WinTasks 4 Pro is a Windows adminstation utility developed by LIUtilities in Sweden. It runs on all major flavors of Windows, however, it is mostly recommended for use on NT/2000 and XP systems. WinTasks is able to list the processes (tasks) on your running system and allows you to manipulate them according to your needs.WinTasks 4 Professional is only 900 KB in size and the installation is an easy task. You only have to follow the dialog boxes asking where to install the application. After you fire up the app, WinTasks will start and a small computer chip icon it will be placed in the taskbar. Even if you close down the application, WinTasks still runs in the background. To completely close down the app, you need to right click on the taskbar’s icon and select “Exit” from the little menu. WinTasks will start up automatically the next time you reboot your computer. You have to specifically click on its Settings menu and tell it otherwise if you do not want this to happen. WinTask tries to stay open permanently because it has good reasons: To create an effective Event Log and to be able to run Scripts on scheduled time.
In its main window, the application displays a series of three icons, a list view describing the processes running at the current time, and a small panel giving information on these proesses (name, description, and there is even a form to add your personal notes on a given process). Right clicking on a process causes a small context menu to appear and gives you the choice of stopping a process, increasing or decreasing its priority, and resetting the process’ name.
In the first row of the icon view, you get effectively the same functionality as the context menu discussed above, a search box, a refresh button, and even a form field to execute a new program. In the second row, you can set which processes should autostart in your next reboot, a “Windows” button which opens a window that shows you the threads running for the given selected process, while the modules panel shows which .dlls the given process depends on. The statistics window is fun; you can view the CPU and Memory usage in a nice graphical way. But even if you do not open this window, the CPU and Memory usage is always listed at the info bar at the bottom of the main WinTasks window.
The Event Log is pretty useful as well, listing which processes were added or closed down and at which time. It also shows which threads or modules were added or closed by the system and at which time.
One of the abilities found in WinTasks is that it supports scripting. In my installation, there were no sample scripts included, though, so I can’t comment on what exactly you can do with it.
WinTasks is a very useful application, especially if you are control freak, or simply, an adminstrator. It was cool that an SAGENT process was captured by WinTasks on my Win98 laptop, which is nothing but… spy software that comes with KaZaA, and it was not visible before anywhere in my system. But WinTasks tracked it down. I got suspicious of the name of the dll, I searched on google about it, and I found that it was spyware. Also, if you are an admin or a developer, WinTasks can also help you do your job easier, as this is the market LIUtilities is after.
However, the app is not all roses. WinTasks under Win9x is a bit buggy, still. While the helpfull guys at LIUtilities supplied me with the latest bug fixed version 4.04, I still encountered some bugs. The very annoying thing is that every time WinTasks will display an alert error window for something it does not like (eg “Invalid Bitmap” errors if you press PrintScreen under Win98), it will display it all the time, it won’t stop spawing alert windows until you manually kill the app with the ALT-CNTRL-DEL panel.
Application-wise, WinTasks is a nice app, but I think that the only thing it’s missing is the information as to how much memory each process is consuming. Also, a check to display an alert each time someone is trying to kill or change the priority of kernel32.dll would be recommended. A user can easily lock the system if he/she changes the priorities or kills the system processes.
Overall 8/10
this sounds like advertising…
And what, exactly, does this utility do that isn’t already covered by Windows’ builtin tools. Just do a tasklist /? on an XP commmand prompt and see. The good old taskmgr.exe also does pretty much the same job and the statistics are already avaiable on perfmon.
Come on, why would we ever that software.
Task Manager in win2k already does what this product is claiming to do. Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys at the same time and it will bring up the Task Manager.
I read the review and it offers a somewhat more fleshed-out version of the built-in Task Manager. You are able to store comments on running processes, create scripts and add/delete processes to run at boot-time, among other things. It’s a better task manager than Task Manager.
My assessment is this: for the average user of WinXP/2000/NT, this program might be overkill if all you do with the Task Manager is kill or reprioritize processes. If you need more control beyond that, then WinTasks 4 Pro is for you. If you’re using the older Win9X line, then get this program immediately because you’re missing out on the tons of functionality that Task Manager offers on NT/2K/XP. I wish I had this program during the time I ran Win98 for two months.
You bee heavy hitter with task manager
I hope osnews.com doesn’t turn into one of those “advertisements thinly disguised as reviews” websites…
If you’d like to manage tasks on a 9x box there’s also <a href=”http://www.betasoluzioni.it/users/atm/default.asp“>ATM…
Too late.
I haven’t seen a real review on OSNews for weeks.
It’s usually links to somebody else review and now even these links show degradation – MSNBC as source of geek news ? I can make google query better. The only good things left here are comments.
LOOK, I do not have to keep up with you fucking trolls.
I AM SO FUCKING PISSED with some of you guys.
WHAT THAT FUCK do you EXPECT from a review of such an application? HUH? WHAT?
What else?
>”advertisements thinly disguised as reviews”
Can you please justify your claim?
What the fuck are you implying? That I got money from the company? Is that you are implying, you prick?
Because let me tell you something. I haven’t got a single dime for **ANY** of my work on OSNews. I do not even control the money of the ads. I do not own OSNews. I do OSNews reporting and work for fun. But it ain’t fun anymore.
I am out of here. You are so fucking clueless and so critical of eveything Windows is posted here. WHY a Windows System utility is an ad, and a review of a free open source utility would not be one?
HUH? WHY?
Let me tell you why.
Because you fucking hate Windows and because you are NOT USED to see Windows reviews over here. Well, let me tell you something you trolls: Windows has the 93% of the desktop market and that means that we will be JUST stupid if we do not have MORE Windows articles on OSNews. We like it or not, that is the market and if I fucking stay over here, I swear you are going to see more Windows articles. Windows is what I use most of my time anyway. If you do not like it, or if you want it to be a Slashdot or like the usual places where you can come in and troll about Windows and its applications, GO THE HELL OUT OF HERE.
So, what do you imply? HAH? WHAT?
I have nothing to do with LIUtilities other than sending me their latest version as their default one had problems on my machine, neither they paid me, neither this is a FUCKING advertising. This was a HONEST review. If you do not believe me, get the FUCK OUT OF HERE, or I will and that would be the end of OSNews as neither Jon or David have time or the drive to run OSNews everyday. I spent a whole week with the app, and I wrote my experiences with it. The good experiences and the BAD experiences. This is a system-level utility, so I thought I should make a review after LIUtilities submitted a news story about their release a few weeks back. I decided that instead of just making a dry news item for their release, to try the app myself and write a review.
Why is this an “advertising” and my eCS OS/2, QNX reviews were not? WHY? In fact, in many other reviews or previews I wrote for OSNews, I had to sign FUCKING NDAs. For this application, it is just a review with no such restrictions by anyone. And yet, you critisize this “unusual” review-article, you did not critisize the (always 100% honest IMNSHO) NDA articles I did in the past. Because you are freaking single minded Windows haters. That’s why.
And if I stay here, you will see more of these, “filthy Windows applications” reviewed here.
Going to see the OSNews owner. I am probably going to resign. Depends on my mood later.
>I haven’t seen a real review on OSNews for weeks.
Now that there is one, some say it is an “advertisement”.
We do OSNews for fun, writting long articles takes time. However, we are trying to have AT LEAST 2 or 3 longer articles per week. Reviews or not.
Thank you Eugenia on the Review.
>I haven’t seen a real review on OSNews for weeks.
Tell the OS programmers to hurry up, and release an update, then.
I’m pretty sure this is an advert, and why don’t you admit it ? The company behind this software has been offering a lot of webmasters 40% of what the companies earn when you sell their software trough their website.
(http://www.liutilities.com/affiliate/faq/)
On the other hand I find no tracking code in the article so I’m not sure if they can track your sales. And that would also be pretty stupid because when people are liking this software and buy it, you get nothing !
Okay with me, but well, if you help a company by making this review (and you did because you rated it with an 8 out of 10) you should make a buck too, but well, just my 2 cents…
>I’m pretty sure this is an advert
You are not sure. You are assuming. And assumption is the mother of all fuckups.
>(http://www.liutilities.com/affiliate/faq/)
Thank you for the pointer. I haven’t seen this at all. I just used their product, we are NOT an affiliate of theirs.
>On the other hand I find no tracking code in the article so I’m not sure if they can track your sales.
Of course there is no fucking tracking number. And there is none, because we are NOT an affiliate of LIUtilities. This was a REVIEW of their product, not a freaking AD image that you click and you get to their store.
We *are* an Amazon affiliate and that’s about it (all news web sites are, MacSlash, Slashdot, NewsForge etc etc), but NOT an LIUtilities one.
All my reviews so far have the same structure: features of the app mentioned, good experiences, bad experiences, conclusion. I use the same motif for ALL my reviews. And the WinTasks one was no different.
Check your yahoo email. If you continue this, I will have to ban your IP.
I thought it was advertising before I even considered whether it was Windows-related or not. It appeared to be hyping process management, something I can only compare to hyping an ASCII editor with ‘find’ features. That is what was strange about it, for me, not any anti-windows bias.
I agree with you in general Eugenia. But it seems it was a genuine feeling that some people had, not just invented to get a reaction.
er… of course it was a wrong reaction. But I understand someone getting that feeling, and for me it wasn’t out of Windows hatred.
Eugenia, please continue your work here on OSNews. I always enjoy reading your articles and extensive reviews. OSNews has in recent weeks become one of my daily stops for fresh information and has often had exclusive information not to be found anywhere else. And it’s one of the rare news sites where the story posters often have more of a clue than the comment posters 😉
Personally, I was a bit surprised by this review because I thought that the functionality in the task manager was fairly standard. I’ve always been quite happy with the Windows NT task manager, which seems to have a large subset of the functionality of Win-Tasks. Insofar some posters seem to deduce from the unremarkability of the application that you would never review such a thing without getting paid for it. This is of course nonsense — the best tools are often the smallest.
As for Windows 95, I’m not sure if it can really be considered an operating system at all or if it’s more of a windowing system for DOS, but reasonable people can disagree over this.
>”advertisements thinly disguised as reviews”
Can you please justify your claim?
What the fuck are you implying? That I got money from the company? Is that you are implying, you prick?
————
Oh great. I get called a prick and a troll for voicing my opinion, and I get told to leave, in no unclear terms. Wonderful.
Yes, that’s exactly what I’m implying, and it isn’t out of any oh-so-convincing argument of my “Windows hatred”. Go back and see my posting history and tell me I haven’t been just as critical of Linux. I’ve even voiced my appreciation of the fine work you’ve done on the website, and some fine points of owning a Mac that I’d like to see in PC land. I like to think I see things for what they are; give praise where I think it’s due, and mention when I feel something is crap…or comment on MS’ recent privacy invasions, just about ignored by all mass media. This article came across too sugar-coated for my liking. If you have a problem with my OBSERVATION of the article, then that’s your problem. You could have just as simply stated you didn’t get paid for the article. Period. Or you didn’t have to respond at all. People can make up their own minds without a long-winded, inflammatory post.
Ban my IP if you feel I’m out of place. Go on. After all I am a troll and a prick, undeserving of the information here.
I’m impressed. Really.
Ok, I was corrected by someone – there are reviews here,
one or two every week but not all reviews are OS related.
Eugenia, please – I’m married for 14 years, I made my woman so mad that she threw my laptop targeting my head (thank god it’s too heavy and well rugged), and all I can say –
” Sorry, I meant no harm and didn’t think it may really upset you”.
Just don’t demonstrate your inability to control yourself because it doesn’t look good to you. Please.
BTW, did you smack keyboard onto monitor ?
As for ‘Windows has 93% of the desktop market and it’s great OS’ – it’s hard to argue with. How ‘great’ is of course a matter of personal opinion. 93% – yes, mediocrity rules.
Windows is not the perfect OS and never will be.
How about making review of Windows XP but different from ZDNet and from slashdot ? You have your audience here and many actually like you and will listen.
Cheers…
I started visiting OSNews a few months ago and have become a daily regular. I visit about 8 different tech-news sites a day and OSNews is one of my favorites because of the variety here. I like the choices of stories made here and the way the site is designed and that’s what keeps me coming back every day.
I have found that there are some mature commenters who have really good analysis and are trying to be interesting and informative, whereas you also get these script-kiddies who just sneer at you and try to drive you nuts.
Eugenia, I really hate to see you take the snivelling little brats’ comments so seriously and personally. I value what you do here. It makes a real difference in my day. But, having said that, I certainly don’t expect you to carry on doing this work just for people like me if you are only doing it for the enjoyment and you don’t enjoy it anymore. I dunno, maybe you just need to take a break from it for a while or something.
Often I am quite happy with a story but make no comment on it because I really have nothing useful to say. Just because the skiddies never know when to shut-up and are always posting doesn’t mean that we are all like them.
There is probably a ‘silent majority’ that appreciates what you do here. I don’t really know what the solution is or what else can be said.
Oh, and as for Microsoft being the ‘evil empire’ bit, Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy are actually everything truly evil that Bill Gates is always accused of being. They’re the ones who have been quoted as saying outright that “privacy is irrelevant” and have been hell-bent on the creation of a national Orwellian ID card system. Hell, Oracle is a prime CIA contractor and derives it’s company name from the first big database project that they did for them back in the 1980s.
There are some good reasons for hating Microsoft, if you are of that persuasion, but a LOT of it is just pure jealousy, really. You must NEVER expect that anyone will ever be greatful for anything that Microsoft does, no matter HOW competent they prove themselves to be at overcoming their problems and making good products, or even for the creation of the viable multi-vendor PC industry that we enjoy today (Apple? forget it, Steve Jobs was WAY too incompetent to ever take the industry leadership role and would NEVER license Mac hardware technology to anyone else. That is actually why Bill Gates was FORCED to create Windows, because Jobs wouldn’t play ball with anyone – look it up.).
God forbid Eugenia really like the product she was reviewing. I personally don’t need it, but its really sickening that EVERY windows article that’s posted the trolls come out of the woodwork and say nothing but BS in the comments area. My suggestion to these people is that they find another hobby as the windows-bashing-olympics aren’t so hot anymore. If one goes back to look at past articles, its the same handful of people doing this most of the time. And these same people are in their *beloved* OS article comments going apeshit on anyone who says anything bad about it. Its ridiculous. I’m so sick of this “My Operating System is my religion” shit. While i’m trying to figure out how to get rid of these losers, i can’t come up with anything good. :/
dr.
Eug, you should post stories on OSes that havent had any significant changes or apps made for them, as long as its not windows. I mean think of all the valuable time you could waste of their respective developers instead of letting them finish their products and then asking them about them.
Yes, that and you should bash every single thing you review to make people whom dont know better not think your getting revenue from the publisher.
Now for a real question.
Eugina, that app can enhance the performace of games a bit maybe?