Good Free Task Killer

[jmacpga]

I have used both Taskpanel and Advanced Task Killer. Both re-boots the phone after closing all background apps.

Anyone have another good one I can try?

 

[Needsdecaf]

I have used both Taskpanel and Advanced Task Killer. Both re-boots the phone after closing all background apps.

Anyone have another good one I can try?

Advanced Task MANAGER.

 

[jmacpga]

Thanks! I did an End All and it did not reboot!

 

[Garick]

Advanced Task MANAGER.

same here, doesn't run in the background and closes everything that you want it to with one touch

 

[nonie3234]

I agree - I have Advanced Task Manager and it works just fine.

 

[L0stS0ul]

I used advanced task manager for a while and it's pretty good but lately I'm really liking task panel.

 

[aaronjohnston]

ES File explorer. file manager and task manager all in one. Just hit options when you are in the file explore and run the task mangager. You can also set the task manager to boot with the system. Great app and runs flawlessly on the Eris.

 

[enthueris]

I just downloaded TasKiller from Market and it works well. It is FREE too.

nJoy

 

[Mike Anthony]

Well I think it may be refreshing the UI when you kill the tasks because you're killing the HTC Sense and other background processes that need to keep running. Ignore the apps/processes that do not need to be killed!!! This used to happen to me until I figured out which apps to ignore and which apps to kill. Task Panel works great. You just have to be careful.

 

[terigox]

So I've seen a lot of people talk about these... I've stopped using a task killer; I havent noticed a lot of change in my phone?

I wonder if it just depends on the app, does anyone know what the phone *actually* does when you leave an app, is it up for the app to "sleep" or stop doing something?

For example, a game, I know the game doesnt keep running when I leave it, some pause, some quit.

So I'm assuming it's up to the application what it does when you leave it? Anyone have some more details or info on this and how the apps interact with the OS?

 

[Mike Anthony]

PLEASE READ: Do NOT worry about Apps running in the Background - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

 

[terigox]

Nice, thanks Mike... that does give a bit more information on how the OS manages the apps. Good to know!

 

[Mike Anthony]

Nice, thanks Mike... that does give a bit more information on how the OS manages the apps. Good to know!

Yeah it helped me understand more...Assuming that they actually know what they're talking about. But it seems to go along with a lot of other things ive read.....it makes sense you know...

 

[tats_06]

I would like to know exactly what needs to run in background and what doesn't.

 

[L0stS0ul]

If you run the phone without any apps from the app market then you do not need to use a task killing application.

If however you download apps from the market then I would highly recommend you get a task killing application. The problem is not the OS it's the developers of the software. I have downloaded quite a few apps that are not designed well and will continue to keep features turned on like the GPS when they should be going to sleep. I have also seen quite a few apps that have pretty bad memory leaks in them that continue to leak when the phone should be asleep. Google has provided a lot of best practices that developers should follow when developing their apps and widgets but I can tell you they are not always followed.

The phone does degrade over time. The health of the memory drops and the phone begins to lag more. I reboot my phone every few days to get it back to health. The GPS will stop locking on and other issues.

I love the phone but there are issues. The task killer apps can help with performance. The phone is smart about it but it's not the best. I'm hoping that the performance update on the 11th will help with the memory degradation over time.

 

[L0stS0ul]

Some of the apps that should not be killed:

- Touch Input should not be killed, it's a core app
- Voice Dialer should not be killed
- PC Sync should not be killed
- HTC Sense should not be killed if you are using it as you HOME.
- Mail should not be killed if you want to receive mail
- Messages should not be killed even if you are using handcent.
- Clock should not be killed
- Calendar should not be killed if you are using the calendar apps and widgets
- GMAIL should not be killed if you are using it to sync with gmail. If you don't use it to sync gmail then you can kill it (I have all my accounts in the MAIL app since I have multiple GMAIL accounts so I kill this one)
- Market app can be killed but you won't get notifications of app updates. If you want the app update notifications then don't kill it otherwise it can die.

If you have downloaded programs that provide services like handcent then you will have to make your own determination on if you can kill it. If you are using handcent as your message app replacement then obviously you don't kill it.

There are a lot of apps that start up with the OS like the music app and stuff that are not needed to be running and can be killed. I can go thru the whole list that is up when the system starts but the ones I've listed above are the ones I put on my task killer ignore list.

 

[tats_06]

I downloaded task panel and really like it. I added things like HTC sense, weather etc to ignore list...and all things that I think I don't need to auto kill every 30 minutes. It also has a widget that shows on screen memory and next time auto kill will run. Real handy. Here is my issue with doing reboots: I keep hearing different opinions. Some people say not to worry about memory as os handles it well....but I have seen mine drop to like 20s. And then I have also read people suggesting to reboot every few days. I am still figuring it out...but I so want to avoid being as ocd as storm made me....constant memory checks...battery pull cure for all and so on.

 

[L0stS0ul]

I don't think there is any reason to be OCD about it. I reboot when the GPS stops locking onto my position. I use a lot of the GPS apps for tracking daily running and stuff like that so on a daily basis I know if it's working or not. I've watched the GPS take 15 minutes and still not lock on. Using the GPS Status app I can see that it's getting satelites but unable to lock. A reboot of the OS and within seconds it's locked on. That tells me that something is causing the GPS features to degrade over time within the software.

In the end you'll figure out what works for you. I kill apps when switching screens takes some time or text input gets a little laggy. I don't constantly go in and kill apps. I don't run the task panel widget because I know I would get OCD about it if I did use it So I only open it up and kill running apps when I feel like the phone has slowed down. After killing the apps and freeing up memory the system is always snappy again.

 

[tats_06]

Thanks! As I said I am still new at all of this android goodness...and having had a storm previously was not a good thing

I don't think there is any reason to be OCD about it. I reboot when the GPS stops locking onto my position. I use a lot of the GPS apps for tracking daily running and stuff like that so on a daily basis I know if it's working or not. I've watched the GPS take 15 minutes and still not lock on. Using the GPS Status app I can see that it's getting satelites but unable to lock. A reboot of the OS and within seconds it's locked on. That tells me that something is causing the GPS features to degrade over time within the software.

In the end you'll figure out what works for you. I kill apps when switching screens takes some time or text input gets a little laggy. I don't constantly go in and kill apps. I don't run the task panel widget because I know I would get OCD about it if I did use it So I only open it up and kill running apps when I feel like the lagging is causing slowdown.

 

[Mike Anthony]

i absolutely agree with Lostsoul and the list. Mine was setup just like that. Although I recently quit using the auto-kill feature of Task Panel. I am doing it as an experiment to see if my phone is ok without, but I do agree!

 

[tats_06]

With task panel, for those that used it longer: there is an option to kill, I am assuming that means killing all but what's on the ignore list..well it also has a "kill ALL background apps" so does this mean it bypasses the ignore list? Sorry a little confused here

Thanks

 

[Mike Anthony]

With task panel, for those that used it longer: there is an option to kill, I am assuming that means killing all but what's on the ignore list..well it also has a "kill ALL background apps" so does this mean it bypasses the ignore list? Sorry a little confused here

Thanks

Good question....I actually avoided this button because i just didnt know!

 

[fantasytozi]

I tried many task manager and nothing seem to be perfect.
First taskpanel really great, but after a time of using both task panel and taskiller, maybe they bypass the ignore list that u guys said and kill HTC sense too, the problem is HTC sense doesnt restart and I have to reboot the phone, so annoying

 

[L0stS0ul]

I don't use the kill all options in the programs. I put the ones on ignore so they just don't show up in the list. I like to choose which ones I'm closing. Never had one kill HTC Sense on me by accident though. If you're HTC Sense is not auto restarting then there is something wrong. The currently set HOME is one of the few apps that android will keep alive.

 

[fantasytozi]

I don't use the kill all options in the programs. I put the ones on ignore so they just don't show up in the list. I like to choose which ones I'm closing. Never had one kill HTC Sense on me by accident though. If you're HTC Sense is not auto restarting then there is something wrong. The currently set HOME is one of the few apps that android will keep alive.

The problem is I did put HTC sense into ignore list, some other app is calendar, clock, touch input, important ones. And after a time of using both task killer or task panel, everytime i try kill all background task on task panel or click on X symbol on task killer, HTC sense stop working and not restart. But after reboot the phone, uninstall and reinstall task panel again, it works well like the 1st time. That I dont understand why
But maybe u right. There's something wrong with my system or the ROM Im using, Modaco2.9