forum.vdsworld.com

kOt · Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:57 pm Post subject: tasklist and killtask Question

Anyone had problems listing programs with tasklist?

i can't seem to get it to see WoW.exe the World of Warcraft game exe

if I killtask explorer.exe explorer.exe restarts anyways to get it to STAY DEAD?

Thanks

jwfv · Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:29 pm Post subject:

I think explorer.exe is always running. It is not just Internet Explorer. It is the guts of Windows. Others with more knowledge about this - am I right?

I know whenever it has to close for an error, my screen goes blank, then explorer restarts.

uvedese · Contributor Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 169 Location: Spain

If you close explorer.exe (XP) continues working the system but the bar of tasks will be lost. From taskmgr.exe you can execute a new task, in this case explorer.exe and the task bar will return to appear.

SnarlingSheep · Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:27 pm Post subject:

Explorer.exe is your shell, it's the interface to everything you do, only way to be rid of it is to change to an alternative shell, which you can find plenty of in a search.
As for WoW, it might keep itself hidden from tasklists, to stop some kind of cheating.

kOt · Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:28 pm Post subject:

Im not wanting to switch shells. im just wanting to write my program to close explorer.exe while World of Warcraft is running and restart it after it closes

explorer uses quite a bit a memory and closing it give better performance while i am gaming..

I usually do this manually by CTRL+ALT+DEL and end task "explorer.exe"
then restart it after i am done.

*^ that method keeps explorer.exe closed until i restart it myself.

but killtask ends it and it restarts in about 2 secs automatically

I have a way of testing if wow is running by using the @winexists()

only thing holding me back is killtask..

vdsalchemist · Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:10 pm Post subject:

kOt,

kOt · Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 5:50 pm Post subject:

Thanks guys.. thats works wonders

Last question.. Is there a way to start up explorer.exe without startup programs?

vdsalchemist · Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:06 pm Post subject:

kOt,
Hmmmm I don't know if that is possible. When Explorer.exe goes away so does the desktop, taskbar, and system tray but the programs are still running. The only reason Explorer.exe appears to restart everything is to get the system tray programs icons running. Really I don't know how you could alter the way Explorer.exe operates without hacking away at it's binary and we don't do that here at VDSWorld.com. There may be a registry entry but I am not sure about that?

My only other suggestion is to completely replace Explorer.exe and use a different shell that is less intensive. I know there are many Window Shells out there I used to use one called LiteStep which was a XWindows Look alike.
Also Garrett and I started on our own Windows Shell about 5 or 6 years ago but found that trying to do it with VDS was a bit too much work and we abandoned the idea. Actually it was the system tray that gave us heart ache I just could not get my head around when it was supposed to be called and I did not at the time have the knowledge of callback functions, managing memory, and structures in C as I do now. I guess if there were a demand for it I could write one but with the advent of Windows XP not many people have complained about the Windows Shell much. Actually this is the first post in over 4 years that I have seen anyone complain about Explorer.exe being a resource hog.

kOt · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:08 pm Post subject:

.. i am in no way complaining about resources that xp uses Very Happy

just "Every little bit counts"

I have used Litestep quite a bit..
I used to use BBLean alot but since VDS written programs will not work
while bblean is running. "In the past, i dont know about now" i stopped using
it.

But switching shells for minimizing resources tends to make me "GO CRAZY"
and i end up going all out and since i have My fiance and two kids that also
use my pc (i dont know why... we have 3 here) thats not a good idea Very Happy

Anyways the example you gave me has suited just fine. Thanks

vdsalchemist · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:35 pm Post subject: Refresh Systray apps

kOt,
Your very welcome. It was a simple thing really. Good luck with your game.

This actually reminded me that someone else wanted a way to refresh the icons in the system tray. The code in the above post actually does just that. The only issue is that you are actually restarting the whole shell an not just refreshing the systray. You could also send a WM_PAINT to the taskbar and system tray windows this could cause those windows to repaint for you. The reason the icons show up like that is because the program did not shutdown properly and did not inform the system tray that was done. So when you hover over the icon and try to click on it the system tray goes to get the resouce that is attached and it cannot since the application is no longer in memory so instead of complaining with an error the system try just clears the icon.
There is another way I just thought of but I will get back with you guys later on that since it is very involved.