Database Users

Should i use a task killer? Atk?

SHOULD I USE A TASK KILLER?
The tips&tricks thread (nice by the way) answered;
"Absolutely not. You have the best OS and one of the best spec'd phones ever. You would be doing more harm than good. If you do have one, uninstall, reboot and let me know what you think!"
I don't get it. You'll be doing more harm than good? Right now I'm using Advanced Task Killer along with Auto Task Killer and it has definitely made a difference in my battery life.
Why would you NOT want to have these apps?
I'm confused LOL

I don't use one at all. I don't see the need for one on this phone...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

iceman1251 said:
I don't use one at all. I don't see the need for one on this phone...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
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It surprised me when I did see all the programs running ... would it not be of a benefit to close those for the sake of the battery? I found this to be very true and it was a noticeable with my battery.
I'm just trying to figure out why that other guy would say to uninstall it. Reasons...

I was using one for reasons of speed, but I stopped using it and I honestly did not notice a difference in performance or battery life. So for me, I will no longer be using a task killer. I simply don't see the need.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

In the time of low spec'd Android phones it was need. But with phones with fast processors and lots of ram its not really needed any more. Some people have said it even slows down the phone.

Task killers are a waste of time for any phone that has 256 RAM and up.

I'll let others chime in, but the reason I put that in the sticky is because I listen to those who know more than me... and EVERYONE who is in the know with android (developers and google) suggest task killers do more harm than good. I did not intend to come off harshly in the sticky, but I don't want those new to android thinking this is something they need to do.... when in fact, it could cause a lot of problems and they would not even be aware it was the cause.
Hope that helps, a little...

OK, like the OP, i do not get this claim that Killers do more harm.
Suppose you started a game which took 50-100K of your valuable RAM. Even if you have 500K of it, not much is actually left for apps. Even if you quit playing the game or other memory hungry app, it often still hangs in memory. Eventually you will have several pages of different apps which you've used over last days
What's wrong is with kicking them from there? How can this be harmful? That's sounds like a nonsense.
Don''t you all know also that unused memory is switched off by power management to save the battery?

Hahaa... okay, you are correct. Google and the ROM chefs are all wrong. Android is not capable of killing off apps when they are no longer needed. Everyone, rush to the market and immediately start killing off every app the second you close it. Especially the system apps you never use.
Alright, enough sarcasm (didnt mean to sound rude). Like I said in the sticky and above, I am only quoting those MUCH more knowledgeable on the subject. I will admit I purchased a task killer 2 years ago... and I hate seeing it under "Downloads" in the market as "Purchased" now. If you feel the need to kill off apps, so be it. But for those new to Android (and those who are very familiar), it is mine (and others) opinions, especially on the Vibrant, to not use a task killer.
Even Google at Google I/O 2010 told app developers to no longer add "Quit" or "Close" into their apps, as they were NOT needed.
This thread helped me. I have cleaned up the Sticky with more input. Here is a good article from a few months ago that sums it up well (also now in the sticky):
http://androinica.com/2010/05/07/go...-imply-task-killermanager-apps-are-pointless/
To the OP, thanks... this did help me and I'm certain a lot of others were probably put off by my vagueness. Do you think this makes it better now? Anything else needed you think?

s15274n said:
Hahaa... okay, you are correct. Google and the ROM chefs are all wrong. Android is not capable of killing off apps when they are no longer needed. Everyone, rush to the market and immediately start killing off every app the second you close it. Especially the system apps you never use.
Alright, enough sarcasm (didnt mean to sound rude). Like I said in the sticky and above, I am only quoting those MUCH more knowledgeable on the subject. I will admit I purchased a task killer 2 years ago... and I hate seeing it under "Downloads" in the market as "Purchased" now. If you feel the need to kill off apps, so be it. But for those new to Android (and those who are very familiar), it is mine (and others) opinions, especially on the Vibrant, to not use a task killer.
Even Google at Google I/O 2010 told app developers to no longer add "Quit" or "Close" into their apps, as they were NOT needed.
This thread helped me. I have cleaned up the Sticky with more input. Here is a good article from a few months ago that sums it up well (also now in the sticky):
http://androinica.com/2010/05/07/go...-imply-task-killermanager-apps-are-pointless/
To the OP, thanks... this did help me and I'm certain a lot of others were probably put off by my vagueness. Do you think this makes it better now? Anything else needed you think?
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I really appreciate your dedication and yes it did help me built onto my knowledge base. As I always tell people, "If you don't know what you don't know then YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE, however, if you do know than YOU THEN HAVE A CHOICE."

I really think using AutoKiller is a better method to controlling what you have running in the background.

Finally someone to educate the masses ... time to get them off this task/app killer *CrAcK*
Dan0zonE

As said previously. Maybe worth using them on a G1 but not on any recent phone.
For those who do think it worth running them. How quickly do new apps open? Lets say you kill 30 apps, how long before 30 new apps are running? 20mins? If it's such a huge drain on resources why has google not fixed this issue, its been around since the first retail offering G1 with android 1.1? In fact, as previously pointed out google does not recommend even using task killers. I would say using a task killer to kill the apps is a far bigger drain (cpu, battery) that allowing android to as it was intended.
Android is not like windows. Android will shut down and make available what is needed. It does not need any help.

They cause more problems than good. Task killers slowed my phone down more.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

The problem with task killers is two fold.
First you have to really grasp what you are killing. Many apps and services are interdependant so killing the wrong app or process can result in apps dead-ending, or worse locking up and taking all the cpu task time (which will make battery use worse).
Second, everyone's phones are different. We may all run an identical build of 2.1 on our Vibrants, but I'd wager each of us is running a different set of 3rd party applications, so anecdotal statements that "task killers work" don't necessarily mean anything, other than for you specifically.
Here's the bottom line. So long as you do not have a buggy app taking ridiculous amounts of cpu time your battery life is solely dependant on what you are doing with and have installed on the phone. The Android Service UI does an excellent job of handling task management, providing those 3rd party tasks are behaving. Apps on the market do not go through an orwellian level of scrutiny like on the Apple App Store, and many (if not most) are currently in a constant state of development owing to the explosive growth of our smartphone platform.
And one additional tip thanks to the Vibrants styling. As the phone is incredibly thin, it's quite easy to feel when the cpu is a crankin! If after you've locked your phone for 10 minutes or so the upper middle back is warm? You probably have sleep issues with an app or apps.
In essence welcome to beta testing, even if you didn't realize it. And welcome to the consequences of an open platform.
Use the built in battery stats, market apps like spare parts, and you can likely discover what 3rd party apps you may have that are giving your battery grief. The level of detail you can gain from the built in stats in 2.1 are excellent and immensely useful, providing you use them.
In my experience apps and widgets that routinely poll for data and interrupt the phone's sleep process are the main culprit you can control. And the OS's built in battery usage statistics can really tell you what is going on.
Some apps may look cool and do great things, but if they're interrupting the sleep process or eating entirely too much cpu when they are active, you're probably best off trying one of the gazillion alternatives to that app available on the market.

I flash my occasional ROM, but am not a developer of any sort. this post has been great insight into my many attempts to "protect" my phone from the running apps. I did start to notice that advanced task killer was asking me to shut down system processes that I would never know what they do. Now obviously I can see the third party apps and scrolling widgets that needed to be closed when I finally let my device sit, but after uninstalling ATK I have found that my device is actually running more smoothly.
FYI - a simple battery pull at the end of the day has been my best medicine.
thanks for the discussion guys!

S4X said:
Don''t you all know also that unused memory is switched off by power management to save the battery?
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I hope that was meant as a jest.

Never used one on my G1 from the day I bought it an I was one of the early adopters, and now to the Vibrant.
I've always had awesome battery usage and I just use my phone. I've never used a task killer in my PC so I don't see how this is any different.
Task killers are IMHO a waste of space and money if they charge.

This is one if the best threads on XDA about task killers. I will make a point and link it in the sticky thread also. Really encouraged by the Vibrant forums.

From what I have heard, tasks when you first load a rom need to run to configure. If you keep closing them they will keep trying to run to do what they need to. So, it actually slows you down.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

TRY TASK MANAGER by ADAO TEAM

I know there is probably gonna be alot of heat about using Task killers or not but this is just to suggest to the people who are interested in using a task killer/manager but don't know of a good one for there EVO.
ive tried other task killers and they all created FCs and resets. task manager by adao team is the only task killer that ''I'' found that works great with no FCs or resets. task manager is awesome it lets u auto kill tasks with a set time interval after your screen is off instead of instantly. it also lets you kill system services. it really does help my EVO and i can suggest it. also it was recently updated to work with 2.2. try it out and let me know what u think. make sure to ignore things that are important to you such as mail messages etc
like i mentioned before this is JUST A SUGGESTION
try it out and give your thoughts about how you like it
please do not leave your thoughts about how u think Android O.S doesnt need a killer/manager

i didnt know they allowed ads.

i saw that someone was having issues with 2.2 and a task killer so i thought id make this thread about task manager bc i like it.

Wrong section

the only issue with task killers is that people use them.

Task Killers are only good for garbage apps without an exit button, such as the ad infected generally overrated TuneWiki

So funny to listen to people regurgitate what they have heard regarding task killers. The OP made it absolutely clear that it was only a suggestion and it has helped him out and he wanted others to try and NOT respond about why they are bad. I have run both my Droid and Evo with and without a task killer and notice a substantial difference in smoothness when they are running. I just switched over the Auto Killer and have enjoyed even better performance. To each their own.

How does one get Music and Voice Mail to stay killed?

admorris said:
So funny to listen to people regurgitate what they have heard regarding task killers. The OP made it absolutely clear that it was only a suggestion and it has helped him out and he wanted others to try and NOT respond about why they are bad. I have run both my Droid and Evo with and without a task killer and notice a substantial difference in smoothness when they are running. I just switched over the Auto Killer and have enjoyed even better performance. To each their own.
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thank u.... someone who actually can read correctly

if you want better performance then overclock your cpu, yes some poorly made apps need to be killed, but you dont need an extra app for it, android can do it natively. why even use those poorly made apps.

davebu said:
if you want better performance then overclock your cpu, yes some poorly made apps need to be killed, but you dont need an extra app for it, android can do it natively. why even use those poorly made apps.
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blah blah blah blah...I'm guessing you are one who hasn't used one, but jumped on the "I've heard it from everyone else, so it must be true" bandwagon. I am not a noob and I can tell you for a 100% fact that there is a noticeable difference when and when not using auto killer. Programs open quicker with no stutter, screens switch quicker/smoother with no stutter, scrolling through app drawer is 100% smooth with no stutter. All of this cannot be said when relying on Android to manage application memory.

admorris said:
blah blah blah blah...I'm guessing you are one who hasn't used one, but jumped on the "I've heard it from everyone else, so it must be true" bandwagon. I am not a noob and I can tell you for a 100% fact that there is a noticeable difference when and when not using auto killer. Programs open quicker with no stutter, screens switch quicker/smoother with no stutter, scrolling through app drawer is 100% smooth with no stutter. All of this cannot be said when relying on Android to manage application memory.
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Well, it depends on how you are using Auto Killer. If you are only using it to tweak memory management settings, there's no danger. You just give the system more aggressive values for its built in task manager. This is definitely the best way to tweak task management. If you are using it to kill individual apps, then that could be a problem. I used to use task killers, and then when I heard about the problems, I decided to test it and see if the claims are true. This was back on my hero, so we are talking the slightest difference is very noticeable. When I did a factory reset and didn't install a task killer, I realized that the system was running smoother and didn't get random force closes (a big problem in 1.5 and early versions of Android). This performance actually got better over time as Android became more efficient at knowing which apps to kill and which to save.
Basically, if you let Android handle things, you'll get optimal performance, as that's how Android was made to work. If you use task managers, you may notice a difference, but eventually they start causing issues in the system and the actual performance is degraded slowly. People who have switched away and tried a fresh install without task killers have noticed a difference in battery life and overall performance. Tweaking auto killer's settings to a more aggressive setting is ok, as long as you don't go overboard, as that changes values that Android uses in low memory situations.
Also, I am not a noob. I might not be a dev yet, but I've been using Android since 1.0 on the G1 and do know quite a bit about how Android works. That and I read all the Android development blogs and hang around here a lot. So I have a good mixture of experience and knowledge. Please, if you think I am wrong, tell me how so, but from my experience and from the Android team's own statements, I'm pretty close to right.

To kill or not to kill
to use a task killer you have to really know what you are doing to not affect the performance device (if you knew then you wouldn't have one but I'm just sayin...). I have used one since the day the hero came out, and I just recently stopped using a task killer and the performance of my phone has drastically increased. This is an FYI to people who read this post, not an argument to the OP.

Android does a TERRIBLE job at cpu management

Ok, so I finally bought into this whole "task killers are horrible especially on froyo" bit and have not used one for a couple months and have factory reseted my phone between then and now.
There times my phone barely functions. I am currently listening to music and it skips every few seconds because the phone is so slow. Why isn't android killing the background apps? Sure, in a FEW HOURS it will be working ok again but give me a break. Why is it so bad?

Where is the music you are listening to? Your sdcard? Pandora's servers?
I have no trouble with the speed of my EVO..

/shrug my phones speeds are great !

Just try nHAVS, that's something you are thinking about
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

i dont seem to have this problem either. even my friends that are too dumb to figure out how to root and install custom roms dont have this problem.... weird.

I use a task killer. I have no problems with it on Froyo. Sometimes my phone is running a little slower than I'd like it to, and I use the task killer and it helps. I really don't know why people have such a problem with task killers. I think it helps me more than it hurts, but if someone wants to chime and fill me in as to why they are frowned upon, maybe I'll change my mind about them.

rugedraw said:
I use a task killer. I have no problems with it on Froyo. Sometimes my phone is running a little slower than I'd like it to, and I use the task killer and it helps. I really don't know why people have such a problem with task killers. I think it helps me more than it hurts, but if someone wants to chime and fill me in as to why they are frowned upon, maybe I'll change my mind about them.
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I always used a task killer mainly cuz I think it improved battery life a bit and also never bought into the anti task killer mentality. But since Froyo no longer lets them completely kill the app I've stopped using them. To me they seem unnecessary now.
Sent from my FROYO'D EVO using xda app

I don't think its anything that the phone is running in the background. I think its the kernel you might be running. I am running Netarchy 4.1. 9.1. And it does that, I was also running KingxKlick #4 I believe when it was doing that.
Try using a different kernel.
...in 1943, I killed a drifter.

Hellooo.... I said nHAVS
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

I think the OP needs to be a bit more specific. What music app? Is everything slow? Custom ROM or stock? Did you try wiping both caches?
This problem wouldn't be considered normal for anyone. So either it is an easy fix, or you might have a defective phone.

Need more details, what ROM & Kernel are you using? What apps do you have?
I use a task killer but only manually and only kill apps I know don't need to be open, it works great. You just shouldnt use them if you are one of those people that wants to kill every single process that is in memory.

felacio said:
I don't think its anything that the phone is running in the background. I think its the kernel you might be running. I am running Netarchy 4.1. 9.1. And it does that, I was also running KingxKlick #4 I believe when it was doing that.
Try using a different kernel.
...in 1943, I killed a drifter.
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Are you using the BFS or CFS version? The BFS version did that to me as well, CFS runs perfect though.

I still wanna find the person that wrote the development guideline that says that apps shouldn't have a Quit option in the settings. It's one thing to back out of an app to do something else, then come back to where you left it. But a lot of times, I KNOW I'm finished with an app, I want to release its resources NOW and there's no Quit option. It's probably some of these that don't let go nicely that cause me to have much worse battery life one day than the next.

pbarrett said:
I still wanna find the person that wrote the development guideline that says that apps shouldn't have a Quit option in the settings. It's one thing to back out of an app to do something else, then come back to where you left it. But a lot of times, I KNOW I'm finished with an app, I want to release its resources NOW and there's no Quit option. It's probably some of these that don't let go nicely that cause me to have much worse battery life one day than the next.
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Give them a good punch for me. Add a QUIT option next time!

Please be helpful to the op guys.

OP, if you haven't done so after you stopped using a task killer, you should do a factory reset. One of the issues with task killers is it can mess up the way Android handles tasks automatically. So if you do a factory reset and don't run any task killers, Android gets pretty efficient on its own and you shouldn't have any more issues. If you are using a custom kernel/rom like others are saying, then you'll want to try switching Roms. Remember to do a full wipe any time you switch roms/kernels. Also, if you are using Titanium backup when switching, don't replace everything. I had a lot of issues when I did that because it can replace some things that won't work right when replaced on a new rom. Plus, if you are having performance problems, it can also be caused by a specific app or service, and restoring it will only bring the problem to the new Rom. I suggest using App Brain to backup your apps and Titanium for only a few specific things, like Scenes and SMS.
Try the Factory reset first without installing anything. Give it a day and see how well it performs. If that works, add things back and see if it still performs well. If that doesn't work, try a different Rom if you are using a custom one or a new kernel if using a custom kernel. If stock, then you probably have a specific app that is causing issues and you'll want to uninstall it. Android will remain pretty speedy if you don't use a task killer as it learns and becomes more efficient at handling tasks.
To all those that say task killers work great, the reason you don't understand the issue is because you haven't read how Android works and how task killers interfere. They are bad, and even Google's engineers say that. They wrote the platform, so I'd recommend that you follow their advice. You can really screw stuff up with a task killer and overall they don't actually help you at all. Most people find that they use more power and resources than they end up saving, since if they are running on automatic, they are actively using resources to stop apps. That, and the system uses more resources to restart an app after its killed, which will worsen battery life and resources more than if you just let it run. Most "running" apps are actually just sitting in memory, doing nothing. When Android is running properly, it manages the memory, keeping it mostly full of apps that it thinks you might need in the future sitting there. If you open an app that isn't already in memory, it chooses to close other apps that you are less likely to use to give back enough memory for the current app.
In short, if you are having issues with Android not managing resources properly, its either because you screwed it up using a task killer, or you screwed it up with some mod that interferes with Android's resource management tools, which will either make it unstable or break it completely.

My experience with task killers (ATK to be specific)

I am reasonably new to the android community and so when I first got the device I looked up some of the most commonly downloaded applications to get an idea for what I should get. Advanced task killer was up there as one of the most popular so I went ahead and downloaded it.
I used it for about a month thinking "alright cool I don't have to search through the stock task manager to force close applications". However I came across several articles at that point stating that with newer smartphone's technology that a task killer was unnecessary and in fact detrimental. All of the articles stated that the phone ran better and smoother when allowed to manage it's applications on its own. While I hadn't really ran into many bugs (just a few glitches here and there) I still thought I might speed up the phone a little bit and decided to stop using it.
Here's the weird part, I start getting bugs AFTER I stop using the task killer! My menus ran slower, the keyboard was not as responsive, I even actually felt like the accuracy of my touches went down. I was patient with it though and gave it time but the problems persisted. After a week of staying off of it (in which I should point out I fully rebooted the phone several times) I decided to start again and boom.
Magically the problems went away, my menus are nice and smooth, keyboard response is perfect, and touches are right on point. I think these articles are getting a little too theoretical in their accusations against task managers. Personally I have mine only set on medium detection and safe auto kill. This basically means it autokills almost nothing and 1 touch kills all of the game/map apps that I told it not to ignore. With modest settings such as these I think that there is very little chance of it upsetting any sort of operative processes of the phone and I mean the bottom line here is the results!
I personally find that my phone runs much better with a task killer than without. So anyway just thought I would share my experience in case it may help anyone, I'd be interested in hearing others as well.

There is no need to use any Task Killer programs anymore, and using them is detrimental to the phone either way. This has been discussed time and time again on this forum and other phones' as well.

dLo GSR said:
There is no need to use any Task Killer programs anymore, and using them is detrimental to the phone either way. This has been discussed time and time again on this forum and other phones' as well.
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I realize I may have typed a little more than your attention span would allow you too pay attention to so let me shorten this for you.
I got the task killer.
I then read about it being detrimental so I stopped.
I got more bugs/worse functionality of the phone thought it was weird but stuck to it.
After getting fed up after a while I tried using the manager again and everything became quick and smooth again.
Clear now? I'm just posting that this is my personal experience, and I thought it may be interesting to some because it seems contrary to what most are reporting.

tl;dr
Factory reset. If you're being honest and not missing something you have a rogue app or setting causing a problem. Start fresh and you'll see that using a task manager and killing apps yourself is not the way to go.
The only thing I keep mine for is for killing rogue apps. And that's not a very common occurrence if you're doing things right and not downloading ****ty apps from stupid devs.

bongd said:
tl;dr
Factory reset. If you're being honest and not missing something you have a rogue app or setting causing a problem. Start fresh and you'll see that using a task manager and killing apps yourself is not the way to go.
The only thing I keep mine for is for killing rogue apps. And that's not a very common occurrence if you're doing things right and not downloading ****ty apps from stupid devs.
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haha well at least you admitted to it in the beginning, hopefully you caught the boiled down version then.
It's interesting that you mention the rogue app issue. I don't have any of the problems I usually hear about in the forums when that is the case, although I do use words with friends, which i realize is buggy but it plays against friends and family that have iphones as well.
I doubt that is the culprit though, the problems and slowdowns I was experiencing are mainly things i have seen people mention as problems with the phone in general.

JonEleven said:
haha well at least you admitted to it in the beginning, hopefully you caught the boiled down version then.
It's interesting that you mention the rogue app issue. I don't have any of the problems I usually hear about in the forums when that is the case, although I do use words with friends, which i realize is buggy but it plays against friends and family that have iphones as well.
I doubt that is the culprit though, the problems and slowdowns I was experiencing are mainly things i have seen people mention as problems with the phone in general.
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Once you break the phone in and all the apps load and cache it should be smooth as butter. A brand spanking new refresh isn't always the quickest. I find that after a few hours usage (after a complete wipe) that things start really moving along.
In my task killer I have damn near every program excluded as well. And a nice thing about Froyo is that system apps and important things usually aren't killed anyway. I set my task killer this way as a buffer because I really don't want to kill anything in the background that doesn't need to be killed. Doing that can make it relaunch in the foreground thereby slowing things down when the program wasn't using any resources to begin with.
A lot of it is a matter of perception too - a lot of people get OCD about managing tasks manually and start killing things, falsely perceiving that speeds are picking up and that they're improving battery life. Fact of the matter is that it's other factors which are leading to success. Killing tasks is inherently flawed because you're waking up apps which aren't doing jack **** to begin with.

Today I purchased the full version of SystemPanel. The reason was simple. I wanted information. The product was exactly what I needed. An app that gives real time and historical information on: battery charge and discharge; CPU utilization; phone usage, the list goes on. After two hours I noticed that it showed CPU cycles from apps that should be idle... Pandora and Amazon App Store... so I opened Pandora and saw it was stuck in a search. I exited Pandora and suddenly the CPU dropped and rate of battery drain slowed. What makes this a great app is the historical view and the ability to see historical CPU usage at the individual application level and compare to the overall phones CPU, usage and battery level. The end result is solid information on where and when the juice goes. The help describes why they will never implement an Auto-Kill feature, i.e. does not save any juice and if an app is not behaving... don't kill it, fix the problem or uninstall! Hope this helps!

jjwatmyself said:
Today I purchased the full version of SystemPanel. The reason was simple. I wanted information. The product was exactly what I needed. An app that gives real time and historical information on: battery charge and discharge; CPU utilization; phone usage, the list goes on. After two hours I noticed that it showed CPU cycles from apps that should be idle... Pandora and Amazon App Store... so I opened Pandora and saw it was stuck in a search. I exited Pandora and suddenly the CPU dropped and rate of battery drain slowed. What makes this a great app is the historical view and the ability to see historical CPU usage at the individual application level and compare to the overall phones CPU, usage and battery level. The end result is solid information on where and when the juice goes. The help describes why they will never implement an Auto-Kill feature, i.e. does not save any juice and if an app is not behaving... don't kill it, fix the problem or uninstall! Hope this helps!
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I've got this app purchased as well. I usually uninstall it unless I suspect that a program is running wild like how you've described.

bongd said:
I've got this app purchased as well. I usually uninstall it unless I suspect that a program is running wild like how you've described.
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Seems that out of all of the apps out there, these guys dug in to do something of use. Now I can post screen shots of the Moto car dock charging problem that I have.

i don't think ATK is really detrimental...i've been using it and as long as you keep everything in check, it should run fine, just make sure the apps that are being killed are the ones you want killed.

I had ATK installed on my Atrix pretty much since day 1. Then i realised i was being an idiot to have it running in the background when i never really used it. Instead, i always just used the standard task manager, and added apps that i didn't see a point in having sit idle in the background to the auto-end list. Works quite well, and no annoying "Touch here to launch Advanced Task Killer" crap in the notification pane.

Unless there is a technical challenge it's best to kill tasks as sparingly as possible. End of discussion

I think you are missing the simple fact that killing tasks has no impact, positive or negative, on Android.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

elementaldragon said:
I had ATK installed on my Atrix pretty much since day 1. Then i realised i was being an idiot to have it running in the background when i never really used it. Instead, i always just used the standard task manager, and added apps that i didn't see a point in having sit idle in the background to the auto-end list. Works quite well, and no annoying "Touch here to launch Advanced Task Killer" crap in the notification pane.
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Same here, using the stock one, the auto end list too free ram. I noticed many apps that I don't use very often load on startup and run in the background.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

slimslim said:
Same here, using the stock one, the auto end list too free ram. I noticed many apps that I don't use very often load on startup and run in the background.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
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Free ram has no impact on performance or battery on Android. Killing a task should always be adhoc and not automatic.
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bongd said:
Unless there is a technical challenge it's best to kill tasks as sparingly as possible. End of discussion
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Agreed!
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I have mine set to close only a few programs that eat battery in the background. Like the xda app.
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jjwatmyself said:
Free ram has no impact on performance or battery on Android. Killing a task should always be adhoc and not automatic.
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Not entirely true, does impact the performance and is noticeable especially when I have less than 100 megs available. Even on my old winmo phone more free ram made a huge difference. Also has little impact on battery while apps running on background use cpu.
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I realize you're a douche, so bite me.
JonEleven said:
I realize I may have typed a little more than your attention span would allow you too pay attention to so let me shorten this for you.
I got the task killer.
I then read about it being detrimental so I stopped.
I got more bugs/worse functionality of the phone thought it was weird but stuck to it.
After getting fed up after a while I tried using the manager again and everything became quick and smooth again.
Clear now? I'm just posting that this is my personal experience, and I thought it may be interesting to some because it seems contrary to what most are reporting.
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dLo GSR said:
I realize you're a douche, so bite me.
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Haha no need to get hostile man, you just clearly had not read my post.
At least have the decency to put tl dr beforehand if you are going to do that, because your first response literally almost quoted something I had already written
And I have to agree with slimslim about the ram, I find it very noticeable when the level of free ram gets down to around 100

homescreen is sluggish

every so often when I return back to my homescreens and slide through them they get very laggy and sluggish anyway to fix it?

Do you have live wallpaper running that might not be optimized for Honeycomb, or are there lots of 3rd party widgets on your home screens.
If the above is the case, I’d suggest return your home screens to stock and apply a single widget at a time to see if any of them is causing the problem.
It also could be an app running at background causing the problem.
Sorry, i don't think there is easy fix for your problem.

are you on the latest honeycomb 3.1 build? that update was supposed to improve that problem. if not, i suggest root, flashing a tiamat kernel with OC'd GPU

turn off live wallpaper
get a task killer and kill unused programs every once in a while
reduce the number of widgets on your homescreens
Hope that helps!

I'd not recommend use any task killers. I don't believe there are any task killer designed for Honeycomb, or using 3rd party task killer will benefit Honeycomb.
if you want to kill an app or process, just goto running apps in settings.

Bigmille said:
I'd not recommend use any task killers. I don't believe there are any task killer designed for Honeycomb, or using 3rd party task killer will benefit Honeycomb.
if you want to kill an app or process, just goto running apps in settings.
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Sorry, you don't know what you're talking about. Advanced Task Killer Free works just fine with honeycomb. I run it several times a day and it speeds the system up every time.

slack04 said:
Sorry, you don't know what you're talking about. Advanced Task Killer Free works just fine with honeycomb. I run it several times a day and it speeds the system up every time.
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I can say with absolute authority that the people who designed android, and wrote the best practices documents for development have stated repeatedly that task killers do more harm than good.
If you have apps sucking so much memory or cpu in the background that they're impacting performance, uninstall those apps: they were developed by android noobs.
Don't rely on bad software as a crutch to run more bad software.

slack04 said:
Sorry, you don't know what you're talking about. Advanced Task Killer Free works just fine with honeycomb. I run it several times a day and it speeds the system up every time.
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Yeah mate, it's a pretty well known fact that task killers are a complete waste of time these days. They served a purpose in previous android versions (1.*) but now they really do more harm than good.
You say it speeds the system up? I'd suggest that's maybe only a placebo effect.

Bigmille said:
I'd not recommend use any task killers. I don't believe there are any task killer designed for Honeycomb, or using 3rd party task killer will benefit Honeycomb.
if you want to kill an app or process, just goto running apps in settings.
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Just taking the opportunity to also jump on you and say ''No! Bad post!"".
Inform yourself before spreading falsehoods please.

I've been using ADWex and I like it alot more, since it's been updated for honeycomb (looks really nice, never slows down, ever).

Hi all
Funny how even this long after the latest Android versions have been released there are still two camps in those that feel a Task Killer is absolutely necessary and those that don't.
Well i fall in the not necessary camp and have been using Android now for a little over a year and have never used one. The only real difference i see in my use is that i don't download and install every app and widget i can but just those i really need and use and like the previous poster i use ADW EX as my launcher and i just don't see any lag, freeze or stutters in anything i do. I tend to agree that those that have those issues as well as poor battery life have a badly written app that is most probably the cause. It amazes just how some obsess on how much free Ram they have at any given point without realising free Ram means nothing only when you don't have any free to run something is it even an issue and at that point the OS will close something to free it up.
But as always each of us is welcome to make thier own choices on thier own device but nothing would convince me i need a Task killer as i just don't.
Marc

Well, I may not be the most knowledgeable android user, but I get slowdowns all the time which are fixed by the task killer. Not sure of the "harm" that the other posters are suggesting. This is just my experience, take it with a grain of salt.

yea and your slowdowns would probably go away if u uninstall a badly coded app you have and stop letting it kill tasks on its own