Task Manager For WP8?

[jsooney]

Is there an app that allows you to view running processes and kill them?

 

[a5cent]

Only user processes... The 'x' in the Task Switcher

 

[Jack Janik]

Not like in Windows where you view the processes and can end them. More like the "applications" section of task manager. (ie the mostly useless one).. Got a tab open in IE? Well you have to close that tab.. The same goes for the rest of the system apps.

 

[kwajr]

Hold the left arrow then hit the X on each running app although there is zero reason to close apps they all just sleep when not displayed

Posted via the WPC App for Android!

 

[jsooney]

I'm talking about processes, not apps. I was wondering if there was a way to see which exes that are running and be able to kill them if desired. Something along the lines of Sysinternals Process Explorer, an MS product now.

It would also be nice to be able to see network connections and the exes that are using them, as well as any listening ports. Maybe something like Sysinternals TCPView.

Is it hard to port that stuff over from the desktop environment to the mobile environment? I was thinking that the manufacturers and carriers would prefer we didn't have access to that kind of info though.

 

[Kaushik Dash]

What ever background apps are running they are in settings>swipe left>background tasks. Whatever other apps or games are running are available in multitasking view (long press back button).

You honestly don't need a task manager otherwise, wp handles it all fluently.

 

[despertador]

I'm talking about processes, not apps. I was wondering if there was a way to see which exes that are running and be able to kill them if desired. Something along the lines of Sysinternals Process Explorer, an MS product now.

It would also be nice to be able to see network connections and the exes that are using them, as well as any listening ports. Maybe something like Sysinternals TCPView.

Is it hard to port that stuff over from the desktop environment to the mobile environment? I was thinking that the manufacturers and carriers would prefer we didn't have access to that kind of info though.

The WP8 API for 3rd party developers is very limited; it'd be pretty much impossible for any developer except the ones that develop the OS to implement.

 

[jsooney]

The WP8 API for 3rd party developers is very limited; it'd be pretty much impossible for any developer except the ones that develop the OS to implement.

That was the answer I expected. I thought Apple were the uber control freaks, but stuff like that works on their phones. You can see running daemons and netstat type information. At least you could on the iOS version I had which was quite old, it may have changed by now.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[xandros9]

That was the answer I expected. I thought Apple were the uber control freaks, but stuff like that works on their phones. You can see running daemons and netstat type information. At least you could on the iOS version I had which was quite old, it may have changed by now.

Thanks for your reply.

that was on jailbroken devices. if WP was rooted, then we'd have much more control.

 

[hopmedic]

This thread will give you a better idea of why you don't need what you're asking for:
http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...naging-background-apps-why-you-dont-need.html

 

[jsooney]

that was on jailbroken devices. if WP was rooted, then we'd have much more control.

My phone was never jailbroken and I used apps available in the Apple App store, iFullStat and Netstat. Worked fine.

 

[jsooney]

This thread will give you a better idea of why you don't need what you're asking for:
http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...naging-background-apps-why-you-dont-need.html

Thanks for the link, but it's not relevant to my question.

 

[a5cent]

Thanks for the link, but it's not relevant to my question.

Care to elaborate why you'd want that feature? In regard to background processes, WP8.1 is looking to be quite different from WP8.0, so I'd like such a feature just to further my understanding of the OS. From a normal user's point of view, I'm not sure what the point would be. If you're going to start killing OS owned background processes you'll just be postponing a full reboot by no more than a couple minutes anyway.

 

[Greywolf1967]

Android "Needs" Task killers, manager apps. Windows Phone has not needed this since Windows Mobile 6.5.

There is no need to tinker around with any background process. From WP7 onward apps move to the background and get frozen until you pull it forward.

I have only ever once had to reset my phone, that was my WP7 HTC Radar. My Nokia Lumia 1020 has only been turned off maybe 3 times, (over 6 months), since I owned it. 2 of the times it powered down were updates.

By pressing the back button it will step back through each open app and close with another press. If you hold the back button it will show all open apps and you scroll and x out of things.

By mucking about in OS level items all you would do is make the phone unstable.

 

[jsooney]

Care to elaborate why you'd want that feature? In regard to background processes, WP8.1 is looking to be quite different from WP8.0, so I'd like such a feature just to further my understanding of the OS. From a normal user's point of view, I'm not sure what the point would be. If you're going to start killing OS owned background processes you'll just be postponing a full reboot by no more than a couple minutes anyway.

I like to know what my devices are doing and who they are talking to. I keep an eye on running processes on my laptops/PCs, and have done the same with phones that allow it. It's a good way to know what they are up to, what might be wrong, and why they might be running slow or chewing up battery life. It also gives good insight into any possible malware you might have, particularly if you are aware of what is usually running and what isn't. Even if I can't kill processes I'd like to be able to see them. I don't mind killing processes anyway; if the phone crashes it's not that big a deal.

I don't know much about WPx from a security standpoint, but I would assume there are multiple vulnerabilities. There is no firewall for phones that I know of so that makes you even more vulnerable, particularly as you are connected to the net pretty much 24/7. Connecting to public WIFI brings a whole other level of exposure. Having browsed through the store it appears that there are all kinds of shabby looking apps, and who knows who wrote them and what they might be up to. I don't know if there is any kind of vetting process for apps in the store, but even if there is that's no guarantee of anything. The best protection right now might be that WP has such small marketshare that it probably isn't worth a hacker's time. They will be more likely to go after iOS and Android at this point, but that may change.

Bottom line, I'm not comfortable just blindly using these things and hoping for the best.

 

[Guytronic]

I like to know what my devices are doing and who they are talking to. I keep an eye on running processes on my laptops/PCs, and have done the same with phones that allow it. It's a good way to know what they are up to, what might be wrong, and why they might be running slow or chewing up battery life. It also gives good insight into any possible malware you might have, particularly if you are aware of what is usually running and what isn't. Even if I can't kill processes I'd like to be able to see them. I don't mind killing processes anyway; if the phone crashes it's not that big a deal.

I don't know much about WPx from a security standpoint, but I would assume there are multiple vulnerabilities. There is no firewall for phones that I know of so that makes you even more vulnerable, particularly as you are connected to the net pretty much 24/7. Connecting to public WIFI brings a whole other level of exposure. Having browsed through the store it appears that there are all kinds of shabby looking apps, and who knows who wrote them and what they might be up to. I don't know if there is any kind of vetting process for apps in the store, but even if there is that's no guarantee of anything. The best protection right now might be that WP has such small marketshare that it probably isn't worth a hacker's time. They will be more likely to go after iOS and Android at this point, but that may change.

Bottom line, I'm not comfortable just blindly using these things and hoping for the best.

I can see your point.
It is the users responsibility these days to stay secure on-line.
Yet if you have access to the root of a system so does malware.

I think the key here is simplicity for the general user and security for the OS in general.
Maybe many "want" root features, personally I think the "want" may knock the OS down a notch.

 

[hopmedic]

Thanks for the link, but it's not relevant to my question.

It actually explains why what you want isn't possible, therefore it is relevant.

I like to know what my devices are doing and who they are talking to. I keep an eye on running processes on my laptops/PCs, and have done the same with phones that allow it. It's a good way to know what they are up to, what might be wrong, and why they might be running slow or chewing up battery life. It also gives good insight into any possible malware you might have, particularly if you are aware of what is usually running and what isn't. Even if I can't kill processes I'd like to be able to see them. I don't mind killing processes anyway; if the phone crashes it's not that big a deal.

I don't know much about WPx from a security standpoint, but I would assume there are multiple vulnerabilities. There is no firewall for phones that I know of so that makes you even more vulnerable, particularly as you are connected to the net pretty much 24/7. Connecting to public WIFI brings a whole other level of exposure. Having browsed through the store it appears that there are all kinds of shabby looking apps, and who knows who wrote them and what they might be up to. I don't know if there is any kind of vetting process for apps in the store, but even if there is that's no guarantee of anything. The best protection right now might be that WP has such small marketshare that it probably isn't worth a hacker's time. They will be more likely to go after iOS and Android at this point, but that may change.

Bottom line, I'm not comfortable just blindly using these things and hoping for the best.

If you read my linked post, then you'd understand that the processes that are running are:
1. Whatever is in the foreground
2. Whatever location aware app you've got running in the background
3. Whatever background audio-playing app you've got running in the background
4. The OS processes.
5. Once every 30 +/- 10 minutes, whatever scheduled agents you have running, which can be viewed in Settings | Background
This is the most that can be running at any given time.

You say you would assume that there are multiple vulnerabilities. Well, if you limit yourself to vulnerabilities that have been discovered, then the number would be zero.

Shabby apps? Welcome to the 21st century. It doesn't matter what platform you're on, you'll have that. But at least on Windows Phone the apps are tested before they're published. Can't say that for Google. Microsoft has made security one of their highest priorities.

 

[jsooney]

I did read your linked post, albeit quickly. It seemed to be more about how the OS manages resources than anything else. Still, even if all that is true I would still like to know what's going on under the hood. You don't know what background apps might be doing in the time they are running, not to mention MS themselves. I would really like a way to see netstat information as you have no way of knowing what various apps might be connecting to, or what's connecting to you. I suppose you can connect to WiFi and sniff the traffic, but a lot of it is encrypted. You could still see connections I guess, assuming they didn't use cellular.

I do assume there are multiple vulnerabilities, known to us or not. I can't imagine this is the first vulnerability-free OS ever. If it is then hats off to MS.

Shabby apps aren't specific to this century, or to this OS. There's lots of shabby programmers after all, always has been. It's good to know MS tests apps, I wondered about that.

Thanks for your posts, interesting reading.

 

[a5cent]

I do assume there are multiple vulnerabilities, known to us or not. I can't imagine this is the first vulnerability-free OS ever. If it is then hats off to MS.

As long as humans are imperfect, so will be OS'. ;-) What is different about WP is the nature of possible imperfections, as many potentially dangerous or unwanted scenarios are ruled out by design.

I suppose you can connect to WiFi and sniff the traffic, but a lot of it is encrypted. You could still see connections I guess, assuming they didn't use cellular.

I've actually done that. WP turned out to be the most boring OS I've ever looked at in this regard. If you've got location services turned on, WP collects and contributes to MS' Wi-Fi positioning database (one of the OS processes). Other than that the MPNS service is the only other service that exchanges data packets behind your back. All that is left are the periodic background agents and the foreground app, all of which are directly represented in the UI. My point is that there really isn't that much to see.

WP was explicitly designed as a zero maintenance OS. The idea is that the OS disallows all the scenarios that would require a knowledgeable user or administrator to "fix" or even monitor the computing device. WP is essentially an appliance. It is not a general purpose OS/computing device like a Windows PC or an Android smartphone. One result of this design philosophy is that there simply aren't any app controlled background processes. None. At most you've got a single OS hosted process that runs a few background agents (think of them as API restricted OS plug-ins, not as full blown apps running in the background) roughly every 30 minutes.

The realization that I don't need to administer WP is exactly what attracted me to it. On a desktop OS I want the flexibility and I am able and willing to do the administrative work in exchange. I really don't want to do that on my smartphone. Compared to Android I found this to be a breath of fresh air.

I completely understand where you are coming from, but whether you look into the technical details of WP yourself, or just trust the developers on this site, you'll eventually come to the conclusion that these habits of ours make little sense for this smartphone OS.

Like I said, I still wouldn't mind such an app for learning purposes (to see what OS processes are up to and when), but it's not required as an administrative tool, at least not for security reasons or for trouble-shooting.

 

[jsooney]

Sorry, I've been on the road and didn't had much goof off time available.

I don't know, I still find myself feeling sceptical about it. Maybe it's just a case of old habits die hard because I've always kept an eye on the nuts and bolts of my PCs etc, and it has served me well. I guess what you're saying is just let go and don't worry about it, but that's easier said than done.

Do you really think WP is just an appliance? To me an appliance is something that only has one function, like a toaster or something. But smartphones can do a lot of things, like navigate, communicate in a multitude of ways, track fitness, play videos etc. I don't need to tell you I'm sure, you seem like a sharp dude. I still regard them as computers; they have CPUs, memory, storage, I/O and all that.

It's not just malware that I wonder about, it's MS and AT&T too. They have both proven to have large noses over the years. My old iPhone used to communicate to something all night when I was asleep, never did find out what it was.

Maybe I'm overly cautious, I have a piece of electrical tape over my front-facing camera after all. Still, I have friends who write software that can control phones remotely without the user's knowledge; camera, microphone etc, so that's a factor too.

Thanks for your explanation though, it's good to have some insight into how these things work.