Watching the files and registry entries accessed by an application while it is running?

Question

I am trying to debug some rather complex dependencies within a closed-source application that I am running inside of a custom app, and am looking for a tool to watch the application while it is running, so that I know which files and registry entries are utilized. Is there such a product available? Commercial or opensource are welcome, and it needs to run on Windows.

Answer 1

Have a look at the Sysinternals tools from Microsoft. There's a whole array of tools, but the Process Utilities section contains the most relevant tools for your task - Process Explorer and Process Monitor especially:

Process Explorer
Find out what files, registry keys and other objects processes have open, which DLLs they have loaded, and more. This uniquely powerful utility will even show you who owns each process.

Process Monitor
Monitor file system, Registry, process, thread and DLL activity in real-time.