Knas Restarter is a free portable process monitoring program for Windows that we have reviewed as part of our application monitor overview in 2009. The program has received an update after the initial review, the tested program version is 2.0.

The core functionality has remained the same: Select a single running process for monitoring and define actions that are executed automatically when the process stops running.

The program displays a list of all running processes on the system along with their path and name, process id and parameters if available. You can refresh the listing if the process has been started after you have started Knas Restarter.

Highlight the process that you want monitored in the process listing and click the select button afterwards. The process should now be listed under Process to Monitor in the program interface.

You can change the monitoring interval here from 60 seconds to another value, and select to save the log in another directory or not at all.

Four actions are available that can be combined. The restart of the process is the only selected action, available as well as options to kill the process again if it is unresponsive for a set amount of intervals, play a warning sound or execute an external script.

Optional restart parameters can be configured in the program window as well. You can configure startup parameters and a working directory here, select a startup state for the process window (normal, maximized or minimized), force the focus on the window or keep the restarter program window minimized during activity.

You can save the settings to have them available next time you start the program, or create a program shortcut that loads the monitoring program with all selected parameters.

A click on start begins the monitoring of the process in the selected interval.

Restarter is a useful tool for Windows users who want to make sure that a specific process is running all the time on their system. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Downloads and documentation are available on the developer homepage.

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 software Application Monitor can come in handy for users who run servers of any kind on their computer or who like to download files when they are sleeping or not near the computer. Nothing’s worse than to wake up to realize that the application that controlled the download crashed ten minutes after going to bed.

Application Monitor will monitor applications added by the user in selected intervals. If the software program notices that an application is not running anymore – because of a crash, program termination or other reasons – it will restart it automatically.

All that needs to be done to monitor a new application is to enter a name and point the Application Monitor to the application’s path. It is possible to add arguments that will be executed when the program starts and to change the interval from 2 minutes to a different one.

The system administrator can be notified by email regularly and all events will be logged on the system’s hard drive by default.

Application Monitor is a portable software that requires the Microsoft .net Framework 1.1 to run.

Update: Application Monitor has not been updated in a long time. The program is still listed on the developer website though. A test under Windows 7 confirmed however that it is running fine under the new operating system. The project seems to have been abandoned though.