Latest News & How To Guides

PTFB Pro v4.2.1

– February 7, 2012Posted in: Keep vital programs running 24/7, News

Using ProgMon macros PTFB Pro is able to detect when a critical application enters a “not responding” state and restart it automatically. Unfortunately some programs, particularly those that aren’t mutli-threaded, may sometimes enter a non-responsive  or “hung” state briefly then recover. In reality all that’s happening is that the program is temporarily too busy doing its work to respond, but previous versions of PTFB Pro had no way of knowing that and could restart the app prematurely. Starting with version 4.2.1, you can now tweak each ProgMon macro individually to make it more tolerant of these brief apparent “hangs”.

If necessary you can still have PTFB Pro restart a program at the very first sign of a hang, but now you can also make PTFB Pro keep an eye on the program and only execute the restart if it’s been hung continuously for some time.

Get the new version from our download page: http://www.ptfbpro.com/download.shtml

PTFB Pro v4.2

– October 12, 2011Posted in: News

This release brings two key new features that our customers have been requesting.

The first is the ability to restrict items to acting only on foreground windows – those that currently have “focus”. This might not sound like a big deal in itself, but it enables PTFB Pro to be used in a number of new ways. For example, a common source of annoyance on Windows is that different programs often use different keyboard shortcuts for what is basically the same action. This new release of PTFB Pro allows you to bind that common action in all your favorite programs to a hotkey of your choosing, so there’s no longer a need to remember the program-specific keys. One of our customers who has reduced hand function is already using this to make it easier to drive his favorite apps.

The second new feature is the ability to temporarily enable an otherwise disabled macro when certain circumstances occur. This makes it possible to chain macros together in remarkably sophisticated ways, but rather than asking them to run immediately, you simply enable them to run when the time is right.

Here is the full list of changes for this release:

  • Added ability to limit items to fire only on foreground windows (those with focus).
  • Added ability to temporarily enable an item from within a macro
  • Added “cycle” option to Switch To Prog macro action
  • Minor user interface improvements.
  • Changes/Additions to the Help file.
  • Note that the file format has changed with this release.

You can download the latest version here: http://www.ptfbpro.com/download.shtml

PTFB Pro v4.1.5

– August 23, 2011Posted in: News

A new release of PTFB Pro is available from our downloads page: http://www.ptfbpro.com/download.shtml

This is a recommended update, as it fixes an occasional fatal error associated with the creation of “window restore” items, and makes PTFB Pro able to “read” URLs and html pages in the latest versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox. As usual the update is free for all those already running PTFB Pro version 4.x. Anybody running an earlier version should visit our upgrade page to find out whether they can get the latest version for free, or at a substantial discount.

A further release is planned in about a month’s time. This will include some small but powerful changes that will make PTFB Pro even more flexible, and better suited for those who have issues with hand/finger motion when using their computer.

 

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