This gallery is also available as a TechRepublic article.
There are times when a process or program does not respond.\r\nThe application window will remain on your desktop or residing in memory, but\r\nit just won’t go away. When that happens, what do you do? In Windows, most will\r\nopt for Ctrl-Alt-Delete and then open the Task Manager. In most cases that\r\nworks just fine – but there are stubborn cases when Task Manager simply won’t\r\nkill a process. And what do you do about Android or Linux? Nearly every\r\nplatform benefits from a solid process killer.
\r\n\r\nFortunately there are plenty such applications available,\r\nready to serve and kill those tasks you don’t want hanging around. I have found\r\nfive go-to tools for this job. Read on and find out if any of them meet your\r\nneeds.
\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nAll-in-One\r\nToolbox (Android) is one of my favorite Android tools of this nature. It’s\r\nnot only fully capable of getting rid of processes residing in memory, it also\r\ndoes a great job of clearing caches. With a simple one-touch kill process, you\r\ncan kill apps in accordance to their CPU, Memory, or Battery usage. This make\r\nfor a powerful management tool to keep your Android device working at optimum\r\nperformance. Extra features include: Call/SMS cleaner, SDCard Cleaner, Apk\r\nCleaner, and App Leftover cleaner. The All-in-One Toolbox Dashboard gives you\r\nplenty of at-a-glance information on your Android device and how much RAM, ROM,\r\nand SD memory is in use.
\r\n\r\nCredit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
Credit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
\r\n\r\nProcess\r\nExplorer (Windows) is another fine tool created by Windows Sysinternals.\r\nThere are plenty of reasons why Process Explorer improves on the Windows\r\ndefault – such as portable usage, full listing of processes, charts of usage\r\n(with significantly more information than the default applications), ability to\r\nchange affinity and priority. One of my favorite features of Process Explorer\r\nis the ability to track down which file is being locked by a program. Process\r\nExplorer can also help you find out why a certain DLL or DOC file mysteriously\r\ncannot be deleted. Of all the available task manager like tools for the Windows\r\nplatform, Process Explorer is, by far, the best in breed.
\r\n\r\nCredit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
Credit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
\r\n\r\nProcess\r\nHacker (Windows) takes Process Explorer and tosses a handful of even more\r\nadvanced features in to create a power-user’s dream machine of a task manager.\r\nWith this tool you can customize the tree view to show you what is currently\r\nrunning. You can also view very detailed statistics with graphs, close network\r\nconnections, and view/edit/control services not listed in the standard process\r\nlisting. The advanced features include:\r\nViewing GDI handles and heaps, injecting and unloading DLLs, and detaching from\r\ndebuggers. If you’re an administrator who needs as much power at their\r\nfingertips as possible, and you want it in GUI form, you can’t go wrong with\r\nProcess hacker.
\r\n\r\nCredit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
Credit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
\r\n\r\nGnome System Monitor\r\n(Linux) is the default GNOME tool that serves as a GUI front-end for a number\r\nof tasks. Not only does this tool forcefully or gracefully kill applications\r\nand services, it also allows you to easily change the priority of an\r\napplication, check memory maps for a program or service, monitor resources\r\n(CPU, memory and swap, and network), and even get instant information on the\r\navailable storage on any mounted device and a tree view on process\r\ndependencies. Unlike having to use the command line tools (such as kill and\r\nkillall), the Gnome System Monitor is a point and click solution to ending\r\nprocesses on a Linux system.
\r\n\r\nCredit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
Credit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
\r\n\r\n
Extended\r\nTask Manager (Windows) takes the built-in Task Manager and adds a few,\r\nmuch-needed, features. You’ll find a new Disk I/O chart which allows you to\r\nmonitor which applications currently utilize most of your disk as well as more\r\ninformation about disk activity and network port usage. For those that find\r\nlocked files a nuisance, Extended Task Manager allows you to locate a Windows\r\nprocess that has a specific file locked. With this information you can then\r\nclose that process to remove the lock file (which has the added effect of\r\nallowing you to more easily stop processes/applications held hostage by lock\r\nfiles). The Extended Task Manager Summary tab gives you a quick view of the\r\noverall state of your Windows system.
\r\n\r\nYou might find that, when running Extended Task Manager on\r\nWindows 7 you get ETML -9 errors. If that happens, run the application in\r\nCompatibility mode for Windows XP and all will be fine.
\r\n\r\nCredit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
\r\n\r\n
There is no reason why you need to be put into a\r\nstranglehold by your system processes and applications. With the help of one of\r\nthese applications, you can take control of your system and make sure it is not\r\nonly running reliably, but running with optimal performance. Grab one of these\r\ntools and see if they don’t give you the power to contain runaway and stubborn\r\nprocesses.
\r\n\r\nCredit: Image by Jack\r\nWallen for TechRepublic
Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic, The New Stack, and Linux New Media. He's covered a variety of topics for over twenty years and is an avid promoter of open source. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.com.
