title: How do I determine which process is using a serial port?
body: <p>The company I work for makes hardware that communicates to the computer though a serial port. Third party companies write software that communicates with our hardware. </p>
  
  <p>There are times when I need to diagnose our hardware. However, a third party software app connects to the serial port when Windows starts up, blocking any other connection. I don't know the name of this application/service and it's not always the same one.</p>
  
  <p>Is there any way to either:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Find the name/pid of the app/service that is currently using a given serial port or</li>
  <li>Steal the serial port connection from another app.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>vb.net preferably, but I'll take a language agnostic answer as well.</p>