Identify Com Ports In Use

[Krak]

Anyone know of an app that will display a list of the current com ports in use? Serial/parallel, not network ports.

I don't need any fancy monitoring, just need a list of current active ones. I have issues with a certain program that requires a port and I get a "port in use" error from time to time, and it is a pain in the butt trying to track down what is stealing my port.

 

[PC eye]

One thing to try there is opening up the task manager?processes and look for the rnaapp. If you find that there highlight it and click the end task button. Otherwise you would need to find a 3rd party program that lists all active processes similar to what is already seen there.

 

[Krak]

A 3rd party app is pretty much what I am looking for, unless you know of a command line app already in windows (XP Pro) I could use?

I use software to connect to and program alarm systems and various cctv units. On occasion we (other techs and I) get errors like that. Typically we end up figuring out which rogue app is using the port and shut it down, but an app that would list all the ports being used would save us valuable time.

Thanks for the input.

 

[PC eye]

There was one freeware called portmon you could download at one time on a variety of sites. In fact Microsoft provides a page with a download link seen at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896644.aspx

The other thing to look at is the startup group in the msconfig utility to see what is loading up along with Windows. Anything unnecessary can be disabled there and manually started when needed rather then seeing things tied up. You would also look in the services tab there as well as with the "hide all microsoft services" option checked off.