Back in 2002, PC Mechanic had the opportunity to review WinTasks Pro 4, from LIUtilities. Earlier this year (2004), they released the next incarnation of the product, aptly named WinTasks Pro 5. In the review of version 4, I outlined some of the possible uses for WinTasks. It was and is more than a fancy task manager. Here are a few example of things that could be done using Wintasks (taken right from our prior review):

• 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

This kind of nitty-gritty control over your Windows processes was done through the use of a WinTasks proprietary scripting language and I outlined an example of such a script in that review. This same scripting language is supported in version 5.

Let’s take this up to present time. WinTasks 5 takes the features of WinTasks 5 and makes them easier to use. Chief among the “easier to use” features is the integrated process library. LIUtilities launched www.processlibrary.com to coincide with this release, but the database is apparently integrated right into WinTasks. So, for each process running, you can simply click on it and you receive the name of the process, what it does, etc. If you click on “View Details”, you are told who the author of the process is, which program it is a part of and whether it is a security risk or not. This is a very handy feature because the names of processes are often very cryptic. The Windows task manager lists processes by their filename and oftentimes you can’t tell a thing by the filename. The process database embedded in the program is updateable via the internet as well, so as new processes come out and LIUtilities updates their database, you can keep on top of things. Another feature is the personal notes feature. For each process, you can record your own notes. Both of these features really take the mystery out of the windows process list.

Located in the lower left, you will be told a description of each process you have running.

Another handy option that is new in version 5 is the “block” feature. Touted as a firewall for Windows processes, this feature gives you the option to block a process from running on your machine at all. This is handy in your battle against spyware, for instance. If you find that a particular process is running which introduces you to advertising – in other words it is spying on you – then you can simply select the process and block it. It then goes on your block list, which you can, of course, add and remove items from.

For each process, you can view any corresponding DLLs, modules and statistics. That ability to view corresponding DLLs is something you don’t see very often. The Autostart list willl show you all processes which are started automatically when you boot up Windows, with the option to disable or add to that list. The Wintasks logging is also a running log of all processes, when they are started and ended. This can be handy for debugging.

The main toolbar of WinTasks.

All in all, Wintasks is still a very powerful utility for what it does. It offers unprecedented control over your Windows processes, and it keeps us normal people “in the know” when it comes to what all those processes are. For normal users, it can be used for informational purposes, but also to keep some control over your automatic startup routine. The blocking feature, too, can be used as part of your arsenal against spyware. For power users, the embedded scripting language gives you some real flexibility, and the ways that your computer can be customized are really only limited by your imagination and skill using the language.

To purchase WinTasks Pro 5, click here for information.