Customizing with Scripting

One of the more powerful features of WinTasks is the ability to fine tune and exert very tight control over your Windows processes with a built-in scripting language. Using your own custom scripts, you can fine tune your PC to do what you want it to do. Some examples could be:

• Automatically increases the priority if the defrag.exe process so as to get rid of the problem is defrag starting over.


• Automatically shut down all processes using more than a set amount of resources.


• Ban the use of certain programs on the PC.


• Shut down certain processes automatically when the screensaver is loaded

The possibilities are endless and only depend on your proficiency with the scripting language. The language itself is pretty simple, containing the basic if/then language constructs, basic logic operators, a series of preset variable names for use to get process names, window names, etc., as well as actions such as STOP (to stop a process), START (to start a process), INC (to increases priority), DEC (to decrease priority), and ALERT (to show an alert message).

To demonstrate how this is used, here is a sample script. This script will start the calculator if notepad is activated, and shut down the calculator if notepad is not activated.

If process_files contains “notepad.exe” and not process_files contains “calc.exe” then
Start “calc.exe”
Else
If process_file = “calc.exe” and not process_files contains “notepad.exe” then
Stop
Endif

Endif

Personally, I think this is pretty cool. You can use this to create custom program setups or start several programs at once. You can perform various maintenance tasks or implement security features. On an NT machine, you can use this program as administrator and fine tune control over how other users can use the PC. Just off hand, this could be useful for a lab environment where you don’t want students screwing around.

Conclusion

In short, this utility is very well designed and quite useful for what it does. For system administrators, this can be a real godsend. You can ditch the days of the command line to exert this kind of process control over the system. For regular PC power users, this software is one of a kind and allows you to take the reigns of Windows and take control over Windows processes. Whether you’re implementing some security features or simply trying to automate, WinTasks will be a valuable tool.

Website: http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/ .
Retail Price: $47

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