Tag Archives: Task Manager

Why Windows Blue heralds the death of the desktop

Brace yourselves, faithful PC enthusiasts. You aren’t going to like what I’m about to say. Heck, I don’t really like what I’m about to say. In fact, I’m almost terrified to lay out my case in black and white. But that doesn’t change the fact that it needs to be said.

There’s a very good chance that Microsoft will kill the desktop in Windows 9. No more Task Manager. No more File Explorer. No more legacy compatibility. It’ll be 100 percent Live Tiles, 100 percent of the time.

That day is still on the distant horizon, but it is coming. Indeed, if Windows Blue, the just-leaked update to Windows 8, shows us anything, it’s that Microsoft is willing to de-emphasize desktop functionality in deference to the modern UI.

A finger-friendly Windows

By now, everyone knows that Windows 8 (and its dumbed-down cousin, Windows RT) is Microsoft’s answer to the massive success of smartphones and tablets. A touch-friendly interface! An app store! Bing Maps! Even an airplane mode! How mobile.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Review: Freebie Multi-Process Killer does exactly what you'd expect

Multi-Process Killer does exactly what it says on the tin: It force-closes multiple programs to close simultaneously. It’s functional, it’s portable, and it’s free for personal use, but for experienced PC users it’s also outclassed by more comprehensive tools. Still, the task-oriented design makes it worth considering for novices.

Multi-Process Killer is very straightforward to use.

MPK is minimalist in design. There is only one configurable option, which is the delay between refreshes of the process list; and there are only two things you can do with it: Stop one or more processes simultaneously, or minimize it to your notification area.

MPK provides a list of all processes running on your PC, including some that Windows’ own Task Manager typically hides, like some system processes and processes owned by a different user of the same PC. However, if your PC has multiple users signed in at once, be careful. MPK does not give any way to distinguish process instances from each other, which means you could accidentally end the wrong process and lose someone else’s work. In this case, using Task Manager or a more powerful tool like the free and open-source Process Hacker will be necessary to avoid data loss.

One of these is mine, and one is on my wife’s account. MPK doesn’t show which is which.

I’m a big fan of simplicity, and if all you need is a very straightforward way to close multiple tasks at the same time, Multi-Process Killer will do the job. If you need more features, you can’t go wrong with Process Hacker, a free and extremely powerful Task Manager alternative.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld