Cache My Work: reopen your Apps after reboot

[paarkhi]

CacheMyWork is a handy utility that enables you to reboot Windows without losing your place in your work. It builds a checklist of currently open applications, and will restart the apps you've selected the next time you logon to the computer.
Cache My Work is great for occasions when you need to unexpectedly reboot, such as on "Patch Tuesday", after installing new drivers, or when Windows runs out of Desktop Heap, Handles or GDI Objects (which happens more often than I'd like - even with the fixes described here).

If you're like me, you avoid rebooting your computer because it means you'll forget what you were working on. Every time I have to reboot because of some install/uninstall/patch, invariably I forget half of what I was working on because I don't remember all the docs and apps I have to reopen (those 5-15 minutes between "shutdown all apps" and "logged in, Windows quieted down" are huge opportunities for me to be randomized and lose my short-term memory cache).
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[ewemoa]

you avoid rebooting your computer because it means you'll forget what you were working on. Every time I have to reboot because of some install/uninstall/patch, invariably I forget half of what I was working on because I don't remember all the docs and apps I have to reopen

-paarkhi (February 02, 2010, 01:41 AM)

Yes, I often feel this way too.

I hope this type of thing because incorporated into applications (support for restoring state -- e.g. open a file and position pointer to a particular location) and the os eventually.

BTW, lanux128 mentioned SmartClose in another thread -- perhaps it provides some similar functionality.

[jaden]

I hope this type of thing because incorporated into applications (support for restoring state -- e.g. open a file and position pointer to a particular location) and the os eventually.

I agree.  Apps like Firefox, Notepad++ and iDailyDiary that already do this are so much nicer to use.

I tried Cache My Work and SmartClose, but ended up writing a short AutoHotKey script to launch the set of apps I usually have open at work.  It's easy to modify and FARR makes it a snap to run.

[KynloStephen66515]

Does this software also cache the document you was working on (IE, auto re-load the last notepad document I had open, including all the text?) if so, I can stop having to fart around in msconfig for the software re-launches and having to save a file to my desktop to tell me what I had open before reboot.

[jaden]

Nope, it just relaunches the applications.  If the app doesn't have auto-restore functionality (e.g. Notepad), you'll have to open the files you were working on manually.

[KynloStephen66515]

So basically, it works as an easier option than using msconfig and editing that before each reboot?

[jaden]

Exactly.  The first line of their documentation states:

CacheMyWork enables you to instruct Windows to re-launch specific applications the next time you login

[KynloStephen66515]

Nice - gonna get this

[JavaJones]

Something that could actually "go the while nine" and restore all open apps *and* documents to previous state would be a lot more attractive to me, though this is still kind of cool. I have long wished for the ability to "reboot" the OS without having to close everything down. Surely there's a way to do this. Can't Linux do "live" kernel upgrades or something?

- Oshyan

[jaden]

I have long wished for the ability to "reboot" the OS without having to close everything down.

I doubt we'll ever see that.  The reason rebooting is an effective solution for so many problems is precisely because it closes everything down.  However, as more applications enhance their resume-ability, combined with an app like Cache My Work, it won't matter.  You'll be able to reboot whenever you like without having to pay the price of restarting each app manually and re-opening the files again.

[JavaJones]

True, in-app "state saving" is probably the best way to go.

- Oshyan

[ewemoa]

So...has anyone coined a nice short phrase or word to describe this functionality?  

Resumable?  Hmm, perhaps that suffers from similar potential confusion like that generated by "portable"...

I guess there is already the idea of "sessions".

[jaden]

That's a good question.  Resumable is the best I can think of, but it doesn't capture the idea of restoring the previous working state of the application.

I looked around on Free Thesaurus for a while but couldn't find anything better.

[ewemoa]

Since FF is widely known [1] and has something close [2] (if not adequate) and they seem to call it "Session Restore", may be that's not a bad choice...especially when asking developers and companies to support the functionality

Even nicer would be multiple sessions -- didn't K-Meleon have something like this?


[1] It is, isn't it?
[2] Didn't know you could do about:sessionrestore in FF...

[jaden]

Session restore is much better than resumable.

I didn't know about about:sessionrestore either.  Cool!