It’s worth noting that because Word is written properly, the GUI interface doesn’t actually hang while it is waiting for the other process. In this case, Word was waiting for splwow64.exe, which handles printing from 32-bit applications. What this means is that if you have an application hanging for some reason, you can analyze the wait chain to see whether it is waiting on something that is in use.įor instance, we printed from Word, and then used this option while the print process was happening to see what would happen. This allows you to see what processes are waiting for a resource that is being used by another process. One of the new options added into Task Manager in recent versions was the “Analyze Wait Chain” option when you right-click on a task in the Details view. The WCT API is the one behind the 'Analyze Wait Chain' functionality in Task Manager and Resource Monitor. WaitingOn.exe leverages the Wait Chain Traversal (WCT) API introduced in Windows 2008/Vista. It can also display all blocked threads for all processes in the system. WaitingOn.exe displays all the blocked threads from a process and what they are Waiting On. If you install it on a customer’s machine, please remove it at the end of the troubleshooting session. WaitingOn.exe is available at, and besides functional, it’s still experimental. WaitingOn.exe a simple tool that helps troubleshoot hung applications and services. and a Blog which talks about the “analyze wait chain” feature:

Additional Information on how to prevent hangs in windows applications:.

What this means is that if you have an application hanging for some reason, you can analyze the wait chain to see whether it is waiting on something that is in use.Task Manager & Resource Monitor – Analyze Wait Chain: Beginning with Windows 8, in 2014 we added new options into Task Manager as well as Resource Monitor was the “Analyze Wait Chain” option when you right-click on a task in the Details view. Getting an application dump will not always be a smoking gun and should be used as a last resort for various reasons as missing symbols for 3 rd party applications or waiting on other processes. Troubleshooting application hangs is key to resolution.

A special shout out to Leo Fagundes for writing the WaitingOn application. My name is Susan Buchanan and today I’d like to discuss some basic troubleshooting for applications hangs using Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and WaitingOn outside of getting an application dump.

Sysinternals process