ContextCleaner: see every entry in the Windows 11 right-click menu, and which app added it — on the Microsoft Store.
Guided workflow variation

A modern alternative to TCPView,built for today’s developer workflow.

TCPView earned its place in the Sysinternals hall of fame. But it was designed for a different era. Port Detective is a ground-up rewrite of the port monitoring concept—Rust-native, 15 MB of RAM, with live filtering and a background Port Guard daemon.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Full PortDetective overview
One-time purchase No telemetry Local-first

windows · native Rust · free + one-time Pro · no telemetry

If this sounds like your week

TCPView is a legend. But legends age.

Sysinternals TCPView has been the go-to Windows port viewer for over two decades. It works. But it shows every TCP and UDP endpoint at once with no filtering, refreshes on a fixed interval instead of streaming live updates, and has no concept of "known" developer ports. When you have hundreds of connections open, finding the one port conflict you care about means scrolling through a wall of system services.

Where tooling usually breaks

Your toolchain evolved. Your port monitor didn’t.

You use VS Code with hot reload, containerized databases, and multiple dev servers across React, Vite, and API backends. TCPView was built when developers had one server process and a handful of connections. It has no search bar, no port tagging, no background monitoring, and no safe process termination. Every time you open it, you spend more time finding the relevant row than fixing the actual problem. A tool from 2006 shouldn’t be the best option in 2026.

Where PortDetective lands

Same mission, modern execution.

Port Detective is built in Rust for minimal resource usage—15 MB of RAM versus TCPView’s 40+ MB. It features instant live search across all listening ports, a Known Ports dictionary that auto-tags processes like Vite, React, Postgres, and MySQL, and a background Port Guard daemon that alerts you to conflicts before they break your build. Process termination uses cryptographic Process Tokens instead of raw PIDs, so you never accidentally kill the wrong application. It’s the TCPView replacement Sysinternals would build today.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Compare free vs Port Detective Pro

windows · native Rust · free + one-time Pro · no telemetry

What you get

Feature highlights

Free

live listening-port visibility with process name, PID, and executable path, instant port lookup, and 5 free kills to try safe token-guarded termination.

Pro — Unlimited safe kills

end any rogue process in one click, guarded by a secure Process Token so you never terminate a recycled PID.

Pro — Port Guard

a native system-tray daemon watches your critical ports every 250 ms and can auto-kill an intruder and relaunch the right owner.

Pro — Full stack visibility

every TCP and UDP connection across IPv4 and IPv6, smooth even with thousands of connections.

Pro — Remote & Docker aware

scan VMs, Docker bridges, and network servers, and map host ports back to the container and image that published them.

Pro — Power workflow

Ctrl+K command palette, deep parent/child process inspection, connection-history timeline with CSV/JSON export, and per-port notes with backup/restore.

Both editions

native Rust, typically under 50 MB RAM, signed, no telemetry, no account wall — one-time Pro purchase on the Microsoft Store, no subscription.

Especially when

  • Find what process is using a port on Windows before you kill the wrong service
  • Resolve EADDRINUSE and listening-port conflicts without juggling netstat, tasklist, Task Manager, and Resource Monitor
  • Keep critical local ports protected from rogue processes with an always-on watchdog (Pro)
  • Map Docker host ports to containers and scan remote hosts during developer and IT troubleshooting (Pro)
Trusted by pragmatic desktop users

Built for people who prefer tools that stay local.

Real workflows: focus timers that stay visible, batches that never leave the disk, and renames you can rewind.

Customer review 01

PinPoint: Always On Top saves me so much time as I can organize all my report materials without having to flip between windows or tabs. I love the fact that it is straightforward and simple.

Senior Accountant · Manufacturing Company · United States · PinPoint Reviewed About PinPoint
Customer review 02

I used to get so frustrated when my Taskbar would freeze and disappear. Taskbar Sentinel has eliminated that pain without subjecting me to another subscription.

Darren · Calgary, Alberta, Canada · Taskbar Sentinel Reviewed About Taskbar Sentinel
Customer review 03

OpticBatch and MetaForge are a lifesaver for me as a person with a passion for photography. They give me the ability to stay organized and keep personal information confidential when I post pictures online.

Sherri · United States · OpticBatch & MetaForge Reviewed Browse the full catalog

Quotes are shown with customer permission; names and locations appear as reviewers provided them.

Free vs Pro editions

Free vs Pro

Start free. Upgrade when you want the active layer.

Both editions are native Rust, signed, and telemetry-free. Pick the free finder or unlock the full toolkit with a one-time Pro purchase.

Recommended

Pro

Port Detective Pro

One-time

One-time purchase · Perpetual license · No subscription

Get it from Microsoft

Everything in Free, plus the active layer: Port Guard, remote & Docker scans, deep inspection, and exportable history.

Free

Port Detective

Free

No account · No telemetry · Microsoft Store

Get the free edition

The everyday port finder: see what is listening, who owns it, and 5 kills to try safe termination.

CapabilityFree Pro
Live listening-port viewer with process name, PID & pathIncluded in FreeIncluded in Pro
Instant port lookup (type a port, get the process)Included in FreeIncluded in Pro
Safe, Process-Token-guarded kills5 free killsUnlimited
TCP + UDP across IPv4 and IPv6Not in FreeIncluded in Pro
Port Guard watchdog (250 ms) with auto-remediationNot in FreeIncluded in Pro
Remote scans of VMs, Docker bridges & serversNot in FreeIncluded in Pro
Docker host-to-container port mappingNot in FreeIncluded in Pro
Deep parent/child process inspectionNot in FreeIncluded in Pro
Connection-history timeline with CSV / JSON exportNot in FreeIncluded in Pro
Per-port notes with backup & restoreNot in FreeIncluded in Pro
Ctrl+K command palette & copy-as-commandNot in FreeIncluded in Pro
Get it from Microsoft Get the free edition

Our Core Moat

Engineered to respect your system boundaries.

System Resource Monitor (Idle State Comparison)
Automata Labs low idle memory footprint compared to generic Electron applications

Lightweight Native Stack

Compiled Rust core wrapped inside an optimized Tauri shell. No heavy background node loops or duplicate Chromium engines cooking your memory footprint (<25MB idle RAM).

100% Local-First Privacy

Executes entirely on-device with full offline isolation. Absolute zero background telemetry policies, no metrics aggregation, and zero mandatory cloud-sync accounts.

Perpetual Fallback Licenses

Pay a single, clear one-time purchase price. Own your specific native software utility execution tier permanently without artificial subscription paywalls or ongoing usage tax.

FAQ

Straight answers—no glossary dump

Is Port Detective a fork of TCPView?

No. Port Detective is built from scratch in Rust with its own Windows API integration. It is not based on TCPView or any Sysinternals source code. It was designed specifically for developer and IT admin workflows around port conflict resolution.

How does Port Detective compare to TCPView in resource usage?

Port Detective uses approximately 15 MB of RAM at idle, compared to TCPView which typically uses 40+ MB. Port Detective is compiled as a native Rust binary, which contributes to its lower memory footprint and faster startup time.

Does Port Detective show UDP connections like TCPView?

Port Detective focuses on TCP listening ports, which covers the vast majority of developer port conflict scenarios (EADDRINUSE, blocked dev servers, database connections). This focused scope is what enables instant search and a clutter-free interface.

What is the Port Guard daemon?

Port Guard is a lightweight background service included with Port Detective. It continuously monitors your listening ports and can alert you the moment a new process binds to a port you care about—before you even try to start your dev server and hit an error.

Can I use Port Detective alongside TCPView?

Yes. Both tools read port data from the Windows networking stack without interfering with each other. Many users keep Port Detective running in the background via Port Guard while using TCPView for occasional deep-dive network analysis.

Related pages

A modern take on netstat — searchable, and safe to act on. A modern take on netstat — searchable, and safe to act on. A modern take on netstat — searchable, and safe to act on. Fix EADDRINUSE on Windows—without touching netstat.

Stop debugging your OS.
Start shipping your code.

Find the process on any port and kill it safely with the free edition. Port Detective Pro adds the active layer — a background Port Guard watchdog, remote and Docker-aware scans, deep process inspection, and exportable history. One-time purchase, no subscription, no telemetry.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Open full product page

Technical specifications

Technical specifications for procurement

Spec Implementation
Data Sovereignty Port and process data stays on the workstation; core features make no external network calls and no cloud dashboard is involved
Telemetry Status None; signed builds, no telemetry
Core Runtime Native Windows app built entirely in Rust (Tauri 2); typically under 50 MB RAM
Network Requirements Local inspection is fully offline; remote scans and Docker mapping are user-initiated outbound actions, not telemetry
Deployment Compatibility Windows 10 and 11; free edition plus one-time Pro purchase on the Microsoft Store
Free edition Live listening-port viewer, instant lookup, token-guarded safe kills
Pro — Port Guard Tray daemon polls watched ports every 250 ms with optional auto-remediation
Pro — Coverage TCP + UDP across IPv4/IPv6, remote scans, Docker host-to-container mapping
Pro — Workflow Ctrl+K palette, process lineage, connection history + CSV/JSON export, per-port notes