Task Manager/Killer Discussion

[dmlee]

There is such a program, it's called Virtual Task Switcher. I love it.

 

[Dallin Hampton]

FYI - Touchwiz comes with a built-in taskiller that you can get to by holding down the home button.

Actually, thats more of just a shortcut to the Running Applications tab of the settings menu enabling you to shut off apps manually.

 

[sndper]

As someone who is currently employed in a VERY busy sprint repair center, I can tell you that advanced task killer is a bad idea. I have seen this program kill off touchscreens and even charging ports (no doubt it was at least partly due to user error as well). Removing this app has resolved many many issues. Android 2.1 does a fairly good job at killing processes when they are not being used, and with the built in process manager, you should not need anything else. 2.2 (Froyo) does an even better job and absolutely does not need any help.

 

[ragnarokx]

As someone who is currently employed in a VERY busy sprint repair center, I can tell you that advanced task killer is a bad idea. I have seen this program kill off touchscreens and even charging ports (no doubt it was at least partly due to user error as well). Removing this app has resolved many many issues. Android 2.1 does a fairly good job at killing processes when they are not being used, and with the built in process manager, you should not need anything else. 2.2 (Froyo) does an even better job and absolutely does not need any help.

Can stopping a software process really physically damage hardware?

 

[liquidxit2]

Sadly the sprint store I went to for my epic was telling every epic owner to download task killer. Heck even their "advocate" was saying this when the built in samsung widget works perfect and wont kill anything that is harmful to the system.

Can stopping a software process really physically damage hardware?

Only if the stopping of the process leaves the hardware in such a state where it is harmful or wearing. Mostly its just software issues that cause hardware to stop working (due to software error) and assumed the hardware is bad when really its the software that is the problem.

 

[SBT]

How come "different services" show as running through the task killer in the xscope browser then show up in my samsung task killer from my home screen?

 

[sparkyr]

i actually posted this in the palm pre thread but since it is being discussed here i thought it might be useful.

Check out the app ITCHING THUMB! it allows you to switch between apps (card style like visual task switcher or webos) but if you slide the card up it closes the app (just like webos)! it also has graffiti that you can assign to any app so you can simply write the graffiti on the screen and it will launch that app (even if it is closed).

it took me a little bit figuring out how to set it up (make sure you choose it as your launcher when it prompts you and how to assign graffiti is funky) but it looks like it is really promising especially since it was just released.

 

[israel70]

I definitely recommend using "Advanced Task Killer", it is better than the built in Task Manager that the Epic has. It will show you things running that you had no idea were. Another plus is that you can set it to "auto-kill" apps at a set frequency (every hr, 2hrs, 4hrs) and this really helps when the phone starts running something or if you just forget to kill apps. it also has a setting to select what level of auto-kill you can set. It works great on my phone, it saves a lot of battery for me.

 

[jngai]

A warning to everyone. Do not use Visual Task Switcher!

I just spent 1/2 an hour trying to get my phone screen to show up because of it.

Here's what I did.

1. Played around w/ various launchers (d/l Launcher Pro and ADW).

2. Downloaded Visual Task Switcher (seems cools, reminded me of Pre).

3. Didn't like that it took over the home button, went to settings to change it to home long press instead. Worse idea I ever made w/ Android OS thus far, and I rooted w/o any problems!

The phone screen went black after I tried to switch the home button to home long press. The keyboard is still lit so I know the power is still going. But unlike previous crashes, where the screen eventually come back. This time, it never came back. Tried removing battery and putting it back in. No dice. Tried Hard Reset (hold Vol down and press power), didn't work either.

I finally found a factory reset function (not sure the diff w/ hard reset), which finally restore the screen and gave me a few options (reset, wipe cache, wipe data). Wipe cache did nothing, so I had to wipe all my data too.

Stupid of me not to use Titanium Backup after I rooted. I cared more for the wifi tether, but the backup would have come in real handy.

Oh well, just to let everyone know what I experienced. YMMV, but I will stay away from the launchers and task killers right now. I only wanted to mess with the launchers because I wanted to resize the task manager widget from 2x2 to 1x1 but there's no way to do that since if you don't use TW, you don't have that widget anyway.

P.S. For Factory reset, hold vol down, camera button, and power button until the Samsung logo comes up.

 

[dragonol2]

P.S. For Factory reset, hold vol down, camera button, and power button until the Samsung logo comes up.

Thanks! I'll remember to avoid those keys (all together at once) unless absolutely neccessary...

 

[funeralplanner]

Would anyone know what category memory programs would fall into like memory booster?

 

[md17]

I have a Dx and I put ATK froyo beta on it. I would make phone calls and not have any sound coming from the speaker. I uninstalled ATK powered down the phone and then restarted it and have not had the issue since. Anyone else with this?

 

[danny2744]

reading this has made me uninstall my task killer on my epic. i will report back with the results after a few days

 

[ericsu09]

As someone who is currently employed in a VERY busy sprint repair center, I can tell you that advanced task killer is a bad idea. I have seen this program kill off touchscreens and even charging ports (no doubt it was at least partly due to user error as well). Removing this app has resolved many many issues. Android 2.1 does a fairly good job at killing processes when they are not being used, and with the built in process manager, you should not need anything else. 2.2 (Froyo) does an even better job and absolutely does not need any help.

I don't understand why using Advanced Task Killer would damage the hardware. I can understand how it might corrupt the software but it should have no effect on the hardware unless it stress's it to a certain point (which samsung should have implemented an auto-shutoff feature for safety).

sndper, I am not judging your legitimacy, but trying to understand why it would be a problem. Is it because the user's set "auto-kill" or something of that sort?

In theory, it should be the same as the task manager that came with the Epic and I don't think Samsung would be that stupid to include something that would potentially damage the hardware....

 

[funeralplanner]

Atk will allow you to kill off much more than the installed task manager.

 

[rando991]

A sprint techie advised me that ATK can eventually fry your Epic and his advice was to remove it which I did.

 

[King Detrick]

I may have to check out that Task Killer Froyo version for my EVO as well.

 

[sprocket2107]

when I am done using my browser i just keep pressing the back button till i get to the home page. my question is whether I should do that to exit the browser or hit the home button then go into the Epic's task manager to end the application.

 

[Matty-Mo]

i love the built in task killer the epic gives you, but never will use one from the app store. i figure that they do more damage then anything else.

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

Of any "task killer" or "task manager" I use is the built in one within Android. Not to be confused with the one that comes with TouchWiz. They're really very different.