Restore programs that were running at system shutdown (with selection)

[Jabberwock]

Basically what the title says... I am working with several windows open (different programs) and decide to call it a day. If I don't want to hibernate (maybe I should, but on my previous machine this led to crashes, so I got wary of it), I have to restart all the apps and documents when I restart the computer in the morning...

It would be nice to have an app that would remember what was running at system close and restore them at startup.

Some ideas:

- Manual "snapshot" instead of recording the system shutdown, possibly with "Snapshot and close"
- Permanent and editable exclusion list, possibly with items which run at startup anyway to be excluded automatically

[skwire]

What you're asking for is very hard and complex to do and it's been asked for on at least one other occasion.  Please read the thread here for more insight: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=23903.0

[Jabberwock]

Thank you for that link...

What I had in mind was somewhat less ambitious. I realize quite well that restoring by processes is rather unrealistic. I think I would settle with the restoration of _documents_ which were open at a specified moment. Although I am not sure all my tools register in the last opened documents as specified by Windows...

[skwire]

I think I would settle with the restoration of _documents_ which were open at a specified moment.

Actually, that's harder to do than restoring which windows were open.  It's a simple matter to generate a list of running processes, allow the user to pick and choose, and then re-run those processes on a given startup.  Unfortunately, as f0dder mentioned in the other thread, there is really not a good way to know which documents a certain app has open at any given time.  Sure, some put the current document in the titlebar text but what if said application has multiple documents open?  Follow me?

[Jabberwock]

If the system feature (Recently Opened Documents) contains all needed elements, this might be a good starting point...

Monitoring the opened documents is possible as well (e.g. Nemo Documents). Obviously, it should be done by the file extension.

[Ath]

The trouble here is that not all applications can restore to the document/project they had open when you want to close them, but that it is nearly impossible to determine what document/project they have open when you close them (externally). There would be so many different methods to try to determine that, that it's nearly impossible to pack that into a 'nifty little tool'.

You'd better have a good look (again) at the Hibernate feature of your computer, as the 'previous machine' you mentioned earlier is not your current computer, and the wrong point of reference. (IOW: "Any assumption made is wrong by default.")
Windows 7 (or Vista for that matter) does a whole lot better a job at hibernating, then Windows XP ever did. And with decent hardware even XP would do that just fine.

[MilesAhead]

To completely save state and restore on next power up would likely require a completely redesigned computer system.  All the hardware drivers would have to be in firmware with a standardized way of calling them to initialize. I could only see it for some dedicated hw, such as military where all 48,000 computers in all 48,000 of the same model tank are exactly the same.  So software/firmware could be written for identical computers outfitted with identical peripherals.

[Ath]

To completely save state and restore on next power up

Isn't that what's called 'hibernate' in Windows???

[joiwind]

To completely save state and restore on next power up

Isn't that what's called 'hibernate' in Windows???

In the OP he says he is wary of it...

[Ath]

To completely save state and restore on next power up

Isn't that what's called 'hibernate' in Windows???

In the OP he says he is wary of it...

But that's with his 'previous machine'. As I stated yesterday, that's as good a 'comparison' as oranges vs. pears...

[joiwind]

@ ath : true - my eyes aren't lined up this morning 

[MilesAhead]

To completely save state and restore on next power up

Isn't that what's called 'hibernate' in Windows???

I dunno' what they call it.  But I know it's the first thing I get rid of on a new machine.  I've never tried it.  Does it actually work if you hibernate then restore with unsaved files in editors? If you tally the support calls I'd venture hibernate/sleep/power accounts for about half. It's better just to run like they're not an option. If you want to save electricity, shut down.

[tomos]

To completely save state and restore on next power up

Isn't that what's called 'hibernate' in Windows???

I dunno' what they call it.  But I know it's the first thing I get rid of on a new machine.  I've never tried it.  Does it actually work if you hibernate then restore with unsaved files in editors?

For me, yes
it's definitely worth a shot imo - I've consistenly used hibernate on two computers for about 8 years now ;-)
I had minor related problems on both - sleep didnt work well on the first - cant remember if I even tried that on the second; but did have problems on the second with a dodgy soundcard (I think) driver - it worked okay after a driver reinstall anyways (- it's at least two years ago, my memory doesnt bother remembering the details at that stage).

[MilesAhead]

I don't really get the appeal of not hitting save in the editors I'm using.  But I don't have 20 windows open.  Maybe some people use 20 or 30 apps at once.  I just know when that stuff first came on the scene it was broken more often than not.  But I'm a skeptic. Took me a long time to try Chromium based browsers.  Now every other is just a backup.

edit: speaking of automatic save, one thing that still bugs me about Windows after using VMS for a short time is the lack of auto backup built into the file system.  Worked a bit like Tidy in AutoIt3 Scite editor.  Every time you did a Tidy it wrote a numbered backup before saving the current file.

Only in VMS it was built in. Just hit Save button in any editor and current MyFile.txt is saved, the most recent backup is MyFile.txt;1 next most recent MyFile.txt;2 etc..

There was a purge command to clean up excess backups.  Just backing up to one file with a .bak extension as is common in Windows is nearly useless.

Windows Seven Ultimate tries to do something similar with shadow copy and old versions of files, but it's not nearly as smooth.  Plus there seems to be some nebulous formula which files get old version backup and which don't.  Guess when they hired the VMS guys to do NT they didn't get the file system guys.  Too bad.

[Armando]

I thought everybody used hibernate/sleep...  Except,maybe, Linux aficionados. Although... even Linux distros hibernate pretty well these days.

It's not really about hitting/not hitting save, but more about 1- not loosing time reopening every single app and document you were working on (that is, if you have several opened windows, etc.), 2- easily keep track of you were doing before "shutting down" your computer.

(BTW : I rarely hibernate/sleep without saving my work first.)

Like Tom, I might have had a few problems here and there, but overall, Hibernate, sleep etc. have been real saviors (owned three different laptops over the last 9-10 years, each running windows XP -- well... 2000 first). It's so important to me that I would probably consider switching to Apple if hibernate/sleep/standby weren't there... But maybe that's because I also have a lot of stuff in my startup folder and I usually have about 12-20 windows opened, etc. When I shutdown/restart, it takes so loooong before I can actually do something. I hate restarts.

[MilesAhead]

I could see where it would be useful if you have heavy setup time as you describe.

[tomos]

I've consistenly used hibernate on two computers for about 8 years now ;-)
I had minor related problems on both - sleep didnt work well on the first - cant remember if I even tried that on the second; but did have problems on the second with a dodgy soundcard (I think) driver - it worked okay after a driver reinstall anyways (- it's at least two years ago, my memory doesnt bother remembering the details at that stage).

ironically, after 8 years of successful hibernating (XP SP3), hibernation broke here last week 
I think it was after the last round of windows updates on the 16th - or it could possibly be related to a couple of update in other programmes the previous week.