further enhanced to include User and CommandLine in the output, but I haven't yet worked out a performant way to do so.

I wrote wttop, a top for the new Windows Terminal that can be launched via Powershell.

This comment from Mark should get more recommendation because it does almost exactly what the question was and it works:

• Provides the nice headings at the top with every update without needing to clear the entire console.

  $saveY = [console]::CursorTop
  $saveX = [console]::CursorLeft
  while ($true) { Get-Process | Sort -Descending CPU | Select -First 30; Sleep -Seconds 2; [console]::setcursorposition($saveX,$saveY+3)
  }

1

I want to point out that if you would like a Linux-like environment for Windows you can use Cygwin, as it brings a Linux-like environment to Windows, where you can use almost every command.

If you wish to filter by process, use findstr:

while (1) { Ps |Findstr explorer | Sort -desc cpu | Select -first 30; Sleep -seconds 2; Cls }

You might want to launch resource monitor from Powershell via resmon, which can be closed via Alt+F4, switching focus back to the Powershell terminal.

1

Something else to look at is SysInternals

• These are command-line tools to dump all processes, along with Process Monitor and Process Explorer.

The below command will give the top 10 CPU utilization, with output refreshed every 5 seconds:

while(1) { Ps | Sort-Object -Property CPU -Descending | Select -First 10 Write-Host "output will be refreshed in 5 sec's `n `n Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) CPU(s) Id SI ProcessName" Sleep -Seconds 5
}

0

To run top directly from cmd, you'll need to create %WinDir%\top.bat with this code:

@echo off
Cls && @echo TOP Program initialisation. Please Wait...
Powershell -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -command "& { Cls While(1) { Ps | Sort -des CPU | Select -f 35 | Ft -a; sleep 2; Cls }
}"

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