Keep vital programs running 24/7 Archive

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

How to Keep a program running that crashes without warning or error

– December 22, 2010Posted in: Keep vital programs running 24/7

An office computer has a utility that should be kept running throughout the day, and sometimes colleagues accidentally quit the utility. There’s another program you’d like to keep running, but sometimes it crashes out without any warning or error. These programs need to be restarted immediately.

How to do it …

  1. Open up PTFB Pro’s main window by clicking on its tray icon
  2. Click on “New Macro…” and choose “ProgMon Macro”
  3. Select the program in the resulting list and hit Next
  4. Choose “launch the program if it’s not running”
  5. PTFB Pro will suggest a command line to launch the program. In most cases this will do fine, but if you need to make changes or cause the program to run under a specific account, you can.
  6. When you’re done, hit Finish

You may wish to tweak your new macro’s settings after you’ve created it. By default a macro like this is set to run every second or so, but if you’re happy with PTFB Pro checking for the program say every ten minutes, you can change the repeat delay in the Triggers page.

Find out more about boosting your productivity with autoclicks and macros.
CLICK HERE to download a free 30 day trial, no strings attached. If you aren’t entirely happy simply uninstall!

People keep closing a vital program on our shared office PC. How can I restart it automatically?

– July 20, 2010Posted in: Keep vital programs running 24/7

There can be lots of reasons why programs close even though you need them to keep running. If they’re buggy, then it could be because they’ve crashed, but in an office situation it could simply be that some other employee has mistakenly closed the program. In these cases it’s tempting to lock the PC in question, but that might not be an option if the PC is shared and open for use by general office staff.

One way round the problem is to use a Program Monitor (“ProgMon”) macro in PTFB Pro. Just follow these steps:

1) Open up PTFB Pro’s main screen, hit “New Macro” and choose “ProgMon Macro”

PTFB Choose Macro

2) Select your vital program in the list on the first wizard page, and hit Next

3) On the next page, select the action “Launch the program if it’s not running” and hit Next

Progmon action page

4) On the final page, you can enter the command line required to launch your program. PTFB Pro will typically provide a base command line but you can add parameters if needed, or even set the program to run under a specific account. Hit Finish when you’re done, then “Start Watching” to put PTFB Pro into action.

From now on, any time PTFB Pro discovers that the program in question has closed it’ll relaunch it automatically!

Find out more about boosting your productivity with autoclicks and macros.
CLICK HERE to download a free 30 day trial, no strings attached. If you aren’t entirely happy simply uninstall!