Author Topic: IDEA: Closed Program Bin / Reopen accidentily closed software (Read 88,627 times)

justice · « **on:** November 29, 2006, 01:08 PM »

Sometimes you accidentily close a program but then want to retrieve it. Opera browser has a "closed pages bin" that gives access to your closed pages from this session. It would be good to have a "closed software bin" where any program that was closed would go and stay out of sight for a time period (say 60 sec) and then close by itself. if the software was minimized before sending to the closed software bin (could be a tray icon or part of the taskbar) I believe windows frees up memory.

Obvoisly the point of it all is that you can reopen a program you accidentily closed without losing the information you were working on.

It wouldn't work well with games so perhaps it needs an exception list. Could this be realised? Thanks

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** November 29, 2006, 01:46 PM »

this is a very clever idea, but im not sure how you could do it..

app103 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 29, 2006, 02:02 PM »

They tried to do something similar in WinME...not give up RAM when a program was closed right away...wait a few minutes.

That way if you reopened the same program it would open faster the 2nd time.

It was a disaster...a deliberate "memory leak" with really nasty results.

Minimizing an app to tray would have same effect on your system.

justice · « **Reply #3 on:** November 29, 2006, 02:15 PM »

So what you are saying is instead use a program that on close minimizes the software to your tray, and if you really want to close it immediately use a keyboard shortcut like ALT-F4 to bypass this mechanism?

But then you'd end up with dozens of items in your tray that you'd have to manually close. Maybe the implementation is not as straightforward then.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #4 on:** November 29, 2006, 05:09 PM »

Also, don't forget that if that worked like that, you wouldn't like to keep the apps open, and you'd end up by always closing it through alt + f4 (because you'd create an habbit out of it). This means that you'd be in the exact same situation you are now.
I think that the only solution would be to have a program that would keep a "log" of the programs opened and closed. But i have no idea on how a program could keep such log.

Darwin · « **Reply #5 on:** November 29, 2006, 05:59 PM »

Hmmm... I"m out of my depth here BUT it seems to me that the OP was suggesting that programs be placed in a bin (cache?) for about 60 seconds BEFORE shutting down as normal. That would give you time to go "Oh my gosh! I didn't mean to close AutoCAD!" and retrieve it from the bin before it goes through its normal shutdown sequence. If implemented like this, I can't see how this would lead to a memory leak? If I understand it correctly, the bin would be a GUI that displays links to programs that are in a 60 second queue for normal shutdown - so that essentially all that is being done is that a 60 second delay is being put on the shutdown of apps. This could work, from an end-user's perspective if the option of ignoring some apps (webbrowsers for example) was part of it...

skrommel · « **Reply #6 on:** November 30, 2006, 06:12 AM »

Try this one.

GoneIn60s - Recover closed applications.

Features:
- Click the X or press Alt-F4 to close an application
- Rightclick the tray icon and select the application to recover
- Doubleclick the tray icon to recover all applications
- If not restored, it is gone in 60 seconds

You'll find the downloads and more info at 1 Hour Software by Skrommel.

Skrommel

justice · « **Reply #7 on:** November 30, 2006, 09:13 AM »

Wow, genius! Thanks so much!

Hopefully it will be useful to many others.

skrommel · « **Reply #8 on:** November 30, 2006, 11:43 AM »

Thanks! I was wondering about hiding the windows instead of minimizing them. What do you think?

Skrommel

justice · « **Reply #9 on:** November 30, 2006, 12:05 PM »

On the one hand it's easy to restore from the taskbar but I find they can still get in the way. hmm can you add them dynamically to the system tray menu and hide them instead of minimizing them to the taskbar? I don't think people would restore software often enough to have them take up taskbar space.

Also I found that some slower software such as outlook becomes stuck semi transparently for a fraction of a second, a minor niggle really but if you know why? (maybe part of the minimizing animation of windows).

skrommel · « **Reply #10 on:** December 01, 2006, 08:35 AM »

I think I'll put the windows in the tray menu. I made the windows transparent just to remind the user that they could be restored, but maybe there's a better way of alerting him...

Skrommel

skrommel · « **Reply #11 on:** December 02, 2006, 08:42 PM »

Try GoneIn60s v1.1.

Changes:
- 20061202 - v1.1: Removes the closed apps from the taskbar, adds them to the tray menu. Restores closed apps on exit.

Skrommel

dpierron · « **Reply #12 on:** December 11, 2006, 02:28 PM »

Thanks Skrommel ! I installed it, works great !
I'll use it for a week or so and see if I find it really useful.
One suggestion though : when restored, the windows position/size are messed up... Can you do something about this ? pretty low priority, though... The basic idea is that, normally, you don't have to restore windows ;o)

mitzevo · « **Reply #13 on:** December 11, 2006, 02:34 PM »

Nice work Skrommel, havent tried it but this thread was exciting! Good to see you made the request

skrommel · « **Reply #14 on:** December 28, 2006, 08:47 AM »

Try GoneIn60s v1.2.

Changes:
- 20061228 - v1.2: Recovered apps reappear properly.

Skrommel

Betsy · « **Reply #15 on:** January 09, 2007, 03:31 PM »

Quote from: skrommel on December 28, 2006, 08:47 AM

Try GoneIn60s v1.2.

Changes:
- 20061228 - v1.2: Recovered apps reappear properly.

Skrommel

I tried "Gone in 60 seconds" a couple of months ago, and I ended up uninstalling it. It brought everything back without me asking it to. If I closed the program again, it would reopen it in 60 seconds again, and again, and again...
I would love to use this program, but not until I can prevent that glitch from happening. Any suggestions?

skrommel · « **Reply #16 on:** January 10, 2007, 12:25 AM »

I'm a but uncertain of what you mean, but I've made GoneIn60s close, not kill a program, to have it ask whether to save any unsaved work. It might be that this is happening.

I could make an option to kill a window instead of closing it...
I've also thought of making it so that rightclicking the X-button kills a program.

Skrommel

Betsy · « **Reply #17 on:** January 10, 2007, 01:16 AM »

Quote from: skrommel on January 10, 2007, 12:25 AM

I'm a but uncertain of what you mean, but I've made GoneIn60s close, not kill a program, to have it ask whether to save any unsaved work. It might be that this is happening.

I could make an option to kill a window instead of closing it...
I've also thought of making it so that rightclicking the X-button kills a program.

No, I must not have explained it clearly. Let's say I finished using Program A, so I closed it and had no intention of reopening it. I went on about my business, but a while later Program A popped up all by itself, re-opened by "Gone in 60 Seconds." I frowned and closed it, and in a little while it popped up again, re-opened by "Gone in 60 seconds." This went on endlessly until I uninstalled "Gone in 60 seconds." That's the problem I was referring to.

Skrommel

skrommel · « **Reply #18 on:** January 10, 2007, 03:45 AM »

Exactly the behaviour you would get from an app with unsaved data.

Skrommel

justice · « **Reply #19 on:** January 15, 2007, 02:21 PM »

Just to feed back to you. There's some problems with, what I think ,the way such software can "catch" closed software. For example, on exiting an app with unsaved info, some spawn a new dialogue asking you whether you want it saved or not, others must spawn a dialogue as part of their app. I am a web developer not a win32 developer so perhaps I am mistaken.

For example the dialogue box on exiting notepad causes problems with GoneIn60s. I also had some problems with Quicktime, closing it while it's still buffering and downloading a movie locked up my pc. I guess this is due to Quicktime's implementation, maybe there are too many variations?

skrommel · « **Reply #20 on:** January 15, 2007, 05:33 PM »

So who's woting to kill the windows instead of closing them, risking the loss of unsaved data?

Skrommel

nowshining · « **Reply #21 on:** June 13, 2007, 07:52 PM »

some suggestions: make the shutdown time adjustable and make an ignore option, because i have some programs that when the X is closed it auto desends to the tray as an icon, and when the seconds are up it just re-pops up now because gonein60 just cached it..very frustrating..

Examples are Utorrent, Frostwire, & Peerguardian2...

skrommel · « **Reply #22 on:** June 15, 2007, 01:14 AM »

Try GoneIn60s v1.3!

Changes:
- 20070615 - v1.3: Added options to change the gone time, kill windows and ignore apps.

Skrommel

Tuxman · « **Reply #23 on:** October 09, 2007, 04:09 PM »

Uhm... I found a bug in Gonein60s regarding Notepad++:

I open the application ...

... send it to the tray ...

... and the application's toolbar disappears!

But why?

bigbazza · « **Reply #24 on:** October 22, 2007, 10:46 PM »

Like Betsy

Quote

If I closed the program again, it would reopen it in 60 seconds again, and again, and again...
I would love to use this program, but not until I can prevent that glitch from happening. Any suggestions?

I have some programs that keep on coming back and some that it doesn't save at all. Idea is great. Sometimes it works but not always

Bazza