Orange News

KillProcess 2.43 Alpha 3

2008-08-19T12:32:00.001+02:00

Hello.

A quick update of the progress with KillProcess 2.43:

Fixed bugs:

Wrong process information displayed in the processlist after a couple of hours of usage. This problem was caused by a revocation of the Debug privileges by the Windows operating system and a bug where the processdata was not discarded as intended. This has now been fixed and should be working in Alpha 3.
This has indeed been a tricky bug, as it was not possible to reproduce with a Debug built version of KillProcess.
Double-clicking on a process brings up the process information correctly.

Alpha 3 is available on the download page now!

Regards

/ Roger Persson

KillProcess e-learning videos

2008-06-18T18:58:00.001+02:00

Today we have launched some new videos on the site in order to improve the usability of the application, as well as focusing some of the main differences betwee KillProcess an other task managment applications on the web.

We will soon put a whole new section on the web-page for this but until then you can access them from here:

Ok. That's it - hope you like them!

Regards
/ Roger

KillProcess 2.43 (?) Alpha

2008-04-23T07:51:00.002+02:00

Today I have posted a new Alpha version of KillProcess. The version is labeled 2.43, but in the final release the version might end up being 2.50 instead because of the changes made internally in the application.

The most significant changes from 2.42 are the following:

Now 100% Windows Vista compatible (launch normally as restricted process, launch in elevated mode). This means that KillProcess now once again will be started automatically when the computer starts (if desired)
Quick and easy loading of Kill lists from the taskbar tray icon
Quick and easy execution of Kill lists from the taskbar tray icon (very, very nice feature)
Added possibility to kill the whole process tree
Redid the layout of the process list somewhat, removing obsolete data and reordering columns

More stuff is in development, so consider the release today as a "teaser" for things to come.

If you think that this is sounds cool, please go to the following page for your download: http://orangelampsoftware.com/products_killprocess.php

Known limitations in KillProcess 2.42:

There is a bug in the application where the wrong process description and path can be displayed when listing processes. The bug exists on all platforms but is more evident on Vista

Timestamp 1.20 Released!

2007-12-21T13:51:00.001+01:00

Hello.

After a long time of silence we are pleased to announce the release of TimeStamp 1.20!

The release includes numerous bug-fixes and updates along with a couple of new cool features.

Updated (and less ugly) GUI
Updated application help
Changed the behavior of the Export dialog
Added possibility to halt TimeStamp execution in order to give Windows time to synchronize files. (Special feature)
Redesigned application to optimize disk usage.
Added main application menu, for easy access without using a mouse
Adapted to Windows Vista settings for default data storage.
Improved import function, to not require restart before the imported data is displayed.

Download your copy now!

New Kill List Upload page

2007-06-28T07:55:00.001+02:00

There is now a brand new page for uploading Kill Lists to Orange Lamp Software Solutions. The page supports uploading files to our web-server for review, instead of the old (and never used) way of sending e-mails to the webmaster.

Click here to go directly to the page

Any valid submitted kill lists will be reviewed, and the ones that are good will end up on the download page, kill list section.

This will be a great opportunity for all people around the world that is using KillProcess to share their process knowledge with others (and who knows someone might be able to improve your list)

Hope you like it, keep posting!

Regards

KillProcess 2.42 Released!

2007-06-26T22:55:00.001+02:00

The day has finally come for a release of KillProcess 2.42.

Main changes since 2.41 include:

It is now possible to remember the size of the main window.
Improvements to the COM interface in KillProcess.dll + added documentation for it in the application help.
Fixed so that the application will not hang when trying to show other hung applications
Improved so that it is possible to select for which user the Autorun feature shall affect (Current or All users)
Fixed bug in Replace Task Manager feature
Fixed the application layout of buttons and menuitems according to Microsoft GUI Guidelines & Standards
Improved the visibility of the "Resurrect Process" feature
Possible to multiselect processes in kill list editor
Changed so that the scanning feature will be more vicious and scan more actively for all running processes, since the previous functionallity confused a lot of users...

See the changelog for the full list of changes.

Download your copy today!

KillProcess 2.42 Release Candidate

2007-06-14T22:40:00.001+02:00

Today we released a Release Candidate of KillProcess 2.42

Some bugs was found in beta 2 that is now corrected plus the performance of the process scanning feature was greatly improved, both in terms of speed and reliability.

We hope that you like the new features and we will continue to work on getting the final release ready in a few weeks time

KillProcess 2.42 Beta 2 Released

2007-05-27T19:24:00.001+02:00

A brand new beta version of KillProcess 2.42 has been released.

The major changes in this Beta includes improved visibility of the "Resurrect Process" feature thanks to suggestions made by Mtr Alshammari (2007-05-22). The resurrect feature will now have it's very own icon and button in the main window, and has been moved from the obscure "Tools" menu to the more visible "File" menu in the application.

This once again proves the value of the feedback that regular internet users send me every week. Thanks to all of you people out there, taking some of your precious time to give me feedback on what is great with the application and what can improved.

New Website Design!

2007-05-20T12:48:00.003+02:00

The website design has gone thru a major upgrade to give the site a new and more modern look and feel.

There is still some things that is yet to come, but the basic design and layout is now complete. This new website design is now totally free of frames and we hope that this design will be more easy to use and navigate in than the previous page.

There will be a lot of other cool features in the future, so stay tuned.

Regards
/ Roger Persson

KillProcess 2.42 Beta Released

2007-05-16T12:25:00.001+02:00

A new beta version of KillProcess is now made available on the download page.

This release is a minor upgrade from 2.41 and includes mainly bugfixes and graphical improvments to the application, but some new features has been added:

There is an setting that makes KillProcess remember the previous window size on exit
Improved Autorun feature. It is possible to select if the setting should be roaming for all users or only the current user
Improved COM interface for KillProcess.dll

Download your copy today!

Scanning for Processes using KillProcess

2007-02-23T15:42:00.003+01:00

Many of you might have seen and are already using the scanning feature of KillProcess, but for the rest of you I will try to explain in more detail how this works.

The intention with the scanning functionality in KillProcess is to make it possible to prevent unwanted processes from executing. Why is this useful, why not just remove the process from the computer instead of preventing the execution?

Well there are many reasons for scanning for a process, these are some of them:

You want to prevent the anti-virus process from scanning your computer at inconvenient times (like when you are actually using the computer or when you have something CPU intensive that needs to be done ).
You want to prevent the system administrator from installing updates on your computer (for the same reasons as for the previous one) using an remote scripting service.
You want to prevent some unwanted background processes from running while you are playing computer game.

In the cases listed above you might not have proper privileges to remove an unwanted process, or like in the case of an anti-virus application, you probably want to keep the application on the PC to be able to run it when you feel/need to.

To enable the process scanning feature in KillProcess do the following:

Make sure to enable the scanning feature in KillProcess:

Open the application settings; Tools -> Preferences...
Select the "Advanced" tab
Make sure that the "Enable Process Scanning" checkbox is checked
Make sure that the Scanning Interval is set to the appropriate level.
Click "OK"

Next, lets enable scanning of a process:

Add a process to the current/new Kill List. This can be done either by
- right-clicking on the process in the running process list and selecting "Add to List"
- by typing the name of the process in the Kill List Editor editbox
- by browsing for the process on the computer hard-drive from the Kill List Editor
Next, in the Kill List Editor, select the process and check the "Scan for Process" checkbox.
(Also Make sure that the "Enabled" checkbox is properly checked - otherwise nothing will happen)
Click "OK"

The process that you have selected for scanning will be terminated the next time that it occurs in the running processes list. This means that if there already was a instance of the scanned process in the running processes list when you added it to the list, it will still be there. It will however have a green checkbox identifying it as a process on the current Kill List, but it will not be terminated until the next time you execute the list, or manually kill the process.

So there you are. Good luck with KillProcess!

Best Regards
/ Roger Persson

KillProcess 2.41 Released!

2007-02-02T09:45:00.000+01:00

After several months of beta testing, the final build of KillProcess 2.41 was released yesterday evening.

The idea was to synchronize this release with the release of Windows Vista, but that didn't happen because of a number of reasons...

The main difference change with this release is the changes made to support the UAC model in Windows Vista. There is however still some work to be done here, since the application is not digitally signed yet. This is however a problem for me, since I don't make any money on this product I find it hard to cough up money to digitally sign my applications each time I make an update. This would of course not be an issue if more people donated some money for the development, but until that happens I don't think I can afford the extra cost of the digitally signing process.

This was done to support Windows Vista:

The application will try to achieve the highest privilege when started and prompt for access to Administrator privileges if available.
The application is now fully compliant to the Windows XP Logo demands, which in short state that applications may not in any way write to: C:\Program Files\ , C:\Windows, or the HKLM registry hive. All application data therefore now stored on the users roaming profile and registry stuff in HKCU instead.

These are the known issues with Vista when UAC is enabled:

The application will not be run automatically at startup since Windows cannot verify the digital sign (since there is none)
The application cannot replace the Task Manager properly

Enjoy this new release!

Best Regards
/ Roger Persson

KillProcess 2.41 Information

2007-01-23T09:14:00.000+01:00

Hello.

There has been nothing much to write about here for a couple of months. There is however a new version of KillProcess in development, that mainly will address different Windows Vista issues:

Support for UAC. KillProcess will try to get Administrator access if available
Changes to make sure that the application complies with the XP Logo demands - not writing to HKLM, C:\Program Files, etc during runtime

As usual there is a number of bugfixes included in this release, collected from all of the users out there on the Internet. Since we are still in Alpha stage, this is the time to submit your application improvements. All suggestions will be considered, and the good ones might still make it to this release. Other good suggestions will be kept on the wish list and considered for the next release.

We are trying to schedule this release to sync with the Windows Vista release date (30th January).

It is hard to estimate how many you guys are, but the downloads from this website alone is around 1 700 per day (the KillProcess application is mirrored several other places like Tucows and Download.com). Thank you for your interest in the application!!

Please report any errors that you have found with KillProcess using the error reporting form

Any other questions can be sent using the standard feedback form.

Best Regards

/ Roger Persson

Exciting Download statistics for 2006!

2007-01-10T14:09:00.000+01:00

Hi!

As I'm writing this, the new year 2007 is well into it's second week. The development at OLSS has been down the previous weeks after a nice winter vacation , one week in Karlstad Sweden and one week on Lanzarote island Spain.

I feel that this would be an excellent time to sum up the year of 2006 - which I must say has been a pretty exciting one, both for myself personally (since I finally found someone that I want to spend the rest of my life with) but also for the company, with lots and lots of downloads, feedback and support.

The statistics for 2006 is some pretty cool reading - especially when compared with 2005:

Daily statistics:

Hits/day:

Average: 1688 ( 318 )
Top: 25 292, occurred 2006-03-04

Downloads:

Average: 137 MB/day ( 6,6 MB/day)
Top: 1 365 MB/day, occurred 2006-06-17

Totals 2006:

Hits: 616 459 ( 116 386 )
Downloads: 49 903 MB ( 2 397 MB )

As can bee seen above, the site has increased it's visits with about 500% and the amount of downloads almost 21 times!

The amount of feedback from people around the word is really encouraging and it feels good to enter the new year of 2007 !

Best Regards

/ Roger

TimeStamp 2006 Version 1.12 Released

2006-11-07T21:18:00.001+01:00

A new version of TimeStamp 2006 was released today.

The release was unplanned, but fixes a bug in the workday length settings that will occur if the length is set to anything other than 8 hours, which must be considered pretty severe.

Make sure to download your copy now!

TimeStamp 2006 Version 1.12 Released

2006-11-07T21:18:00.000+01:00

A new version of TimeStamp 2006 was released today.

The release was unplanned, but fixes a bug in the workday length settings that will occur if the length is set to anything other than 8 hours, which must be considered pretty severe.

Make sure to download your copy now!

TimeStamp 2006 version 1.11 Released!

2006-10-19T20:58:00.000+02:00

A brand new version of Timestamp 2006 was today released.

Fixes include a variety of bugs detected and reported by users all over the world. Thank you all very much! Your effort is greatly appreciated. You can read about the changes here: whatsnew

Make sure to download your copy now!

New Inverted Kill Lists!

2006-10-15T19:51:00.000+02:00

We have posted a couple of cool new inverted kill lists on the list page. (see previous post regarding the usage of inverted lists)

These kill lists has been generated on an "clean" installation of Windows 2000 (SP4) , XP (SP2) & Vista (running as a Virtual PC ) and will terminate any application added to Windows from that point when executed. This means that the lists will wipe all processes that are not present on an clean Windows installation, which can be useful when you really want to make sure that your PC is running optimally, for instance when stopping Spy- or Abuseware or when playing computer games.

Make sure to check them out now!

The Inverted Kill Lists

2006-10-05T08:42:00.000+02:00

One of the latest really cool features of the KillProcess 2.40 release is the possibility to have inverted kill lists. Inverted lists works just as any normal list would with one exception, everything that is NOT included on the list will be swiftly killed when the list is executed!

Inverting a list is a simple matter of opening the Kill List Editor and then selecting "Edit List Info" and applying the checkbox as seen in the image below:

So what's the point with inverted lists then? Well many of you still do not have quad-core Intel processors and an endless amount of RAM memory on your machines. When running a computing intensive application (such as 3d-Studio Max, Matlab, Visual Studio, etc) or game (Half-Life 2, Counterstrike, etc) you would want your computer to be running that app as good as possible wouldn't you?

Well here is an example on how to use it effectively:

Tweak your computer (using KillProcess) so that a minimal number of processes run on the machine (like it did when you first installed Windows on your brand new PC - remember?) but is still stable (so keep those hands away from svchost.exe, csrss.exe, smss.exe etc...).
Create a fresh new kill list
Add ALL of the processes that are currently running on the machine
Invert the Kill List and...
...Voila! You know have seriously cool inverted kill list!

TIP1: You now are in possession of a Kill List that basically would do what "Safe Mode" would do to the computer, but you are able to specify yourself what's supposed to be running on the machine.

TIP2: Step 1 can preferably be done on another PC that has a more "clean" & "fresh" installation of Windows.

To get the full potential out of your new list I suggest using the "Vicious mode" in KillProcess to avoid all of those confirmation questions that will arise once the list is executed.

Inverted lists can be dangerous!

Inverting kill lists can of course be (a little) dangerous if you are not aware of how the feature works. If you take one of your "normal" lists and convert them to a inverted list and then run it you may have performed the digital variant of shooting yourself in the head! KillProcess has therefore been designed to look a little different when using this feature:

There is also a brand new warning message that tries to explain the dangers with the feature: Your input counts!

The inverted kill list feature was suggested by Stephen Hoy and was implemented in KillProcess 2.40, since I found it to be a great idea. So there it is - your input and feedback counts and any idea good enough might find its way into the final product!

Keep posting feedback and enjoy KillProcess!

Best Regards

/ Roger

Resurrecting processes using KillProcess

2006-09-15T07:47:00.000+02:00

One of the most exciting new features in KillProcess 2.40 is the new "Resurrect Process" feature. You will find it in the "Tools" application menu. So what does it do then? Well basically the exact opposite from what KillProcess does, which is "Killing" processes. What this means is that this feature will try to launch all of the processes in the active kill list, as long as the application can find a valid path to the executable. Therefore a new entry has been added to the application, where the kill list now will contain a path to the executable. Each time a new process is added to the list, the path to the executable will also be written to the list. This is all and well for new lists, but to be able to enable "resurrect" process on old lists - will I have to recreate new ones? Well not necessarily, I've actually thought of that (yes - I do think sometimes). The new kill list editor in version 2.40 includes many nice features, one of which is the new "Edit Path" function

Adding a path to a process in the list is as simple as, clicking on the process in the list and then clicking on the "Edit Path" button - and voilà! A nice path editor is displayed, from which you can type or browse the path to the executable.

The Editor can actually be used for 2 purposes:

Adding paths to old list items that is missing the executable path
Removing paths to processes that should not be resurrected once the application executes the spawning process.

The "Resurrect Process" feature is (for now) a simple matter of batch-spawning applications, any process that has a full path in the kill list will be launched - even services ( which is kind of dumb). I will in the future probably improve this so that services are handled a little more clever, and so that you can have more control over the spawning process. For now you can edit the path to have some control over what's happening. Hope that this was interesting information, I will keep posting more pieces like this regarding application features here since some cool stuff cannot be explained in a help file. Enjoy!

Best Regards

/ Roger

KillProcess 2.40 is Released!

2006-09-14T22:57:00.000+02:00

Thanks for all of the feedback during the development of the application. Several of your suggested improvements made it to this release Be sure to check out now!

Checkout the Download Page!

Hello World!!!

2006-09-14T21:13:00.000+02:00

An "Hello World" app is usually the first application that people learn to write when they are studying a new programming language. Since I am a programmer by heart, and this is the first time I write a Blog, this seems like the natural thing to write! I hope that there will be lots of more posts here as time progresses!

Best Regards

/ Roger

Orange News

KillProcess 2.43 Alpha 3

More KillProcess e-learning videos

KillProcess e-learning videos

KillProcess 2.43 (?) Alpha

Timestamp 1.20 Released!

New Kill List Upload page

KillProcess 2.42 Released!

KillProcess 2.42 Release Candidate

KillProcess 2.42 Beta 2 Released

New Website Design!

KillProcess 2.42 Beta Released

Scanning for Processes using KillProcess

KillProcess 2.41 Released!

KillProcess 2.41 Information

Exciting Download statistics for 2006!

TimeStamp 2006 Version 1.12 Released

TimeStamp 2006 Version 1.12 Released

TimeStamp 2006 version 1.11 Released!

New Inverted Kill Lists!

The Inverted Kill Lists

Resurrecting processes using KillProcess

KillProcess 2.40 is Released!

Hello World!!!