Not able to keep a particular process running

[eggbean]

I use ThinkPad laptops and I have a ThinkPad desktop keyboard for my ThinkStation desktop computer.

The laptops and keyboard have TrackPoints, which are those red things in the middle of the keyboard which can be used like a mouse. The TrackPoints have three buttons, two for left and right click and a middle button.

The middle button can act like a middle button on a mouse, or it can be put into another mode which allows you to scroll webpages with the TrackPoint when it is pressed. In this much more useful mode you lose the middle button abilities that you normally have with a mouse. That is unless you use these little tools, which is what I am having some difficulty with.

On my laptops with Synaptics trackpoints, the software that I can use to have the middle button do both things is tpmiddle.exe. These are older laptops and I haven't actually used one of them since I started using Process Lasso, so I don't know if I will have a problem with that yet.

On my current main laptops that have Elan trackpoints, I use a tool called MarbleScroll.exe, which does the same thing. It's actually a tool meant originally for the Logitech Marble Mouse. Around three months ago there must have been some sort of Windows Update which started putting MarbleScroll.exe to into Efficiency Mode or a sleep mode, as it would periodically stop working, making the pointer move very slowly. I would have to stop the process in Task Manager and restart it.

This was very annoying, so I asked ChatGPT what I can do about it and it suggested I look at Process Lasso. It's great - I found that using the `eH` rules stops this from happening with MarbleScroll.exe. With the Governer running on startup I don't have to do anything and the problem is gone with no interaction.

For my ThinkPad Keyboard II desktop keyboard I have to use another tool. It was difficult for me to find something that works for it at first, but I finally found tpmiddle-rs. It has the same effect as the previous tools, but running it causes a terminal window to show, so I have to execute it through a vbscript so that the terminal windows is hidden.

```
    set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    WshShell.Run "tpmiddle-rs.exe --sensitivity 9 --fn-lock", 0, False
    Set WshShell = Nothing
```

When I search for tpmiddle-rs I get the process and the conhost.exe process it's running in.



I have not been able to successfully use Process Lasso. I don't know if it anything to do with Efficiency Mode or something, but what happens is that it stop working periodically - usually when I have been away from the computer for a while. It doesn't cause the pointer to slow down, probably because of a different way that it works, but the standard middle button ability goes away until I kill the process and restart it. This started happening at the same time that it started happening on my laptop (around three months ago), which makes me think it is due to a Windows 11 update, although I couldn't find anything that looked like it caused it in the recent updates at the time and the creator of the tool said that he isn't experiencing this problem at all.

Before the Process Lasso trial had expired I tried all sorts of rules, but nothing stopped this from happening. This was annoying, but not as bad as the problem I had on the laptop which I successfully fixed using Process Lasso and its `eH` rules.

Process Lasso has been useful on the desktop PC though, as right clicking the process and selecting Restart was the quickest way of dealing with it. However, with the last update from Process Lasso I cannot even do this any more, as selecting Restart just kills the process and I have to restart it manually.

I am willing to buy a multi-machine Lifetime licence if I have to in order for this to get fixed, but nothing I tried worked.

[Jeremy Collake]

It's great to hear that Process Lasso was able to solve the issue with tpmiddle.exe!

The tpmiddle-rs.exe issue on the desktop system is apparently caused by something different. From your description, the process is continuing to run, it just quits working. The reason for that needs to be elucidated. It could be that your system sleep is impacting the tool, but that's just one of many possibilities.

When you keep the console window visible, is there any useful output? Perhaps the author of the tool could add such if not.

One thing you could try is creating a Watchdog rule to restart the process every few minutes. See "Options / Control / Process Watchdog (advanced rules)". You can accomplish this by creating a rule with a virtual memory threshold of > 0 (so it hits whenever the process exists), a long timeout, then a restart action. You could also launch a script, a separate action type.

[eggbean]

Thanks. It seems that I will have to buy a licence before I can try using the Watchdog function, so I will do that in the next couple of days. I might as well get the multi-machine lifetime licence as I'm sure I can find other uses for it.

But at the end of my previous post I mention that the right-click Restart function no longer works with tpmiddle-rs, so I'm wondering if the Watchdog restart will even work. That only started happening a week or two ago when it was updated.

Also, it appears that I can no longer use Governer as a service if I use the Watchdog function. How will this change things? Cheers.

[Jeremy Collake]

Oh, I missed the restart failure. Can you please select the tpmiddle-rs.exe process in the list and use CTRL+C to copy, then paste it here? We'll take a look at that. It's unlikely the Watchdog restart action is affected, but if it is, we'll make sure it can work if possible.

Running the Governor as a regular process instead of service will cause no notable change in functionality. The only big difference is that the Governor won't start until user login.

I've also sent you a monthly Pro license to enable you to experiment with the Watchdog.

[Jeremy Collake]

We made some adjustments to the restart action in Process Lasso v15.1.0.9 BETA that may resolve the failure to restart your process.

You can get the beta by checking "Updates / Include Betas". However, you will then be on the beta channel so will be bothered with frequent updates.

[eggbean]

Thanks! I'll do some experimenting. When I make the terminal window viewable, there is no further message when the program stops working.

[eggbean]

I thought I'd mention that installing the Beta using winget doesn't seem to work.

```
> winget install -e --id BitSum.ProcessLasso.Beta
Found Process Lasso Beta [BitSum.ProcessLasso.Beta] Version 15.1.0.7
This application is licensed to you by its owner.
Microsoft is not responsible for, nor does it grant any licenses to, third-party packages.
Downloading https://dl.bitsum.com/files/beta/processlassosetup64.exe
  ██████████████████████████████  2.49 MB / 2.49 MB
Installer hash does not match.
```

But I got it installed by..

gsudo winget settings --enable InstallerHashOverride
winget install -e --id BitSum.ProcessLasso.Beta --ignore-security-hash

[eggbean]

I'm using v15.0.1.16 x64 and when I Restart tpmiddle-rs, it still doesn't restart it unfortunately. The process is just killed. I have not rebooted the machine after installing the beta version yet if that makes any difference here.

This is that information that you requested before:

Process name,User,PID,Status,Rules,Priority class,CPU groups,CPU affinity,CPU sets,CPU (%),CPU avg,Threads,ProBalance time,CPU time,I/O delta,I/O priority,Memory priority,Memory (commit size),Memory (private working set),Memory (private bytes),Memory (working set),Handles,Elevated,Session ID,Page faults per interval,Page Faults (PF),Creation time,Parent,Application name [claimed],Publisher [claimed],Description [claimed],Filename,Command line
"tpmiddle-rs.exe","jason","48448","","eH#1","High","0","0-19","","","","5","","","","Normal","Normal","1,744 KB","1,224 KB","1,744 KB","10,664 KB","157","No","1","","","09-22-2024 14:45:54","","tpmiddle-rs.exe","","tpmiddle-rs","C:\Users\jason\winfiles\bin\tpmiddle-rs.exe","""C:\Users\jason\winfiles\bin\tpmiddle-rs.exe"" --sensitivity 9 --fn-lock"

[Jeremy Collake]

Thanks, we'll make sure the Winget beta is fixed.

A reboot shouldn't matter. You mean the manual restart action (right-click on process) doesn't work, or the Watchdog rule? If the former, please try v14.3.0.58 to confirm that the behavior did change. You can get it here: https://bitsum.com/support/show_all_versions.php?ProductID=64435

[eggbean]

Yes, I can confirm that restarting the process by right-click/Restart on v14.3.0.58 does work, but not current versions.

[Jeremy Collake]

Interesting, thanks for testing that! We'll try that little app specifically and determine the difference. I'll reply again here when there is news.

[Jeremy Collake]

I tested tpmiddle-rs.exe in your exact scenario, launched from a VBScript with your same parameters.

I could only reproduce the failure in v15.0.0.50. v15.0.1.16 worked fine, which makes sense as its behavior should be the same as older v14 builds.

I also tested the Watchdog feature and it was able to successfully restart the process.

Can you please confirm you had to v15.0.1.16 version in your test?