Author Archives: Paul Roberts

Prevent problems by periodically restarting critical programs / services

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Some programs and services benefit from an occasional restart. Maybe they a have cumulative memory leak that can slow the computer to a crawl after a day or two, or maybe they simply get unreliable if left running for too long. Either way, PTFB Pro can safely close then re-launch the target software according to a schedule of your choosing.

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 target program in the resulting list and hit Next
  4. Choose “Restart the program if it’s running” and set the frequency.
  5. The next page deals with how the program will be closed. “Request Quit” is the preferred choice for programs, but for services you’ll probably need to use the command line option.
  6. The final page deals with relaunching the program. You can usually just take the defaults and hit “Finish” but if you want to make changes you can.

If you need more control than the simple “frequency” option #4 affords, don’t forget that you can still edit your new ProgMon item and set it to execute by a schedule of your choosing, or limit it to running only during some hours of the day and/or days of the week. If you wish you can even using Windows’ inbuilt scheduler to run the item via the command line. The choice is yours!

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!

Easier screen macro recording in PTFB Pro v4.6.0.0

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Version 4.6 of PTFB Pro – now available from our Download page – adds a few handy tweaks requested by our customers:

  • Immediately prior to recording screen-based macro, PTFB Pro quickly and discretely restores the previous foreground window. This is particularly useful if you want to record a macro for typing text into whatever happens to be the currently active program.
  • The “Fire only if window belongs to program” field is now editable. This optional field is present on the “Identifying the Target” page of several PTFB Pro item types; it constrains the item to acting only windows that belong to the nominated program.
  • PTFB Pro now recognizes some new target types in Internet Explorer v10

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

False positives!

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As a couple of customers have noted, a recent release of virus definitions for Symantec’s antivirus offerings has generated a false positive for version 4.5.2 of PTFB Pro’s installation package. We’ve reported this to Symantec and they’ve replied, say that they’ll be including a fix in their next release of virus definitions. In the meantime, we’ve put up a new release of PTFB Pro, v4.5.4.0.

The only difference between this release and 4.5.2 is that it has a newer version of the installer engine we use. This change is apparently enough to avoid the false positive from the faulty virus definitions, but if you’re already running 4.5.2 there’s no need to upgrade.

So to sum up: the original 4.5.2 release is virus free, as Symantec’s virus definition update will soon confirm, but if you prefer not to wait for that you can grab v4.5.4.0 from our site which gets a clean bill of health even with the faulty virus definitions.

For more details about false positives please check out at this wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software, specifically the section titled “Problems caused by false positives”. It contains a potted history of some of the costlier mistakes by anti-virus products thus far.

PTFB Pro and high DPI on Windows 8, 7 and Vista

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It’s becoming increasingly common for people to use the font and user-interface scaling option built into Windows 7 & 8 to make everything more readable. This scaling is also known as “high dpi” or “high dots per inch” mode, but whatever you want to call it, it’s a boon if you have a high resolution monitor that makes everything on screen seem uncomfortably small, or if your vision is less than perfect. PTFB Pro has now been updated specifically for high DPI systems to make sure that it looks it best and keeps on pressing the right buttons.

If you’re running a version of PTFB Pro prior to v4.5.1.0 and are using or intend to use high DPI mode, please stop by our download page and grab the latest release. If you want to know more about high DPI mode, including a little tip on how to get older programs play well with it, please take a look at the following article in PTFB Pro’s Help Desk:

http://www.tlhouse.co.uk/supportv4/index.php?/ptfb/Knowledgebase/Article/View/66/0/ptfb-pro-and-high-dpi-on-windows-8-7-and-vista

Finally, please note that our first release with the high DPI changes – version 4.5.0.0 – had a bug in it that resulted in messed up graphics and crashes on some systems. That release was only out for a few days before we fixed it, but if you do have v4.5.0.0, please update to v4.5.1.0 (or later) as soon as possible.

 

How to automatically restart a program that is suddenly locked into high cpu usage

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From time to time Windows programs can misbehave in a variety of ways. They may exit silently or suffer an in-your-face crash, they may suddenly become unresponsive, or they may get locked into a state where they’re consuming ridiculously high cpu without actually doing what they’re supposed to. In the absence of a newer bug-fixed version of the program in question, usually the only remedy for these problems is to terminate the program in question (if it’s still running) then relaunch it. That’s fine – if irritating – in cases where someone’s on hand to nursemaid the unstable program, but in cases where the computer has to work unattended it can mean hours of disrupted service and lost work. Fortunately PTFB Pro is able to help with all of the above failures.

In the case of silent exits / crashes, use a ProgMon (program monitor) macro item to automatically relaunch the program or process any time it is found not to be running, and use PTFB Pro’s regular Single Press or Macro items to dismiss the associated Windows messages (e.g. “X program has stopped working”). For unresponsive or pathological high cpu usage cases, use a single ProgMon macro as described below.

  1. Create a new ProgMon macro.  There numerous ways to do this, e.g. click on New Macro then choose ProgMon Macro, associate a hotkey with the New ProgMon macro function and use that etc.
  2. A wizard will now guide you through configuration of the new macro. The first task is to indicate which program to keep an eye on. The wizard shows you a list of all the currently running processes. If the target program is in the list, just select it (failing that you can still enter its details directly).
  3. The next page of the wizard lets you specify what actions to perform on the program or process, and when to carry them out:RestartHiCPU
  4. If you want to restart the program when it becomes locked into high cpu usage, select the “Restart the program only if it is misbehaving” and tick the “Exceeds cpu utilization” box, and optionally the “Not Responding” box too.

    You can now set the maximum cpu usage that will be tolerated. A good rule of thumb here is to pick a value slightly below the cpu usage shown in Task Manager when the program is misbehaving.

    You may also notice that you can configure the time period in minutes between each check on the program’s status, and set the number of consecutive “bad states” that must be seen before the program is restarted. Together these two values help set the tolerance for the symptoms of the misbehaving program; if it legitimately exhibits high cpu or becomes unresponsive for a brief periods then recovers, set a less frequent check period and require more than one consecutive bad states, and PTFB Pro will only take action when the program has truly entered an unrecoverable state of ill-health.

  5. The rest of the wizard deals with how to terminate the program and how to relaunch it. Unless you have specific requirements here, you can just take the defaults.

Once you’ve configured the new ProgMon item to your satisfaction, just hit “Start Watching” on PTFB Pro’s main screen to start monitoring and as/when necessary restart the target program.

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

Tame the cpu hogs with PTFB Pro 4.4.0.0

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The latest version of PTFB Pro (v4.4) brings a much requested new capability: it can monitor the cpu utilization of particular programs/process on your computer and restart them automatically if they become “unwell” and start eating up all available processing power.

For some time now PTFB Pro’s program monitor or “ProgMon” items have been able to restart programs that crash or fall into a “not responding” state, but they haven’t been able to help with another equally unwelcome symptom of “unwell” programs: cpu hogging. It’s not at all uncommon for some programs to randomly enter a state where they cease to work properly and consume cpu cycles like an army of mice devouring a block of cheese. In some cases this can cause the whole computer to slow down; in others, the biggest loss is simply that the crucial program is no longer doing its job. Either way the only remedy is typically to manually kill the program in Task Manager and re-launch it. Starting in version PTFB Pro v4.4, ProgMon items can now do this for you automatically, 24/7.

It’s very simple to set up: create a new ProgMon item then let the wizard guide you through the remaining configuration steps. You get to choose the program/process you want to monitor, set the maxium level of cpu usage you’re prepared to tolerate before action is taken, and specify what that action should be. What’s more, you can tell PTFB Pro to turn a blind eye to a short period of high cpu (since this may occur for legitimate reasons) so that action is only taken when the process really has irretrievably slipped into an unwell state.

In addition to this new feature, the v4.4 release also contains a number of welcome bug fixes. Get the new release from our download page now:

http://www.ptfbpro.com/download.shtml

Latest release – v4.3.0.0

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This release is the first to contain an automatic check for newer versions. It’s enabled by default in fresh installs, but if you’re upgrading from a previous (4.x) version then it’s up to you whether you want to turn it on or not. When enabled, it runs shortly after PTFB Pro starts up and briefly checks with our website to see what the latest version is. If you’re already up-to-date you won’t even be aware of the version check, but if you’ve fallen behind then PTFB Pro will present a reminder. Additionally you can run the version check manually any time you want via the Options menu, regardless of whether automatic checking is enabled or not.

Here’s the full list of changes in v4.3:

  • Added automatic “Check for newer version” option (Options -> Configure -> General)
  • Extended workstation fail-safe relock upper limit to 300 secs (5 mins)
  • OK button now default in item properties
  • Fixed: occasional first-use failure of advanced target recognition on some apps when creating a single press item.
  • Fix: increased time between remote desktop kickoff and target action to reduce chance of failure.

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

PTFB Pro v4.2.4.0

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There’s been a few bug fix releases since the last post; the latest version is v4.2.4 which fixes a fatal error that can occur with certain targets.

Changes in other recent releases include:

– Ability to recognize & handle German Outlook Security Dialog
– Fix: single press items for system tray balloons now execute notifications correctly.
– Fix: Duplicate item now works correctly on items from a shared file.
– Fix: Hotkey triggers involving right ctrl key now handled correctly

If you’re running an older version, now’s a great time to catch up and get the latest release from our download page: http://www.ptfbpro.com/download.shtml

 

PTFB Pro v4.2.1

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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

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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