Reviews of System Explorer

1. 
   ejs

   Reviewing 2.0 Beta 1 (Oct 16, 2009)

   Nice program. I like the level of detail that I can get on the processes (eg, dll list)
   
   1) I wish I could set the program to launch in minimized mode, so that only the tray icon would appear until I click on it. Even if I create a shortcut to the executable file and set the shortcut to launch in minimized mode, launching the shortcut still results in the full system explorer program window opening. (Because of this, I will probably stick with Process Explorer as my main utility for now. Also, process explorer allows the system tray icon to be a miniature graph of CPU, which is nice.)
   
   1b) a bug seems to be that if I launch the application from a shortcut (in this case my shortcut was set to run in minimized mode), if I minimize the application window to the tray icon, and then click on the tray icon to bring up the window again, a small extra window also comes up named "SystemExplorerTrayForm"
   
   2) a nice feature would be if I could set the program to monitor for a specific process (eg, svchost.exe) and warn me with a dialog box, system tray balloon, or something like that when the process crosses a CPU % threshold that I set. (I happen to have a problem that this process sometimes goes haywire and ceases all my CPU and I like to know as soon as this happens rather than just by all my applications going slow and the cooling fan revving up. I have checked out a several improved replacements for windows task manager like your program. All are better than task manager, but none seemed to offer a monitor/notification feature.
2. 
   alekdavis

   Reviewing 1.6 Beta 1 (May 21, 2009)

   Very nice tool. I use it instead of the default Task Manager. Just a couple of gripes.
   
   As another reviewer mentioned, the menu structure is a bit unorthodox. I've never seen Main as the first menu option. Why not use standard terminology (File, Edit, View, Tools, etc)?
   
   Two rows of tabs look a bit weird.
   
   The Performance tab is screwed up: when resized, controls get overlapped. Also why does it not show second processor graph (for dual-processor based systems)? I would not mind it to look exactly like the corresponding tab of the built in Windows Task Manager.
   
   A bit more of white space (maybe 2-4 additional dialog units) between controls would make them more pleasing to the eyes; now they look a bit cramped. On the first run, when I clicked the Performance tab, the app hang, so I had to kill it.
   
   With the Replace Task Manager option checked, System Explorer does not launch Windows Task Manager from, the Utilities menu. How do I invoke the Windows Task Manager then?
   
   It would be nice if System Explorer could display system info: processor, graphics card, RAM, BIOS version, devices, etc.
   
   Also, it would be nice to be able to add a column with command line parameters to the Processes tab.
   
   I would not use the same app icon as the Windows Task Manager.
3. 
   mistercz

   Reviewing 1.6 Beta 1 (Mar 3, 2009)

   To:emanresU deriseD
   Thank you very much for your findings about UI...We will try to fix/improve it in next version.
   
   About Security Extension:
   We are using our own database of threats. Our database is young but now has over 314,000 items. Database will be bigger and give better results, but needs some time and enough System Explorer 1.6 users.
   
   Is Security Extension in SystemExplorer needed ?
   Exists many of antiviruses and antispyware SW, but I must say...our Security Extension is needed because our service detects more than 10 running threats every hour..
   
   Thank you for all your comments/suggestions.
   Best Regards,
   System Explorer Developer
4. 
   purell

   Reviewing 1.6 Beta 1 (Mar 1, 2009)

   Solid program, lots of useful information. Can be a bit buggy. All in all, a nice tool
5. 
   emanresU deriseD

   Reviewing 1.6 Beta 1 (Mar 1, 2009)

   It's maturing nicely, but the GUI needs work. The Esc key doesn't close subwindows (e.g. "File Details" or "Process Details"), the list filter is nice but... how do you clear it? The main window doesn't remember its maximized state between runs; and for kicks, try editing the System Explorer shortcut properties to start "Maximized". Then run it from the shortcut--watch what happens. (On my system, I get an all-black window with a title bar that covers everything, including the task bar.) The "Priority" column just lists basic priority class names such as "Normal" and "Below Normal", but those labels don't tell the whole story--a process actually has a priority class, and it's a number. Two processes could appear in SE at the same priority (e.g. "Below Normal"), yet actually be at different priority levels. Some column widths are forgotten between runs.
   
   For some reason, SE breaks with the convention of having a "&File" menu. So if you are inured to hitting Alt+f to open the "main" menu, you activate the list filter instead (and unless you know the secret of clearing that filter, you have to restart SE to clear it).
   
   The "Security" column is a nice touch, I guess, but its implementation sucks. I've got about 30 processes running right now, and only a handful of them are marked "Safe". The processes for well-known software titles such as miranda32.exe, uedit32.exe, and firefox.exe (can you believe that?) are marked "Unknown".
   
   SE offers to hide Microsoft and/or Windows processes, but it seems to have no way to verify digital signatures. I don't feel like using a hex editor to check, but I'm guessing all SE does is read the company/product information in the EXE files.
   
   And on. And on. And on.
   
   Because of all the GUI annoyances that I can't live with, I'm staying with Process Explorer for now, but I may keep SE because I like the "History" tab.

Discuss System Explorer

1. Aug 15, 2009 - 3:14 PM
   jayarkay

   I love this tool, and have been using this for a long time. A couple of things:
   
   When I select a process from the process list, the list scrolls to bring my selection to the center (or as close to the center as it can). There may be users who find that feature nice - so, maybe you guys can add an option to turn scrolling on/off?
   
   Also, is there an option to hide or turn off the left pane? Or maybe switch between having a pane or showing them as tabs (as in the older version). I don't want part of my window being taken up by a pane that I don't need after I have made my selection. In the pane itself, there are expand/collapse buttons, but it doesn't allow me to collapse a section.
   
   Under some of the sections like Modules, Services, Drivers etc, clicking on View --> Select Columns... throws an error saying "Active control does not support this function!", whereas I can still right click on the list and select/unselect columns that I want. The first two were more of "feature requests" while this third one is probably a bug in the code somewhere.
   
   Thanks!
2. Mar 4, 2009 - 12:40 PM
   goldend

   Love this tool - wish there were an option to make the graphics go the 'opposite direction'...with older data scrolling off to the left.