Is Process Lasso Windows 7 ready? - Yes, it is!

Recently I've had a couple users ask me if Process Lasso is compatible with Windows 7. The answer is YES, Process Lasso works wonderfully in Windows 7 (both 32-bit and 64-bit).

Earlier this year, when I first started playing with Windows 7, I discovered that Process Lasso already worked very well with it. There were no substantial changes to the NT native APIs and data structures, and no major architectural changes that would affect Process Lasso. In fact, the only 'problem' was the new 'Did this program install correctly?' prompt. A couple tweaks later, that prompt was no more. I did also make a couple UI tweaks to better adhere to the new Windows 7 UI standards, but no major changes.

I've now been running Windows 7 for quite some time. Every build of Process Lasso is fully tested on it. You can be sure that Process Lasso and Windows 7 is a wonderful combination.

As a side note, I think that Windows 7 is the best thing Microsoft has done in a long time. The the usability and appearance of Windows has improved substantially. I honestly did not think Microsoft had it in them. Of course, the hard architectural work was all accomplished with Vista. Now they've polished those changes, and brought forth a mighty new contender in the OS wars.

If you missed your chance to freely install Windows 7 RC1 in Microsoft's public beta program, the OS will hit store shelves on Oct. 22. If your PC runs Vista, it should be able to run Windows 7 even better. Those users who are running Windows 7 RC1 have until early next year to upgrade to the final build. Just be sure to reinstall Process Lasso after your upgrade ;).

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Process Lasso v3.65.7 beta released

I'm marching towards the eventual end of this beta series, though its still several versions off. This latest beta continues improvements to the product and advances our position on the product road map. Here's a couple of the improvements:

Tooltips on the process listview were added. I still have much more information to add to the tooltips, but I've got them implemented.



I revamped the InstallHelper startup config dialog and added tooltips to both install configuration dialogs.

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Process Lasso v3.65.3 beta released

I've released the first new beta that is 100% UNICODE. I've regression tested almost all the software, though there may still be some minor flaws here and there. The transition took some time, as there were more complications than I had hoped there would be. Regardless, everything is done now. All of the software, including the log and configuration files, are UNICODE.

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Two new features and UNICODE

New Features

Yesterday I released v3.65.2 beta. Amongst continued optimization of the new no-COM code base, I've added a couple new features. Well, ok, one new feature with the other coming in the next build. These are in the new 'When Running' process context menu:

(when running)
• Prevent PC sleep
• Enter High Performance power scheme

Both do just what they say. The Prevent PC Sleep feature prevents the PC and display from sleeping while a process is running. The Enter High Performance power scheme feature switches the PC to the High Performance power scheme when the process is running.

This last feature (Enter High Perf..) is not yet fully completed in the core engine, so I disabled it in this build. It will come in the next. I expect it to be highly useful to many people. Imagine, when you're playing your favorite game your laptop will instantly go into the High Performance power scheme, possibly eking out a little more performance. When you close your game, it returns to the original power scheme.

UNICODE users rejoice!

I'm also happy to announce that the next beta will be the first 100% UNICODE build. Prior to this, I had kept the project multi-byte (ANSI), but transformed select pieces of code to wide characters (UNICODE). Although I wrote almost all the code to easily support either character set by using TCHARs, this transition still requires full regression testing. I figured since I was going to have to do full regression testing anyway, now was the time to finally make the switch.

Silent update to v3.64.3

Lastly, for anyone who cares, I performed a silent update of v3.64.3 final. This build has no real changes. It simply re-enables the warning about the French translation being incomplete. It was also built in a newly created virtual development environment, but that's hardly something that matters to end users. Of course, I did make sure to run it through the usual final build tests since I had utilized the new build environment.

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No more COM

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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Managing specific service groups running under svchost.exe instances

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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Process Lasso v3.64.3 released

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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