How to find out what files application accesses / uses

This is how filter area looks like, you can add various filters to track exactly what you are looking for or to eliminate things you do not want to see.

This is a nice trick to find out exactly what files your application/s accesses / uses.
Have you ever had a application that creates some files, you know they exist, but you can't find them? like cache or some system data?
or have you ever had a game and you can't find savegame folder/data for it?

There's a program called "Process Monitor" (ProcMon for short) that can find out each file that has been accessed in your PC, it can also show which registry operations are done by the application/s.

Filters

This is how filter area looks like, you can add various filters to track exactly what you are looking for or to eliminate things you do not want to see.
On this screenshot Procmon is set to capture operations made only be nVidia's "ShadowPlay" in order to find out where ShadowPlay stores the temporary recordings that are deleted when game/application is minimized or quited.

Main window of Process Monitor

ProcMon is fairly easy to use, however if you need any help with it, reply to this post and I'll explain how it works.

Download

Process Monitor is freeware and you can google for it or you can download it HERE