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Sections
The programs list
Closing programs
Sniper
Program info
Related articles
The Manager
Programs
Sniper
Quick links
Table of Contents
Questions
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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.
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