How do you quickly close an app?

[scottcraft]

Windows Phone only keeps the last 5 apps open, and they eventually age out. There's no reason to be concerned with it being open.

Keeping the last five apps open is what I understand it to do also. When you open another app it kills the oldest opened app.

 

[theman60099]

I don't close out of any apps EVER! and they eventually get bumped out of the task switcher, even if u aren't running anything else the apps eventually leave the task manager so that IMDB app that u use "once every 4 months "will not still be there months, days or even hours from now.

 

[dtboos]

IMDb may be in your 'card view' but its not 'running'. Don't worry about them being in there unless you want prying eyes to be unable to see your horrible taste in movies.

 

[JudgeHolden]

IMDb may be in your 'card view' but its not 'running'. Don't worry about them being in there unless you want prying eyes to be unable to see your horrible taste in movies.

Even if it isn't "running" it's taking up memory.

I don't get why you guys are so quick to apologize for this. Just say "yeah, it's weird, but maybe they'll fix it."

It's a bad idea. Like I said, Apple really dumbed things down by taking control out of users hands. It's a very successful idea, but it's sad to see Microsoft going that way. Honestly, not being able to end a process is just so unnatural.

 

[ninjaap]

Even if it isn't "running" it's taking up memory.

I don't get why you guys are so quick to apologize for this. Just say "yeah, it's weird, but maybe they'll fix it."

It's a bad idea. Like I said, Apple really dumbed things down by taking control out of users hands. It's a very successful idea, but it's sad to see Microsoft going that way. Honestly, not being able to end a process is just so unnatural.

I think it's all in your head. Before Mango added the card view, no one complained about not being able to close the app. You press home and it's there in it's suspended state. Nothing has changed since then, except for the fact that now you have the ability to view the suspended apps, which are only limited to 6 most recent.

 

[dtboos]

Even if it isn't "running" it's taking up memory.

I don't get why you guys are so quick to apologize for this. Just say "yeah, it's weird, but maybe they'll fix it."

It's a bad idea. Like I said, Apple really dumbed things down by taking control out of users hands. It's a very successful idea, but it's sad to see Microsoft going that way. Honestly, not being able to end a process is just so unnatural.

Its only unnatural because of habit. Luckily you can unlearn things. It is not using any memory, and as ninjaap explained, its been doing this same process since launch, you can just see them now.

 

[Coffee]

Even if it isn't "running" it's taking up memory.

I don't get why you guys are so quick to apologize for this. Just say "yeah, it's weird, but maybe they'll fix it."

It's a bad idea. Like I said, Apple really dumbed things down by taking control out of users hands. It's a very successful idea, but it's sad to see Microsoft going that way. Honestly, not being able to end a process is just so unnatural.

Nothing to apologize for, this is the way Windows Phone was designed. Nothing to fix. The tombstoned apps sit there until you open an app that asks for more system resources than you have, so the old app is closed at that point.

You've been so used to closing apps in Windows for so long that you think you still need to. You don't. Nothing you want to open will be stopped by not having enough resources. It's not a desktop PC, your system doesn't bog down more and more with the more applications you open.

If your proposed 'game in 12 months' demands more memory, it will get it by closing any tombstoned apps.

I had a hard time with this at first, myself. I STILL wouldn't mind a close button because I've been programmed over the years to close as much as I can. But it's simply not necessary.

 

[ninjaap]

Plus it may actually take more memory and battery to open a closed app as opposed to openning from a suspended state. Especially, now that Mango has fast switching. So you may be doing more harm than good. You just gotta learn to use it the way it was intended to be used.

From my unscientifc test, it takes IMDB 8-10 secs to open from a closed state as opposed to 5 secs from a suspended state. So the act of closing and reopenning alone takes up more memory and juice than keeping it suspended.

 

[thed]

Even if it isn't "running" it's taking up memory.

I don't get why you guys are so quick to apologize for this. Just say "yeah, it's weird, but maybe they'll fix it."

It's a bad idea. Like I said, Apple really dumbed things down by taking control out of users hands. It's a very successful idea, but it's sad to see Microsoft going that way. Honestly, not being able to end a process is just so unnatural.

If the OS decides it needs more memory then it will go ahead and kill the last app to free up memory, so no real need to worry about that.

I don't think people are apologizing for it. It just doesn't seem like something that's weird or needs fixing. Things will always seem a little strange to you when you're switching OSs. Give it a chance and stop worrying about it for a bit. You might find it's more convenient. I certainly think it is.

 

[briijwik]

That's right, the operating system is smart and manages resources for you, so there's no need for you to micromanage which apps are "open". Apps that are not in the foreground are put into a low-memory suspended state and do not take up CPU cycles, battery, network bandwidth, or other critical resources. When the system needs memory it terminates the least recently used app. For more details, you can read about the process here: Execution Model Overview for Windows Phone

 

[Dileu]

I think there is a third way here, and this comes from my experience on iPad, iPhone, that Google thing and webOS.

As others have asserted, this is about not micromanaging apps. There should be no reason to do this, it is true, and the general public don't want to, or even see why they should have to, do this.

But, sometimes, there is. My 1st gen iPad only has 256mg ram, and so what can happen is that if I have lots of apps that are suspended in the multitasker, there isn't enough ram to be able to store graphics heavy large pages in the history of the web browser. So if I navigate to another page then hit back, it reloads the page. Annoying.

It happens about two or three times a month, which given I use this thing about 2-3 hours a day I can live with. And when it happens, I open the multitasker, hold down on the icons of any apps I reckon take up a load of space, a little x appears, and one tap and it's gone. Problem solved.

Now, in webOS, things were different. Because the multitasker was effectively the way you navigated the device, I would tend to close every app. It seemed odd to me to have them all cluttering up the screen, so they would be closed and opened every time, even though it meant multiple actions. Micromanaging gone mad.

Likewise on that Google thing, desperate to maintain a charge for a whole day, I would be killing processes and switching radios off and on all over the place.

There needs to be a way, either for technical reasons us nerds want, or for pragmatic general public reasons like the excellent toy store example mentioned above, for the cards to be closed. Then, this WP7 lark beats every other multitasker out there.

As it is now, just like all the other mobile OSes, it's good, but kinda lacking. But obviously better than that horrid Google thing

 

[scottcraft]

I watched a Windows Phone Insider podcast last week where a guy from Microsoft talked about suspending apps, background agents and such. Very interesting. I can't remember everything off the top of my head but I gathered I didn't need to worry about apps running in the background. I don't see what the big deal is. I never killed apps when I was on android and it worked (relatively) fine.

 

[Pronk]

Even if it isn't "running" it's taking up memory.

I don't get why you guys are so quick to apologize for this. Just say "yeah, it's weird, but maybe they'll fix it."

It's a bad idea. Like I said, Apple really dumbed things down by taking control out of users hands. It's a very successful idea, but it's sad to see Microsoft going that way. Honestly, not being able to end a process is just so unnatural.

What are you on about? On iOS, you can kill any suspended app you choose to by long pressing on it in the app switcher then hitting (-). And in WP7, all apps not in use are in suspended animation - and if you want to stop them using ANY resources, go into settings> applications> background tasks and turn off any options for the app(s) in question.

 

[theman60099]

What are you on about? On iOS, you can kill any suspended app you choose to by long pressing on it in the app switcher then hitting (-). And in WP7, all apps not in use are in suspended animation - and if you want to stop them using ANY resources, go into settings> applications> background tasks and turn off any options for the app(s) in question.

something we can agree on, I think he's just trying to troll and flame the forum.

 

[jhousden9]

It would be good if I could go to the mutitasking menu (by holding back button) and it would come up with the list as normal, with one slight difference.... I little cross in the top right corner of each window that is open so I close the windows I don't want open.

 

[jfa1]

Sounds very Windows Mobilesque i.e for some the good old days.