If you haven’t checked out this neat little app, it is high time that you do so. Jeremy Collake, a developer of unique system applications and useful applications and algorithms for developers, has coded up this brilliant piece of work designed to help the average, everyday user get more speed and performance out of their machine. `1is how Process Lasso is described on his site:
Process Lasso is a unique new technology intended to automatically adjust t nhe 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.
It has a super user-friendly interface, and takes almost no configuration in order to help you maintain more control of of your processes. That’s not to say that you cannot configure Process Lasso – on the contrary, Process Lasso is very configurable, offering you very precise control over things like how much CPU usage, percentage-wise, should be in use and for how long it should achieve this percentage before Process Lasso’s restraint functions start to work. These can be set as either system-wide rules or governed per process. You may also exclude processes from being involved in the calculations, in case you have near-real-time apps which should not count towards the total CPU usage restriction calculations. You may also configure applications’ startup priority. Also you can configure such things as a processes default affinity for multi-core systems, trim the virtual memory of a process, manage start-up settings for applications, among many other things.
I really find myself using the sorting features on the main screen to see which processes are using the most memory, CPU cycles, and average CPU usage. One may also force termination of processes for those which will not close using the normal means.
For the above reasons and more, this is an awesome product. However, I’ve known Jeremy for quite sometime, have worked with him on occasion, and have never met someone with quite the passion he has for programming as well as maintaining, caring for, and quickly responding to his customer base. Whether the customer has questions or optional enhancements they would like to see added to a product, he is always responsive and ready to help out whenever and however possible. When a software development company goes out of its way to help and relate to the customer like Bitsum does, it gives you a great feeling that you can count on being satisfied with the product you are using. Its also rare nowadays to find the smaller-oriented development shop which responds to the needs of its customers and takes their comments and questions seriously. So many times I’ve emailed support at other companies only to find that the company has changed hands and the owners have no clue about the software they are selling, or that they support email address no longer works.
Jeremy also releases updates for Process Lasso very frequently. I subscribe to the beta product updates, and it seems that he releases no fewer than 2 versions per week which contain enhancements and optimizations.
Besides Process Lasso, he has other helpful applications on his site, and it is a gold mine for developers. He offers much C/C++ and x86 Assembly source for different projects, mostly centered around system tools and his very well-known compression algorithms, like JCALG1. Another cool thing there, which you will soon see a write-up about, is his work with the open source software project which transforms the Linksys WRT54G into an enterprise level, Linux router. Check it out after you visit the rest of his site and give Process Lasso a test drive.
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