Improve Process Management in Windows
Introduction
Have you observed that your
cursor hangs or an application freezes? Thinking to buy new PC due to this?
Please read this article first. This happens due to over usage of resources
especially CPU by a process. Let’s see how this happens.
Don't like theory? Skip to Personal Experience
The process is a collection of threads (running tasks). This
is what an Operating System (OS) sees, and executes. It basically keeps a long
list of threads and rotates through them, giving each a turn to use the CPU(s)
for a brief period of time (a time slice). This is where a thread's priority
comes into play, along with other factors. The priority helps the scheduler
(the part of the OS responsible for handing out time slices) determine which
thread should get the next time slice.
A CPU can only do one thing at a time. Therefore, to
multitask, the CPU is quickly switched between all active threads on the
system. It switches between threads so quickly that it appears multiple
processes are running at the exact same time, when in fact they are just taking
turns (concurrently). For multi-CPU (multi core) systems, this is still true,
except that there are more CPUs available for thread execution, thus allowing
some true simultaneous execution instead of just concurrent
execution.
When the threads of multiple processes need to use the CPU
at the same time, the priority level of each thread is used to help determine
which should get the CPU next (which is most important). By temporarily
lowering the priority class of overly active background processes, your system
is kept responsive even in the face of high CPU loads. Lowering the priority
class of a process lowers the priority of all threads in that process. When
acting on a process, you are essentially changing the base priority from which
the individual priorities of all threads of that process are derived from. In
this way, the relative priorities between threads in a process are kept the
same.
Problem with Windows
Windows has a
particularly bad problem dealing with threads that decide they want to consume
every bit of CPU time they can get their hands on (a CPU bound thread). A
single 'CPU bound' thread running at Normal priority can bring an entire
single-CPU system to a stall.
An example is if
someone makes a C program with infinite loop.
When there is a high load on the CPU(s), the responsiveness of the PC can be severely impacted. On a single processor PC, it takes only one CPU hungry thread running at normal priority to bring the entire system to stall.
Solution
Process Lasso, a product by Bitsum LLC is a good solution
for these types of resource hogging processes. It is based on native code so it
consumes least possible RAM (~4MB-5MB in background and ~5MB-7MB in foreground)
and CPU load ~2%-3%. It works on ProBalance (Process Balance) technology, a
proprietary algorithm that temporarily adjusts the priority of running
processes in an effort to keep your system responsive during high loads.
What it does? :-
1.
Like some Linux Kernel penalize CPU bound (CPU
hungry) threads while rewarding some I/O bound threads.
2.
It lowers
the priority class of background processes when they interfere with system
responsiveness. E.g. From lower to
below lower.
Whenever process lasso intercepts that a process is
decreasing responsiveness of system, it is called as Restraints.
Claim by Bitsum LLC
The company claims its usefulness of its manager by CPU
Eater software, which is downloadable from its website. The ProBalance
algorithm works as claimed by company.
Other features
1.
Game
Mode: Boosts the performance of games by turning battery profile to Bitsum
Recommended Mode. The technology is derived from its in-house freeware
ParkControl. It runs at max frequency.
2.
Idle Saver:
Runs CPU at max performance but switches to conservative idle saver when PC
is idle.
3.
Smart
Trim: This feature is recommended by company for advanced users only. It
intelligently selects some portion of RAM and pages it. So it’s an effective
RAM Manager.
4.
Sleep
Policy: Avoids PC and/or display to go to sleep when a specific process is launched.
E.g. We wouldn’t like PC to go to sleep when a video/audio is running to go to
sleep
Personal Experience
After installing process lasso my PC with Core 2 duo, 3GB
RAM and windows 10 works likes a new PC i.e. we can say due to ProBalance my PC’s
ability to multitask has increased. With a video playing YouTube and 5 more
tabs in Microsoft Edge, Microsoft word 2010, task manager and Process Lasso
(foreground) opened; the CPU usage is under 20%. OMG!! RAM usage is 56%.
Other important points
1.
Till now Process Lasso has seen 8781 ProBalance
restraints. In just today’s half an hour usage, 11 restraints is already added.
2.
It helps me to prevent CPU from sleeping in some
apps like windows media player, VLC media player etc.
3.
I was also able to play Need for Speed Most Wanted
2005, which hanged previously.
Conclusion
I would recommend this excellent piece of software to all. It helps to
efficiently use our system resources. Download Now!! Have improved experience
of windows.
