Sections

 The programs list
 Closing programs
 Sniper
 Program info


Related articles

 The Manager
 Programs
 Sniper


Quick links

 Table of Contents
 Questions

Detective window (NT/2K/XP version)
 

The programs list

The list in this window shows all the programs currently running on your computer, along with how much memory they consume, in addition to how much processor power they use, how many threads the run, and how many GDI objects (images, menus, windows) they employ. You can use the Refresh button to update the list if you like as programs open and close, or grow and shrink. You can also use the "+" buttons to see what libraries they use.

The detective window can be useful in helping you to understand which programs really tax your computer's ability. You could use the information here, for example, to decide not to run too very large programs at the same time. This will help keep your memory high and your computer more stable. Or, more importantly (and more easily), you can use this information to have MemoryBoost keep your programs well memory-fed.

MemoryBoost can free a certain amount of memory for any of your programs right before they start, to ensure they run smoothly and at full-speed. You can do this by creating special shortcuts for your program in the Programs window.

Finally, you may wish to read the special article on memory in the Detective. It explains in greater detail what the memory numbers mean, and from whence they come.

Closing programs

Sometimes one of your programs may get stuck, become unstable, or otherwise become unreliable. In this situation, you may want to stop the program before it hurts your other programs or causes your computer to become unstable. The "Stop the selected process" button lets you do this. When you click it, it will stop whichever program you have selected in the list, even if this program is frozen or otherwise broken.

You should, however, be careful when using this option. If you stop a system process, your computer may restart. And if you stop a program before you saved your work, you may lose your unsaved work in that program. Generally speaking, this option should be used only for frozen programs, ones you cannot shut down normally.

If, on the other hand, you wish to shut down a lot of programs at once, you can use the "Stop all non-essential processes" button. This is sometimes useful when installing new programs, because the installer will ask you to exit all running programs. This is also useful when your computer's memory is very low and you need to quickly exit everything to free things up. MemoryBoost makes sure it only closes user processes (not system processes) so your computer should not reboot.

Sniper

The Sniper automatically closes programs that stubbornly restart themselves. Applications often install "junkware" that starts every time you start your computer; the Sniper will help you get rid of these. You can open the Sniper by clicking the "Sniper..." button in the Detective window. For more information, please read the Sniper article.

Program information

The Detective provides two ways of learning what a process is and what it does. The first is a simple Internet search: right-click the process for which you want to search, and choose "Search for info on the web..." Your web browser will appear and will run a search for documentation on that particular process.

The second method is to display the process's file information. If you double-click the process, or right-click it and choose "Properties..." from the menu that appears, you'll see the window above appear. It tells you which company produced the file, gives you a description of the file, its version and various other elements of information about the file. You can also see which libraries, or DLLs, the file uses in the "Dependencies" list at the bottom of the window.