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An often heard question is Why do I have so many processes running on my computer and what are they?. Wintasks Pro 5 is a tool that will help you answer that question for yourself. Similar to Windows Task Manger, but packed with many more features, WinTasks empowers you to identify and control what is running on your computer.

The main window is a bit cluttered with all the buttons, but I got used to that. There are too many to cover all of them here so I will only cover the ones I consider to be the most important.

Under all the buttons is the list of all running processes. You can select a process and in the lower portion of the window click “View Details” and another window will open with the details of that process. It will diplay the author of the processs and the program it is associated with..

Also in that window are three other buttons. You can “Check for Updates” to the program and the process library, enter “Comments” about the process to be sent to Liutilities to help them improve the program or “Report Missing” information on a process.

Another nice feature is the “DLLs” button which will display a list of all dlls corresponding to a process.

The “Stats” button will display a small window with a graph showing CPU usage and Memory usage.

The “Autostart” button displays all programs that are loading at startup. This can be used to control your startups much like Windows System Configuration Utility.

These last two features are the best of the lot in my opinion. The “Block List” button gives control over what processes are allowed or denied permission to run on your computer. You can add any suspicious, malicious or unknown process to the block list so that it is never allowed to run. As you use your computer with WinTasks running you are alerted each time a process is run and given the option to block or allow that process.

The “Scripts” button can be used to write your own customized scripts to give you even more control to stop and start certain processes during execution of a program or event. WinTasks has a built in script language. I tested it with a simple script that opens the calculator opens automatically when I open QuickBooks. It worked well.

In conclusion, WinTasks Pro 5 is well worth the bucks. It can save lots of time researching to figure out what a particular process is and gives the user greater control over his or her pc. I do think that the program may be a bit much for the beginner, but for the intermediate to advanced user it can be huge plus. I spend a lot of time in tech forums helping victims remove malware from their machines. I have found the searchable process library to be a big help in identifying processes I’m not familiar with. If you like cool multi-faceted programs, want to protect and have more control over your machine, then I recommend that you get this one.

Added: November 21st 2004

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NOTE: Product reviews are independently written by our members and do not necessarily express the opinions or views of CastleCops.