Do you still remember about SmartClose, the intelligent tool to safely close all running programs in Windows with ability to restart the closed programs which I posted on early October? It is very useful when you need to install a program that requires you to close all running programs and then automatically restoring all the running programs back after installation. If you are a hardcore gamer that wouldn’t want any other running process to disturb the performance of your computer, you can also use SmartClose to terminate all running programs, play your game and restore them back when you’re done playing. The only problem with SmartClose is it was last updated on March 2005 and is not fully Vista compatible.
If you’re looking for something similar that works in Windows Vista, I’d suggest AlacrityPC which previously known as FSAutoStart. FSAutoStart used to only work on Flight Simulator but has evolved to a point where it can be used for any game or application, and the author wanted to have a name that reflects this.
AlacrityPC is a utility designed to help you get the most performance out of your computer when running resource intensive applications, like modern games. It does this by shutting down unnecessary services and programs before starting your application. When you finish your application, those services and programs can be automatically restarted.
AlacrityPC also provides some additional optimizations, like memory defragmenting, removing your desktop background, shutting down the desktop shell and Vista Sidebar, and forcing background tasks to execute.
AlacrityPC uses the concept of profiles. A profile consists of the service and programs you have selected to be shutdown (and/or restarted), any additional optimizations you want to run, and the application(s) that you want to run after you have optimized your system. A profile can be of two types:
Top level: A top level profile can run as is or be used as a parent profile to other profiles. It cannot inherit from other profiles. If it is a parent, any settings take precedence over the child profile. Top level profiles are useful when you have a number of applications you need to support and want to make changes that are global to all the applications. For example, you can turn on defrag memory in the parent profile, and all child profiles will inherit this setting.
Inherited: An inherited profile inherits any settings from its parent profile. The user can then add more services or programs to shutdown, enable different optimizations, and specify different programs to launch. An inherited profile cannot be a parent to another profile.
AlacrityPC is easy to use. You can right click on a profile to bring up a context menu. This menu allows you to edit, delete, rename, copy, or start the profile. To create a new profile, select the File menu option, then select New. You can create a shortcut to a profile by clicking on and dragging the profile to your desktop or other folder. Opening the shortcut will automatically run the profile.
Looking at AlacrityPC’s changelog, I can see that it was actively being developed from March to April 2008 and then stopped. AlacrityPC is FREE and works on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 2003, 2008 and in both 32bit and 64bit. Requires .NET Framework 2.0 installed in order to run.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that some antivirus such as NOD32 might detect AlacrityPC as a threat. I can assure you that it is a false positives IF you’ve downloaded from the link below or from their official website.