Process killer

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The background process killer utility can be used to shut down unwanted services and processes before starting up oblivion. Background processes hog memory and CPU cycles which oblivion might otherwise have been able to use to suck out a few more fps. On the other hand, many background processes are vital, and shutting them down can cause system instability, loss of data and all sorts of other wacky side effects. The most commonly noticed one is that shutting down the themes service will cause windows XP to revert back to a windows 98/ME style interface. For this reason, if you don't know exactly what you're doing or which processes are safe to shut down, don't use this tool but follow microsofts clean boot procedure instead. Even if you do know what you're doing, I still recommend you think about using a clean boot instead.

The default options will launch oblivion without doing anything. However, once you change your settings, they will be saved. Once you've set it up as you like, click launch to launch oblivion, or whatever else obmm is set up to launch. If you decide that you don't want to run oblivion, closing the process killer via the x in the corner will close it safely without stoppping any processes or launching anything.

The background process killer logs everything that it does. This log will be saved to 'obmm process killer log.txt' in oblivions base directory.

Note the difference between closing and killing a process. To close a process, a 'close' message is sent to its main window. The process is then responsable for tidying up after itself and closing itself down when ready. If a process doesn't have a main window, or chooses to ignore the close message, it will not be shut down. This is still the best way to shut down processes, however, because the process being closed has the chance to save and clean up after itself. If you choose to kill a process, it will be terminated immediately and will not have the chance to save changes or tidy up. This can result in loss of data if you, for example, write a lengthy document in word and then run the process killer without saving it. In generally, unless you know a process doesn't have a main window, you should always try closing it before killing it.

The background process killer keeps two lists of services and 3 lists of processes. You can use either the system or display name for services, and the full patch, exe name or module name for processes. (The module name is generally the exe name without the '.exe' extension.) You can switch between the 5 lists using the radio buttons on the bottom right. Each list corrisponds to one of the checkboxes on the left; if the relivent checkbox is not checked, that list will be ignored.

Services to stop (Stop listed services)
This is a list of specific services which you want stopped. If the 'stop listed services' checkbox is checked, any services listed here will be stopped. You cannot list processes in this list.

Services to keep (Stop all services)
This is a list of services which you don't want stopped. If the 'stop all services' checkbox is checked, all services marked as non-vital will be stopped except for those in this list. You cannot list processes in this list. If a process is listed both here and in 'services to stop', that service will be stopped if 'stop listed services' is checked. By default, two services are listed here which are not vital but which are required to be running if you want to play oblivion, so you should not remove them.

Processes to close (Close listed processes)
This is a list of processes to close. If the 'Close listed processes' checkbox is checked, any processes listed here will have a close message sent to their main window. It is the responsibility of the process being closed to tidy up and shut itself down.

Processes to kill (Kill listed processes)
This is a list of processes to kill. If the 'kill listed processes' checkbox is checked, any processes listed here will be terminated, and will not be given a change to tidy up or save.

Processes to keep (Close all processes and kill all processes)
This is a list of processes which you want to leave running. If 'close all processes' or 'kill all processes' are checked, any processes listed here will be ignored. Note that if a process is listed both here and in 'processes to close/kill', the process will still be closed/killed if 'close/kill listed processes' is checked. There are some services listed here by default which are vital for the operation of windows xp service pack 2. If you do not have service pack 2 installed or are using a different operating system, you may need to adjust this list.

The order in which these operations are carried out, assuming the relavent checkbox is checked, is:

·	Any services listed in 'services to stop' are stopped

·	Any processes listed in 'processes to close' are closed

·	Any processes listed in 'processes to kill' are killed

·	Any services not listed in 'services to keep' are stopped

·	Any processes not listed in 'processes to keep' are closed

·	Any processes not listed in 'processes to keep' are killed

There are a few other options which can be used to tweak the process killers behaviour.

Ignore driver services
If this is checked, any services marked as being device drivers will be treated as if they were marked as being vital. This means that the process killer will not shut them down under regardless of the options you select.

Process close timeout
When sending a close message, the process will generally take some time to tidy up before it closes itself. This is a time in milliseconds that obmm will wait for the process to exit before it assumes that the attempt to close the process failed.

Kill process if close fails
If this is checked and a close fails, either because the process doesn't have a main window or the close timed out due to the 'process close timeout' setting, then obmm will immediatly try to kill that process. This has no effect on the normal kill processes options; if this is not checked, they will still work.

Display log when done
If this is checked, the log file created by the process killer will be displayed before oblivion is launched. If this isn't checked, the log file will still be created, but if you want to read it, you'll have to open it up yourself.