Author Topic: DONE: Program Closer (Read 56692 times)

hurricanedavid · « **on:** October 21, 2005, 04:30 PM »

Program Function:
How about an app that shows a list (with checkboxes) of all the different programs you currently have running. You would check the ones you wanted to close, then when you hit the "Close" button, it would close them all for you.

Situation that Necessitated the Request:
To make my shutdown go smoother, I like to close Konfabulator, Trillian, and other stuff. Right-clicking on the systray and waiting for it to update so I can choose the next program sucks valuable seconds from my life.

If it would be handy for me, maybe it would be handy for some others.

Other Options:

Maybe two checkboxes: one for nice shutdown, and the other for mean brute shutdown.
And then I suppose an option to shut down the computer after all that would be nice.
A nice keyboard shortcut would be if each program in the list had a number that one could type to toggle a switch. (brainstorming here)
If you wanted to get really spiffy, you could add a timer to close certain programs in a certain time in the future.

What do you think?

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #1 on:** October 22, 2005, 04:44 AM »

That would be a really neat idea.

Actually something related I would like is a program starter which could start a group of programs in sequence. I would find this particularly helpful at startup as I have all sorts of stuff that starts up with Windows because I can't face starting it all up manually, but it does slow down system start and there is a distinct bottleneck of applications fighting to start at the same time.

What would be nice is the ability to set up program groups, but in sequences and allowing delays before attempting to start a particular app, or even with a default 'sequence delay' say 1 or 2 seconds before attampting to load the next in sequence.

The nice thing about program groups is that you could have effectively multiple startup configuartions which you can choose from a common interface.

m_s · « **Reply #2 on:** October 22, 2005, 05:26 AM »

I second all this - would love to solve system startup bottleneck. There is a Konfabulator Widget - I think it's called Widget Watcher - that is meant to close down widgets (although I have never managed to get it to kill anything, but I can get each widget's pid and close it via Process Explorer). I expect that some of my security programs would make this more difficult - they don't like one process trying to interfere with another...

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2005, 09:07 AM »

i could add this to process tamer maybe, let users make menus that start up, shutdown, or set specific priorities for named apps.

skrommel · « **Reply #4 on:** October 23, 2005, 08:30 PM »

I see the thread has changed focus, but here's a solution to the original request.

CloseMany - Close multiple programs or services at once.

Features:
- Close or Kill processes.
- Close services.

Changes:
- 2005.10.31 - v1.1: Added tooltip when clicking, moved buttons.
- 2005.12.02 - v1.2: Now possible to close services, changed process detection.

Uses PrcView v 3.7.4.1 command line utility by Igor Nys
Uses Clip.exe from Microsoft's Resource Kit

You'll find the downloads and more info at Skrommel Software.

Skrommel

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** October 23, 2005, 08:41 PM »

don't forget to support your favorite skrommel with a donation!

(wait you mean there is only one skrommel??!?!? how can that be??)

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #6 on:** October 24, 2005, 04:33 AM »

Don't know why but it doesn't work for me ...

I can load TaskManager manually no problem.

When CloseMany tries to open the Task Manager for its own purposes the TaskManager complains and exits ...

If I hit refresh list, same thing

skrommel · « **Reply #7 on:** October 24, 2005, 06:25 AM »

Do you get the same error when using ProcessGuard?

I'm not too fond of the TaskMan solution, and I've made a version using a command line tool, but this involves including an external tool to make the script work. Any objections?

Skrommel

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #8 on:** October 24, 2005, 06:38 AM »

Nope - process guard (version 1.1 is the one I had downloaded) seems to work fine.

I have no objections to external tools.

I have tried closing all open programs, stopped all unnecessary process and services and it still causes the problem.

hurricanedavid · « **Reply #9 on:** October 24, 2005, 09:33 AM »

cool. Thanks skrommel!

My Explorer app (2xExplorer) and Konfabulator both have a few instances running quite often. I can't tell which instance of each program is the one I might want to close. IOW, I can't tell right now which Konfab entry is the "master" one that would close all the rest.

Can you think of a way to add something to the program where you could tell the differences among the instances?

Maybe a text box at the top that changes to show more detail on the one you are hovering over? I don't know what would be best.

Thanks for such a great program!

skrommel · « **Reply #10 on:** October 31, 2005, 05:37 PM »

Just updated CloseMany to v1.1.

Added tooltip when selecting processes, and moved the buttons.

Skrommel

hurricanedavid · « **Reply #11 on:** October 31, 2005, 06:29 PM »

Hey, there you go. That's a great help! Thanks!

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #12 on:** November 01, 2005, 12:23 PM »

Still doesn't work for me ...

skrommel · « **Reply #13 on:** December 01, 2005, 07:15 PM »

Try CloseMany v1.2!

It uses two external tools to get the running processes, so please let me know if it works OK.

I've also added a dialog for closing services!

Skrommel

clif_notes · « **Reply #14 on:** December 01, 2005, 10:13 PM »

Hi Skrommel,

Great idea for a little program.

I downloaded it. Executed it.

It unpacked two files on the desktop. pv.exe & clip.exe

Noticed it running in the systray. Double clicked it.

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/3106/closemanyerr17hd.jpg

DONE: Program Closer

So, I copied the two exe's into the Windows folder, thinking that might help.

Nope, no help.

What am I doing wrong? (Windows ME)

skrommel · « **Reply #15 on:** December 02, 2005, 02:03 AM »

Windows ME.

No, seriously, I forgot to test for operativesystem. Can you run pv.exe in your dos prompt?

Skrommel

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #16 on:** December 02, 2005, 06:03 AM »

Ooooo ... yummy, it works !!!

Thanks that's a great bit of software - I like it

One last suggestion - it might be worth excluding closeMany itself from the list otherwise it could be a bit unpredictable if it is selected.

clif_notes · « **Reply #17 on:** December 03, 2005, 11:58 AM »

Windows ME.

No, seriously, I forgot to test for operativesystem. Can you run pv.exe in your dos prompt?

Skrommel
-skrommel (December 02, 2005, 02:03 AM)

PV.exe works quite well. CLIP.exe does not.

http://img498.imageshack.us/img498/7155/cliperror6mg.jpg

DONE: Program Closer

skrommel · « **Reply #18 on:** December 03, 2005, 06:34 PM »

Clip.exe isn't really neccesary. I'll look into making a W98 version.

Skrommel

LuckMan212 · « **Reply #19 on:** December 04, 2005, 01:00 PM »

i know this is an old request already, but has anyone tried SmartClose ? its got a very nice GUI and may be helpful...................

m_s · « **Reply #20 on:** December 04, 2005, 02:32 PM »

I have used SmartClose, and I liked its appearance too, but I found it a little buggy - not everything it closed started smoothly afterwards, and I found a few things had disappeared from my autorun files. I should say that this was quite a way back, and they might have fixed this kind of problem, but it certainly put me off.

clif_notes · « **Reply #21 on:** December 04, 2005, 06:52 PM »

I tried it once. Here's my review.

skrommel · « **Reply #22 on:** December 14, 2005, 05:42 PM »

Just CloseMany v2.0 for XP with more bells and whistles.

CloseMany - Close multiple programs or services at once.

Features:
- Close, Kill or Restart processes.
- Start, Stop or Restart services.
- Select multiple lines by Click-Drag or Ctrl-Click or Shift-Click

You'll find the downloads and more info at Skrommel Software.

Skrommel

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #23 on:** December 14, 2005, 06:12 PM »

Hey, I really like this now - but have you tried running it with Clipboard Help and Spell running - sounds like an artillery range letting off a few rounds ...

mouser · « **Reply #24 on:** December 14, 2005, 06:35 PM »

carol, rofl.
sounds more like a bubble convention to me.

to prevent, go to Clipboard Help+Spell options, capture options tab, and add the following to exclude list:
clip.exe
pv.exe
CloseMany.exe
ShowVer.exe