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"When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'"
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WinTasks 4 Professional
Page 1 - Leading Interactive System Management Software
Leading Interactive produces a product called WinTasks 4, available in Standard and Professional.
The version sent to me was, as the title states, the Professional edition. So, what does WinTasks 4
Professional do? I think LIUtilites says it best:
"For IT professionals, software developers and other advanced users, WinTasks 4 Professional
makes resource management easier than ever before. With it's rich set of features WinTasks 4 Professional
is an essential addition to any advanced Windows user's toolbox."
I think the key term in the above description is "advanced users." This product will have little
to no use for the average surfer or casual gamer. I'll try to explain why that is in this review.
Infamous Box Shot
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Inside the case
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Installation was about as simple as it gets. You put in the CD and a couple clicks later you are done. I
should note that this product is installable on Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, and XP (pretty much everything
above 3.11) but I only tested it on Windows XP. Once installation was complete I opened WinTasks 4 up and
had a look. At first glance, WinTasks 4 could be mistaken for Windows Task Manager disguised in a new
window. After a little more inspection, one would find some pretty nice features.
WinTasks 4 Professional is made up of eight main features. The primary tool, the main tasks window, is
very similar to the Windows Task Manager Processes tab. In this main window, you can stop a process,
increase or decrease process priority, and reset a process' name. You can also start processes. As far as
process information goes, WinTasks 4 displays the process name, executable, priority, threads, CPU usage,
memory usage, and the time the thread was started. WinTasks 4 does not display things like I/O reads and
writes or PID like Windows Task Manager does, but I do not really think those features were in the scope
of what LIUtilities was trying to offer. However, I should note, that if you were planning on using this
product to limit hard disk activity, you will be out of luck. Maybe LIUtilies will implement this in a
future version. Anyway, I will move onto the other features.
Main Window
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Description Add-on
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The description window, unlike the rest of the windows, is an add-on (dock-style) to the main window.
While the description window is no where near a technological breakthrough, it is a pretty handy feature
that allows you to leave notes about particular processes and gives a little more information about the
process (icon and formal name).
One of my favorite windows is the Autostart window. This window displays a list of all the processes that
were autostarted when Windows booted. This is great because you can disable processes to see if you need
them or not. Then, of course, if you do not need the process you can remove it. This feature is great if
you are looking to clean up wasted memory or CPU usage.
The Autostart Windows
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"Windows" window
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The "Windows" window is a little more useful than one might first perceive. On first impression,
one might think that being able to maximize, minimize, hide, and un-hide windows is almost useless.
Nonetheless, first impressions are not always right because the "Windows" window can be quite
valuable. This window can reveal hidden processes in your favorite program that you never knew existed.
These windows can be closed at your will. Microsoft Word is a good example of a program with lots of
hidden windows, as it has 6 windows in addition.
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!["Windows" window](javascript:image1=open('image_popup.php?name=wintasks4pro&image=windows1a.gif&description="Windows" window', 'imagewin1','toolbar=no,width=488,height=520,top=10,left=10');image1.focus();)
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