System Explorer, A Lightweight Task Manager Alternative

When we first reviewed System Explorer back in 2007, we came to the conclusion that it was a great Task Manager, Process Explorer and Autoruns hybrid. The developers of System Explorer have released version 3.8.0 yesterday, and I would like to use this release to publish an updated review here on Ghacks.

System Explorer is offered as a portable version and installer. The latest version brought full support for 64-bit operating systems, making the software compatible with all versions of Windows from Windows XP on.

When you first start System Explorer you get the option to run a security scan on the system. This optional scan checks all running processes against an online database. Results are then displayed in the Processes tab next to each process.

The program itself divides information into tabs at the top. The four tabs Tasks, Processes, Performance and History are displayed by default, with options to add new tabs with a click on the tab-bar’s plus icon. Here you can enable a good dozen additional services, from auto start entries to installed software, all open connections or installed system drivers.

The process manager displays all running processes in tree form by default so that you see dependencies right there. Each process is listed with its name, cpu and memory utilization, security status, process id and start up parameters if available. A filter at the top allows you to hide Microsoft process, services or processes from all users. A real time search lets you find process fast, and the convenient right-click context menu offers to check a file at online virus scanning services Virustotal or Jotti, or on Google, Process Library or the service’s own process database.

It is furthermore possible to change process affinities and priorities temporarily or permanently, and to end, suspend or restart processes right from within the interface.

The performance tab informs you about the processor and ram usage. One interesting aspect is the highlighting of the process that is taking up most of the system’s Ram and swap (which is Firefox in this case).

The autoruns tab displays all auto-start programs and scheduled tasks. You can hide Microsoft items here to get a better overview of third party programs that are run during system start.

You can disable programs that are loaded during log on with a single click.

You can configure System Explorer to replace the default Windows task manager. The program is then opened when you use the Ctrl-Alt-Esc hotkey to bring up the task manager.

System Explorer is one of the top task manager replacements for the Windows operating system. You can download the latest program version from the developer website.

Control Applications and End Processes with Daphne

Windows Task Manager allows us to monitor processes, services, and running applications and also provides control over these so they can be voluntarily ended if needed. There is a replacement for Task Manager that offers more and takes it to the next level, enabling you to end processes at a predetermined time. This replacement is software called Daphne. With Daphne, you can set applications to run always-on-top, alter priorities of processes and threads, and features an online search for information on unknown processes from a database at drk.com.ar. The features of Daphne don’t stop there. It is an incredible application with which you can include different traps, add items to the kill menu and integrate with the Windows context menu. You can identify and copy the path and name of process properties in detail from a clear view that also highlights processes using more memory than the allotted limit. There are a number of other features besides process management to top it all off.

If this sounds like something you want to try out, you can download Daphne for free from this link:

The setup is typical and the parent folder will be found in Windows\Program Files(x86). You can choose to open the application after setup or use the desktop icon to open it later.

You can view %CPU, PID, Process, Path (where specified), Owner, Priority, Class, Memory occupation, Peaks, Swap, Thread, I/O reads and I/O writes. This is all displayed in the main window and the options panel is at the bottom of the window.

The dropdown menu gives you the different actions that you can apply to specific processes. Select the action you want to execute and then drag the icon to the left of the search box and drop it on the process to which you will apply the action.

Windows Task Manager begins to look very limited in comparison to the functions of Daphne. You can use the right-click context menu to choose a variety of options for actions. An interesting feature to demonstrate as an example is the ability to kill a process at an application or process at a particular time, select the process and right-click and choose “Kill at” from the context menu. You may then set the date and time to kill the application. In this example, Yahoo Messenger is selected to be killed at a specific time. This is useful for stopping this application when you don’t want to use it anymore. It is a good application, but the pop-up messages can get annoying after a certain period of time and it is convenient to have it stop automatically.

Use the Settings button in the bottom pane to customize different options such as startup behavior, setting traps, enable Windows Explorer integration, and advanced settings configuration. Highlight the process or application that you want to set options for and click the Settings button to access these options.

Click the Daphne button to see hidden applications, schedule system shutdown, show installed software, etc.

Daphne is quite versatile and easy to learn. It is compatible with Windows XP, Windows 7, and Vista for 32-bit and 64-bit versions. It certainly offers a level of control that exceeds that of Windows Task Manager alone.

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© Melanie Gross for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: process manager, task-manager, windows software, windows task manager

Microsoft Readies Task Manager For Large Scale Computer Systems

When you look at the performance view of Windows Task Manager on your desktop PC you probably see between two or eight logical processors listed in the interface. On large scale computer systems running Windows 7, the count may be a lot higher. Microsoft showed a screenshot of the performance tab of Windows Task Manager with 160 logical processors.

The issues with the old task manager was that it was difficulty to compare the cells in the cpu usage history with each other. Microsoft has identified three core limitations with regards to the cpu charts in the Windows 7 task manager.

First the already mentioned lack of effective real-time cpu usage comparisons. Then that the graphs were reduced in size the more cpu processors were displayed in the performance chart, and finally that it was almost impossible to identify a corresponding processor ID.

Microsoft has made significant modifications to the Task Manager performance tab under Windows 8. The new features have been implemented in a development version of the operating system that has been produced after the release of the Windows 8 Developer Preview.

When users open the performance tab in the Windows 8 Task Manager, they will notice that Microsoft has integrated a heatmap into the display.

Microsoft has done away with the graphs and replaced the information with percentage values showing the cpu load.

In addition, hovering over any processor ID on the map displays the logical processor ID in a tooltip right in the task manager. The Task Manager scales well even to large data sets or small windows. A scrollbar is displayed in the latter case to make enough room for displaying up to 640 logical processors.

The heat map is an interesting idea for large scale systems. It in combination with the direct display of processor loads and individual process identifications a great upcoming enhancements for server administrators.

It is however not clear why Microsoft in the same news post mentioned that users could set the cpu affinity of each process in Windows individually, as it is a feature that is has been available for a while. Unless of course the settings are saved over sessions.

You can read the new post over at the Building Windows 8 blog.

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: cpu core affinity, performance, task-manager, windows 8, windows task manager

Windows 8 Task Manager, A Step In The Right Direction?

If you have followed the buzz surrounding Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8 you may have noticed that the Redmond company has redesigned the Windows Task Manager. When you first open it it only displays programs that have been started by the user. While that’s probably ok for the majority of users, it is nothing that experienced users would want to work with.

A click on More Details in the Task Manager expands the display to make it look more like the Task Manager known from previous Windows versions.

When you look closer though you will notice that there are fundamental differences that may make the Task Manager unusable for system administrators and tech savvy users. Lets take a look at the Task Manager in Windows 8:

And now as a comparison the Task Manager in Windows 7:

Probably the first thing that you will notice is that the Windows 8 Task Manager is dividing processes into groups like Applications, Background Processes or Windows Processes. This may provide a better overview of tasks, but some users may criticize that it is now more difficulty to look at all tasks as they are not sorted alphabetically anymore. You can change the display with a right-click on the status bar and a click on “Group by Type” there.

If you look closer, you will notice that Windows 8 displays service and application names instead of the process executable. Microsoft has removed the option to add or remove columns from the View menu. You now need to right-click on a column in the Task Manager to see the selection of available information that you can display in the window. Among the options is the process name which adds the file executable to the interface again.

Good thing is that Windows will remember the modifications that you have made to the Task Manager. It will launch the task manager in detailed view directly and with the layout changes that you have made in a previous session.

I personally dislike the way the new Task Manager is delivered to the user. The default state is absolutely useless and the detailed view only becomes a working solution once you make the modifications mentioned above. Once you have modified it it resembles the old task manager. Some users on the other hand may feel the need to switch to a task manager replacement like Process Explorer instead.

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: process explorer, task-manager, windows 8, windows task manager

Customize Task Manager Appearance in Windows 7 with Task Manager Modder

This is for the user who enjoys customizing the look of various aspects of Windows. You have already set custom desktop backgrounds and polished up the toolbar. You have set up your own choice of screensavers transcending the basic defaults. Now, what about the Task Manager? Since you like to customize appearances in Windows 7, there is an easy way to alter the color scheme in Windows Task Manager. Task Manager appears rather dull with its default colors and Task Manager Modder, a free utility, is the perfect way to add some flair to it. Task Manager Modder is simple to install and comes as a .zip file.
You may download Task Manager Modder from this link. Click on Run when prompted and the Zip file will come up.

Double-click the application to open and install. Task Manager Modder will launch immediately after setup. The first things to appear will be a Readme file with the User Agreement and some instructions on how to use Task Manager Modder. Once you have reviewed this, agree by clicking yes on the window shown in the screenshot below.

It is not necessary to create a restore point prior to setup, as you can use the utility to easily restore default settings. However, if you truly want to be able to restore, create a restore point anyway. It certainly cannot cause any harm. The management console is simple to use and it is fun to play around with. Granted, this is by no means necessary.

The toolbar at the bottom of the window allows you to adjust the color settings for the Bar, Hex Digits, Hex Memory Line, Hex CPU Line and the Hex Grid. Make sure to close the Task Manager before making modifications. You can start with the Bar and use the sliding control to adjust the color. For the other settings, check the boxes next to them and then click on the buttons next to the boxes. This will open a window in which you can select custom colors from the grid. After you have changed the color scheme, click “Modify Taskmgr”. Task Manager will generally open at this point and you will see the active changes. Depending on your computer settings, Task Manager may not open and you can open it manually.

The modified appearance can be adjusted any way you like. The permutations of color schemes for Task Manager are numerous and flexible. Best of all, you are not stuck with it. It is easy to change the appearance at any time or restore default settings. Just shut down Task Manager and make modifications as before. Here is an example of a quick change that took exactly 1:07 minutes to implement.

That is all there is to it. Now you have an additional customization utility in your toolbox. Virtually all Windows in the operating system can be customized using the right tools.

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© Melanie Gross for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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