CareWindows Process Control Master Review

Published by: Codrut Nistor, in Reviews

September26th2007

Until Windows Vista was released, Microsoft's operating systems always had a task manager that missed some features needed by a lot of users, so a lot of alternatives were developed. Even now, such applications exceed the capabilities of the built in task manager that comes with Vista, but do they really worth the price? Of course I can't answer this question when talking about an entire category of programs, but I'll try to do this for a single one, so my pick now is called Process Control Master and comes from a producer called CareWindows Corp.

Setup

CareWindows Process Control Master is a rather strange program when talking about its current version. While the official site says the latest release is 4.1.1.1, the About screen of the program shows 1.0.0.0 as the version number. Well, let's move on and see what else can we get for $19.99... or 7 days/12 trial runs for free.

Before checking the interface and features, as usual, I must tell you that the 2.6MB setup package was downloaded really slow from the official site, but probably it was a rush hour on the network, so I can't blame anyone. As you can see in the screenshots above, the setup program already has signs that the interface of this program has some eye candy...

Interface

...and eye candy's what you get, indeed! Process Control Master looks great, its main window is well organized and very easy to use, and I can say without any doubt that this is the best looking process manager that I have used so far. Other than that... you just have to look and see, because there's not much to say about the main window - you get a menu bar, a toolbar , a side panel and five tabs.

Features

After installing the program, my problems started. I got stuck into a couple of errors once, twice, and when I got tired of trying, I installed the program on my other computer. No problems here! Since both systems use Windows XP Professional, I can't really figure out what went wrong first time, but since I managed to get the program up and running, let's see what can be done with it!

Behind Process Control Master's good looks there are some interesting features, and the ones I consider to be really useful are somehow inspired by firewalls or antiviruses. Of course I am talking about the Blacklist and Whitelist. The story is very simple - you add unwanted processes to the Blacklist, and safe ones into the Whitelist.

Inside the first tab, you can simply kill unwanted processes with a single click, while the Whitelist allows you to kill all other running processes, except the ones inside it. Even better, you can add "autokill" to a process from the blacklist, and when it opens, the program will kill it automatically.

Other than the above, there's nothing special, just a well done task manager, better than Windows XP's one and about the same with Vista's one, except the features I mentioned above. These being said, let's draw the conclusions!

The Good

This program looks very good and has most features one would expect from its task manager. The Blacklist and Whitelist are two excellent additions, and the documentation is also very good.

The Bad

Unfortunately, I think that Process Control Master needs to have more to offer so I can consider buying it.

Conclusion

As I see things now, CareWindows' product we had here today is a very good program to try, but also one that I would think twice before spending my money on it. I am not talking about my error when trying to run it for the first time, the only thing I have in mind is the features-price ratio, which needs to be improved.

Developer: CareWindows Corp
Price: $19.99
Trial Link: Download