Looking for a Windows process blocker? Want to make sure your kids never run that silly game that they keep downloading over and over again? Or don’t want someone to be able to run a sensitive application installed on your PC? One way to fix these problems is to simply block the process.
Well, you’ve come to the right place. Process Blocker is a free program that does a great job of blocking unwanted processes on Windows 7, Vista, or XP.
Once you install the app on your computer, click on Configure Process Blocker in the Start Menu.
The application is very straight-forward. On the main screen, go ahead and check the box that says “Block the following applications” and then click on Add.
A pop-up dialog will appear where you can enter the information about the process:
You have several options here. You can either type in the full path, if you know it, or you can simply type in the name of the executable file, i.e. messengerapp.exe, without any path and the program will block any executable that has that name, regardless of the location. You can also click Browse and find the executable file that way.
At this point, the program will only block programs that have the exact name you put into the box. Once you choose an actual EXE file, then the lower check box will become active like below:
The check box “Block other applications having the same CRC” basically means that if someone were to rename the EXE file, it will still be able to block the process/program from running. As you can see, I am trying to block the Notepad application in Windows. If you go ahead and click Add, the blocked app will show up in the list and then click OK to close the app. It will still be running in the background and block apps as you try to run them.
The only thing to keep in mind is that by default, when you try to run a blocked app, you will see a message like this show up in Windows:
This is a little annoying if you are trying to block a program someone else may try to run and you don’t want them to know loud and clear that they are being blocked! Not only that, it even tells them the program name, which they can just open and modify at will. It would have been nice if the program had some security like a password or something.
Luckily, if you open the program and click on Information and Statistics, there is a check box that says Display tray notifications when listed applications are blocked.
Uncheck that box and now when you try to run that program, nothing happens! It simply won’t load. The user will probably think something is wrong with Windows, you know the real reason. It’s not a highly secure program as someone could technically just go to the Task Manager and kill the process! So if you really want to hide this from someone, you should probably delete the shortcuts from the Start Menu and other visible locations.
Overall though, it does do a very good job of blocking processes/programs. It gives some rudimentary stats on how many times something was blocked, but it doesn’t break it down by program.