Allows OS/2 to recover from system hangs, remote management, and power tools help make Process Commander a "must have" OS/2 utility
For Immediate Release
Monday, November 18, 1996
Stardock Systems, Inc.
(313) 453-0328
Canton MI--Stardock Systems, a leading developer of OS/2 software, announced Process Commander today. Process Commander, which has been in development for over a year, will be generally available on Monday, November 25.
Possibly the most thoroughly tested OS/2 product ever, Process Commander has undergone a rigorous public beta for many months. Many beta testers have been using it in a "production" environment for some time.
Process Commander's most popular feature is its ability to allow OS/2 users to recover from system hangs. When the system hangs, users can hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, which Process Commander now traps, and brings up a full screen session that allows the user to try to recover from the hang. Any user that has ever experienced such a hang will likely want to get Process Commander as it is by far the most reliable way to recover from a system hang. Many corporations using OS/2 in a mission critical fashion will also want to take a good look at Process Commander for this reason.
"If OS/2 were a car, then Process Commander would be the seat belts and air bag." said Alexander Antoniades, Stardock Systems, Inc. "Anyone who values their time and data will want to have it."
Process Commander also provides an enhanced shutdown. Now, users can tell OS/2 to reboot after shutting down.
"This is one of my favorite features," said Brad Wardell, Stardock Systems, Inc. "My system takes quite a while to shutdown and reboot. Now, I can tell it to shut down and get up and do something else while Process Commander takes care of the rest."
A whole set of command line utilities also comes with Process Commander to allow users to write scripts or perform process management tasks at the command line. For example, Process Commander provides a true "Kill -9" utility. Users can also change the priority of programs from the command line.
For OS/2 users that want to manage their programs/processes from an easy to use environment, Process Commander also provides "Process Commander PM", a graphical process management utility. From this program, users can view how much shared memory a program uses, change priorities of threads, look at semaphores and other critical pieces of information. For IS managers, this program is particularly useful for improving OS/2's performance since it sees and tells how much CPU usage each process is using. There are few utilities available for tuning OS/2's performance that can match Process Commander.
Remote process management is also available. If an end user's system hangs or a server hangs, an IS manager can remotely telnet to that system and terminate the offending process.
"For corporations, this is a big issue," said Wardell. "If you have a server hang, rebooting it is not an acceptable option. With Process Commander, someone can usually make the server recover. This brings some Unix-like features to OS/2."
Process Commander also extends OS/2's keyboard capabilities. For example, it can use the new "Windows95" keys that are on many new keyboards. Users can assign functions to the Windows95 keys now.
Moreover, Process Commander comes with an Assistant and Monitor that allows it to keep track of what is running on your system. If your system has hangs or has other problems, it can often diagnose what went wrong and present recovery options.
If you use OS/2, whether in the home, at work, or as an adminstrator, Process Commander is likely to be the most compelling OS/2 utility to have been developed in a very long time.
Process Commander lists for $69.95 but Stardock has an introductory price of $65. Stardock can be reached at (313)453-0328 or (313)453-1480 fax. Its website is http://www.stardock.com. Users can order it at 1-800-672-2338.
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Process Commander 1.0
List: $69.95 ($65 introductory price)
Part No. 12W96PC
UPC No. 7-08192-01007-3
Requires: OS/2 Warp 3.0 or OS/2 Warp 4.0
Stardock Systems, Inc. 7977b Ronda Dr. Canton MI 48187
