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ProcessThread Class

Represents an operating system process thread.

Namespace: System.Diagnostics
Assembly: System (in system.dll)

public class ProcessThread : Component
public class ProcessThread extends Component
public class ProcessThread extends Component

Use ProcessThread to obtain information about a thread that is currently running on the system. Doing so allows you, for example, to monitor the thread's performance characteristics.

A thread is a path of execution through a program. It is the smallest unit of execution that Win32 schedules. It consists of a stack, the state of the CPU registers, and an entry in the execution list of the system scheduler.

A process consists of one or more threads and the code, data, and other resources of a program in memory. Typical program resources are open files, semaphores, and dynamically allocated memory. Each resource of a process is shared by all that process's threads.

A program executes when the system scheduler gives execution control to one of the program's threads. The scheduler determines which threads should run and when. A lower-priority thread might be forced to wait while higher-priority threads complete their tasks. On multiprocessor computers, the scheduler can move individual threads to different processors, thus balancing the CPU load.

Each process starts with a single thread, which is known as the primary thread. Any thread can create additional threads. All the threads within a process share the address space of that process.


The primary thread is not necessarily located at the first index in the collection.

The threads of a process execute individually and are unaware of each other unless you make them visible to each other. Threads that share common resources, however, must coordinate their work by using semaphores or another method of interprocess communication.

To get a collection of all the ProcessThread objects associated with the current process, get the Threads property of the Process instance.





.NET Framework

Supported in: 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

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