Anvir Task Manager 6.2 is offering more than just the basic task manager functionality. This can be confusing for users as it offers security, performance, system monitoring and windows enhancement features.

The program uses a tabbed layout. The tabs are used to switch between the different options that the program provides. Available tabs are Startup, Applications, Processes, Services and Log.

Startup:

The startup tab aids the user in managing startup items. It consists of a sidebar that can be used to filter specific startup items like Internet Explorer browser helper objects or startup items found in the Windows Registry.

The left window lists the startup items. Anvir Task Manager will automatically rate each startup item and display a security risk level. These entries are also color coded to make identification even easier.

A double-click on an entry opens a footer window with extensive information about the selected startup item. This window with extra information is available in all tabs.

It is also tab based and provides extensive information including the security risks analysis, product information, dlls that are used by the entry, connections, drivers and performance information.

Applications:

The applications tab lists the running applications and their process.

Processes:

The processes tab lists all processes that are running on the system again with detailed information including the security rating. Many options are available in this tab. It is possible to kill, restart or start processes, block them from being run on the system, set a process priority or affinity, free memory and to suspend processes.

Services:

The services tab lists all know services of the computer system with information about their state, a security risk rating and additional information. Options available in this menu are to change the startup type, change the state of a service or to delete it.

Other options:

• Check files on VirusTotal.com with 30+ antivirus engines
• Delayed startup: speed up Windows startup process
• Tweaker that gives direct access to hundreds of XP / Vista settings
• Monitor processes, services, Internet connections, CPU, disk, memory, DLLs, drivers, locked files, windows
• Icons and tooltips in tray for CPU, memory, network, disk load, HDD temperature, and battery
• View download speed, upload speed, amount of transfered data per network connection and per process
• Find locked files and DLL
• Can replace Windows Task Manager

Installation:

Installation is pretty straightforward. Users should pay attention to the installation process as it will try to install another software called Registry Cleaner Pro on the system which is probably something that the user does not want.

The program will automatically start a configuration wizard after installation that can be used to configure some of the program’s features like hardware monitoring in the system tray or displaying additional control at the top of every window.

A click on Help > Enter Registration Key is necessary to complete the registration of the program. The values on the form are prefilled and a click on the OK button will register the product.

Positive

• Provides extensive information
• Security ratings
• Software and hardware monitoring

Negative

• Interface looks messy

Verdict:

Anvir Task Manager is a sophisticated task manager replacement that offers many of additional information and options. It can be downloaded for free at the Giveaway of the Day website. The developer website is available here.

The Auslogics Task Manager portable has a size of 1.66 Megabytes and divides the information in the four different sections applications, processes, services and open files. The applications and process window uses a similar interface that is listing the name of the application or process, a security rating, cpu usage, memory and disk utilization, Internet traffic and priority. The security rating is gathered from Auslogics’ own File Inspect service.

The Services view will display the running Windows services again with a security rating, category and path. Open Files will display all files that are currently open in the operating system. It will display name of the file and the application that has locked it.

Cpu usage, memory usage, disk activity and Internet traffic are displayed in graphs at the bottom. A left click on any application or process will display the utilization of that specific program or process which can be a great way of finding the resource heavy applications and processes on a system.

A right-click will open a context menu with additional options. It is for example possible to open the File Inspect website to retrieve in depth information about the selected process, application, service or file.

The file menu is providing quick access to Windows system tools like Computer Management, Control Panel or the Services manager.

Auslogics Task Manager Portable can be downloaded from the Auslogics website.

source Lee at Download Squad

The interface of System Explorer is tab driven. It displays various information like Tasks, Processes, Modules or Opened Files in the various tabs on the top of the software program. Each tab will list the designated information, the process tab will for instance list the process names, their dependencies, cpu usage, process id and memory usage.

One of the interesting options that System Explorer provides is the ability to display or request additional information about an entry. A right-click on an entry will open a context menu with options to display file information, query Internet databases like Process Library or checking the file with online virus scanners like Virus Total.

That’s interesting for users who want to check up on processes or modules running on their computer system.

Unlike Microsoft’s Task Manager System Explorer does provide additional information. It will for example list all open connections of a computer system including the applications responsible for the connection. It will furthermore display the opened files or a process history in its interface which provide additional valuable information to the user.

Another interesting option is the snapshot ability. Users can create system snapshots and compare them to previous snapshots that they have created. This can be interesting to compare before and after system states while installing or updating software programs.

System Explorer provides access to additional system related features next to the extensive system monitoring options. It will list autostart entries, software programs that are installed on the computer system and link to system utilities like computer management or group policy management.

The software program can be used to replace the Windows Task Manager. To do that select the “Replace Task Manager” option in the Options menu on top. System Explorer will open whenever the user starts the Task Manager from then on.

Resource usage of System Explorer is low, it uses less than 5 Megabytes of computer memory while running which is acceptable considering all the advanced features that it brings to the table.

The extended Task Manager can be configured to replace the Windows Task Manager so that the default keyboard shortcut [CTRL ALT DEL] will open its interface instead. It can also be configured to run independently from the default Task Manager.

The extended Task Manager is tab driven like the original Windows Task Manager. It adds a Summary, Services, and Ports tab which can be used to access different kinds of data that are not visible in the Windows Task Manager.

The software program adds a few additional interesting options to the Task Manager. One of them is the ability to display the list of files that are locked by a process. Another option is to initiate a Google search right from the interface to get additional information about a running process.

The Ports tab will display a list of all incoming and outgoing connections including their process name, process ID, local and remote IP as well as local and remote port.

The configuration offers ways to enable additional information in the various tabs. The Port Monitoring configuration can for instance be used to add UDP port monitoring or limit the TCP ports that are monitored by the program.

The Windows Task Manager replacement uses roughly 5 Megabytes in minimized state and approximately 19 when active. The website of the software company does not contain information about the application’s compatibility. The only available information are that a 32-bit and 64-bit edition seem to exist.