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Chameleon Task Manager on offer at Bits du Jour 2011-12-01

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rjbull:
Chameleon Task Manager is on on offer at Bits du Jour today, 2011-12-01.  50% off: $14.97 instead of $29.95.  Here's the BdJ blurb:
Chameleon Task Manager
A Better Alternative to Windows Task Manager

Windows Task Manager - you know it, you don't love it, but you use it because you have no other alternative. Or do you? How would you like an app that replaces Windows Task Manager, enabling you to do everything that you're used to doing with Windows Task Manager, but even better, faster, and with a bunch of additional features? If you are nodding your head enthusiastically and clapping wildly, read on for more details on Chameleon Task Manager.

Chameleon Task Manager gives you complete control over the processes that are running on your computer, giving you much more detailed information about your programs than Windows Task Manager can even dream about. With Chameleon Task Manager, you'll have a way to automatically manage background processes that hog CPU or disk usage, reducing their priority to allow current programs to fly like the wind. An optimizer determines exactly how much memory a program needs, so you're sure that every bit of RAM that's in use is by design.

Have you ever taken a peek at your process list and been aghast at the number of programs that are running in the background? Chameleon Task Manager gives you control over when programs are allowed to run, either after other programs have finished or started, or on certain days - so you can set annoying, but necessary, system scans to run on weekends when you're out partying, instead of when you're trying to work during the week! You can even set Chameleon Task Manager to automatically kill processes, preventing unnecessary programs from running at all.

Lastly, you'll get an added layer of protection and peace of mind with Chameleon Task Manager. Newly launched programs result in instant notifications, and Chameleon Task Manager is smart enough to check the files of all programs to quickly identify modified files. And with the handy resource usage statistics, you'll be able to instantly see which of your programs use the most resources!
Promotion Written by Derek Lee

--- End quote ---

It's been mentioned on DC in these threads, amongst others:

* Chameleon Task Manager
* Chameleon Task Manager Pro 40% Discount
* Win Patrol Plus (Bits Du Jour- Fri) Chameleon Startup Manager, Startup Organizer

Steven Avery:
And I actually went ahead with the Chameleon Startup Manager, which was also on sale, and I have been using the freebie. Nice product, and Evengi has always been ace.  It is a bit harder to justify the Task Manager, even at $15, since so much of the special functionality is in the overlap area of Process Lasso and Process Tamer, which are more specialized tools and it is an area where multiple tools can conflict ... so I passed on it for now.

Steven

cyberdiva:
Hi, Steven.  Did you decide to use Chameleon Startup Manager with WinPatrol, or are you just using Chameleon?  I ask simply because I thought I remembered your saying some time ago that you used WinPatrol Plus, but perhaps I'm not remembering correctly.  (It's been known to happen  :) )

Steven Avery:
Hi,

Generally speaking I will use them together.  This may duplicate some warnings in the Professional Chameleon (the freebie does not do that warning stuff) .. I tend to not mind dup warnings, anyway.  In fact, I think I may have Anvir giving warnings on one puter or user as well. (To be fair, it seems to do so in rather a pleasant and informative manner.)  Sometimes I may let one product drift off of current usage.

I do consider WinPatrol and Chameleon as reasonably complimentary.  WinPatrol is heavily oriented to security and ferreting out all possible startup problems .. Chameleon (and also Metaproducts Startup Organizer, which does do warnings in an interesting manner where it puts all the changes in one box if it has been asleep for awhile, quite impressive) is more designed to user experience enhancements, simple visibilities, changes to startup, configurations, delays, etc.   Plus Evgeni's person support and pleasantness behind the product.

On the whole, Startup is a high priority security area, so I do not mind  a bit of extra, even redundant, visibility and coverage, (You do not make too many changes a day anyway, so redundancy is not a real problem.) I do not get into all the shadow and imaging and restoring stuff, I simply like my puter to be running good and I try to remember to save the data externally if something goes wrong, and I keep early images only.  The last few years have been thankfully mostly trouble-free, using layered security.

Note: I am not really encouraging more than one, I am just saying it works fine, it is not like anti-virus and task priority or shadow/virtual systems and many other areas where the playground gets messy. Overall, I do think that startup is underrated in terms of security visibility and significance and that it rates right with firewall and browser care (security is hard to make into categories, HIPS, anti-virus, etc.) Only the dedicated startup programs really understand how it works and the security suites are dubious in this area.

Bill at WinPatrol makes startup security his key, even looking at things like "IE Helpers" and the Windows Scheduler and secret and difficult hiding places floating around the registry or wherever, always looking for the latest baddie methods. (Evgeni origiinally did not do services, and has it in the new task manager product, so you would need both startup and task for the more complete Evgeni support). The biggest concern is that it is hard for these, even in pro versions, to be "zero-moment" protection, against the type of malware that forces an immediate reboot. That is why you have to have good internet and .exe sense.

Overall, I do recommend going "professional" in one of the better programs and would never recommend a happy WinPatrol user to do a replacement ... security trumps startup ease and I do not place any other program quite up there with WinPatrol in that category.

As to security warnings, I will say that (this is not startup) MBAM - Malwarwebytes - seems to give some of the very best HIPS-oriented, I only noted that it can be, at times, a CPU hog.  I am talking about the realtime mode, which I have played with the last months after some deal, rather than just on-demand scanning.

Steven

cyberdiva:
Thanks very much, Steven, for your very helpful response.  I'm glad to know that some duplication in function between startup managers doesn't wreak havoc on the computer the way using two AV programs often does.  I've been very happy using just WinPatrol Plus for startup matters, though at times I wish it had more (or more current) information about the programs it tells me about.  But I haven't found any other program I like as well.  I should note that I haven't tried Chameleon or Startup Organizer.

I also agree about the usefulness of realtime Malwarebytes Pro, as well as the fact that it can be a CPU hog at times.  In spite of this problem and an occasional false positive (which the company tends to acknowledge and cure very quickly), I really like MBAM Pro.

Thanks again.

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