Tag Archives: task manager

AVG TuneUp: Easy Task, Battery, Storage & Data Management In One Android App

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Ever since I switched from the iPhone to an Android Phone (Galaxy Nexus), there have been several changes in my smartphone usage habits, the most important ones being managing storage, ensuring that I don’t run too many apps at once (gets me confused, and slows down the phone), close apps every once in a while, and most importantly, save battery. There's no dispute that the Galaxy Nexus isn't as good as the iPhone when it comes to battery life , but I somehow manage to keep it alive till the end of the day. There are some key settings that determine the battery life of your smartphone, and case of Android, these settings are quite scattered. In addition, there are also other maintenance tools like tasks, data use and installed apps management that are scattered across Android Settings.  A common user doesn't really know if changing such settings can affect their device performance. Fortunately though, the user doesn't need to be worried much, since there are apps for this purpose. Unlike many such complex-looking apps (some of which we have covered earlier), AVG TuneUp is really user-friendly, not requiring the user to be tech-savvy to understand and interact with it. Read More

Easy Touch Is An iOS AssistiveTouch-Inspired Multitasking Tool For Android

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One of the biggest advantages of being an Android user is the broad range of apps and tools you have at your disposal for achieving various purposes, and when it comes to multitasking and app switching solutions, things are no different. While certain solutions add an interactive and personalized app drawer alongside your device’s screen edge, others offer an omnipresent on-screen trigger that you can interact with to switch back and forth between apps, or play around with various system features from anywhere in Android. Adding to the latter category is Easy Touch – an extremely lightweight and customizable Android app switching and multitasking solution with built-in 1-tap memory optimizer, system/power toggles, contact shortcuts and the ability to emulate various hardware buttons. More on Easy Touch past the break. Read More

‘The Great Suspender’ Selectively Suspends Chrome Tabs To Save Memory

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We’ve covered extensions in the past that unload inactive tabs. Since every loaded tab takes up memory, the purpose of these extensions is to only keep those tabs actively in memory that you are actively using, thus freeing up memory used by inactive tabs and preventing browser and system slowdowns. While quite useful, all these extensions unload tabs from memory automatically after a user-defined time period of inactivity. The Great Suspender is a Chrome extension that lets you manually unload a tab whenever you want. You can suspend a single tab or all tabs open across a window. The extension also maintains a history of all tabs that you’ve ever unloaded. A tab or an entire window of tabs can be reloaded just as easily. The Great Suspender also lets you define an inactivity period after which a tab will automatically be unloaded, so you don't lose that functionality either. You can create a whitelist to keep the extension from applying the inactivity rule to certain tabs. Read More

TasKarou Launcher: Switch Android Apps Using Stock Browser-Style Quick Controls

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Developed by XDA member ne0fhyk, TasKarou Launcher is a free tablet-specific Android app launcher and task manager that draws inspiration from the stock ICS and Jelly Bean browser's Quick controls feature to allow quick switching between required apps or tasks through a dedicated app drawer overlay that can be revealed by swiping in from either edge of your device’s screen. Once activated, the app lets you reveal a compact, radial control panel by tapping and holding anywhere along the left or right edge of the screen. Accessible from virtually anywhere in the OS, the panel offers you shortcuts to recently used apps, the entire app drawer, your home screen, Google Play Store, the default search app, general system settings or the app’s own configuration screen. That’s not all, the app also lets you play around with a handful of customizations, such as number of recent tasks to show in the app drawer, thickness of the transparent strip along screen edges, and selection of your favorite Android launcher with which you wish to use TasKarou. Read More

Force Quit & Restart Running Programs With This Eye Candy Tool

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The Windows task manager allows you manage all the running applications, processes and services. You can start new processes, stop the ones already running, change their priority, view PC performance and CPU & Memory usage, change the priority of different processes etc. In short, the Windows task manager is a complete process management console to manage the running processes, and is useful for both basic and advanced users. However, because of having all the process management options, sometimes it may appear a tad too advanced for basic users. When an application goes to not responding mode, you can shut it down using the Windows task manager, but there is no option to just restart it instantly. You have to kill it first and then restart it again manually. Today, we have an application for Windows called Task ForceQuit that allows you to Quit tasks, Restart them, Restart the explorer.exe process, Restart the whole system or completely Shutdown the computer, all from a single interface. Keep reading to find out more about Task ForceQuit. Read More

Switch Between Running Android Apps Using Swipe Gestures With Switcher

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Previously reviewed apps, Taskie and Dock4Droid, have already shown us how we can avail gesture-based task management/switching on Android by swiping in from the screen edges, as well as picking the required running app from within the scrollable icon-roll at the bottom, respectively. Based more or less on the same concept as that of the former is Switcher – a free Android app that lets users circle between running apps by just swiping across the screen horizontally. Once activated, the app keeps running in the background, monitoring whatever apps you’ve launched recently. Therefore, whenever you need to jump to another app, all you need to do is swipe in from a specific region from the top-left or right edge of the screen, and the required app is right before your eyes. No need to resort to the tap-and-touch gestures, as is the case with the stock recent apps list, or limiting your options to just a handful of apps, as has already been seen with GestureControl for tablets. In fact, with Switcher, it’s entirely upon the users’ discretion whether they wish to circle through each recently opened app or bring only the favorite ones into play, all via various gestures. Read More

Tasker App Factory For Android Lets You Create Standalone Apps From Automated Tasks/Actions

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Earlier this month, Microsoft launched On{X}, a brand new medium for Android users to define and trigger automated actions via their desktop browsers. However, when talking of a highly customizable task automation tools that can be operated right from the device itself, hardly a name surpasses Tasker. Using this highly popular and productive app, you can create both simple or complicated rule-based tasks/actions that you want to be automatically performed on your device, and in doing so, you may bring into play whatever apps, sensors, controls and features of your Android that are required to constitute the task. That said, the app is not the easiest to use, and a new user might feel lost getting a grip over the plethora of options that it has on offer. While you may be quite good at defining rules-based tasks at your own convenience, your recently-shifted-from-iOS friends could so easily feel intimidated by the usage of the app. Fret not, as Crafty Apps – the team behind Tasker – have released Tasker App Factory, a Tasker extension that lets you export your tasks as standalone apps, so that you may save and share predefined tasks/actions with your buddies as individual APK files. Read More

Inbox Classic: Task Management For Email, Reminders, Apps & Files [Mac]

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We’ve reviewed to-do list and task managers in abundance, each with its own way of managing lists and its own flow of things. A common feature among these kinds of apps is that they break away from the existing ones that you use, and have you re-create new tasks, projects and reminders from scratch. Most will sync items from Mac Calendar, but that is pretty much as far as it will go. Inbox Classic is a free Mac app that is a careful balance between the existing tools you use to keep track of important tasks, and the need to order them differently. Inbox Classic takes items from Mail, Calendar, and your hard disk, and is like a consolidated inbox for all incoming tasks; once emails, projects, reminders, and any other documents you might be working on, are ‘collected,’ the app lets you add timers and tasks to track your progress. In addition to the tasks, processes and projects you add, the app also lets you add agendas, research items or any other task or file you may be waiting for or plan on doing. Read More

Disable Task Manager & Remove Options From Ctrl+Alt+Del Menu For All Users In Windows 8 [Tip]

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The Ctrl + Alt + Del menu in Windows allows you to Lock your PC, Switch the User, Sign Out of the current User and access Windows Task Manager. The Ctrl + Alt + Del hotkey combination used to accessing this menu takes precedence over every other command by Windows. The key combination allows you to reboot your computer, bring up the logout options and access the task manager. That is the reason why it is mostly used when the PC hangs and the application-specific input controls get disabled. Whenever any application goes to the not responding mode, it is not possible to close it by using regular methods, such as the Alt + F4 command or using your mouse to click the Close button. In this case, the Ctrl + Alt + Del menu is used to access the Task Manager, so that you can close the application by killing its process. However, novice computer users do not use, and don’t have a lot of knowledge about, the Windows Task Manager. So, if a lot of people use your computer - for instance if it’s a public computer - you might not want to disable access to the Windows Task Manager. In this post, we will show you how to disable Task Manager for all users in Windows 8. Additionally, it includes a guide to removing options from the Ctrl + Alt + Del menu in Windows 8 for all users. Read More

SterJo Task Manager: View & Terminate Running Processes And TCP/UDP Connections

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Microsoft keeps improving their Windows Task Manager utility with every new version of Windows OS, and those who got their hands on Windows 8 Consumer Preview built must have an idea about how great the new Task Manager looks and performs. However, If you were looking for a basic Windows task manager replacement utility that could also give you control over TCP/UDP connections, then you can give SterJo Task Manager a shot. It’s a free task management utility that shows information regarding current Tasks, Processes, Services and Connections. The built-in Connection feature makes it different from the Windows native task manager utility, as it allows you to view and terminate TCP and UDP connections. With this application, you no longer have to open the Windows Resource Monitor to check the inbound and outbound network traffic as well as processes that attempt to open TCP/UDP ports to communicate with external sources. More details after the jump. Read More

Get Windows 8 Metro Task Manager’s Compact View Mode In Windows 7

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Perhaps one of the most awaited event of 2012, is Windows 8 launch. All eyes are fixed on Microsoft's upcoming OS. Software giant didn't leave us waiting though by giving an early preview of what to expect from this revamped operating system. If you have been following our Windows 8 coverage closely, you must know that the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 has a lot of similarities to Windows 7, but there are also a lot of changes as well, especially in terms of features and GUI. Windows 8 is the first PC-based operating system featuring the Metro UI, with support for tablets in conjunction. After the Windows 8 Consumer Preview got released, most developers have since been coming up with various software that port Windows 8 features to Windows 7 (and Windows Vista, too). If you're already using Windows 8 Lock Screen, Charms bar, Start Screen and other Windows 8 UI elements in Windows 7, check out Metro Task Manager, as well. Similar to the aforementioned ones, it's an application that brings Windows 8 Metro style task manager to Windows 7. For those who aren't familiar with the new task manager, it has been vastly improved and is more robust, offers 2 view modes namely compact and extended view mode. You can read a detailed guide on Windows 8 Task Manager, its new features and options here. Read More

Chaperone: Track Time Spent On Tasks & The Apps Used To Do Them [Mac]

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Getting things done on a computer is tricky business; your productive apps sit right next to the ones that make you unproductive, and occasionally, the one app you need to use to get work done is the very same app that distracts you, i.e., your browser. This is precisely why you need task managers - to stay organized, and to force yourself to work when you really don’t want to. Chaperone is a free Mac app that lets you record tasks by projects, and define which apps you need to complete a given task. Once started, the app monitors your usage of the app(s) and tells you when the allotted task time is over. To help you in being more productive, Chaperone lets you set the task time at the beginning, but doesn't allow you to modify it afterwards. Read More

MP Task Manager: Android Home Screen Widget That Lets You View & Kill Running Apps

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All the various applications and programs, whether on computers or mobile devices, are meant to help users with reaching effective solutions to the daily routine problems with a relative degree of ease and convenience. That said, keeping too many applications actively running in the background can cause even the most robustly built operating systems to bog down quite adversely. This is where all those task management apps come in handy. Even the Google Play Store now features quite a few quality task management solutions for your Android. While most of these apps come in the form of a comprehensive package, filled with a plethora of various other features too, if you’re looking to avail only the task management feature, and that too, right from your homescreen without having to launch any standalone apps, you must try MP Task Manager Widget. Read More

Comindware Task Management: Web Based Collaborative Project Manager

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Task management applications provide numerous strategies to help users efficiently organize their tasks in order to easily perform them. If you're working on some big project that require you to organize tasks lists and allocate sub-tasks to different team members, then Comindware Task Management may help you organize your project, tasks and sub-tasks. It is a free web based task management software that provides you with a password protected dashboard. You can track the status of your tasks as well as customize and organize them in task lists. The application enables you to create unlimited number of tasks, dashboards and task lists from within the interface. As it's based on collaborative task management concept, you can collaborate with a number of different team members to handle the tight project deadlines. Read More

OptiTask: Pomodoro Timer That Lets You Add & Manage Multiple Tasks [Mac]

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Pomodoro timers are as common as they are useful; there is nothing like a ticking timer to remind you that your tail is, or will be pretty soon, on fire. While the Pomodoro technique is effective as far as getting things done is concerned, it is still a timer. OptiTask is a free Mac app that is a Pomodoro timer and task manager in one. The app allows you to add as many tasks as you like, and go through them one by one in each of your work periods. It lets you choose how many Pomodoro intervals will have to be completed before you can take a long break, the interval of a single Pomodoro, and the break intervals. Read More

Task Manager DeLuxe: Display Processes In Tree View & Manage Startup

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Third party task managers offer extended functionality to the users which cannot be found in the default Windows Task Manager. Previously, Usman reviewed System Explorer, an advanced task manager which lets you quickly view and mange system and user processes and offers a multitude of features and options to let user view all the elements which are related with System processes in some way. Today, we have another portable task manager called Task Manager DeLuxe, which offers powerful features available in the default Windows Task Manager, along with a lot more enchantments. It offers browsing, monitoring and administration of Processes, Services, Sessions, Autoruns and System information & Performance domains. To view the sub processes of an application grouped together, you can switch the process view from normal to tree view. The application also lets you manage the Windows Startup without opening msconfig. More on Task Manager DeLuxe after the break. Read More

The Complete Guide To Windows 8 Task Manager; New Features And Options

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Windows Task Manager is one Windows feature which hasn’t seen a lot of improvements and additions in a long time. Even though Windows 7 Task Manager does provide the facility to filter processes by User and System initiated processes, manage currently active and passive services, and view logged in users, network utilization, many users find themselves in the labyrinth of running system and user threads when a specific process of an application is to be dealt with. Despite being a complete rewrite of Windows 7 Task Manager, Windows 8 Task Manager classifies the Windows tasks related information into separate groups, which help users easily navigate through user and system initiated processes. For example, one of the feature of Windows 8 Taskbar is the auto-classification of processes into Applications, Background processes, and Windows processes categories; these categories reduce significant amount of time that users would have spent finding threads of certain applications. Read More

Conqu Is A Cross-Platform Application To Schedule, Manage & Sync Tasks

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With each passing day, the pace of life has been increasing all over the world. Compared to our ancestors, we are required to perform a lot more tasks in lesser time. With all the different things one has to complete in a day, it is almost must to have a good task manager to help you remember and manage them easily and efficiently. Back in October 2011, we reviewed a cross-platform task management application for Android called Conqu. The same task manager is now available for Windows with all its functionality. Read More

ServiceCommander: Manage & Monitor Windows Services On Networked PCs

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The best thing about Windows users society is that you can find almost any kind of software containing features not available in out of the box Windows experience. For instance, some days ago we covered Windows Service Monitor, an open source utility that lets you monitor, start and stop user-specified services directly from the system tray without having to open the Windows Task Manager or Service Control Manager. This makes it a tad bit easier to control or halt the behavior of those services with out going through a few additional clicks. Today, we have another tool, ServiceCommander, that allows you to Start, Stop, Pause, Resume or Restart selected services on any computer on your network from the system tray. What sets ServiceCommander apart from the formerly-reviewed tool, is its ability to control and manipulate services on networked PCs, a highly useful feature for many system/network administrators. The program lets you easily add services to the monitoring list, and displays the control functions of each service in the system tray. It also enables you to start, stop or restart all added services at once, as well as direct access to the default Windows applications of Service, Event Viewer and Task Manager. Read More

Task Coach Is A Basic Task Manager & Progress Tracker For Mac

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Although the native calendar app in Mac is a reasonable task manager in itself, but it certainly leaves one wondering if there is any better way of organizing your to-do list. While the app is feature rich, it wouldn’t be right to assume it’s a one-size-fits-all deal. For those who could do with something different, there is Task Coach, a free Mac app that allows you to add tasks, subtasks, track progress, categorize tasks, attach files and manage budgets where required. The app seems small scale, but has just about every basic task management feature that you can think of. Read on to find out more. Read More