This program is all about processes. It helps you differentiate between system and normal processes, increase or decrease their priority and stop them altogether, among other things.

If you are wondering what a process is at this point, then WinTasks 4 Professional probably isn't for you. However, should you still be interested, here is a brief overview.

A process is basically a form of PC activity, generally (but not solely) presented as a program execution. A process may access a number of PC resources including files, memory, disk space etc. Each process is made up of a number of threads, performing different actions within that process.

Windows supervises/controls these processes automatically. A user can take basic control over processes via the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete), but little can be done here other than stopping a process.

With a copy of WinTasks 4 more detailed control and data is available, helping system administrators to diagnose/solve problems that may occur.

On launching WinTasks you are presented with its main window, where every active process is clearly listed. Coloured icons help to differentiate between system and standard processes.

WinTasks displays each process name, location, current priority level, the number of active threads and the amount of the processor and memory each process uses.

Also present is a description field, which purports to describe the selected process. However, we often encountered the phrase 'No description available' on common, non-system processes, and when they were present they were very brief. So unless you know a lot about computer functions the descriptions are of little use.

It is within the main window that processes can be halted, increased or decreased in priority or renamed at the click of a button. Processes can be assigned with one of four priority levels: low, normal, high and real-time.

A process in real-time mode is given exclusive access to the processor. Windows 2000 and XP actually support two other priorities - below normal and above normal - but these are not present in WinTasks 4.

Up to four configurations can be saved, with relevant priority levels for all defined processes.

An Autostart window can be opened which displays all programs that auto-load at startup, and such items can be enabled/disabled. Current programs can be removed or new ones added.

A Windows window displays a list of all active windows and the process to which each corresponds. Each window can be normalised, minimised, maximised, shown and hidden.

A modules window is available to display all DLL modules for a selected process, while a statistics window displays processor and memory uses for the selected process and the whole system.

Finally, WinTasks allows for powerful scripting to be applied to a system and, with a complete list of all components to the scripting language available in the help files, this should be easy to use for those familiar with scripting.

There is practically no limit to what can be done with scripting, whether on a single machine or across a network. Examples of its uses range from the simple blocking of specific applications, to the more advanced shutting down or re-prioritising of any processes exceeding a defined amount of available resources.

In this way it is possible to exert a high level of control over a user's rights, and automatically manage resources. This is without doubt the most useful aspect of WinTasks 4 Pro, and will be where users head first.

See also:

Mutek AppSight 3.5

A powerful troubleshooting tool for Windows apps, but for experts only.  20 May 2002

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