Crashed or frozen apps are especially problematic in situations where the computer system is left unattended. Examples would be to leave the computer on over night to finish a download, render a movie or compile a computer program.

A crash without safeguard in place usually means that a specific workload could not be completed.

Applications like Restart On Crash, or the previously reviewed Monitor And Restart Crashed Windows Processes, monitor specific programs that are running on the system.

They constantly check if a monitored application is running and responding properly, and react immediately if it is not.

The portable software Restart On Crash monitors applications that are added by the user. The four buttons on top of the interface are used to add and delete monitored applications, display the application log or open the settings of the program.

The add button opens a second program window. Here it is possible to add a running application or an executable from the computer’s hard drive.

Two different crash and hang checks are available. Restart On Crash assumes a program has crashed or hanged if the program does not respond to Windows messages. The second check needs to be activated, it basically assumes that the program has crashed if it is not running.

The after the crash configuration consists of two parameters. The first will kill the application’s process if it is still running, the second executes a command, which usually means restarting the application that has crashed or frozen. Restart On Crash will automatically fill in the application’s path after a process or program has been selected for monitoring.

restart on crash

All monitored applications are displayed in the main program interface. The checkmark in front indicates that they are monitored, removing the checkmark disables the monitoring for the time being.

monitor applications

Monitored applications that are closed by the user, freeze up, or crash are automatically restarted by the software. The kill switch if the process is still running will kill all instances of the program, which needs to be considered. This can be problematic if an application launches multiple program instances that are independent of each other, and only one of them crashes or hangs.

Restart On Crash is a helpful application monitoring tool that offers to restart programs that crash or hang. The download is available at the developer’s website

The following article will take a closer look at five application monitors and restarters for the Windows operating system. These programs monitor applications that the user configures. They usually also come with options to react on certain events.

Restarter

All application monitoring options are displayed in the main interface of the Restarter program. It displays the list of running processes on the top with the option to select one that should be monitored by the application. The monitoring interval can be configured as well as several startup and error parameters including killing the application if it becomes unresponsive and restarting it if it is not running anymore.

Pro

• Easy to use, manage everything in one program window.
• Low resource usage
• Can restart applications
• Logging

Con

• Can only monitor one application unless started several times
• No remote notification options
• Not portable

download link

Application Monitor

Application Monitor is another program that can monitor and restart applications that have been added to the program by the user. The process of adding applications to the software is slightly more complex as the user needs to select the program executable from the computer’s hard drive manually. Multiple executables can be added to the program this way. Application Monitor will automatically check if the program is running, restart it if it is not. It can write events into a log file and notify the user by sending an email to an email account if the SMTP server settings are filled out in the program’s options.

Pro

• Portable software
• Remote notifications (email)
• Logging
• Can restart applications
• Can monitor multiple applications

Con

• Not as easy to configure as Restarter

download link

Keep Running

Keep Running is a basic application monitor that needs to be configured in a separate configuration file. It is a portable application that can monitor one application in the Windows operating system. The administrator needs to add the full path to the software and other options in the configuration file. It is also only possible to monitor one application at a time. A positive side effect of the bare-bone approach is that the process of the program uses the least amount of computer memory in the test field.

Pro

• Lightweight application
• Portable software

Con

• Difficult configuration
• Can only monitor one application
• No logging
• No notifications

download link

Kiwi Application Monitor

The free version of Kiwi Application Monitor offers basic options to monitor processes in the Windows operating system. It is possible to monitor multiple applications, view statistics, configure email notifications and logging options. It is possible to configure several options to close or restart applications if events are triggered.

Pro

• Can monitor multiple applications
• Statistics about monitored applications
• Email Notifications
• Logging

Con

• Not portable
• Moderate resource usage

download link

CRP (Control Running Programs)

Control Running Programs needs to be run in compatibility mode in Windows 7. The program can be used to control three distinct program behaviors: Program instances, starting and memory usage. It is for example possible to configure that a program should be restarted if it is not running (or crashed), that only one instance of the program should be open at any time and that it should be closed if it exceeds a certain amount of computer memory. CRP supports logging but no notifications.

Pro

• Can monitor multiple applications
• Logging

Con

• Not portable
• No notifications
• Needs to be run in compatibility mode in Windows 7

download link

The basic actions that can be defined in the Windows application monitor are to close the application if the memory or cpu usage exceeds parameters, to start additional programs if the application starts or ends or to turn off the computer when it ends. The advanced rules are only available in the commercial version of the application monitor.

Kiwi will collect statistics about application usage and resource consumption. The Windows application monitor will for example dsiplay the average running time per day or session, the average memory usage and the maximum peak memory usage.

The last option that might be interesting for some users is to define minimum and maximum allowed working set in Megabytes. Kiwi uses just a few Megabytes of computer memory and about 30 Megabytes of virtual memory while minimized which should be acceptable for users who would like to monitor their applications and make use of the additional options of the program.

Ketarin on the other hand does not keep the software on a specific computer system up to date. The difference is that Ketarin checks if a software installer has been updated on a specified location and downloads the new installer to a location defined by the user of the software.

The main purpose of the software is therefor similar to the concept of those automatic updaters but with the difference that it only downloads the new program versions so that they can be distributed to a network of computers. It can naturally be used to install the new version on the computer that Ketarin is running as well.

Ketarin can monitor software installers in three different ways.

• Monitoring URLs for changes
• Monitoring and using the FileHippo service
• Using placeholders to watch webpages for changes

The software developers have created a short documentation that gives examples for all three ways of monitoring software installers.

Applications that are monitored can be grouped into categories. There is also the possibility to run commands after downloading an updated software installer and to import or export applications to XML files.

The software program is Open Source and portable. Some would say it is not as it requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0.

Application Monitor is a portable application that can monitor software programs in intervals. If a monitored application stopped running Application Monitor will start it anew. The setup does not provide any difficulties even for inexperienced users.

It basically comes down to selecting applications from the computer, adding a descriptive name, selecting the interval for the checks and optional parameters for the application start. Every added application is listed in the main program interface and has to be checked before the monitoring process starts.

Several options are available that can change some of the default parameters of the software. The default interval for application checks is set to 2 minutes which can be changed individually when a new application is added to the software program or in the options.

Application Monitor can be configured to check if the added applications are started during software startup. There is also an option to send error reports to an email address that can be configured in the software options.

The downside of using the application monitoring program is the rather high, and unusual, memory consumption.