WindowCloser / Aug 12 2020

[Ashraf]

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[AussiePete]

You can try a fully functional version of WindowCloser for a period of 15 days absolutely free.

So does this mean we get a “lifetime” for 15 day??? LOL!

[Peter Blaise]

2 hits at VirusTotal, they don’t seem to be critical or malicious hits, but other programmers seem to be able to get through VirusTotal, and this program is not signed with a security certificate, either.

SecureAge = APEX Malicious
Rising = Malware.Heuristic!ET#83% (RDMK:cmRtazpBv

This is effectively Windows Closer v4.2.2.157 2020-08-06 regardless of having no security certificate.

Click [ Create new job ] in each category to review what the program can do – nothing appears otherwise.

I consider the [ Music Organizer ] too rudimentary, offering to reorganize only by genre or by year, not by y choice of MP3 tags, and who knows if it will keep FLAC, M4A, and other music together?

I have no idea what could be the meaning of [ Schedule Applications ] nor the meaning of the screen display, but there appears to be a [ Clear All ], so I can undo any trial and exploration – I think it offers to close a running program, but the program must be running in order to enter it into a schedule to close it, so if I want to close my browser at 4 am, I’d have to open my browser to have it show up as something to control from the program, I suppose – it doesn’t offer to browse for possible programs to close, programs that might not be running at the moment.

The [ Welcome ] tab is a mini-web-browser that opens their teaser downloads for their other products, but it does offer a terse explanation of what each feature tab in this program is all about.

This program is a nice idea – to walk away from a computer and have it self-organize while we are away.

However,
– I find it not very clear,
– I find it ambiguous in that I’d have to actually try some features to see what actually happens because I am not confident that the programmers and I have the same understanding of what is going to happen,
– and it is not miscible in that, for example, I’d prefer to organize my music differently, but there are no options.

So I will continue to self-organize my computer filing storage system, and I will use a variety of other tools that are specialists and powerful at their tasks, and I will write batch files for some automatable tasks, such as backing up my various files to network resources, such as copying my Music directory to a Music backup drive, copying my DCIM Digital Camera IMage directory to a DCIM backup drive, and so on.

I am apprehensive to have a computer do anything on a schedule because I myself have no schedule, and invariably some automatic schedule starts up at the very moment I have chosen to sit down and use my computer … then it reboots on me, or locks up because too much is going on, and I get frustrated.

I prefer to start tasks when I get up to walk away, hoping the computer will do a lot of amazing things while I am making breakfast, taking a shower, sleeping.

But if I wake up at 3 in the morning and want to sit at my computer, I don’t want it to suddenly interrupt me because it is obeying some prior schedule instead of giving top priority to the person at the keyboard.

Thanks, but this is not sophisticated and intelligent enough for me yet.
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[John]

Great review, Peter! It was not only informative and critical, but entertaining as well.

My favorite line was:

“I am apprehensive to have a computer do anything on a schedule because I myself have no schedule.”

As a 72 year old retiree (72 on Sunday actually), I couldn’t agree more – I rather enjoy setting up these various tasks and adjusting them as needed.

I did give the program a try and for me anyway, it is something I would rarely use. I appreciate the chance to have a look at programs like these.

[Peter Blaise]

Thanks, and you’re welcome, [@John].

I myself am semi-retired ( CoViD-19 is a great incentive to wind down ), and my parents have been retired longer than they worked, so I see there are going to be a significant spectrum of different computer users, including a ( hopefully ) growing body of computer users who work at their computers as if in an office, but we are not running or working in business, instead doing our own activities, whatever those may be.

As I wrote, I like the idea of the WIndows CLoser software – to have the computer self-organize while we are away.

What throws me is that this is version 4 already, and if this lack of flexibility is all they’ve produced, it will be many years to version 14 before it becomes a tool that might interest me.

Conversely, every program should incorporate an automation features, watching waht we do, and offering “… would you like me to do this for you in the future? …”, because that’s supposedly what computers are for, for watching us do something once, and then the computer does it automatically from the second time on.

Whenever I sit at the computer and do the same thing over and over, I winder where we went wrong, and I wonder why programmers are still avoiding automating things automatically.

“… I see you just ___ task, would you like me to remember that and do it automatically, or keep a record so we can repeat it together on demand? …”

Yes, HAL, I would like that very much.

;-)

– – – – – – – – – –

Note HAL has been used to mean Human Access Language, and HAL are the letters in the alphabet before the letters IBM, who refused to permit the IBM logo to be used in the movie 2001 where a computer killed people.

But I am not afraid.

If I were to ask HAL, “… please recognize speech …”, I don’t worry that HAL actually has the power to “… wreck a nice beach …”.

So, we’re all safe.

For now.
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