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So, after installing Task Manager and opening it I had 31 applications running in the background! Yup, you read that right, 31!!! I ended them all and started playing around. I would launch and app, hit the back button and then go into Task Manager and there it was, still running. I launched several applications hitting back aftewards and they were all still running. I even tried hitting home aftwards and still running. Oh, and I had some apps running twice!!! WTF!?!? Looks like I found a major flaw in the new 2.1 OS.
This is normal android behaviour.
Apps are only shut down when the phone runs out of memory, however if the app is not doing anyting it will be paused and not use any battery / cpu.
And since the nexus has 512MB RAM it can have a LOT of open applications
If it is a background app (like im) it usually has an exit button in the menu.
Apps always run on android if you don't end them with a task manager.
Ya, normal behavior. The app actually has to intentionally end itself when you press the back button for that to really end it. I wouldn't worry about it, though. Apps in the background tend to use very little RAM and CPU.
Not sure why people are freaking out about apps running in the background... This is normal and Android does an amazing job of freeing up memory by killing apps as NEEDED.
Hmmmm, guess I never looked at it that way. I do notice it gets a little sluggish when all of that is running in the background. I'm just used to my MT3G. I've NEVER seen that many apps running at once.
setzer715 said:
Hmmmm, guess I never looked at it that way. I do notice it gets a little sluggish when all of that is running in the background. I'm just used to my MT3G. I've NEVER seen that many apps running at once.
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try two and two-thirds the amount of RAM and that would explain how you get so many apps running lol.
david1171 said:
try two and two-thirds the amount of RAM and that would explain how you get so many apps running lol.
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Click to collapse
Ha-ha, good point!!!
From my experience the apps never close it is set to idle and is stored in the phone memory therefore decreasing startup time and allowing for a better multitasking experience but on all other previous android devices there wasn't as much memory so only a few apps could run at a time before the memory would be needed so something would get closed.
You're used to having 37.5% of the ram the Nexus One has
Now here's the question: does having 31 apps open affect battery life?
Paul22000 said:
You're used to having 37.5% of the ram the Nexus One has
Now here's the question: does having 31 apps open affect battery life?
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Click to collapse
It depends on the applications. If they just sit quietly when suspended (in the background) and don't do anything, they will have no impact on battery life (because their threads will never schedule/run). If they continue to do work while in the background, that will have some impact, however, unless they hold a wakelock (something they need the "keep phone from sleeping" permission to do), they will have no contribution to battery consumption while the screen is off and no other apps/services hold wakelocks.
In short, "it depends."
The menu / settings / about phone / battery use panel tries to give you as much information as possible about what apps/services are consuming your battery.
martijnve said:
This is normal android behaviour.
Apps are only shut down when the phone runs out of memory, however if the app is not doing anyting it will be paused and not use any battery / cpu.
And since the nexus has 512MB RAM it can have a LOT of open applications
If it is a background app (like im) it usually has an exit button in the menu.
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Click to collapse
Yes. Traditional multitasking (WinMo, BlackBerry) phone OSes will not close an application (or program, on WinMo) until you tell it to close, or it decides to close itself. This is a resource hog, and results in the freezing up or running painfully slowly that we have come to expect from those devices. The iPhone always runs fast because it ALWAYS closes an app--no multitasking whatsoever--so it never runs out of resources and slows down. It "pauses" the app, then closes it, so when you open it, it resumes right where it left off, as if it were open the whole time. The downside is nothing gets done in the background--which is why awesome apps like Locale or Screebl won't run on iPhone. Android is the best of both worlds. It leaves apps running until it NEEDS to close them. When resources run tight, it pauses apps just like the iPhone, so it stays running fast, but as long as you don't overload the system, you can run background apps. And background services will stay running.
Paul22000 said:
Now here's the question: does having 31 apps open affect battery life?
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Click to collapse
I'm sure it does some, but with that monster of a CPU, and as little power as apps use when they're sitting in the background not doing anything, I'm guessing it is a negligible difference. But that's why I love Advanced Task Manager's auto-end feature.
i lol'd -----------__________----------------
When you have 31 applications running, is there a hardware key that you can press (perhaps with a third party software) to show those which are running, and to switch to anyone of them instantly without resorting back to the application menu? Also, does this same tool let you shut down an active tasks in order to conserver memory and battery life? I understand that a long press of the home key only shows the last 6(?) application launched but not necessarily the currently active tasks.
On my jailbroken iPhone, I'm used to be able to double click the home button to show all active tasks, and there I can switch to or terminate anyone of them. While running an application, I also have the option of long pressing the home button to end it directly so that it does not continue running in the background. If I do a normal home press, the application will continue running in the background, and I'm presented with a screen which lets me jumps to any of the desktop in order to launch new applications.
I hope I can have the same level of convenience here.
All of the applications in the backround are essentially in hibernation - it is part of the way Android manages the RAM. I think it's great.
I was messing trying to figure out which is the correct method to close apps, back and home do the same thing, holding HOME (i just found out) brings up a list of recently used apps, but i can't figure a way to properly close them. I have Advanced Task Manager to close them now and again but I don't want to keep it running all the time.
Is there any proper way if the app doesn't provide an exit function?
Because an app is on that list does not mean it is not closed. That list is just the history of the last 6 apps you used.
A lot of people say that you do not need to worry about whether or not an app is fully closed because the software manages that to ensure that it has enough free memory. I don't know enough to know whether that is correct or not.
peterc10 said:
Because an app is on that list does not mean it is not closed. That list is just the history of the last 6 apps you used.
A lot of people say that you do not need to worry about whether or not an app is fully closed because the software manages that to ensure that it has enough free memory. I don't know enough to know whether that is correct or not.
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Yes, sorry, the apps I'm referring to are shown by the Advanced Task Manager, I merely found the Recent list when trying to find a way to exit apps.
I sometimes have 15-20 apps in there filling up my RAM even on startup things like Shop Savy will be there twice and Photoshop.com.
They, amongst others don't seem to provide options to prevent them starting at boot so I simply uninstalled them, but all the running apps do severely affect the performance when it's filling up.
I have been experiencing the same problem.
Advanced Task Manager lists a whole load of apps that start on bootup and each one of those doesn't have an option to disable this.
After a while (about 3 hrs or so) of using my Hero I am down to about 40mb of RAM which if I don't use Advanced Task Manager to kill unused apps my Hero begins to lag big time.
On the Android it is better to leave them resident in memory than stop them, unless they are 'background' processes and there is something wrong with them (a bug) making them slow down your phone.
Don't judge your Android on amount of free memory left; if anything, the the less memory left over the better as it means the memory is being used effectively to make it nice and speedy.
Processes aren't allowed to consume CPU cycles/consume battery/slow your phone down when they are not focused; the exception is background processes which need to keep going, like the music player etc. What's more, if an app is not focused then its state is preserved allowing your phone to free up its memory when needed; its memory effectively becomes 'cache' allowing it to restart quicker if it happens to have stayed in memory.
So don't worry about wiping an app from memory; for many apps there is simply no distinction between closing it and switching away from it; as soon as you switch away from it it's as good as closed; it's not slowing your phone down or taking up any memory that couldn't be freed instantly if needed, but if it is lucky enough to stay in memory it will re-open quicker.
On my experience, if you press the back button to exit an app, then the app is closed properly, running the code in the app that will release the memory and objects. This is the best way.
The only app it will not work on is the browser as the back button will send you back through the history.
Try it...
MercuryStar said:
On the Android it is better to leave them resident in memory than stop them, unless they are 'background' processes and there is something wrong with them (a bug) making them slow down your phone.
Don't judge your Android on amount of free memory left; if anything, the the less memory left over the better as it means the memory is being used effectively to make it nice and speedy.
Processes aren't allowed to consume CPU cycles/consume battery/slow your phone down when they are not focused; the exception is background processes which need to keep going, like the music player etc. What's more, if an app is not focused then its state is preserved allowing your phone to free up its memory when needed; its memory effectively becomes 'cache' allowing it to restart quicker if it happens to have stayed in memory.
So don't worry about wiping an app from memory; for many apps there is simply no distinction between closing it and switching away from it; as soon as you switch away from it it's as good as closed; it's not slowing your phone down or taking up any memory that couldn't be freed instantly if needed, but if it is lucky enough to stay in memory it will re-open quicker.
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I understand how and why this should be true, but for me it doesn't seem to be, if my memory falls to less than 40 the phone becomes increadibly unresponsive, I get crashes and have to wait forever for it to do things like open the phone. Immediately after killing all with advanced task manager it goes back to normal.
barryallott said:
On my experience, if you press the back button to exit an app, then the app is closed properly, running the code in the app that will release the memory and objects. This is the best way.
The only app it will not work on is the browser as the back button will send you back through the history.
Try it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried both methods, more often than not though, back doesn't seem to do much either, I have experimented with free RAM and using back or Home, it seems the Home certainly isn't the correct way to do it, but back doesn't work very often either, maybe people aren't coding their apps properly to respond to the back button as an exit method?
this is the never ending discussion whether task manager make sense for android or not.
i'm one of those who say: definetly YES! USE TASKMANGER.
I understand that Android works in a way that taskmanager shouldnt be needed because it handles the tasks on its own, but sadly the concept just doesn't seem to work.
When my ram fills up i can cleary see that the device is getting slower, even just opening apps takes more than 5 seconds. After closing some apps the hero is fast again.
now i don't care whether ANDROID is the reason or some POORLY programmed background apps, because the outcome for me as a user is the same. I#m using advanced task manager and im very happy with it, whenever Android starts to slow down i close the open and unneeded apps, and everything is fast again...don't know how people can claim that Android does handle task management perfectly on its own.
Shahpur.Azizpour said:
this is the never ending discussion whether task manager make sense for android or not.
i'm one of those who say: definetly YES! USE TASKMANGER.
I understand that Android works in a way that taskmanager shouldnt be needed because it handles the tasks on its own, but sadly the concept just doesn't seem to work.
When my ram fills up i can cleary see that the device is getting slower, even just opening apps takes more than 5 seconds. After closing some apps the hero is fast again.
now i don't care whether ANDROID is the reason or some POORLY programmed background apps, because the outcome for me as a user is the same. I#m using advanced task manager and im very happy with it, whenever Android starts to slow down i close the open and unneeded apps, and everything is fast again...don't know how people can claim that Android does handle task management perfectly on its own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point is, Task manager of any kind is another 3rd party app taking up more memory, and quite frankly on such a high end phone i shouldn't have to worry about this problem. I noticed another thread about changing the values at which the internal task manager kills apps etc, if it becomes more of a problem i'll look into this method of fixing it.
alias_neo said:
The point is, Task manager of any kind is another 3rd party app taking up more memory, and quite frankly on such a high end phone i shouldn't have to worry about this problem. I noticed another thread about changing the values at which the internal task manager kills apps etc, if it becomes more of a problem i'll look into this method of fixing it.
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Click to collapse
yes, in theory we shouldn't worry about tasks in the background, but in reality as you said, the device WILL slow down. so there is no other way around than closing apps manually and defining apps to be kept alive by the 3rd party task manager.
changing values for the internal task manager sounds like something which would only work on a rooted device, but im not sure...
It started driving me mad. If I minimize browser, I can't be sure it won't close. Not only minimizing for longer periods, but short ones as well - wanted to reply an sms when a page was loading, but when I got back to it, it started over. And all the loaded tabs were gone! Saving states my ass, it takes time to load a page from zero and only the active browsing window remains. How to make this "multitasker" multitask?
does this also happen if you return to the browser by holding home?
kendong2 said:
does this also happen if you return to the browser by holding home?
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Click to collapse
Yes, that's the only way I switch betwen apps.
Have you installed the 'system-based' taskiller mod by any chance (you know, the one that was announced here that automatically keeps memory free by modifying the default thresholds for killing apps)?
If so, I reckon that's the issue! Either that, or you have too much running, so popping the browser into the background makes it a background task and it gets killed cos you're really short of RAM.
Let us know if you have used the tweak though...
@kengdong...
it doesn't matter how you change the apps.
For android it's the same, whether you tap an icon on a homescreen/list or whether you select it from the "task switch" thing... all that does is listing the last recently used applications but still tapping them results in the same internal action.
Source: Android SDK Documentation
I've had pretty much the same issue since I got the phone back in November (I guess I've just gotten used to it by now). I'm never really sure when I switch back to the browser if it will retain the page loaded and any other windows, or if it will reset, close the other windows, and have to reload the active page. I'm on the stock Telus ROM, no custom ROM, not rooted, no tweaks, nothing extra (I've been waiting patiently for 2.1 to come out before messing with custom ROMS).
olafos said:
Source: Android SDK Documentation
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thx for the heads up, i wasn't sure about this, actually i was asking to maybe get an answer to this worked
anon2122 said:
Have you installed the 'system-based' taskiller mod by any chance (you know, the one that was announced here that automatically keeps memory free by modifying the default thresholds for killing apps)?
If so, I reckon that's the issue! Either that, or you have too much running, so popping the browser into the background makes it a background task and it gets killed cos you're really short of RAM.
Let us know if you have used the tweak though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I have stock rom and I have never used any task killer or related app / tweak.
And I don't run too much stuff.. only music player, messaging and sense's facebook perhaps. If music player is paused, why can't it quit it instead... I prefer multitasking of my past htc s730 which had like 7 megs of free ram after booting.
Even after a hard reset, this behavior remains.
i dont know.. it works fine for me....
1.. maybe there is a setting in the browser.. to always refresh.
2.. you have a repair issue.. Need to take it in to your local service provider repair center. Let them see your issue.
Dan330 said:
i dont know.. it works fine for me....
1.. maybe there is a setting in the browser.. to always refresh.
2.. you have a repair issue.. Need to take it in to your local service provider repair center. Let them see your issue.
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Click to collapse
Come on, it's no hardware issue. Most of the time the browser stays, but u just can't be sure about that because it sometimes just closes. I think that it's an issue with Android's STUPID memory management, which also has a scheduled "quit all" script.
Yesterday I opened up a few articles on the browser and decided to read them later. This morning they all remained and I was pleasantly surprised I could read them. This very moment, though, they are gone by now even though I haven't quit the browser - probably that 'quit all' script kicked in.
There could be something in settings, where you could chose apps which would not close ever unless quit..
I would love if Android apps were quitable without any automatic mem management.
Suggest to grab AutoKiller or MinFreeManager, which are just frontends to Android's memory management (also they reapply settings at boot time, as the system file that's being modified is reset every boot.)
See what your current settings are, and lower them (e.g. use "moderate" preset). Just search XDA for autokiller or minfreemanager for more info.
Pressing home should only move that application to the background (pressing back should close it).
If you are pressing home and applications are still closing then there must be a task killer of some sort in place closing it for you.
Lennyuk said:
Pressing home should only move that application to the background (pressing back should close it).
If you are pressing home and applications are still closing then there must be a task killer of some sort in place closing it for you.
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Click to collapse
You obviously have not read the topic.
No task killers, tasks dont neceaarily close, its juast that u cant be sure they will remain in memory.
Lennyuk said:
If you are pressing home and applications are still closing then there must be a task killer of some sort in place closing it for you.
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Click to collapse
Yes - it's the standard Android process management rather than a 3rd party task killer.
I guess the browser is given a low priority and is one of the first apps to be killed.
Regards,
Dave
You are using app 'A' , you press home key, you are back on home screen, app 'A' stays in RAM as is then you open another app or do something else and again open the same app, there it loads quickly (blazing fast as everybody claims) no micro lag even, with same status, where you pressed home key. If I check the CPU uses for good apps it's always 0 %, means app is in suspended state, if app is in background and consumes CPU, task manager suspends it(my observation).
This is how iOS does it, no back key. You keep on opening apps and when needed, multitasking makes room, there you notice a micro lag ALSO in iOS.
Now on Android, you get same behavior as above if you don't use back key, you can really compare smoothness with iOS and only micro lag when RAM should be freed.
Try it with 'whatsapp' for example, you will see it.
Of course back key is needed but not for all the apps and that's where it differs with iOS and creates confusion of lags. Well many people don't care micro or mini lag but the point is why not to have a mechanism on apps, that either app should go in suspended state when back key pressed (same as home key) or app must quit(resource hog apps or games).
It doesn't require user attention to press home key or back key but checks if in what status app should be put in.
I hope I am correct and not missing something major here. Now I am getting used to pressing home key on some apps with my own conscious and think about lag questions everywhere.
Your opinion please. I just want to clear my concept about it.
and yes about battery life, please keep that aside for a moment.
Thanks
I will give it a try for a few days.... will see..
Thanks dude,try it. may be there is an chance of improvement.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
With the current state of apps, it shouldn't be necessary to exit apps at all. The home button should suffice. I really don't know how memory efficient Android was back in 1.5-2.0, but currently it works pretty well.
I believe the back button should only be used to navigate within apps, but not to exit apps. It is "in theory" not necessary if the app is properly developed.
A lot of apps stay in ram even if you exit them with the back button.
Interesting post. I have a habit of killing all apps lol, for fear that some will drain my battery life (some definitely do, ie. words with friends!)
Download the App "System Panel" from the Android Market.
It's free and it lets you know how much ram and CPU your apps are currently eating up...
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
Only thing I have noticed is that not all aplications stay in memory after I press Home.
For example when I open dialer (phone.apk) and then press Home button, next time I start it it starts extremely fast.
But if I leave the phone for a while (not starting anything, about 100mb of free ram) and then start the dialer again it starts slower again (it does not stay in cached proccesses).
voodoofox said:
Only thing I have noticed is that not all aplications stay in memory after I press Home.
For example when I open dialer (phone.apk) and then press Home button, next time I start it it starts extremely fast.
But if I leave the phone for a while (not starting anything, about 100mb of free ram) and then start the dialer again it starts slower again (it does not stay in cached proccesses).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because some RAM used by the Dialer process is being claimed by the OS to do something else. Even if the phone is sleeping, it could be claimed.
The Android system tries to maintain an application process for as long as possible, but eventually needs to remove old processes to reclaim memory for new or more important processes. To determine which processes to keep and which to kill, the system places each process into an "importance hierarchy" based on the components running in the process and the state of those components. Processes with the lowest importance are eliminated first, then those with the next lowest importance, and so on, as necessary to recover system resources.
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Click to collapse
Yeah I know but I am not sure why is the system killing processes even when there is at least 80mb of free memory (and I mean free, everything that's left after you deduct services and other cached processes).
Unless when the phone is sleeping the OS takes up absolutely all free memory to do something...however that sounds like a lot of memory to be taken whatever the system is doing especially while the phone is not awake...
There is also a rule from Android intelligence,remove the process which has not been used for long time,so that OS can do prevent on demand swapping.
These are features for solid RAM management and multitasking but comes at cost of app start/reload smootness.
iOS multitasking in concept looks junky by app suspend machnism but at user expr. it serves good.
I would say, RAM is filled up anyways but keep core apps always there and backkey used only for navigation.
I keep on reading app developers remarks on site like stackoverflow,just to see where from os point of view SGS can't overcome mini lag at core apps.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I also tried to reproduce the scenario where phone or dialer lagged (or removed from cached process) after pressing home key while in dialer and kept phone idle for long time.
Yes it happens, but I tell you when, I had ~100 MB free, started dialer, pressed home key, left phone idle for more than an hour or so, then I checked phone was removed from cached process and starting it was bit slow (although backkey not used) but at the same time I checked my RAM was filled up upto ~278 so only had 50 MB available.
It seems like Android fills the RAM (I think not sure: with frequent used apps, depends user to user what he uses more) upto 90% and 10% always left empty.When I try to fill it I never crossed 285 mark, it came back to same ~278 level automatically(yes I was using smaller apps to fill it).
All,
If you get time, please share your expr. I am trying to learn something here and may be I am getting things wrong.
I am believing that back key power is not utilized in favor of user experience and there is a room for improvement.
Have you had a chance to check out that "System Panel" App I recommended?...
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
for me home button = minimise & multitask, back button = close
bundi22 said:
for me home button = minimise & multitask, back button = close
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I know it has been a while but any updates on the issue.
I wonder, would it be possible to force close all processes not necessary to run fundamental services (call, sms receiving) when using resource hog apps like heavy games?
Something like: "if app requires more than 80% of CPU for 5 seconds non-stop and occupies more than [put value here] of RAM, THEN close all unnecessary processes (even system ones) and keep them closed till app shut down"
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app
Hi there
So this is my first android device and i was wondering if there's an actual advantage when you completely close apps (swipe them off in the multitasking button screen), as opposed to just let them keep running in the background.
Will the phone use less battery / be faster if you swipe the apps off there? Or is there no noticable difference at all?
Thanks!
jb91 said:
Hi there
Will the phone use less battery / be faster if you swipe the apps off there?
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Click to collapse
Yes.
also easier to multitask.
IMO, you should let the built-in memory manager do its job. Free memory is wasted memory, so it will be filled with something else. In fact, the phone could be even slower, especially if you reopen the app.
I don't believe (swipe them off in the multitasking button screen) actually closes/exits the app. I believe it only removes it from the history of open apps.
It would help if for example, you are loading a huge web Page, your signal is bad and u lock your phone. In the background the app will be active = battery + wakelocks
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Closing app will theoretically increase the battery life, but I personally didn't notice too much on battery unless I have like huge game or page loaded up on the background. I close the apps anyways because it makes multitasking with the recent menu much quicker and less cluttered.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Usually it will close the app in the sense that when you restart it, you have to begin from its home screen. I do this when I do on Facebook, say I try to load something and give up, instead of simply going to home I'll close the app. The reason being is because I find Facebook just continues to try do what it was doing after I've left if, and if I have bad signal or its just being plain stupid it will just continue and start eating up cpu time. So I guess you can close apps to ensure its not trying to run user actioned tasks even after you close it.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
aletto said:
IMO, you should let the built-in memory manager do its job. Free memory is wasted memory, so it will be filled with something else. In fact, the phone could be even slower, especially if you reopen the app.
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Click to collapse
the multitasking view is an exception though, you can safely use it as its not the same as forceclosing, it simply sends a couple of events to the app and it can heed them or not - it may give androids memory manager a hint on what you need and what you dont, though (which should in theory make it better, not worse or slower). well and youre not multitasking at all if you dont use swipe out, the entire function will become a meaningless/useless bunch of apps without your management.
Closing apps can have its advantages and disadvantages..For instance...The Netflix application continues to run in the background even after clicking exit from within the app...The only way to completely close it is by swiping it off on the recent apps tray or by using a task manager
ADVANTAGES:
More free ram= no lag
Less open apps= lesser battery drain
DISADVANTAGE S:
Closing an important system app can cause lags or other problems.
Some user apps that run in the backgroung e.g widgets... will restart automatically thereby making your processor work more
Basically, the best way to handle this is to close only apps you no longer need to use and never use autokill feature built into task managers except u are sure the essential apps are in the task managers ignore list..