Still having problems ... ignoring rules with full shutdown/reload of PT

[Carol Haynes]

Still having problems with the config screen not updating the currently processed rules.

If I load a program and PT reduces its priority when I open the config window - select Rule>Ignore and hit OK shouldn't the process be restored to its Normal level.

Even worse - if I disable PT from the tray icon the process is retored to normal level, but as soon as PT is re-enabled it is reduced again - ignoring the rule that was set up.

Is it just me with this prob?

[mouser]

i have a guess at what might be happening.. i'm going to make a test version of PT if you don't mind helping me test.

[Carol Haynes]

I can change the habit of a life time and be helpful

[mouser]

first question, to recap:
when you launch the configuration screen from within Process Tamer tray tool,
it launches and then quickly says that the tray tool is NOT RUNNING in the configuration dialog, is that right?

Once that happens it means the tray will never know that the configuration tool has changed any settings and so any changes will be ignored.

it's also the easiest thing for me to try to discover the cause of because i can have the config tool print out a list of what apps it does see running, and we can take it from there.

[Carol Haynes]

No it says it is running

[mouser]

oh.  ok says it is running...  that's different issue then.

ok let's try to isolate the problem.

1) so if you launch the config tool from the tray tool, it does show as running in the config dialog.
that's good, at least the apps are talking.

2) now when you added your rule, how exactly did you add it?
did you add it manually from the configuration tab by right clicking and selecting "add rule", or did you add it by clicking on the Processes tab, finding the app and selecting "Ignore".

3) either way:
when you close the config tool and reopen it (always open config tool using tray tool), is your rule still there?

4) now before we get to the subtleties of disabling and enabling and obeying rule changes -
can you check if you exit the tray program completely, and restart it, is it now obeying the ignore rule?

once we know the answers to these we will know a lot more about the cause.

[Carol Haynes]

I am just clicking on the rules column for existing processes and selecting Ignore and then OK (bottom right).

The rule is remembered after closing and reopening the config screen, but not applied.

The rule is applied after the tray icon is exited and restarted.

[mouser]

ok,
so once PT is exited and restarted, then forever after the rule is applied. is that right?

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks - out of curiosity are other people experiencing this too - or is it just me?

[mouser]

it's not just you - it's basically how PT currently works.

when you added a rule saying "IGNORE"
PT assumed you had taken over responsibility for the app, and completely stopped all management of it.

it assumed that you would change the priority back to normal this time if you wanted it back at normal.
(you can easily change priorities from the same process tamer configuration screen as the one you added the rule).

so this is just the way process tamer currently works - as soon as you say IGNORE, it IGNORES it, it does not restore its priority, it assumes you will do it.

but i can change that if its counter intuitive.

[Carol Haynes]

Ah - got it finally, that works.

Perhaps PT should return processes back to the state they were in before they were managed when Ignored (so if it was originally High, and PT changes it to Low then Ignore should return it to High).

Don't know how easy or practical this is though.

[mouser]

yes, i think that probably makes sense.  i know i considered this at the time, but i can't remember if i had a good reason for doing it the way i did.

[mouser]

the reason i may have done it the way i've done it could be this:

with the current approach, if you want the process to bump back up to normal, then its just 2 more clicks from the same page you are adding the rule on.  and if you want to leave it at low priority, you do nothing.

but if i made the program automatically go back to normal priority then you would be out of luck if you wanted to leave it at low priority.
(for more complicated reasons the configurator cannot know that the process was lowered by the tray tool, so it cant restore it, it has to wait until it closes and tray tool would restore it). so youd have to reopen the config after that and go manually lower it again if you wanted it to stay lowered.

perhaps the best clearest solution would be very simple:
If user adds a new rule to IGNORE an app and priority is low, the configure app can simply pop up a simple message saying:
"Process Tamer will now ignore this application completely.  It is currently set at low priority - if you would like to boost it back to it's normal priority, just choose 'NORMAL' from the processes priority drop down box now."

what do you think?

[Carol Haynes]

Fine by me - thanks, at least this has clarified for my little brain how it is meant to work

[Carol Haynes]

I have just updated the bug tracker - the new build of PT doesn't seem to solve the problem of not correctly updating behaviour when clicking OK in the config screen.

Eg. set process to ignore, put it manually to the process priority you want, click OK. PT immediately carries on taming the process as though you had not set up a rule.

[mouser]

not fixed yet.

[Carol Haynes]

'K, having just reinstalled I donwloaded the latest build expecting great things

[mouser]

a major release of pt is in the works, this was just minor maintenance release.