PL Pro v9.3.0.64: Idle saver and performance mode /w governor as service

ranko · September 21, 2019, 07:55:21 AM

Since weeks (months) I experience, that Idle Saver does not work anymore.

My settings are:

Enable IdleServer
When PC is idle for 30 seconds
Switch to Energy Saving Mode
Log ...
Disable while Performance Mode is enganged

I made sure that Performance Mode is not enganged.
I deinstalled and reinstalled Process Lasso Pro and resetted everything to default.
I configured it to act as a service and for all users / programs on the system.
In the past it worked, I can't remember when exactly it did not work anymore.

My OS/Setup: Windows 7 Professional, Supermicro X10SRi-F, E5-1650v3, 32 GB ECC RAM

Jeremy Collake · September 21, 2019, 09:01:48 AM

Ed did some testing and discovered the problem is the governor as a service.

If you set it to start as a normal process, it should work.

We are tracking the issue and I will post here when it is resolved by a beta version.

Thank you for the report!

ranko · September 21, 2019, 10:23:59 AM

Many thanks and would be fine if it would work in service mode again, as I like this mode.
Its fully independend from login and simply works.

edkiefer · September 21, 2019, 01:16:13 PM

Quote from: ranko on September 21, 2019, 10:23:59 AM
Many thanks and would be fine if it would work in service mode again, as I like this mode.
Its fully independend from login and simply works.

Hi, As soon as we have a fix or more info we will update this thread.

Thanks for the report.

ranko · September 21, 2019, 04:47:10 PM

Another issue.
Also Performance Mode can not be activated.

Neither via Main->Performance Mode enabled
nor via right mouseclick to the icon (info symbol) on the lower right.
Its also not being enabled by designating (adding) full path to applications.

edkiefer · September 21, 2019, 06:36:16 PM

Quote from: ranko on September 21, 2019, 04:47:10 PM
Another issue.
Also Performance Mode can not be activated.

Neither via Main->Performance Mode enabled
nor via right mouseclick to the icon (info symbol) on the lower right.
Its also not being enabled by designating (adding) full path to applications.

Hi, Thanks, this one is a known issue to us and we have it listed for fixing.
I can not give a timeline but will be fixed as soon as possible (code-wise).

PS: Like the other issue, this one is not a problem if default startup-config is used (non-gov as service).

Jeremy Collake · September 22, 2019, 11:11:32 AM

Technically, Performance Mode by process rules (only) is engaged by the governor when running as a service, it just isn't reflected in the GUI. This communication break-down with the governor as a service is also why the GUI won't let you manually enter Performance Mode.

This is scheduled to be fixed in v9.4, less than 30 days away.

ranko · September 22, 2019, 02:13:46 PM

Many thanks.

Jeremy Collake · October 18, 2019, 03:59:24 PM

Performance Mode /w Governor as service had been fixed in v9.3.0.89 beta.

Unfortunately, IdleSaver was intentionally disabled when the governor is running as a service at the time it was designed. A log event indicates such when the governor starts as a service with IdleSaver enabled. New warnings to the GUI have been added to 91 when the user attempts to use IdleSaver /w service. The 'fix' isn't scheduled until 10.0, requiring larger architectural changes.

ranko · October 28, 2019, 03:04:43 AM

The reason for switching to a service was to be able to control all processes, because my user has no admin rights.
Now it appears to me that using PL as service seem to have some downsides.

Given, that all my users have no admin rights (I have a separate Administrator account), what is your recommendation to me for this setup ?

Otherwise many thanks for information. When will 10.x be available ? Can you please provide me the link to the Beta ?

Jeremy Collake · October 28, 2019, 07:38:46 AM

For single user systems especially, you should start the governor as a normal process instead of a service. There is no advantage to running it as a service, other than it being vogue.

If you do insist on running the governor as a service:
Once the required adjustment of an agent to pass the session idle state information to the governor-as-service is available, I'll post a note here.

In the interim, you could use ParkControl's Dynamic Boost instead of Process Lasso's IdleSaver, and continue to use the governor as a service.

Be sure to disable IdleSaver if you do this, else it will turn off Dynamic Boost so there is no conflict.

optane123 · December 10, 2019, 05:27:31 PM

Hey All,

Is there an update on Idlesaver working again within Process Lasoo? Can confirm that it hasn't worked in at least the last 2 months for me (and I've read through this thread)

Thanks!

edkiefer · December 10, 2019, 07:03:37 PM

Quote from: optane123 on December 10, 2019, 05:27:31 PM
Hey All,

Is there an update on Idlesaver working again within Process Lasoo? Can confirm that it hasn't worked in at least the last 2 months for me (and I've read through this thread)

Thanks!

It only doesn't work if you setup gov as a service.
Read Jeremy post above for workaround.
No fixes for this yet.

Jeremy Collake · December 12, 2019, 07:46:40 AM

Summary:

When governor is configured to run as a service:

- Performance Mode now works 100%
- IdleSaver doesn't work. This is due to Microsoft never implementing the last input (or idle) time support in the Terminal Services APIs, and the Win32 API only returning current session input time. While a per-session agent could pass this data to the governor as a service, it is not clear that it is worth the trouble and added complexity.

For single user systems especially, you should start the governor as a normal process instead of a service. There is no advantage to running it as a service, other than it being vogue.

As mentioned above, using ParkControl's Dynamic Boost is also a viable option. This would let the user run the Process Lasso governor as as service, but rely on ParkControl to do the IdleSaver-like functionality.