Parental controls, P2P clients, antivirus software, backup and communication tools; almost all of us like to keep these applications running all the time. Sometimes, these applications crash when we are not around our PC and the processes are interrupted. For example, you start a download before leaving for work, hoping to make us of it upon coming back. However, sometime during the day, your download manager crashes, the download gets interrupted and you’re left to wait again after manually restarting the program. Why? Because, while your PC was unattended, no one was there to restart the download manager for you. ReStartMe is designed for just that. Once you set the application to monitor a process, whenever the process crashes or exits, ReStartMe will start it again. You can either select from a list of running processes, or start a new process by browsing for an executable file. The application can watch multiple processes at a time, and adds a password so that others cannot add or remove processes from the watch list.

ReStartMe’s interface has an Add a Process button at top left, and Remove Selected at top right. The options to enter a password, minimize to tray and close the application are located below the processes list. It allows you remember the process for the next time you start the program, and choose to Do Nothing, Watch for them or Start them if the processes are not already started.

To add a new process, click on Add a Process. You can select a process either from a list of already running processes or add a new process by browsing for its executable file. When the desired process is selected, click Add.

The process will appear in the list and whenever its closed, ReStartMe will start it again. You can also set a password if you don’t want others to add or remove programs from the list. This application is similar to previously-covered Restart On Crash, but ReStartMe allows you to set a password on the list, something which the former lacks. ReStartMe works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download ReStartMe

[via ghacks]

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MakeInstantPlayer is a free tool for Windows that is a bit similar to Screen2Exe but does a very different job. Just as you can create an executable file after recording a screen cast using Screen2Exe. This tool allows you to create an executable file from any media files, it could a movie, a family video, or whatever.

The support of various video formats is astonishing, you can convert an .avi, .mov, .flv, or whatever video format to a self-playing .exe file. The first step is to choose a media file, also the output destination and file name. Second step is to choose the Splash file(should be in .gif format) and Icon file(should be in .ico format). You can also choose to add a personal URL, but it is not necessary. By benefits of adding the URL is that after the video playback is complete, your website can be shown in any default browser automatically.

After you have set the basic settings, next comes the playback settings. Here you have the option to choose whether to start the playback automatically in full screen mode, compact mode, auto quit after playback, stay on top of all windows, loop playback, and/or include the codecs. You can also add custom parameters and choose the language.

After you are done with all settings, click Preview to have a look before making it. If you like it, click Make It! button and an executable file will now be saved to the output destination.

The self-running executable player is actually MPlayer, an award winning opensource multi-platform media player. Converting a video file to a self-running executable player has both benefits and drawbacks.

The Benefit

Suppose you want to send a family video to your mother or someone who is computer illiterate, you can’t send an avi video since the latest codec might not be supported by all computers. This is where a self-executable player comes handy.

In another case, suppose you want to give a presentation to your boss. Instead of having to insert the USB/CD and open a video file only to find out that it cannot be played on the office computer. You can now simply make an executable file, copy it to your USB/CD, and finally create a custom Autorun.ini file. In this way you can give a presentation easily since the video will automatically start playing the moment you insert the USB/CD.

The Drawback

The biggest drawback is perhaps that you cannot attach the executable(.exe) file with the email using MS Outlook and many other Desktop Email Clients. But this is not a big problem since you can always zip the executable file and then send it over the email.

The executable file can run on all versions of Windows. Enjoy!

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BananaShrink is a free portable self-extractor for Windows that lets you create self-extracting compressed file instantly. Unlike other self-extractors, it keeps your sub-directories structure intact. This is a better solution since it avoids the use of any specific file compression format.

Just run BananaShrink(no installation required), select the folder which you want to compress, and click Create self-extracting.exe button to create a self-extracting file. To view the contents of the folder, click List all files.

Now to extract the self-extracting file you just created, open it just like you open any other file, select the destination where you would like to extract the files, and click Extract. By default it will extract the files in the same directory where you have opened it.

According to the developer, BananaShrink files are slightly bigger than zip format (1% to 5% bigger but most of the time around 3%) but…
1) BananaShrink creates self-extracting compressed files!
2) Self-extraction speed is slightly faster (around 10%) than zip uncompression!
3) BananaShrink compression is 2 times faster than zip (Max level) compression!

Enjoy!

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