Author Topic: any plans to "force" stubborn programs? (Read 25388 times)

bigbadbuu · « **on:** October 28, 2005, 01:43 PM »

Mouser, first off, great program! Yours is definitely the best i've used so far. I have a couple questions/request which i hope you'll entertain..

1. There are are a few services/processes that simply ignore Process Tamer. I've seen this corrected in a few other (similar) programs and was wondering if you were planning to implement/fix this.

2. Can the next version have an option for a small(-ish) foreground priority boost?

-Buu

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** October 28, 2005, 01:56 PM »

yes to both.

the answer to first might be to run PT as a service; there was some discussion of looking into this earlier but i haven't yet. if you can find any discussion of these issues and why some apps "resist" i'd love to see.

the answer to second is that i will probably implement this as an option, though there seems to be a debate about whether one would expect to get a benefit from this, since windows 2k/xp is supposed to do this semi-automatically behind the scenes, as i understand it.

bigbadbuu · « **Reply #2 on:** October 29, 2005, 07:33 PM »

I couldn't find anythign on how/why some processes resist the change. I have noticed that some programs set their own priorities and will eventually re-set process tamer's choice. This is a different issue from where programs are simply resistant, but I wanted to mention it as well.

As for 'resistant' programs, maybe this has somethign to do with the level at which PT is running. Maybe running it as a service (as you suggested), would solve this. Other than that, though, I couldn't find any other information on the matter.

cheers.

bigbadbuu · « **Reply #3 on:** October 29, 2005, 07:37 PM »

...Also, re: the foreground priority boost.

It *is* an automatic win2k/xp feature. However, its only enabled if/when you have your system set as a workstation-- which is the default setting btw...

hope that helps,

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** October 30, 2005, 01:09 AM »

thank you very much for your report bigbadbuu - your comments make a lot of sense.
a new version of process tamer will be out this month and i hope to investigate this more before then.

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.

Zeph · « **Reply #5 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.

mouser · « **Reply #6 on:** December 08, 2005, 12:46 PM »

welcome to the site zeph!

if it says somewhere about a members only version of the program then that's just a mistaken holdover from when we allowed members early access to the most recent versions. now we allow everyone access to the most recent releases, so there is only 1 version for everyone. (if you remember where it says that let me know and i'll correct).

yes, we have to add the ability to tame such things - process tamer 3 is in the works and the ability to tame these is definitely planned; as you say it's likely due to the fact that pt does not run as a service. couple ways we can solve it, not sure which route to take at the moment, but we'll get it supported.

looking forward to more suggestions as well.

Zeph · « **Reply #7 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.

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** December 08, 2005, 01:44 PM »

web page fixed

keep the suggestions coming.

mouser · « **Reply #9 on:** December 09, 2005, 09:28 AM »

zeph seems to have figured out that indeed running pt as a service solves this problem (https://www.donation...index.php?topic=1765)

; running as a service will be added to PT3.

Scott · « **Reply #10 on:** July 23, 2006, 10:53 PM »

There are are a few services/processes that simply ignore Process Tamer.
-bigbadbuu (October 28, 2005, 01:43 PM)

I am seeing this problem now, and I can give a specific example: mstDfrgS.exe, which is a service installed by mst Defrag Home Edition 1.9. I've configured PT 2.05.02 to force mstDfrgS.exe to low priority, but it never does.

The strange thing is that Sysinternals Process Explorer can set the process priority class of mstDfrgS.exe to 4 (i.e. "low") without a problem. Similarly, the command line utility Process.exe can set it to 4. So why can't PT do the same?

I haven't tried running PT as a service, because honestly, I don't want to run it as a service. And this isn't a "permissions" issue in that regard anyway. In fact, PT's log doesn't show any attempt to set the priority of mstDfrgS.exe at all. So, I guess we can never mind the question of why the other utils can set the priority and PT can't, and start wondering why PT doesn't seem to try in the first place.

mouser · « **Reply #11 on:** July 30, 2006, 12:00 AM »

i'll look into it - it may be that process tamer is not running with as much permissions as it could to handle it.

Scott · « **Reply #12 on:** August 06, 2006, 12:49 PM »

If it were a problem with permissions, wouldn't the Process Tamer log at least show an attempt to modify the priority?

phatmankerr · « **Reply #13 on:** August 11, 2006, 03:02 PM »

Scott

Huge apologies (to you and everybody else) for butting in on this thread, but a long time ago in a thread far far away you mentioned a sneaky way of suppressing the Splash Screen in XFilesDialog - Have just purchased it and was annoyed to find that the splash screen is not removed (the author seems adamant about retaining it

).

Is there a link/website any where on how to remove the splash.

Thanks

Sorry again to everybody for butting in...

Scott · « **Reply #14 on:** August 11, 2006, 03:11 PM »

Why not send me a PM instead?

johnnyzero · « **Reply #15 on:** September 03, 2006, 12:34 PM »

phatmankerr,

Just to continue with your off-topic thread

, I've found this software works great for suppressing unwanted splash & nag screens:

http://nagblaster.divad-software.qarchive.org/

Hope this hleps,
JohnB

Scott · « **Reply #16 on:** September 03, 2006, 12:52 PM »

phatmankerr has already been squared away.

But congrats on giving me a reason to unsubscribe from this thread. I love it when people do that. It's almost like being on the Wilders Security forums.

johnnyzero · « **Reply #17 on:** September 03, 2006, 01:06 PM »

sorry about any breach of etiquette: I'm not a big "forum" guy and didn't realize that people might be so anal about off-topic posts - especially when I was just trying to help someone out.

(Of course, since you've unsubscribed to this topic, you won't be reading this).

peace,
JohnB

mouser · « **Reply #18 on:** September 20, 2006, 12:47 PM »

i have added code to allow it to force these stubborn services; it will be in new beta release this week (v 2.06.01); thanks for being patient!

thecensor · « **Reply #19 on:** March 19, 2010, 10:28 PM »

PT is having trouble taming: PhonerLite.exe

thanks