Fix those hyped processes you had no idea were running in the background with Bitsum’s Process Lasso Beta 1. Process Lasso is a task manager for Windows, much like the Windows task manager, only better. Sure there are a lot of task managers, but Process Lasso has some great features and the price is right … free.
One thing that I immediately loved when I first encountered this program was the fact that it comes in both (x32) and (x64) versions. The second thing I liked was its super small file size. The entire file weighed only 411.4 Kb and took about 10 seconds to download. Finally, as a free program I was not assaulted with a Please Register countdown, no annoying adware, or any attempt to install services or toolbars that I didn’t want. The author includes a small unobtrusive message stating “Home Users: Get the PRO Build for a Donation of Any Amount”.
I faced this program with Sysinternals offered by Process Explorer (also free). Since I had the option, I decided to test it on the (x32) and (x64) platforms. The system (x32) I used was an AMD Athlon 1.9 GHz system on Gigabyte MOBO, 1 GB of Geil 400 MHz DDR, 256Mb AGP ATI Radeon Video, and 120 GB Western Digital PATA Hard Drive, running on Microsoft Windows XP Professional with all the latest updates. The other system I tested it on was an AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core 6000 3.1 GHz on Gigabyte MOBO, 4 GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 800, Asus EN9400GT 1GB PCI Express 2.0 X16 Video, Seagate Barracuda 500 GB SATA 3.0GB / s, On Vista Home Premium … all the latest updates with Aero installed.
On the 32-bit system I started running with a pretty clean environment … all the usual services except Microsoft Update and nothing else. My total commit charge (memory used) was 63,132 KB, less than 64 MB. My processor usage was 3% or less, and system responsiveness was 100%. Everything was going fast and well. Now I would put Process Lasso to the test.
I started Process Lasso. Added approximately 4,140 KB total to memory usage. Not bad compared to Sysinternals Process Explorer, which uses a whopping 13,540 KB and has fewer features. Next, I would put my poor 1.9 GHz system under some pressure. I first turned on my Sunbelt Vipre Antivirus. This immediately affected the resources that Process Lasso displays by displaying a brake light icon in the systray. Process Lasso immediately reacted by temporarily changing svchost processes to a lower priority and restoring them once Vipre was running. My total memory commitment charge for Vipre was 19,108 KB and about 1.32% CPU resources. Now was the time to get serious.
I systematically started a series of applications that would push the system to failure. I turned off Process Lasso and turned on these applications in this order: Mozilla Firefox 3.0.4 – 49,812 KB’s and 3.62% CPU, Microsoft Word 2007 – 25,696 KB’s and 2.50% CPU, Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended 9.0 – 38,968 KB’s and 1.5% CPU. Finally, as the coup de grace, Nero Vision converts an image file in avi format to DVD: 289, 512 KB and 96% CPU! This brought my total memory commitment to 486,228 KB. About half of my system memory, the CPU was used at 100%. This was a system killer. Trying to switch between applications even with Nero Vision minimized to the tray was ridiculously slow. In fact, it can take more than 40 seconds to switch between apps. At one point when I tried to go to the start menu to start another process, the system hung for an eternity of more than 60 seconds. I was thinking this is a system glitch. However, it finally responded after I started Internet Explorer 7.0, albeit slowly.
Now the real test. I start Process Lasso and follow the same order and procedure as above. I watch Process Lasso flash a stoplight while apps fire up. After all the applications are up and running I start to switch through the windows … the timeout for most of them is almost nil or less than 1 second, with the exception of Nero Vision which hangs on precariously 4 seconds before appearing. Get to the start menu without waiting time. Beautifull. Meanwhile, Process Lasso runs a log window that tells you which applications and resources you are reducing consumption on, and it does so without any problems. Even letting me write this article while I’m testing.
I also ran this test on the system (x64). It worked fine … but I’m not going to bore you in more detail, as it was difficult to create a system load that crashed that system. However, when I finally loaded the system, suffice it to say that Process Lasso worked as it did on the x32. The only feature I didn’t test that really belongs to the 64-bit system was CPU Affinity, which should have allowed per processor load balancing … but that’s on my to-do list.
Process Lasso is feature rich. So much so that I’m not going to go into all of them here, but I will touch on their highlights. It has an option to start at system startup, which I recommend with a caution … it will slightly slow down the startup process, especially if you are running antivirus software. I think this is due to the fact that you are switching between services and applications in an effort to create better overall performance, but at the cost of slowing down the startup speed of an application (and therefore the system). Among its other great features are a wealth of information about CPU usage, Thread IDs, memory usage, application path, and priority class. It allows you to kill processes at will, even to use a force termination. Its automatic feature called ProBalance seems to work well for managing system resources and load balancing. It also speeds up the application exit if you do it at the end of the process from within Process Lasso. Among its strengths is the ability to set current priority classes anywhere, from real-time (highest priority) to idle (lowest priority). The user can also set a default priority level for each application to be used when it runs.
Some of the other great features include CPU Affinity, which allows the user to choose which CPU (on multi-CPU systems) should handle the load of a specific process or application. You can use a Probalance exclusion to prevent Process Lasso from managing a particular process or application. It has a Terminate Always feature that completely prevents a process from ever running. Add to that the ability to open the containing folder to any running application or process, configure processes based on the logged in user, trim virtual memory, and even a Delete executable option for the application or service on restart.
Process Lasso also has a rich menu of options, allowing the user to configure the program in various ways. These features include:
Process startup options that allow the user to choose which functions will run based on the logged-in user.
Balloon tip notification to let you know when the priority of a process is reduced or increased.
Update the speed so that Process responds more or less on your notifications.
Probalance Settings that allow the user to configure exactly how Process Lasso will handle the switching of foreground and background processes, as well as whether it should manage services.
Default priority setting that allows the user to set processes and services to a default level of idle in real time.
A foreground boost setting to give the applications you are working on most of the resources to make the application more responsive.
A setting for disallowed processes that prevents the activation of a service or process.
A process instance configuration that allows a user to configure how many instances of a process will allow Process Lasso to run at the same time. An example would be limiting Internet Explorer to only run 4 instances at a time, such that a fifth instance tried to start and failed. Actually, this could work as a poor man’s kind of pop-up blocker in this scenario.
An option to set a default schedule to trim memory usage by a certain interval.
A variety of registration options.
Advanced tools that allow the user to modify the NT programmer, the Vista Multimedia programmer and edit the INI configuration file.
All of that is just a scratch off the surface of this wonderful show. The author has told me that the pro version of this program available for just a $ 1.00 donation adds some features, primarily a feature that allows this program to run as a service. This is to prevent many antivirus and spyware programs from giving a false positive when this program is activated.
The author also has other interesting programs on his website that I can review in the future. You really should check it out.
Altogether, Process Lasso does what the author claims. It’s a great program to show you exactly what is running on your system and what resources those processes take. Create a seamless and efficient schematic to create a system profile that you can control, or allow Process Lasso to control it from the start. Control processes effortlessly, switching between them like a champ, improving your system performance and making crashes and crashes less likely. It’s easy to use, with a simple interface, little overhead, and a handy addition for any level of computer user. I know I am adding it to my tech toolbox.