How to replicate process closing behaviour of Razor [some application] ?

[Michael Z Freeman]

Hi, I have the paid version of PL.

I removed Razor [some application] (RGB) after I noticed it had a "boost process priority" option. After reading about the problems with that in PL help file I wondered what else RGB might be up to and even if it might be making things worse.

There were RGB options like "clean your pc's ram" which also started sounding like nonsense to me. The only one that was vaguely useful was turning off automatic updates so they don't start installing in the middle of a game.

I was thinking of replicating RGB's process closing activity in PL. Closing all unnecessary background system processes before a game starts. But I wonder if its even necessary to do this ? Especially if PL is watching those processes, and of course closing some system processes may cause extra problems.

[BenYeeHua]

I was thinking of replicating RGB's process closing activity in PL. Closing all unnecessary background system processes before a game starts. But I wonder if its even necessary to do this ? Especially if PL is watching those processes, and of course closing some system processes may cause extra problems.

It depend, if the system services is very quiet and not doing anything, then disable them might not needed.

If they are using a lot of CPU, then it is better to check what's going on, as you can hardly see any CPU usage for most services.
---
And nope, Process Lasso did increase the responsiveness when there are background processes that is using lot of CPU, but it don't give back most of the performance.

[Michael Z Freeman]

That's what I thought. If they're not a problem then leave them alone. I've read elsewhere (Tweakguides) that some background processes can interfere with some games. I saw an example of this with Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 when I get graphical corruption on one level. After ending all background processes the problem was solved (but I'm not sure if that proves this). I guess the windows background processes and services are heavily tested alongside running games, as well as things like virus checkers which are designed to run alongside other software. Sounds like I need to do some research to make sure I'm not just listening to the usual internet PC configuration myths.

[edkiefer]

That's what I thought. If they're not a problem then leave them alone. I've read elsewhere (Tweakguides) that some background processes can interfere with some games. I saw an example of this with Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 when I get graphical corruption on one level. After ending all background processes the problem was solved (but I'm not sure if that proves this). I guess the windows background processes and services are heavily tested alongside running games, as well as things like virus checkers which are designed to run alongside other software. Sounds like I need to do some research to make sure I'm not just listening to the usual internet PC configuration myths.

I wouldn't assume that, while many app and games are tested on broad type of systems, there just to many config variables (HW and software installed) to cover all . That is why after internal testing and app goes beta or open testing they find bunch more bugs .
Even MS suffers from this too .

[Jeremy Collake]

Congratulations on realizing that if an application is spewing nonsense in one area, the entirety of that application is surely nonsense.

There are so many companies in the PC Optimization industry whose *only* goal is to milk revenue out of consumers with absolutely no regard for efficacy. Often times, they don't even really 'believe' in their own applications.

For these companies, developing fake, do-nothing, or even harmful features is fine with them - so long as their marketing team can convince non-technical users that their features sound plausible.

[end rant]

Regarding stopping services or other background processes: This was more a problem in NT5 than it is in NT6 (Vista+). Both Windows and third-party services do a much better job of staying out of the way than they used to. Now there is I/O priority and best development practices are to make sure the PC is idle before performing an operation.

However, it is something that has long been on my radar. It's pretty trivial to do. It may or may not have much efficacy, but there's no reason not to offer it. However, I'm trying to not clutter up Lasso further, but it may be revealed as part of the upcoming Bitsum Game Optimizer.

For NOW, there isn't a good way to replicate this capability within Lasso. I'd just leave it alone, give me more time, and I'll see what I can bring to you .