So how does it work? Let us take the usual software application installation. Many installers will ask the user to close all other running programs to avoid conflicts during installation. Smart Close is started when that screen comes up and the option to create a system snapshot and kill all running programs will be selected by the user.

Smart Close kills the programs so that the user can commence the installation. After the installation has finished Smart Close can be started a second time to load the previous state of the system. It will launch the applications that were running at that time again. Most programs that are closed by the software program will be properly closed meaning that they can save system settings and return resources to the computer system.

Smart Close will display the programs and services that it is about to kill. It will also display a window with protected applications that are needed to run the system (explorer.exe..) One interesting aspect is the ability to shutdown services as well.

Please note that Smart Close will merely launch the applications when it restores a previous system snapshot. This basically means that it will not reopen tabs in Firefox.

Smart Close is compatible with all Microsoft operating systems including Windows 95 or Windows XP but not Windows Vista.