Confused about Task Killer

[CXXV]

When I open Task Killer it shows me a long list of apps. Does it mean they are running or had run at some point.

Seem unlikely that all those apps would be running at once. And if so why don't they close then?

 

[KlaymenDK]

There are several answers to your questions.

-- All the apps that task killer apps are showing are currently running (if the task killer app is worth its salt).
-- On the other hand, the "recent apps" list you get with a long-press of the home-key lists just that: recent apps, whether or not they are actually running.

-- There's really no problem with having lots of apps running at the same time. Rejoice, it just means you have the memory to do so!
-- Android works in such a way that foreground apps should never be forcefully closed by the system, but background apps may be closed if the system needs to free memory for foreground purposes. It's similar to those who complain that browsers in Windows eat up hundreds of megs of ram -- why not, if nothing else needs it, and you still have ram to spare, there's really no harm in it.

You probably won't benefit very much from killing apps, as they're likely to restart instantly or at least eventually.

Examine the type of apps you see listed, and consider if it's reasonable. If you have a lot of live widgets (weather, social, device stats, etc) then they all will have a process to keep themselves up to date.

 

[Eaglesfan9106]

there not running necessarily they are waiting you to use them there just sitting there doing nothing being good little apps lol but when your done with a app u should use the back button to correctly exit out of them unless they have a option to exit them

 

[shrink57]

I agree with the previous posts 100% One of the first apps I installed on my Droid was a task killer (hey, it's on the market so I guess I must need it). Ran into all kinds of problems with programs not running properly in the background, alarms not going off when scheduled, and the list goes on. I then decided to see what would happen without my trusty task killer, and guess what? My system has been running with no problems ever since (and I do push it to the limits). I has been almost 2 months now and the android operating system (currently rooted and overclocked) is doing fine on it's own.

But then again, ask 5 people and you will get at least 6 different answers...

 

[takeshi]

You'll get different answers because some are using task killers properly (sparingly and only when needed) and others are being too aggressive in using them. Typically the latter are new to Android and assuming that it works like their former devices did.

 

[MarkHirt]

I too used to run one, I stopped and life is a lot better now.
Just let the OS do it's job

 

[thetomlin2]

I too used to run one, I stopped and life is a lot better now.
Just let the OS do it's job

+1

 

[elektrobix]

I use it when my sms keyboard starts to lag. Killing background apps gets rid of the lag for me.

 

[messenger13]

I have over 150 apps, and my DROID runs flawlessly ... and laglessly thanks to Advanced Task Killer. I think the real problem comes into play when someone doesn't take the time to learn what to close, and what to put in the ignore list.

Apps in my Ignore List:
- setCPU
- Handcent Sms
- Pure Grid calendar widget
- Startup Auditor
- TempMonitor
- Google Voice

I can't think of a reason I would ever want to kill any of those apps. But most other apps can be killed. If they need to run, they'll startup again.