Loosing 'Process Lasso GUI startup Options' after a new PL update

Started by Nico, July 26, 2008, 04:48:19 PM

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Nico

Hello Jeremy,

I have just updated PL to the latest version 3.04 (BTW thank you for the constant improvement you add to this software  ;) )

I noticed that evey time I needed to update PL to a newer version, the setting I selected in 'Process Lasso GUI startup Options' is changed back from "For all users" to "current user"

I use an INI file at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ProcessLasso\prosuper.ini and selected in the Process Governor startup Options "Start the Process Governor at login" and selected the box "use the same config and log for every user on the system".

Now I looks like the 'Process Lasso GUI startup Options' is not available in the INI file, therefore is it normal that whenever I set it to "For all users" and I update PL, it is resetted back to "current user" ?

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

Jeremy Collake

Thanks for reporting this.

The behavior your notice does need to be polished up. The installer resets the Process Lasso (and governor) startup options to their default states. This is because these options aren't stored in the INI file (or anywhere else), as you discovered. I will work on changing this so that the statup behavior is preserved during upgrades. In the meantime, about all you can do is manually change it back to the way you want it after upgrading ;(.
Software Engineer. Bitsum LLC.

Nico

I've just installed PL 3.05 beta6... What a nice surprise  ;)

Thank you for taking the change into account !


"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

w1mnk

Jeremy,

I just upgraded to lifetime and am using 3.14.2 [x.32] on Vista Business. I find that the startup option "for all users" is selected (and was selected during installation), but only processes from the logged on user is shown. Is there something I can check? Thank you for your assistance.

Jon
Quote from: jeremy.collake on August 03, 2008, 10:18:44 AM
Thanks for reporting this.

The behavior your notice does need to be polished up. The installer resets the Process Lasso (and governor) startup options to their default states. This is because these options aren't stored in the INI file (or anywhere else), as you discovered. I will work on changing this so that the statup behavior is preserved during upgrades. In the meantime, about all you can do is manually change it back to the way you want it after upgrading ;(.

Jeremy Collake

Quote from: w1mnk on October 09, 2008, 10:58:27 AM
I just upgraded to lifetime and am using 3.14.2 [x.32] on Vista Business. I find that the startup option "for all users" is selected (and was selected during installation), but only processes from the logged on user is shown. Is there something I can check? Thank you for your assistance.

Whether or not Process Lasso starts at boot for all users is a different option than whether or not each instance shows the running processes of all users. I think this is the confusion. I need to make this more clear in the setup and documentation.

To have Process Lasso show running processes for all users you need to check the 'HIGHEST' option in the 'Vista UAC Permissions' dialog during install. It is the second (last) dialog.

What this does is instruct Process Lasso to run with enough permissions to 'see' the processes of other users. Unfortunately, Windows Defender will not allow programs with this high a level of permissions to automatically start at boot without user intervention. So, when you next reboot/login, you will have Windows Defender tell you it blocked the startup of some applications. It only takes a few clicks to tell Windows Defender to allow the blocked programs to launch, but it is still kind of annoying. There isn't an easy solution to this problem -- if there was, malware would take advantage of it.

In contrast, the 'start at boot for all users' option indicates that an instance of Process Lasso will be started for each/every user that logs into the system. This means that each logged in user will have an instance of Process Lasso running, managing the processes run by that user. When 'normal' Vista UAC permissions are used, each instance only manages the processes in its own user context, but when 'highest' Vista UAC permissions are used, each instance of Process Lasso tries to manage the processes of every other user too. Hence, I recommend NOT starting Process Lasso at boot for ALL users if you use the 'Highest' Vista UAC permissions (show processes of all users).

I hope this isn't too confusing, or poorly worded. The short answer is in the second paragraph ;).

Software Engineer. Bitsum LLC.

w1mnk

Jeremy,

Brilliant. I just installed 3.16 and selected that option. I already have one program that Defender barfs on a startup, I guess another one isn't too bad. Thank you for the prompt response.

Jon
Quote from: jeremy.collake on October 09, 2008, 12:46:49 PM

To have Process Lasso show running processes for all users you need to check the 'HIGHEST' option in the 'Vista UAC Permissions' dialog during install. It is the second (last) dialog.

I hope this isn't too confusing, or poorly worded. The short answer is in the second paragraph ;).