Download the new Switched app for your iPhone

Skip to Content

Autoblog's live coverage of the 2010 Detroit Auto Show
AOL Tech

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64

Get alerts when apps become resource-hungry with Usage Monitor


It's usually pretty obvious when one of your Windows applications goes rogue and starts consuming more resources than it should. Your system becomes sluggish and unresponsive,

Usage Monitor is a small, free program that allows you to watch processes for excessive use of memory and GDI/user objects. Set a target on a process - say, 300Mb memory on Firefox - and Usage Monitor can alert you a number of different ways. You can choose system tray popups, message boxes, flash the UM taskbar icon, or even launch a task when an alert takes place.

Pair it with a simple batch file like this one that lets you send Twitter updates from the command prompt, and you've got a handy way to receive remote alerts when something goes awry.

If you'd prefer an app that goes a bit beyond monitoring and alerts, Process Lasso might be just the thing for you.
jobs & resumes
Mac Support Technician

Kerdan - Cambridge, MA (2 weeks ago)

See More Relevant Jobs ›

Featured Time Waster

Level Up! A platform-hopping RPG Time-Waster

I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before. Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...

View more Time Wasters


Follow us on Twitter!

More Tech Coverage

Joystiq

TUAW

DailyFinance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse