Messages

1

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - extended audio mixer

« on: December 19, 2005, 07:10 AM »

To be honest, I never used to use windows mixer much, until I got 5.1 speakers and needed to control each speaker. Since that time I use it all the time and for gaming it's needed loads, due to needing to swap to headphones and having to check/fix your mic settings for voice comms etc. You should also try using a mouse for volume settings, once you do you couldnt go back to keyboard. My old logitech navigator keyboard had a wheel for volume and when it finally died and got replaced the new one didnt, and I missed the wheel so much until I found volumouse. Using the keyboard is just not quick enough, by the time you've held the key down and the volume starts to change, you could have already had the volume upa dn back with a mouse.

If anyone knows of any software that allows presets as I mention, I'd really love to hear of it.

2

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - extended audio mixer

« on: December 19, 2005, 06:32 AM »

So instead of having one app to do everything, you would rather configure app after app to do the same job?

I use the mixer a lot, I listen to tunes constantly. I use winamps global hotkeys, but it is so much easier to use the mouse wheel for volume (I currently use the freeware app volumouse). There are also many games/app (e.g. bf2, CSS, windvd) that reset your mixer settings meaning you have to reset them everytime you've used them. A hotkey would save so much work.

Whilst it might not be needed it would certainly make life easier because it would automate so much.

3

Post New Requests Here / IDEA - extended audio mixer

« on: December 19, 2005, 06:05 AM »

I've been thinking about a little addition to windows default volume control mixer. Whilst the default one is useful, it would be nice to have a few extra features.

Presets.
It would be nice to be able to save the current settings as a preset, settings like the various volume levels as well as the speaker settings all saved as a preset. This would allow a simple way to move between settings for headphone, speakers and different recording options.

Hotkeys.
The ability to set any of the controls to a hotkey would mean you could switch between the presets with a key press and bind volume controls to the mousewheel and other keys.

This project could either be made to hook into the default mixer and add the features or if prefered build a new more slimline gui.

What do you think guys?

4

Living Room / Re: Your owned computer history/upgrade path

« on: December 12, 2005, 06:05 AM »

I'm 30 and from the UK, computers have always been a erm...weakness.

Here's my computer history.

CBM VIC20 > Atari 800XL > Amiga 600 > Amiga 1200 > Amiga 1200 tower (with PowerPC phase5 Powerup Card) > cyrix 200mhz > amd k3-450mhz > athlon 1ghz (tbird) > athlon 1800+ (palomino) > athlon 2700+ (barton) > Athlon64 3000+ (venice) [Current system] > Probably a Athlon64 x2 next year.

I'd hate to work out how much money has been spent on my love of computers over the years.

5

Best Firewall / Re: agnitum outpost v3 - the horror?

« on: December 09, 2005, 02:20 PM »

Hi Jason,

I must be lucky because I've not had a issue with v2.7. Thanks for the info though, it's duly noted.

Oh and thanks for Ghostwall.

6

Best Firewall / Re: agnitum outpost v3 - the horror?

« on: December 09, 2005, 11:46 AM »

agnitum is still not releasing version histories, it's like a gossip mill trying to figure out what is new in each version

Actually, they do provide a changelog, they just don't seem to provide a link anywhere on their site to get to it, I can't find one anyway.
Try googling 'outpost firewall changelog' and voila, it finds this. http://agnitum.com/p.../outpost/history.php

Why they don't put a link somewhere easy to find is anyones guess though. :-p

i went back to v2.5 for now

If you want to stay with the v2.x branch, I can recommoned v2.7, it's the best version of outpost I think. It's a real shame they didn't do a v2.8 that would have been much better than heading down the bloatware path, even if they do provide the option to disable the AS stuff.

i'm on the hunt for a better firewall

Have you tried Ghostwall? http://www.ghostsecu...x.php?page=ghostwall

It doesn't have any bells & whistles, just a lean & mean firewall, nothing else. Plus it's freeware too, which is nice. I use it on a old system I have which is low on resources. It's worth a try if your still hunting.

7

ProcessTamer / Re: Problem with emule being repeatedly tamed

« on: December 09, 2005, 11:36 AM »

the whole design of the tiny process tamer main exe that stays running in the background is that it should be as light as possible on resources (cpu+memory).

-mouser (December 09, 2005, 10:28 AM)

I must admit it is very resource friendly. That's part of the reason I am happy leaving it running as a service via fredaemon until v3 comes out. I really dislike resource eating apps that want to startup @ login, I disable anything like that (*cough* logitec keyboard software anyone? *cough*). But credit where it's due, PT is safe regarding resources.

8

ProcessTamer / Re: Problem with emule being repeatedly tamed

« on: December 09, 2005, 09:41 AM »

I dont see any downside to running PT as a service, I run a few different things via firedaemon as services and none have ever given me a problem. The plus side about running as a service is that if a xp user has multiple accounts on their pc and using xp's fastswitch to switch between them, PT would be running in the background for all accounts, rather than the one who installed PT as is the case with starting normally at user login.

I would try to make sure you offer running as a service as a optional feature, explaining why it's prefered to run PT in this manner, rather than forcing everyone to run it as a service. This way people who like PT as it is can keep using it like this, but others who require more control can start as a service. Keeps everyone happy.



Edit: One thing to add though, if your running as a service you really need the service process to use as little resources as possible, because it is constantly running. Using 2 seperate .exe's like you do with the tray.exe and config.exe should keep this minimal though, just having a service.exe and a config.exe should be good but if you can reduce the resource footprint of the service.exe then thats better still.

P.s. Feel free to give me a shout if you need a beta tester for this new version. I do a lot of beta testing and might be able to help spot any bugs.

9

ProcessTamer / Re: Problem with emule being repeatedly tamed

« on: December 09, 2005, 09:16 AM »

PT running as a service via firedaemon works great, it controls the processes it couldnt before e.g. winlogin.exe without problem. It doesn't change the 'fighting with emule' thing though, but I have found a way to fix it and it might explain why PT is doing this.

Even if you run run PT as a service, it still keeps setting the priority of emule.exe, like so...

[Select]

Fri Dec 09 15:06:10 2005  -> Lowering Process Priority  | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:06:27 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:06:32 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:06:37 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:06:42 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:06:47 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:06:52 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:06:57 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:02 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:07 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:12 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:17 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:22 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:27 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:32 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:37 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:42 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:47 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:52 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:07:57 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:02 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:07 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:12 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:17 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:22 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:27 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:32 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:37 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:42 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:47 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:52 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:08:57 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:02 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:07 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:12 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:17 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:22 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:27 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:32 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:37 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:42 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:47 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:52 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:09:57 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:10:02 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:10:07 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 15:10:12 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe

It seems like when PT is querying emule's priority it's expecting emule to reply in a certain way but because its not it trys to set the priority, then querys again, repeat. I found that in emule's settings there is a option to control it's process priority, which by default is set to 'above normal', so I tried setting it to normal and restarted emule. It seems that fixes the problem and PT stops trying to constantly increase emules process priority.

The simple facts I found are:

1 - If PT starts trying to constantly increase emule's priority, change emules in built process control from above normal to normal and restart emule. The problem will go.

2 - If PT is started as a service it gains the ability to control processes it couldn't previously.

There you go, mouser, a little something for you to think about while coding away on v3.

10

ProcessTamer / Re: Problem with emule being repeatedly tamed

« on: December 09, 2005, 07:39 AM »

A update.

I'm pretty sure this problem with emule is related to PT having a lack of system privliges i.e not running as a service, I'll confirm about emule in a little while after some more tests but the issue with PT not being able to control all process is definitly because of lack of privliges.

To test this I used FireDaemon to install ProcessTamerTray.exe as a system service and then tried to tame winlogin.exe, BINGO, we have control! PT can now control winlogin's priority, and from first tests looks like it can control all processes now. I'm just going to grab some lunch then I'll test emule, see if we have full control over that too.

I'll let you know how I get on...

11

ProcessTamer / Problem with emule being repeatedly tamed

« on: December 09, 2005, 06:34 AM »

I've come across a problem when running PT with emule. When emule starts and uses 100% cpu PT tames it as it should, but then when emule goes back to lower cpu usages, PT keeps trying to increase the priority on it, constantly.

I think emule might be trying to set its own priority and is fighting with PT, but when you set the priority via taskmanager the priority stays at what you set it too, so it seems task manager can set priority but PT simply fights with emule.

Here's the logs it continues until you quit emule.

[Select]

Fri Dec 09 12:21:50 2005  -> Lowering Process Priority  | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:21:55 2005  -> Lowering Process Priority  | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:10 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:15 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:20 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:25 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:30 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:35 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:40 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:45 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:50 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:22:55 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:00 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:05 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:10 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:15 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:20 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:25 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:30 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:35 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:42 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:47 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe
Fri Dec 09 12:23:52 2005  -> Increasing Process Priority | emule.exe

I'm going to go back to process lasso I think and see if the same happens, I'm pretty sure it doesn't though. But I'll let you know.

I hope this can be fixed for v3 because atm it means I have to put emule on ignore if I want to use PT, which kinda defeats the object of using PT in the first place.

Thanks.

12

ProcessTamer / Re: any plans to "force" stubborn programs?

« on: December 08, 2005, 01:06 PM »

Hi mouser,

Thanks for the promt reply. v3 sounds great I look forward to it.

As for where it says members version, its in the middle of the main PT page.

Join the site to get access to the latest members-only version of this program

If you like Process Tamer, check out Find+Run Robot and Screenshot Captor

https://www.donation...proctamer/index.html

Like I say, I'm happy with this version (although v3 should be cool), I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something.

13

ProcessTamer / Re: any plans to "force" stubborn programs?

« on: December 08, 2005, 12:10 PM »

if someone could find a program or two for me that pt can't tame that i could run during testing, that would help a lot.

-mouser (October 30, 2005, 01:09 AM)

My first post here, so hello everyone.

I've just moved to process tamer from process lasso, I prefer the way you can quickly toggle on/off from tray icon, and I notice that PT can't tame winlogin.exe (XP pro sp2) yet PL can. Not sure if it's related to PL running as a service and PT not, but it's one of the first things I noticed. So at least you have something to play with whilst testing.

Hope that helps.

P.s. the site mentions something about a 'members only version' of the program, but I can't seem to find it, although I am happy with the version I am using so it's no big deal. Just wondering if I missed it or something.