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System Silencer, Set PC Idle State Actions

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:00:26 +0000

There are usually a lot of things that don’t need to be running or active if the system is idle. This may include the computer monitor, music playing in the background or certain windows or processes that do not need to be open in idle state.

System Silencer is a versatile highly configurable program to set PC idle state actions. The program offers options to configure actions for idle states in desktop and battery mode.

One interesting aspect of the portable application is that it offers to set the idle time for actions individually.

system silencer

The program can perform the following actions when the computer is idle:

Toggle mute
Toggle show desktop
Toggle taskbar icons
Toggle desktop icons
Hide windows
Kill processes
Run programs / files
Turn off computer monitors
Lock the workstation

Each action can be configured individually in the program for desktop mode and battery mode, including the option to set idle times for each action individually as well.

It is for instance possible to activate the hide windows action and configure window names that the program should hide when the computer is in idle state for the specified time.

The same is possible for running background processes, and programs that could be run in idle state.

The main advantage of System Silencer over comparable applications is its customizability, which exceeds that of the other programs.

A click on the save and apply button saves the configuration and minimizes the program to the system tray.

System Silencer is an excellent program for Windows users who want as much control as possible over their computer in idle state. (via Cybernetnews)

Batch Kill Processes With Auto Kill Any Process

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:40:12 +0000

Auto Kill Any Process has been designed to batch kill running processes in Windows. Why would someone want to do that? There are actually a few reasons where this functionality might come in handy. Think about launching programs that benefit from every additional Megabyte of computer memory and cpu power. Some gamers for instance like to disable and kill as many processes before they start their gaming sessions. It might also come in handy to kill startup processes if they cannot be removed (for whatever reason).

The software program works with a so called hitlist that is configured in the program’s settings. The hitlist basically contains names of processes that the user wants to include in the kill command. New processes can be added from the list of running processes that are displayed in an extra tab in the program or by entering the name of the process manually in a comma separated list in the interface or the hitlist.txt file directly.

All it takes to kill all processes that are listed in the hit list is to double-click the program icon of Auto Kill Any Process. This is a manual process and users who want to automate it need to use different applications like Kill Process (see: Batch Kill Processes with Kill Process) or Process Lasso (see: Process Lasso a Process Manager).

The configuration can be changed at anytime by launching the settings shortcut of the program. Auto Kill Any Process requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0. It should be compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows and was tested on a system running Windows XP SP3. The download is available at the developer’s website.

Kill Processes With Super Alt F4

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:13:29 +0000

A process that is not responding can be dealt with in various ways in the Windows operating system. One of the most common reactions in this case is the keyboard shortcut Alt F4 which will send a polite request to the process asking for termination. Another option is to open the Windows Task Manager to locate the process and terminate it in there. This can be done with the shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Esc.

Super Alt F4 has been designed to be an alternative to Alt F4′s polite request to terminate a process. The program will kill the process immediately without waiting for feedback from the process itself. The active process can be killed by pressing CTRL ALT F4. The downside of this method is that the process will be killed instantly which could mean that work will not be saved.

The developer of the software program has added another option to kill processes. The keyboard shortcut Windows F4 will turn the mouse cursor into a skull cursor. A left click on any program window will terminate that window immediately. A right-click will cancel the action and return the original cursor.

Super Alt F4 uses roughly 5 Megabytes of computer memory while running in the background. It will display a system tray icon by default which can be hidden by right-clicking the icon and selecting that option.

It probably makes sense to install Super Alt F4 (via Freeware Genius) on computer systems that tend to hang a lot because of unresponsive applications, windows and processes.

Update: SuperF4 has been updated several times since the last review. New features include support for 64-bit operating systems and a system tray icon. The developer has created a short demonstration video.

It walks you through the installation and functionality of the program.