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DonationCoder.com Software => Older DC Contests and Challenges => N.A.N.Y. 2009 => Topic started by: justice on December 04, 2008, 06:07 AM

Title: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.21
Post by: justice on December 04, 2008, 06:07 AM
NANY 2009 (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?board=273.0) Entry Information
Application Name JustCloseSomeTasks
Version1.21 [July 08, 2009]
Short Description An utility to let you easily close inactive tasks.
Supported OSes Windows XP/Vista
Download Link* NANY Release - See end of post
* Latest Version (http://justice.dcmembers.com/pages/download.php)
* or inside the program Help >check for updates
Author Link to Author's Profile page (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=37959)
Donate (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=dlist;sa=search;search=37959;fields=uid)


Description
JustCloseSomeTasks is an utility to let you easily close inactive tasks. It saves taskbar space by offering you to close the stuff you've not used for a while. Tasks are automatically marked for closing when they're not used for a certain time period (expiry time). The program will learn your behaviour and adjust this expiry time.

I use a lot of programs, and many at the same time. Because of this when a lot of windows are open the taskbar becomes cluttered  and I lose the overview required. JustCloseSomeTasks knows which programs I've not used and helps me manage.

Screenshots
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Usage
Installation
Portable installation, DcUpdater support via help menu

Using the Application
Press the hotkey button (Ctrl-[ by default - change via system tray -> preferences) and all windows are listed with the ones older than 120 seconds checked. press the close button to close these tasks. The program will learn and adjust the auto-marking period based on your usage.

Known Issues
* If installing under windows vista to the Program Files folder, please be aware that the program might not be able to read it settings file. Run it once as an administrator to have the settings.ini created.
* Applications that don't communicate their window title or ID are hidden from the list for safety reasons. If you know any please let me know as I'd like to add support for the most vocal missing ones.

Download Page (http://justice.dcmembers.com/pages/download.php)
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Alpha: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: deviantopian on December 04, 2008, 08:34 AM
I just tried it out briefly and have one small criticism - when I press the hotkey or double click the tray icon, I get a balloon notification from the tray icon which says "Closing older tasks...". I think that's a little confusing as it suggest the program is taking action immediately, rather than allowing you to choose which tasks to close.

Richard
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Alpha: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 04, 2008, 08:56 AM
I was just going to answer this with a 'thanks it needs a bit of cleaning up the message was left in unintentionally' but with the list of known issues I think it's better to take the application offline just now until a more developed version is ready. If you want to test it and give feedback in the meantime just ask and i'll send you a link.
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: deviantopian on December 04, 2008, 09:17 AM
It's probably best if I wait until you add the program back here 8)
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 05, 2008, 05:42 AM
Justice: If you're after testers, how about putting the link back up and requesting testers?
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 05, 2008, 05:45 AM
Ok well let's just see what you come up with then, I readded the link ;) Please don't be discouraged when the list clears but if you can help me find out when it clears that would help a great deal.

version 1.01
* Wording fixed
* removed traytip
* menu no longer adds seperators
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 05, 2008, 08:12 AM
I've made some changes to your script, and it's ceased clearing the Log.

I added the following to the Timed: Procedure (if that's what it's called)
Code: C [Select]
  1. if (TitleNew="")
  2.           return

as a lot of "hidden" windows were being picked up when accessing the TaskBar etc.

I'm not sure why that works, but I just thought "If it aint titled I don't want to know..."

Sometimes an empty Title had an ID and sometimes not.

I also moved the lines:
Code: C [Select]
  1. Log:=NewLog
  2. TitleOld=%TitleNew%
  3. active_id_old := active_id

Inside the If active_id<>%active_id_old% block (but that doesn't make any difference.
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 05, 2008, 08:40 AM
Tiny issue:

The "Close Tasks" button is not anchored to the bottom of the window so does not move when the window resizes.
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 05, 2008, 08:52 AM
hmm well the TitleNew fix doesn't fix it for me. I'll have to rework the script again on monday or so, I just spent the last 2 hours debugging without avail ;)
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 05, 2008, 08:59 AM
Well it sort of did for me (my list was disappearing much more frequently), but I've just been sitting here opening and minimizing and closing windows, and the minimized windows get lost:

They become active to minimize them, which means that they are not included in your list, then when minimized they never get back on unless you unminimize them then make a different window active.

So if you've got lots of windows open, they should all show up, but after minimizing them, the list will be empty. Is that the way it's meant to work?
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 05, 2008, 09:11 AM
Aha! excellent :D great work Perry
That's not how it's meant to work but I'll be able to fix it now.
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 05, 2008, 08:18 PM
 :-[ I've not really programmed in AutoHotKey, I'm more used to AutoIt3, but that function was the only area I could see that things could go wrong, so I added a check for when the active window was skipped over (removed from the list).

The other small point is that I thought that I saw a line of code that should have brought in all the currently open windows (at least that's what the comment suggested I think). I'm not sure that was working: but I think it'd be an idea to get a list of currently open (minimized or not) windows and use the start time as the last active time.

BTW: I think this is a great idea  :D
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 09, 2008, 08:41 AM
I keep thinking it is easy to keep a list of windows, by time of last activity, but I find it a really hard problem! Mostly this is because autohotkey makes it so hard to keep an multi-field listing, so I'm considering to use sqllite just so i can use the sql syntax, which is ridiculous.

Anyway I uploaded v1.02 which improves the listing of windows, stops the list from emptying, but the active window doesn't get updated again when you revisit it so it's still useless except for helping me. ;)
Title: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks v1.03 released
Post by: justice on December 09, 2008, 10:19 AM
Version 1.03
Date: 16:11:39, 09 December 2008
Message:
* Loop now shoes newest first, oldest at bottom
* Finally sorted out most loop bugs
* Checking for updates now runs without visible commandbox.

Ok this is the first version that can be tested for realworld use; I think I got the listing issues sorted mostly now.
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 10, 2008, 06:13 AM
I'm wondering what I can add further to this app, so if you have ideas and suggestions please post them!

I've been thinking about finding answers to central questions that affect the effectiveness of this app:
1. When does a task become inactive?
2. When is your taskbar organised?
3. Are these two problems or are we talking about the same problem?
4. how much control do people want over this?

At the moment I define inactive that a task isn't used for a certain time period. So when JCST is activated, all tasks that have not been active for X seconds get marked. With testing i'm changing the value of this setting a lot and have come to realize the optimal setting might be different for everyone depending on how you use your pc.

If however the goal is to have your taskbar organised, why not specify a maximum number of tasks you want running (the human brain finds it harder to distinguish between 8 or more items) and when activated JustCloseSomeTasks would mark all windows that have been inactive longer than task number 7 + when less then this number, any tasks that have been inactive for an long period of time (say 2x the average time for all tasks that were closed in the past). That way hopefully a better selection of tasks would be checked.

Perhaps I could bring this 'training' factor to the regular setting by having no tasks marked by default and letting the program learn from the user's action. That way no configuration is required. It could know how many tasks you have running normally and when activated either mark the surplus tasks or mark tasks as described in the previous paragraph.

Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 10, 2008, 06:48 AM
Training is a great idea! So JCST would remember the InactiveSeconds of closed windows and the TotalWindowsLeft and average them over time? Or the minimum? You'd need an option to reset the "training", or maybe that should be "forget" the training.

The ability to check which ones to delete give ultimate control!

A WhiteList might be a good idea. I often leave the browser open to get back to it later, and I don't really want it closed.

 :) I also appreciate the feedback for the doubleClicks!

I'd also use a minimize window as well (I tend to have my screens a little cluttered).
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 10, 2008, 07:17 AM
Thanks again Perry you really help me with your comments! Not sure if how I would compute the time, I think i have to just try different strategies and see what happens. Whitelist will be added, as well as a forget training button.

I'd also use a minimize window as well (I tend to have my screens a little cluttered).
-Perry Mowbray (December 10, 2008, 06:48 AM)
What do you mean with this though?
Title: Re: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 10, 2008, 07:42 AM
The current option is to close the window. I think I'd also use minimize window. I have two monitors and with all that real estate you get lazy (ask anyone living on acres).

The whole training thing is an interesting question (you've got me wondering). I guess having various criteria that will calculate a point score. A little like spam, so that you could weight the different aspects differently.


I wonder about an option to automatically open the window when a certain number of windows get to be a certain age?

Title: NANY 2009: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.04 released
Post by: justice on December 10, 2008, 10:30 AM
Version 1.04
Date: 16:29:13, 10 December 2008
Message:
* Exclude start menu, program manager from the list
* Context menu to Switch to, Minimize, and Exit tasks
* FIX: No longer forgetting to close some tasks when several tasks are checked
* Icon added

Help -> Check for Updates to update
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.05
Post by: justice on December 15, 2008, 05:30 AM
Version 1.05
* beta woo
* statistics (under file menu)
* training mode after first 10 items where checks are set against average time for inactive closed apps
* reset training data option added to preferences
* interface now correctly shows expiry time
* exe is now portable by itself, on first run it will extract all required files


Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 15, 2008, 06:05 AM
 :Thmbsup: Cool: can't wait to have a look...
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: mouser on December 15, 2008, 04:57 PM
the one set of features that inevitably gets requested in programs that go back as far as a program called "TrayKiller" is the ability to save "Profiles" which list programs to close en mass.  So that you can say basically "switch into game mode" which tells the program to close a big set of optional programs.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 16, 2008, 03:13 AM
Thanks mouser!
It's one that people ask for but does anyone ever use it? I never used multiple profiles in anything to be honest so I need to be convinced I think :). If you'd like to see profiles could you point me to a program that has a good implementation? As maybe there's an easier way to achieve the same way (implement close all for example).

I'll still have to add in the whitelist idea that definately gets in.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 16, 2008, 05:22 AM
Hey justice: works great!

Though... I'd like to see all the current non-hidden windows added on startup (otherwise they'd never get added unless they are activated).

I thought that mouser's profiles were like adding windows to groups, and closing windows by group? A little like a black list?  :-\
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: PhilB66 on December 16, 2008, 09:46 AM
Neat. Could you add "bring window/task to front" and "move window/task to second monitor" feature?.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks v1.11
Post by: justice on December 17, 2008, 05:22 AM
Version 1.10
* No longer just shows tasks activated after starting - all tasks are shown (thx Perry Mowbray)
* NEW: Exclude Process this session - excludes until JCST quits - process never gets checked
* NEW: Exclude Process permanently - see above but saved across sessions  (thx PhilB66)
* NEW: Show/Hide excluded processes from the list
* NEW: Added bring to front / back (thx PhilB66)
* NEW: Run at startup preference (disabled by default - current user)
* wider main window

Version 1.11
* NEW: Exclude by Title (session and permanent): this allows you to exclude for example "Floating Toolbar" the roboform addin that uses the firefox.exe process.

Would be cool if it could detect when you've closed programs the normal way (outside JCST - using the taskbar or via the program itself), and use those stats, but I'm afraid this will probably be the final NANY release - however I'll be developing this program on a slightly slower pace after the contest. Thanks everyone for testing and supporting and big thanks to DC.

By the way, a nice tip: if no tasks are selected (for example after you closed several), clicking the Close Tasks button will hide JCST itself.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: PhilB66 on December 18, 2008, 02:22 AM
@justice

This is shaping up as a very useful little utility. Thanks.  :Thmbsup:

A few more suggestions...

- An option to set the "JustCloseSomeTasks" GUI "Always on Top"
- Add an option to maximize minimized tasks
- I would change "Exit" to "Close/Terminate" (on the right click menu)
- Would it be possible to add a history list of closed tasks from which one can restore a closed window/task?

Also, have you considered a "move to next monitor" option?

Cheers.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 18, 2008, 03:36 AM
Thanks Phil great ideas to increase its usefulness. With regards to:

"Would it be possible to add a history list of closed tasks from which one can restore a closed window/task?"
You should look at GoneIn60s (https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/), Skrommel's AHK utility that recovers closed windows. I don't see why it wouldn't work well with this program.

I don't have another monitor currently - but I've looked at another AHK script and JCST is already recognising the amount of monitors on the system, it's not doing anything with it at the moment. (but I'll try and add it in)
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 18, 2008, 05:23 AM
Hey justice: I was wondering about minimised windows. Do you think it's possible to score them higher so they are tagged for closing sooner? My logic is that if I've minimised a window then I'm not using it, so may I'd be happier to get rid of it sooner.

I'm not totally sure that that logic is correct: but it sounded right.

I also wondered about learning per Application. I think you're using the average wait? But... not all applications were created equal: I may like to wait longer for some than others before closing (actually, I'm sure that's true, but I don't have the data to prove it  :) ).
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks v1.12
Post by: justice on December 18, 2008, 05:52 AM
Good suggestions thanks Perry.
re minimizing: I'd like to try a scoring system for a major version update actually! Think I can actually add something in before that happens though now I think about it more.

re per application learning: Sounds good on paper Id need to track application closures outside JCST too to get enough data for this. And management options per application.

At the moment I'm just calculating by "total tasks closed"/"total inactive seconds" but as you experience for edge cases although simpler it's not as accurate as a scoring system like FARR. Should have called it Find and Close Robot ;)

So good ideas keep them coming :)


Today's release ;) v1.12
* JCST now will always take averages to calculate Expiry time, but it's always changeable in preferences. If you experience weird expiry / stats values, please reset training data in the Preferences. This means that its behaviour is more consistent and predictable.
* Always on Top feature (view menu)
* maximize task (right click)
* Hide option (file menu)
* Updating Expiry time fixes
* Expiry time now correctly updates after closing a single task via right click menu. oops.
* layout fixes

Background Info
When no tasks have ever been closed or after Reset it starts as if 20 tasks that have been inactive for 3 minutes each have been closed, the first task closed is task 21, meaning it will slowly adjust to your behaviour.

Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 18, 2008, 06:08 AM
re per application learning: Sounds good on paper Id need to track application closures outside JCST too to get enough data for this. And management options per application.
-justice (December 18, 2008, 05:52 AM)

As part of your timer procedure could you poll all the open windows each time and see which ones have been closed outside of JCST?

At the moment I'm just calculating by "total tasks closed"/"total inactive seconds" but as you experience for edge cases although simpler it's not as accurate as a scoring system like FARR. Should have called it Find and Close Robot ;)
-justice (December 18, 2008, 05:52 AM)

That has a nice ring to it!  :D

Have you thought about notification? I'm wondering about a setting where the user can set the number of Inactive Tasks before the window pops up?

Also wondered about immediate mode where a smaller window pops up when each task goes over the expiry. Many applications are using this method of updating the user now, and it's handy (proactive programmes are very usable).

With Always On Top: should the interface be updated regularly? I also wondered about a smaller window for Always on Top, and maybe Transparent if I was going to leave it open.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: PhilB66 on December 19, 2008, 04:47 AM
JCST was mentioned (http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/19/close-inactive-tasks/) by Martin of gHacks.  :Thmbsup:
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 19, 2008, 05:08 AM
JCST was mentioned (http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/19/close-inactive-tasks/) by Martin of gHacks.  :Thmbsup:
-PhilB66 (December 19, 2008, 04:47 AM)

Are they related to Technology Blog (http://www.k840.com/close-inactive-tasks/)?  :-\

or Telephone Issues (http://telephone-issues.com/?p=10521)?
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: PhilB66 on December 19, 2008, 05:32 AM
JCST was mentioned (http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/19/close-inactive-tasks/) by Martin of gHacks.  :Thmbsup:
-PhilB66 (December 19, 2008, 04:47 AM)

Are they related to Technology Blog (http://www.k840.com/close-inactive-tasks/)?  :-\

or Telephone Issues (http://telephone-issues.com/?p=10521)?
-Perry Mowbray (December 19, 2008, 05:08 AM)

Did a quick WHOIS search and AFAICT they are not related. Looks like these two sites are ripping content off of gHacks.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 19, 2008, 05:36 AM
Did a quick WHOIS search and AFAICT they are not related. Looks like these two sites are ripping content off of gHacks.
-PhilB66 (December 19, 2008, 05:32 AM)

And they are all claiming copyright   ;)
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: PhilB66 on December 19, 2008, 05:49 AM
Posted a coment on gHacks.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: ghacks on December 19, 2008, 06:06 AM
Guys it is actually not as bad as it sounds, the content stealing I mean. At least if they have the decency to link back to my website. If they do not I usually report them to Google Adsense and every other advertiser that they have. Most of these sites do not have means of contacting the owner. Telephone Issues are linking back to my site with the right keyword, that's nice. Technology Blog on the other hand is not.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: app103 on December 19, 2008, 06:14 AM
Did a quick WHOIS search and AFAICT they are not related. Looks like these two sites are ripping content off of gHacks.
-PhilB66 (December 19, 2008, 05:32 AM)

And they are all claiming copyright   ;)
-Perry Mowbray (December 19, 2008, 05:36 AM)

These are what is known as splogs. They rip off content of other blogs in order to make money off of ad revenue without having to do any work themselves. Most have it automated by using the RSS feeds of the multiple sites they steal content from.

Their posts will sometimes show tell-tale signs of RSS snatching, such as footers that are added that link back to original site, related links that link back to original site, and various social media links that show the feedburner urls from the original site.

This is why if you have a blog, you need to add a footer to your feeds, containing a copyright notice and a link back to your blog, to alert people where the content really came from.

Now if you do things right, the sploggers that steal your content will be linking to you, driving your site higher in the search engines, and anyone that lands on the splogger page will know they are sploggers because of your footer, and you will have a line of text to do a Google search with, to easily find all the sploggers stealing your content.

Then if you choose to, you can spend all day sending out DMCA notices and have very little time left to do much else in your life, and that includes blogging. Most large popular blogs give up and just accept it as a futile battle and tell themselves that all the inbound links the sploggers are giving them just makes their blog more successful, in the long run, because in reality, it does.

But watch out... If you have a badge on your blog that states a Creative Commons license of any sort, you become fair game for sploggers and don't have a legal leg to stand on as long as the reposting of your content contains the elements required to comply with your chosen CC license. (Although if you choose noncommercial, you will have something to get them on, if the splog is plastered with ads/for-profit)
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Perry Mowbray on December 19, 2008, 06:31 AM
Telephone Issues are linking back to my site with the right keyword, that's nice.
-ghacks (December 19, 2008, 06:06 AM)

 :o You're right: I missed first time through, the orange was faint and I didn't roll over the link; and the links do link back to your site's tags!
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 22, 2008, 04:30 AM
Woo thanks ghacks! I noticed some confusion in the terminology that's used - and I have originated that by maybe not choosing the best words to describe things.

Active tasks are interpreted as 'the window you are working with' - from a person's view not the system's view (not processes that use resources at a point in time). Which is why background processes would still be marked as inactive - the user hasn't worked with that window for a while. Task manager and the taskbar seemed to indicate that this is the terminology, and on windows systems there's a 1:1 relationship from windows to processes (not like mac os x). Autohotkey however calls it windows and processes - and I see how system administrators would see a task as a process not as a window - and if that's the view then the application doesn't behave as you expect a process/resource manager would.

Argh the confusion ;)
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on December 26, 2008, 08:42 AM
Version 1.12 is the final NANY release. I have enclosed the zip to the opening post for archiving. I'll keep developing it with your suggestions - so watch this space, the latest version link will keep working as well as dcupdater.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on January 07, 2009, 11:43 AM
Welcome all CybernetNews readers!!
And I’ll save what I consider to be the best for last. It’s called JustCloseSomeTasks ... . This is a great tool for anyone who finds themselves overwhelmed with the number of windows they have open.
-http://cybernetnews.com/2009/01/07/donationcoders-35-free-new-year-apps/
Title: Re: contributing to a free program
Post by: justice on January 08, 2009, 04:31 AM
I'd like to encourage people to give something back if they like the program, if they find it useful there should be the opportunity for them to contribute and make it more useful for others. So I thought maybe a nice textbox that would allow people to send feedback to me directly from the program, from the about box.

Question is:
1) Would that encourage you to fill it in? no other information will be sent with the feedback.
2) are there other ways which you have in the past contributed back to free programs?
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: PhilB66 on January 08, 2009, 10:33 AM
1. Here's how I'd do that...

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Oops, image not clear. it should read "Version Info" (button to the left) and the last one should read "Give Justice Feedback (Online)".

2. I do not like the popup confirmation box (and the extra mouse click  :P).

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Just take me straight to the program page online / support forum. You need to add info about JustCloseSomeTasks @ http://justice.dcmembers.com/

3. And here's an idea for an online feedback form (you may want to add a "donate" button there as well)...

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Cheers.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on January 08, 2009, 10:37 AM
Hey thanks again Phil! cheers and thanks for reminding me about adding it to the site.
I guess it's ok to load a webpage when asked for - for a program downloaded from the net anyways :D
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: mouser on January 19, 2009, 04:09 PM
Featured on DownloadSquad today:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/01/19/monitor-and-close-inactive-windows-tasks-with-justclosesometasks/
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: cmpm on January 19, 2009, 04:33 PM
http://www.downloadsquad.com/

2nd one on the list at this moment!

Congratulations!!!

This program as well as many 'NANY' programs are getting around!
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Ryan_S on January 21, 2009, 08:37 PM
Found it's way to Lifehacker (http://lifehacker.com/5136262/justclosesometasks-saves-memory-by-closing-inactive-apps)!

Good work!  :D
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on January 22, 2009, 03:11 AM
It also seems to pop up on software download sites like Softonic (http://justclosesometasks.en.softonic.com/), which actually made their own review and puts the philosophy across perhaps even better than I ever have.

Do you sometimes find you are making your PC multitask a little too much? It's great being able to run lots of programs at the same time, but it affects performance. JustCloseSomeTasks is designed to help out by letting you close inactive apps with a hot key command.
-http://justclosesometasks.en.softonic.com/
Excellent couldn't have put it better than that. Although I have to add i'm not sure about any benefits performance wise, it's made just to declutter.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: Nod5 on January 27, 2009, 12:28 PM
[edit: posted in wrong thread  :-[]
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: gexecuter on February 14, 2009, 04:52 PM
nice app!
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: brotherS on March 18, 2009, 10:43 AM
Nice app, thanks! Just saw it in your signature.  :)

Some requests and ideas:
- make auto-marking tasks for closure an option; I prefer to mark them myself (very long PC uptimes here)
- enable the 'menu key' on the keyboard (so that it brings up the right-click menu) so that it works like in almost all other apps
- make double-clicking an entry "switch to" the task (like in other programs)
- add an option whether using "switch to" closes the JustCloseSomeTasks UI or not
- if possible, add "- Windows Explorer" to the explorer tasks (they now only have the folder name as task name)
- allow the user to set a global hotkey for bringing up the UI
- close the UI when ESC is pressed once
- in the UI, display the time not in seconds but in minutes when it's more than xxx seconds and in hours when it's more than yyy minutes

Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: brotherS on March 18, 2009, 10:50 AM
Err... and a strange bug: sometimes the preferences window only shows up like this:

(http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8175/justclosesometasksbug.png) (http://img16.imageshack.us/my.php?image=justclosesometasksbug.png)

I then have to kill JustCloseSomeTasks and restart it to fix this. Never had this issue with any app before.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on March 19, 2009, 04:52 AM
Thanks for your suggestion and sorry for the bug.. its due to the 'special' coding abilities from yours truly hehe.

 I've noticed it a few times... the problem has something to do with the preference window being independent from the main window and a bug which is trying to draw to the window that's not open, i think. If anyone knows a way to replicate it 100% of the time please let me know.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: brotherS on March 19, 2009, 05:08 AM
How likely is it to see the requests and ideas become reality?  8)

If you don't find help regarding the bug here I suggest the AHK forums.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on March 19, 2009, 05:59 AM
Ok let me go past them 1 by 1, thanks for the feedback by the way that drives this program!

- make auto-marking tasks for closure an option; I prefer to mark them myself (very long PC uptimes here)
You use JCST in a new way that I haven't thought of! Excellent :) - I thought the auto marking was the reason for using JCST. So please help me understand why you use JCST. Then I can support that kind of use better. So if you can confince me then I'll build in the option haha.

- enable the 'menu key' on the keyboard (so that it brings up the right-click menu) so that it works like in almost all other apps
Ah didn't realise that wasn't working. Will add that in.

- make double-clicking an entry "switch to" the task (like in other programs)
Good shortcut. Will add that in. edit: now you suggested it I keep clicking on the titles expecting it to switch! :D

- add an option whether using "switch to" closes the JustCloseSomeTasks UI or not
Do you wish to keep JCST open to manage multiple tasks sequentially? How would you use this?

- if possible, add "- Windows Explorer" to the explorer tasks (they now only have the folder name as task name)
Useful, will try to add that in.

- allow the user to set a global hotkey for bringing up the UI
That's already there, right click on the systray icon for JCST and choose preferences to change it. Control-[ by default.

- close the UI when ESC is pressed once
Excellent improvement once again, this will go in.

- in the UI, display the time not in seconds but in minutes when it's more than xxx seconds and in hours when it's more than yyy minutes
Good refinement, will add this in too.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: brotherS on March 19, 2009, 10:30 AM
Ok let me go past them 1 by 1, thanks for the feedback by the way that drives this program!
-justice (March 19, 2009, 05:59 AM)

You're welcome. :)


- make auto-marking tasks for closure an option; I prefer to mark them myself (very long PC uptimes here)
You use JCST in a new way that I haven't thought of! Excellent :) - I thought the auto marking was the reason for using JCST. So please help me understand why you use JCST. Then I can support that kind of use better. So if you can confince me then I'll build in the option haha.
-justice (March 19, 2009, 05:59 AM)

Well, I most often have between 30 to 50 windows opened at any given moment. I sometimes forget to close some, and I like the way JCST displays them, but don't want to close *all* those old windows (for example because I want to continue to work with them the next day).


- add an option whether using "switch to" closes the JustCloseSomeTasks UI or not
Do you wish to keep JCST open to manage multiple tasks sequentially? How would you use this?
-justice (March 19, 2009, 05:59 AM)

Yes, I want to jump to a task to check out if I can close it or not, then check out another task in JCST.


- allow the user to set a global hotkey for bringing up the UI
That's already there, right click on the systray icon for JCST and choose preferences to change it. Control-[ by default.
-justice (March 19, 2009, 05:59 AM)

Hmm... then maybe the option is named in a way that I didn't get it. I don't want to check now because of the preferences window bug.  8)
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks
Post by: justice on March 19, 2009, 10:58 AM
If you press cancel on the preferences window then next time it comes up garbled. Should be fixable for TODAY now I know what the problem is.
Title: JustCloseSomeTasks v1.13 released today
Post by: justice on March 19, 2009, 11:20 AM
Date: 16:18:32, 19 March 2009

Changes:
* Up to 3 times as fast due to improvements in Autohotkey.
* Pressing cancel on the preferences now works as expected. Thanks brotherS
* Added feedback link

Download Page (http://justice.dcmembers.com/pages/download.php) (or Help > Check for Updates)
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.13
Post by: dexterous on July 06, 2009, 03:21 PM
Is there an easy way for me to set it up to just auto close the auto marked tasks without hotkey intervention?

Reason why I want this is because I have my home desktop, netbook, and work PC setup to synchronize my Firefox profile with dropbox (using NTFS junction links), and a lot of the time I'll leave whatever computer I'm on and forget to close Firefox so it can't sync properly.  It'd be great if this utility could be setup to auto close firefox after it's been inactive for some period of time without me being there.

Also, a whitelist would be kinda cool for this.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.13
Post by: justice on July 08, 2009, 04:16 AM
Hi dexterous, it's a good idea in theory for your situation but it will have too many unintended consequences - forcibly closing applications will cause data loss for some people to just name one side effect so i'm currently of the view that I should not implement it.

However it should be fairly easy to do this in other ways:
* use Skrommels RunSaver (https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/#RunSaver) (run a command as a screensaver) to close firefox when the screensaver starts
* create a new task in the task scheduler that runs when the computer is idle (windows vista and up I think or third party task scheduler)

The program itself is a small Autohotkey script:
[Select]
#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
GroupAdd, foxes, Firefox
WinClose, ahk_group foxes
Sleep, 10*1000
WinKill, ahk_group foxes

By the way is anyone still using this program? I know I haven't been very active lately - if there's still demand for updates though I might have another look at this.
Title: NEW JustCloseSomeTasks 1.21 Release 8th July 2009
Post by: justice on July 08, 2009, 07:24 AM
Version 1.21 is ready! Some usability & sustainability improvements.

Date: 08 July 2009

Changes:
* Press ESC to close the main window (thanks brotherS)
* Doubleclick to switch to the app (thanks brotherS)
* Added a one-off message after the first 25 uses to consider pledging $0.59, then never again.
* Added a new preference option 'Enable one-off Donation reminder' that you can untick so you are never bothered (Alternatively you can manually add ShowDonation=0 to the [main] section of settings.ini)
* checkboxes in preferences window will now show true values (oops)

Download Page (http://justice.dcmembers.com/pages/download.php) (or Help > Check for Updates)
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.21
Post by: Contro on August 29, 2009, 08:52 AM
I download your program

Thank very much
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.21
Post by: tmpusr on March 23, 2010, 12:29 PM
I need to automatically close only certain kinds of windows like Explorer and Everything (search) after they've been inactive for n seconds. I don't need help with closing any other tasks.
Option: Learn to exclude windows with a title that has stayed open for n seconds more than n times, i.e., stop auto-closing popular windows.
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.21
Post by: Perry Mowbray on July 07, 2010, 05:02 AM
This has just been listed on Primewares: JustCloseSomeTasks (http://www.primewares.com/links.php?go=50943)
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.21
Post by: justice on October 24, 2011, 04:42 AM
I've received a suggestion by email: could you add the feature that Ctrl-A checks all the windows and then Ctrl-A again unchecks them all?
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.21
Post by: skwire on October 24, 2011, 11:11 AM
Justice, are you asking how to accomplish this in AHK or something?
Title: Re: NANY 2009 Release: JustCloseSomeTasks 1.21
Post by: justice on October 31, 2011, 05:56 AM
Thanks skwire :) No am just listing feedback in a central place so I can revisit this topic if developing a next version.