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

Since it seems I didn't pay enough attention to a feature that's very important for the users, as it can be seen in the comment below, I'm getting back to this review for a while to make things right. Now, let's complete the chain of time-saving features that are closely related to the Favorites part...

I mentioned Favorites because Internet Explorer and other Web browsers made this feature notorious, and file managers started to use it too, after a while. XYplorer has Favorites, as well as a Hotlist, both aimed at users looking to achieve things as quick as possible, but the Catalog is another time-saving weapon of this program, so let's check it out!

To display the Catalog, you can go to the Window menu and check the option simply called Show Catalog, but the easiest way to display and hide the Catalog pane is to use the F8 keyboard shortcut. When the Catalog is displayed below the Tree for the first time, it's empty, but you can easily start adding items to it.

While most file managers are limited to managing files and folders, XYplorer's Catalog can also store Web pages, and all items you store here can be easily customized. Anyway, apart from the one-click approach to file navigation offered by the Catalog, the best part is that I just discovered a revolutionary file copy/move solution, since you can simply drag and drop items into the Catalog, about the same way as it is possible in classic file managers that use two panes!

One of the few things that I don't really like about the Catalog is that new items can't be added using drag and drop operations, but I understand that this may interfere with the operation described above, so I can't complain. After all, moving files is something that occurs more often than adding new items to the Catalog...

Regarding the support part, I didn't have the chance to test the speed of response yet, but I must confess the built-in Help system and the online documentation are absolutely amazing, so if you really want to switch to this program, all you need is the desire to study and become an XYplorer (e)Xpert.

As my last words for now, all I can say is that I hardly wait the next version to become available, so I am going to start using this trial as an alternative to the "great classics" until my 30 days trial period run out.

If you missed the previous article about XYplorer, you can read it here.

As computer parts become more and more powerful, their energy requirements grow too, and as a direct consequence of this fact, their cooling requirements also increase. Since only a few people consider investing in high-end cooling systems, having a program able to monitor the temperatures and voltages inside your computer is an interesting alternative for the rest of us, and today's choice is called SensorsView Pro, an extremely "hot" program coming from a software company called STV Software.


Setup

Released two days ago, the last version of SensorsView Pro is labeled 3.1, and works with Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. The shareware version I have here can be used for as long as 21 days without any other limitation.

The setup package of this program has 1.8MB in size and is very easy to install, as you can see in the screenshots above. In fact, I was expecting for some input from my part to be needed during the setup process, but this program installed itself without asking any questions about my mainboard or the type of sensors it uses.


Interface

What you can see in the screenshot to the left is the window that pops up when you double click the system tray icon displaying the temperature of your CPU, but the system tray can also host the icon of the application or another temperature indicator. The history window looks different, missing the skin applied to the Sensors View window I just mentioned. Anyway, since system monitoring tools are more about checking your system's status and sending alerts than looking great, let's move on and see what can be done with this program...


Features

The best part of this program is that - at least in my case - I didn't have to select anything manually, because it automatically detected the sensors from my mainboard, and did this the right way. The only problem with the detection part is that I have two network connections, a local one, and the PPPOE connection to the Internet, and I wasn't able to find any way to set the one I want to monitor. While I was transferring over 2MB/s on the LAN and about 500KB/s from the Internet, SensorsView Pro was showing a load of 1% on my network interface, and a transfer rate of 20KB/s...

Another small issue is that no matter what I do with my hard drive, the program keeps showing a 0% HDD usage value, which is pretty strange, but at least the voltage indicators work great, as well as the CPU and memory usage meters.

You can set alerts for every temperature threshold or fan speed, and the options available range from a simple notification or playing a sound to sending an email, running a certain file/command or, the final solution, turning off your computer automatically.

The appeareance of the program can be customized, and there's also possible to save alarm logs and even logs for further investigations, if something goes wrong and you're not near your computer when it happens.

Since this is about everything I can tell you about this useful system utility, the time has come to draw the conclusions, as usual.


The Good

SensorsView Pro is a program that looks good, has support for a wide range of motherboards and additional temperature sensors from hard drives and video cards and working with it should be very easy even for beginners.

The Bad

The hard drive usage and network load indicators don't seem to work as they should, and the price of the program is a bit spicy, considering its features and that suites like Sandra or EVEREST are only a bit more expensive, and come with hardware monitoring features and a wide range of additional capabilities.

Conclusion

SensorsView Pro was a pleasant surprise for me, unlike its price. Anyway, since the trial period lasts 21 days and there's no functional limitation, you should definitely give this piece of code a try, and maybe you'll consider that paying $24.95 for your hardware's safety is not too much, after all.

Developer: STV Software
Price: $24.95
Trial Link: Download