CNET Editors' review
It's deceptively simple, but this application quickly and cleanly closes all programs, and just as easily restores them. SmartClose's five-icon interface smartly uses tooltips to quickly and adequately explain program operation. Intermediate to advanced users will install and operate the program with no further instruction.
SmartClose's primary function leads the user through a wizard to close all programs except for critical Windows functions. Listed options are well explained as the program advances. Before closing anything, the application takes a quick system snapshot; storing it to reset your computer to that same state at a later date. During testing, SmartClose handled various programs very well. It was rare that it couldn't stop a process. On those occasions, the application invoked SmartKill to finish off a process quickly. Restoring programs is as simple and quick as stopping them. A similar wizard opens a system snapshot. Users merely check which apps to restore. A helpful option removes running processes from the list.
SmartClose is a freeware application every user should keep in his or her system toolbox. It's one program you'll turn to often.
Publisher's Description
From BM-productions:
SmartClose will automatically close all running programs, disable the screen saver, and halt all other processes that can interrupt without asking. Before SmartClose closes or disables anything, it will first save the current state of the system (running programs and screen saver) to a system snapshot, which can be opened and restored again by SmartClose.
What's new in this version: Version 1.3 fixes: in some cases, SmartClose didn't save the closed/killed programs to the system snapshot; after running the Close Programs wizard more than once in the same SmartClose instance, the closed/killed programs and stopped services didn't get saved to the system snapshot correctly anymore.
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All versions:
3.2 starsout of 15 votes
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Current version:
4.2 starsout of 5 votes
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My rating:
Write review
Results 1-5 of 5
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"great time saver - thanks to the dev for this one!"
Version: SmartClose 1.3
Pros
easy install and good config setup
Cons
none really
Summary
A+ - I use this to close unneeded services on my DAW
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"i think its the greatest"
Version: SmartClose 1.3
Pros
it's tops anyone have better
Cons
we need more like this one ihave been using it for 8 years now i believe
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"works just fine"
Version: SmartClose 1.3
Pros
stop all programs from running
Cons
none works great
Summary
does just what it is supposed to do, quickly and easily.
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"I couldn't live without it!"
Version: SmartClose 1.3
Pros
It's the perfect tool for shutting down all unneeded services, processes and programs while I'm burning movies to disk and when I'm doing full Docs and Settings backups. My projects are much more reliable without all that background noise going on.
Cons
None. (the form says I must enter at least 10 characters, hence this parenthetical)
Summary
The free program does everything I need.
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"not much 'smarter' than version 1.2"
Version: SmartClose 1.3
Pros
if you close down all open programs on your task bar, it will kill the other processes you can't see
Cons
the more you leave open -- the whole point of using this software -- the harder time it has until it fails totally
Summary
this program must be allergic to the programs i typically use because when they are open, smart close just hangs up my pc entirely....
Results 1-5 of 5
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