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Process Lasso

By Bitsum Free to try Editors' Rating

Editors' Review

shelbybrown Apr 10, 2013

At Download.com, we've long recommended the excellent Mark Russinovich-created and Microsoft-supplied Process Explorer freeware, which provides scads of info on all of your Windows PC processes and options for managing them. Well, Process Lasso is like the peanut butter for Process Explorer's chocolate. It lets users set default priorities and CPU affinities for specific processes, establish rules for how processes behave, and also create alerts and automatic events for when processes misbehave or use too much memory. The interface is outdated and not beginner friendly, but Process Lasso offers very useful features in a powerful little package.

In some ways, Process Lasso is great for newbies -- install it, run it, forget about it, and Process Lasso will moderate the process activity on your computer in order to maintain optimal performance (based on the default configuration settings that make up Process Lasso's ProBalance algorithm). Everyone's computer is different, and to make the most of Process Lasso, I recommend (gasp!) reading the included documentation in order to avoid user-unfriendly messages like "If you don't know what this message means, STOP NOW."

Process Lasso exists as two basic applications -- the core engine (ProcessGovernor.exe), which can be run all by itself; and the graphical interface (ProcessLasso.exe), which allows users to configure Process Lasso, manage processes, and monitor activity. You can use the GUI to configure your rules and settings and then close the interface to let the engine run in the background. (You also have the option to kill the engine when you quit the GUI.)

The main window of the interface includes a list of all PC processes, plus a processor use/responsiveness graph, and meters for CPU and RAM usage. All actions taken by the users or automatically by the ProBalance algorithm are recorded in a running list at the bottom of the screen. When spikes in processor or RAM use occur, Process Lasso highlights the events on the graph in green. One very nice touch is the ability to automatically terminate any process. You might not be able to delete it, but you can stop it from ever running!

The documentation is a bit outdated in parts (a few mentions of "New in v4"), yet comprehensive, and almost required to use Process Lasso effectively. The amount of available settings are overwhelming, which is nice for the power user, but a bit intimidating to normal folks. Once you take the time to learn how the program works, however, I think you'll find it to be an excellent little weapon to add to your Windows freeware arsenal.

Full Specifications

What's new in version 9.3.0.74

  • GUI: Fix an issue with wildcard matching for persistent I/O priority classes
  • GUI: Fix formatting in status bar when system RAM GB is more than 2 digits (>99GB)
  • GUI: Update Chinese, Russian, Slovenian
  • Core: Default ‘also check rules for path matches’ to true
  • Licensing: Allow Performance Mode process list to be edited in free edition
  • Licensing: Allow use of ProBalance advanced option ‘Restrain by CPU Affinity’ in free edition
  • All: Other additions, fixes and enhancements

General

Release October 16, 2019
Date Added October 16, 2019
Version 9.3.0.74

Operating Systems

Operating Systems Windows 10, Windows 2003, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows XP
Additional Requirements None

Popularity

Total Downloads 133,012
Downloads Last Week 36
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Developer's Description

Windows, by design, allows programs to monopolize your CPU -- leading to hangs, micro-lags, freezing (even crashing) and delays in your keystroke and/or mouse actions.
Process Lasso is not yet another task manager.. Instead, it is an advanced process priority optimization and system automation utility. It offers process priority optimization, CPU core affinity optimization, power plan automation, automated rules, and so much more; you name it (within this area), and Process Lasso does it.

It's most popular feature is the unique process optimization technology called ProBalance (Process Balance) that will improve your PC's responsiveness and stability by making intelligent dynamic adjustments to the priority class and/or CPU affinity of problematic background processes. ProBalance will intelligently adjust process priorities and CPU affinities to positively impact the responsiveness of any Windows PC and/or Server (all Windows Server variants).

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