Announcing Stardock's Process Commander

Allows OS/2 to recover from system hangs, remote management, and power tools help make Process Commander a "must have" OS/2 utility

For Immediate Release Monday, November 18, 1996 Stardock Systems, Inc. (313) 453-0328

Canton MI--Stardock Systems, a leading developer of OS/2 software, announced Process Commander today. Process Commander, which has been in development for over a year, will be generally available on Monday, November 25.

Possibly the most thoroughly tested OS/2 product ever, Process Commander has undergone a rigorous public beta for many months. Many beta testers have been using it in a "production" environment for some time.

Process Commander's most popular feature is its ability to allow OS/2 users to recover from system hangs. When the system hangs, users can hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, which Process Commander now traps, and brings up a full screen session that allows the user to try to recover from the hang. Any user that has ever experienced such a hang will likely want to get Process Commander as it is by far the most reliable way to recover from a system hang. Many corporations using OS/2 in a mission critical fashion will also want to take a good look at Process Commander for this reason.

"If OS/2 were a car, then Process Commander would be the seat belts and air bag." said Alexander Antoniades, Stardock Systems, Inc. "Anyone who values their time and data will want to have it."

Process Commander also provides an enhanced shutdown. Now, users can tell OS/2 to reboot after shutting down.

"This is one of my favorite features," said Brad Wardell, Stardock Systems, Inc. "My system takes quite a while to shutdown and reboot. Now, I can tell it to shut down and get up and do something else while Process Commander takes care of the rest."

A whole set of command line utilities also comes with Process Commander to allow users to write scripts or perform process management tasks at the command line. For example, Process Commander provides a true "Kill -9" utility. Users can also change the priority of programs from the command line.

For OS/2 users that want to manage their programs/processes from an easy to use environment, Process Commander also provides "Process Commander PM", a graphical process management utility. From this program, users can view how much shared memory a program uses, change priorities of threads, look at semaphores and other critical pieces of information. For IS managers, this program is particularly useful for improving OS/2's performance since it sees and tells how much CPU usage each process is using. There are few utilities available for tuning OS/2's performance that can match Process Commander.

Remote process management is also available. If an end user's system hangs or a server hangs, an IS manager can remotely telnet to that system and terminate the offending process.

"For corporations, this is a big issue," said Wardell. "If you have a server hang, rebooting it is not an acceptable option. With Process Commander, someone can usually make the server recover.  This brings some Unix-like features to OS/2."

Process Commander also extends OS/2's keyboard capabilities. For example, it can use the new "Windows95" keys that are on many new keyboards. Users can assign functions to the Windows95 keys now.

Moreover, Process Commander comes with an Assistant and Monitor that allows it to keep track of what is running on your system. If your system has hangs or has other problems, it can often diagnose what went wrong and present recovery options.

If you use OS/2, whether in the home, at work, or as an adminstrator, Process Commander is likely to be the most compelling OS/2 utility to have been developed in a very long time.

Process Commander lists for $69.95 but Stardock has an introductory price of $65. Stardock can be reached at (313)453-0328 or (313)453-1480 fax. Its website is http://www.stardock.com. Users can order it at 1-800-672-2338.

--- Process Commander 1.0 List:		$69.95 ($65 introductory price) Part No. 	12W96PC UPC No. 	7-08192-01007-3

Requires: OS/2 Warp 3.0 or OS/2 Warp 4.0

Stardock Systems, Inc. 7977b Ronda Dr. Canton MI 48187 Phone: (313) 453-0328 Fax: (313) 453-1480 email: sales@stardock.com web: http://www.stardock.com



Top 10 Reason to get Process Commander!
With so many features, it's easy to get confused on whether you need these features or not. For that reason, let's discuss in a nutshell what Process Commander does. If you own a copy of Process Commander, here are just a few of the things you'll be able to do. This is by no means a complete list.

1) If your system has ever "hung", instead of having to reboot you can hit the Ctrl+Alt+Del keyboard combination and Process Commander full screen interjects. Because the full screen version is not subject to OS/2's message queue, it isn't usually affected by system hangs.  From here, Process Commander can usually identify the cause of the system hang and offer suggestions for recovering (such as terminating a bad application).  This feature is also useful for those who don't want their users or themselves to accidentally reboot their systems with the Ctrl+Alt+Del combination.

2) It provides new ways to shut down. OS/2 (especially OS/2 Warp 4) can often take some time to shutdown. Process Commander provides two new types of Shutdowns: Enhanced and Quick.  Enhanced Shutdown acts the same as OS/2's standard shutdown except it also offers the option to reboot when it is done.  Quick Shutdown writes the contents of the cache to disk and shuts down which is much faster than the Enhanced shutdown. It won't save the positions of your icons but this is normally not something you want to do.  It too gives the option of rebooting after shutdown.  For many users, the auto-reboot feature is a real "must have".  On network systems or on power user systems, it can take a long time to shut down.  Now, users can have it shutdown and reboot while they get up and do something else in the office.

3) You can access a wide range of command line utilities such as a true "Kill -9" utility. This is essential for those who write REXX scripts or like to work from the command line.

4) The graphical version of Process Commander allows users to optimize their systems by looking at what the system loads on boot up. In most cases, OS/2 loads a lot more things than is needed.  It will also allow users to modify the priority of threads, look at shared memory,, semaphores, etc.  If you are an OS/2 developer, corporate desktop user, or IS manager, this feature is very attractive.

5) Any user of Unix knows that if a Unix system "crashes", they can usually recover by TELNETing to it from a remote machine and terminating the app that is causing the Unix machine to hang. Until now, OS/2 users did not have this ability.  Process Commander allows users to TELNET onto a remote machine (from anywhere) and manage processes remotely (including termination).  Security measures are also built in for those who want to keep others from doing this.

6) Process Commander also enhances the keyboard driver in many ways. For example, it allows OS/2 users to use those "Windows95 enhanced" keys on many new keyboards.  Users can also redefine many other keys on the keyboard as well.

7) As a side note, Process Commander also "fixes" the long complained about Num-Lock startup value. OS/2 users since 1.3 have asked for the Num-lock state to be settable since many corporations use OS/2 as a data entry front end.  With Process Commander, the Num-Lock setting can be set on boot up which can reduce training costs (and is convenient).

8) Can automatically terminate processes that hang system if you tell it to.

9) Can set the priority of threads, processes from the command line, GUI, or full screen Process Commander

10) Process Commander Full Screen comes with a special command line mode that lets users navigate their system even when it's terribly hung.

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