Windows 2000 Support

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Sunday, 27 September 2009

No more COM

Posted on 11:58 by Unknown
Years ago I wrote my process enumeration and management module. It primarily uses the NT Native API, giving it extended capabilities over the standard PSAPI or ToolHelp Windows libraries. When I designed this component, I exposed it as a COM interface. This was because I had originally planned to resell it to other developers.

Years later, I never did resell it, and have no plans to do so. Only Process Lasso uses it. Now, because its a COM control there are occasionally problems with registry cleaners or users who don't have administrative rights to install the component. Who knows why registry cleaners sometime mistakenly target its COM registration. I suspect malfunction on their part.

For a long time now I've wanted to do away with this COM interface, but the risk of an accidental mistake deterred me. I mean, after conversion full regression and memory leak testing of every functional part is required.

Well, I've finally bit the bullet and got rid of the COM interface. Technically speaking, it is a very simple transition. COM interfaces are modelled on C++ classes, making them very easy to turn back into C++ classes. In fact, they can theoretically be referenced as C++ classes as-is. However, practically speaking, some work was necessary, especially with regards to object instantiation and data-type optimization.

Yes, this means I have a lot of regression testing to do. I plan to leave this beta series in beta for some time, back-porting minor updates to the last final build as needed (parallel development, as always).

So, what end effect does this have? Well, there is a substantial reduction in memory use by both the GUI and core engine. There's also a slight reduction in CPU use. Lastly, this opens the door for Process Lasso Portable Edition.

UPDATE: To give a more specific measurement, core engine memory usage has decreased by about 1.5MB on the average computer! This means its often using less than 1MB of RAM.

Enjoy ;)
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Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Managing specific service groups running under svchost.exe instances

Posted on 11:53 by Unknown
I have released version 3.65.0 beta. This version allows for differentiation between instances of svchost.exe by giving them a friendly service group name. Full enumeration of services running within each svchost.exe process is coming soon. For now, they can already be acted upon individually (as service groups) by the GUI and core engine.


Note: Final format may differ from screenshot

In order to expedite the first beta release, I've deferred introduction of some other new features under development. I'll be continuing releases in this beta series for some time.
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Friday, 18 September 2009

Process Lasso v3.64.3 released

Posted on 06:35 by Unknown
Late yesterday I released Process Lasso v3.64.3. This version performs minor maintenance to the product. I had planned to include the display of the private working set size for processes, but this was removed at the last minute due to performance problems with the algorithm I'm using to calculate this metric. The calculation was simply taking too many CPU cycles. While it wouldn't have mattered to someone with a quad core system, I always design Process Lasso to work on the most minimal of hardware. Once I improve the performance of the calculation, I will include it in the product.

In this new version you'll notice the solicitation dialog is a bit prettier - at least I hope. The buy now button has also been replaced with a very simple rendition of 'Buy Now'. My artistic capabilities are very, very poor so I'm hoping these changes are a move in the right direction.

Now its time to focus on generating some sales, as they've been dismal the last month. I do not know why, but there was a sudden decline in sales. I suspect that with all the distractions I did not make as many updates as usual, there-by reducing the market exposure. I also had a typo in the word 'monopolizing' on the Process Lasso page that was quite prominently positioned. Such a minor error can affect the image of the company and product quite a bit. Needless to say, I was not happy to discover this mistake. However, my perfectionism aside, its much more likely that it was the lack of updates that has caused this rut ;o.
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