One of my favorite, free PPC utilities

Posted on June 1, 2007 by Bruce Keener

I own all the major Program Launchers and Task Managers for Pocket PCs, including such notables as Spb Pocket Plus and iLauncher, just to name two. And, having participated in beta testing products for the developers of these products, I can assure you they are highly committed to quality and great service. I like all of their products.

But, these programs have a lot of features, and the general rule for features is: the more features a program has, the more memory it takes up.

When it comes to program memory on a Pocket PC, I like programs that are lean, and that is one reason I like Magic Button. It is not a program launcher, but it does close programs completely when you hit the close button and it does let you easily switch between open programs. As shown in the following screen shot (taken on my Dell x51v), you can use it to close all programs, turn off your PPC, or even reset it. You can also close individual programs with it, of course. And, it will let you view running programs and to see how much (little) memory you have left.

Magic Button PPC Task Switcher

On another day, we’ll cover how I get along nicely without using a program launcher.

What’s your favorite PDA utility?

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  • Thomas R. Hall

    I’ve been using vBar [1] instead of Magic Button. I’m not sure why I didn’t like Magic Button, but a lot of you big PPC gurus seem to use it. Maybe I need to test it again and see if it was something weird that caused me to have issues with it.

    [1]: vBar – http://www.vieka.com/vbar.htm

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

    Thanks for the reminder about vBar, Thomas. Been a while since I used it but I recall that it was very good. Not sure why I stopped using it … probably just got to experimenting with other options and forgot about it.

  • Thomas R. Hall

    I would be curious to hear what your opinions are in comparing the two, actually. Let me know if you ever get around to doing that.

    Actually, I would love to see some posts from you on what you currently have on your devices. I find those kind of posts interesting. Here is a good example: http://www.mydigitallife.us/2007/05/my_windows_mobi_1.html

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

    Great idea for me to some comparisons, Thomas. I have to be a bit careful with that during the Smartphone and Pocket PC magazine judging period (now through August), but I can do that for these two and will likely do it within the next week. I kinda have some other posts in mind for right now, but I like the idea of comparisons and appreciate the link very much.