Process Lasso - Get those nasty, mean, CPU cycle hogging processes under control... - Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day

Friday, February 22, 2008

Process Lasso - Get those nasty, mean, CPU cycle hogging processes under control...

"Process Lasso is a unique new technology intended to automatically adjust the allocation of CPU cycles so that system responsiveness is improved in high-load situations. It does this by dynamically temporarily lowering the priorities of processes that are consuming too many CPU cycles, there-by giving other processes a chance to run if they are in need. This is useful for both single and multi-core processors. No longer will a single process be able to bring your system to a virtual stall.
In addition, Process Lasso offers capabilities such as default process priorities, default process CPU affinities, termination of disallowed processes, and logging of processes executed. With Process Lasso you essentially create rules to manage processes running on your system. For example:
Examples
Make notepad.exe run at below normal priority each time its launched.
Make firefox.exe run only on CPU #1 each time its launched.
When any process is consuming 35% or greater of the CPU for 1.5 seconds or more and the total system CPU usage is 95% or greater, lower that process's priority until it returns to 5% CPU utilization.

Of course, these rules are created for you through an easy to use menu system.
...

Technical Features
For Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista x32 and x64.
Automatically manage process priorities to improve system responsiveness and prevent stand-stills.
Configure processes to always start at a desired priority.
Configure processes to always start at a desired CPU affinity ( new ).
Auto-terminate undesirable processes.
Log all executed processes.
Available in native x86 32 and 64 bit binaries for optimal performance under Windows x64 platforms.
Includes TweakScheduler utility to fine-tune NT scheduler parameters.
Backend uses native NT APIs for process management, resulting in extremely efficient operation -- more so than competing products utilizing the psapi or toolhelp APIs.
Written in C/C++, resulting in minimal resource consumption. We've worked hard make sure Process Lasso consumes as few resources as possible.

..." [Much of the site text leached]

How cool.

I have an older notebook and there are a couple drivers, check for updates, do stuff that slows down the machine every so often (cough... trustedinstaller... cough...). When that happens I usually kill them (and hunt down the Run/Startup/Service that auto-magically gets added when I use a given piece of software... I hate when they do that) but now maybe I can just Lasso the Process... ;)