Task Manager

Introduction
Getting Started
FAQ

• 1*1 widget to monitor memory usage, fast kill task or launch application when click widget
• kill task to free memory
• search and sort task by name
• auto-kill task when screen turns off
• context menu to switch, uninstall, ignore or autokill application
• ignore preferred application when kill
• bulk select and rich notification

• Task Manager Widget
• Tasks Overview
• Kill Task
• Search Task
• Ignore Task
• Auto-Kill Task
• Context Menu
• Preference Page

Task Manager Widgetback to top

Task Manager contains a sweet widget to monitor memory usage, fast kill task or launch application when click widget. Please have a look at blue box in following picture:

The widget contains the value of current available memory size. If you want this widget to display on your phone desktop, just follow the standard steps to add a new android widget:

• Long press an empty area on your phone desktop where you want to add this widget to.
• After about 2 seconds, a dialog will pop up for you to add new item.
• In this dialog, please choose android widget -> task manager to add this widget to your desktop.

By default, this widget refresh every 10 seconds, but if you concern the battery usage, you can choose refresh interval in perference page as you wish from following values:

• 5 seconds.
• 10 seconds.
• 20 seconds.
• 30 seconds.
• 60 seconds.
• 5 minutes.
• Never (Only update widget when you trigger it to kill applications)

When you click this widget on desktop, you can choose from two actions to trigger:

• Kill all tasks excluded the tasks in ignore list.
• Launch Task Manager application directly.

The default action when click widget is to kill all tasks to easily free memory by one click. When you click widget to kill tasks, it will popup a tip to notify you how many task and memory are freed. If you want to change to another action, you can modify it in Task Manager preference page.

Tasks Overviewback to top

As following picture, in main screen of task manager, you will get the full list of current running tasks. And within the title bar, you will get current available memory status, as "Avail Mem". This memory status will refresh automatically when task list changes.

By default, system tasks are hidden because kill system task may lead your android phone to work abnormally. Kill system task may cause hang temporarily as they try to restart. For junior users, we do not recommend you to enable this feature. If you are familiar with responsibility of system tasks, you can enable it in preference page:

After enable system tasks function, system tasks will show up in task list in cyan color:

Kill Taskback to top

You can kill task freely which included in task list. There are two ways to kill them.

• For single kill, you can click one task item, then in the context menu, you can choose "kill" item to end a task.
• For multiple kill, you can choose multiple task items each time. Just single click checkbox behind each task to select/unselect it. Or you can click the upper checkbox to select/unselect all. After selected tasks, you can press "Kill Select" button in main screen to kill selected tasks.

Search Taskback to top

You can type in search text to filter tasks in task list. When you type in a string into search text field, only tasks whose name contains this string will appear in the list. When the search text field is not empty, there will be a "X" mark in text for you to easily clear the search text.

Ignore Taskback to top

Sometimes you want to hide application from task list to ignore killing them:

• if the application is your preferred application.
• if killing the application will cause usage or system error.
• if the application need running in backgroud all the time.

Then you can add the application to ignore list. The tasks included in ignore list will not be displayed in task list.
You can remove task from ignore list in ignore list dialog. You can click "Ignore List" button in option menu to invoke this dialog.

Note:

• When you click task manager widget to kill all tasks, ignore list also works.
• By default, task manager will add itself to ignore list to avoid kill itself. You can remove it from ignore list if you want.
• By default, alarm clock will add to ignore list in order not to miss important appointments. This feature is added for many customers' request. You can remove it from ignore list if you want.

Auto-Kill Taskback to top

Task Manager support kill tasks when your screen turns off. Task Manager contains an auto-kill list, every task inluded in this list, will be killed automatically when screen turns off. This feature will automatically free your memory and speed up your phone without any manual actions, keep your system always clean. You can enable or disable this feature in preference page.

Also you can config if you want to have a notification message after each auto-kill like following picture:

If you click the auto-kill notification message, it will popup a dialog to show the auto-kill tasks summary, including how many memory is freed, how many tasks are killed, and what are they:

Context Menuback to top

Items when click task item:

• Kill: kill current task.
• Switch To: switch to current task if it is running, or start a new one. this item may disappear on some system task when the task has no user interface.
• Ignore: add this task to ignore list. please refer to ignore instruction for further info.
• Enable/Disable Auto-Kill: enable or disable auto-kill function for this item. please refer to auto-kill instruction for further info.
• Uninstall: uninstall this application from your android phone. this item may disappear for system task because they are not allowed to uninstall.
• Force Stop/Details: for tasks that always restart, press this menu item, goto application info screen, click "Force stop" button to forbid it restarting again.

Preference Pageback to top

In preference page, you can specify following items that have not been mentioned:

• You can specify default behavior when you click or long click task item within task list. You can choose one from 4 behaviors: Kill Task, Popup Menu, Select/Unselect and Switch To. By default, click task item will invoke "Kill Task" behavior and long click task item will invoke "Popup Menu" behavior. You can modify to your desired behavior.

• If you want a notification icon on notification bar.

• If you want to show notification icon and start auto-kill feature if enabled after reboot. If you do not enable this feature, the notification icon and auto-kill feature will be enabled when you launch task manager.

• Have a look at current application version, easy way to rate this application and find more application developed by us.

Question: Why I can not kill task manager itself?
Answer: By default, Task Manager add itself into ignore list to avoid user killing it by mistake. Kill Task Manager itself will cause widget stop refreshing.

Question: Why some task can not be killed?
Answer: You did kill the task but some task may restart after killed when necessary. For these apps, please upgrade to version 1.6.6 or above, it contains a force stop menu item for you to go to "Application Info" screen, then press "force stop" button to forbid them restarting anymore.

Question: Why my widget can not refresh?
Answer: Task manager application might be killed by other applications. You can single click on this widget to activate the refresh function again. Widget may stop working after some upgrade, you can delete the widget and add it again to resolve the problem. If you set widget interval to "Never", the widget only update when you trigger it to kill applications.

Question: I am so concern about the battery which used for widget refresh.
Answer: You can specify the refresh interval in perference page from 5 seconds to 5 minutes. Even you can disable refresh when you choose interval to "Never", then the widget only update when you trigger it to kill applications.

Question: How can I know which tasks are auto-killed by task manager?
Answer: You can enable auto-kill notification in perference page. Then after each auto-kill, there will be a light bulb in the notification bar. You can click the notification message, then it will popup a summary dialog for you to review the autokill result.

Question: It seems that Task Manager not kill some tasks on Froyo(android 2.2)?
Answer: Froyo has changed its policy for killing applications. Task Manager only kill all background processes on Froyo. This is the same as the android kernel killing processes to reclaim memory. Android will take care of restarting these processes in the future as needed in order not to break other applications by removing their alarms or stopping their services.
So currently you can also rely on Task Manager to reclaim memory on Froyo without break your critical processes.

Question: I can not find my problem in this FAQ list?
Answer: Please email me your problem together with your phone type and android version: support@rhmsoft.com