Alacrity PC

[Xasthur]

G'day fellas,

I've noticed my FR dropping lately and I can't be bothered re-formating my Vista machine.

I was running high 50s on max detail settings with Hi-Res consistantly but that has dropped a lot lately I need to utilise the Shift + F2 function quite often now.

I had great success with FSautostart on my old machine but I heard that this program is not compatible with Vista.

I came across what seems to be the new version of FSautostart, a program called 'Alacrity' which seems to do the same thing, just with Vista.

Has anyone heard of this program or, better yet, is anyone using it?

http://kensalter.com/downloads/

[Chalenge]

I use it frequently but you should be aware of a couple of things. Dont try to use the auto-update function at startup. There is a dll (forgotten the name) that will cause issues and it is better off deleted IIRC. You should visit the AlacrityPC forum for details because Im no expert just being a user and having gone through the process once and getting it to work with a number of games. I can tell you that getting programs started before launching AH (like TrackIR and FRAPS) is a lot easier to setup now.

[drdeathx]

Try enditall2. I think it is compatable with vista. It is easy to use.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1935,00.asp

[drdeathx]

The article does not say vista but I researches and it does work with vista. Here is a link to manually shut most of your programs down.


Here is a nice link to manually shut programs down. Then you can let whatever software you decide to use take care of the rest.

http://www.dead-eye.net/services.html

You probably have many programs running in the background you never use. Read up on this and let me know what ya think!!!!



GL

[Chalenge]

AlacrityPC is a whole lot easier to get along with... really.

When it starts up (for now until the updater is fixed) just answer No to the updater.



AlacrityPC comes with standard profiles for Vista that makes it a lot easier to get started using it even without modifications. You should at least select the app you want to monitor (AHII) and replace the default app (notepad.exe).

I started by copying the default Vista profile to several different profiles for the games I would be using.



When you click on the profile you want to use you can further modify the profile in detail.



Notice that in the information window the startup folder for AHII is different then the default installation. I HIGHLY recommend this for Vista of ANY flavor.

Ignore the note about 'Wireless...' I use a wireless headset sometimes so I can leave the computer and still chat with the squad. I do think it causes discos and other issues and Skuzzy would hate the idea but...

[Chalenge]

In the Services Tab you have two groups accesible to you. The first group is 'Action = Stop then Restart' and any services you have normally running after a boot up and that need to be shutdown and then restarted should be moved to this group.



The second group is 'Action = Nothing' and allows services to be ignored (require no action before or after running AlacrityPC).



The Programs tab is just like the Services tabs except it is for running programs (from your startup menu items) and just like Services it has two areas 'Action = Stop Then Restart':



and 'Action = Nothing':



I can see I have to do some maintenance here because I have installed some programs that should be shutdown and not in the 'Nothing' group.

[Chalenge]

In the Optimization Window you want to set things up just like I have here to avoid slowdowns with Vista (wallpaper the 'Aero' thing and the Sidebar.



The Autostart tab is really easy. You choose the program you want to 'Start before' and 'Monitor' (monitor the AH program to restart apps when AH ends).



The final tab is the log tab which keeps track of the steps and errors along the way.



It cant be any easier and it doesnt take any scripting this way. Enjoy!

[Chalenge]

I also HIGHLY recommend rebooting after playing any game on Vista especially reboot before leaving a game and then starting AH. You will save yourself a lot of headache.

By all means (also) visit the forums for AlacrotyPC and stay up on where the program is and where it is going. That should help you avoid future issues that may crop up (like in FSX when the acceleration patch came out with a DX10 preview and all manner of problems came up with that game not related to AlacrityPC).

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I never understood the point behind these 'enditall' type things. It's far better to cut down everything unnecessary _permanently_ from your system, not just for starting a game.

And let's face it, if a process or two extra makes running your computer works too slow, killing them will make little difference and you're better off upgrading your hardware.

[Chalenge]

In the world of flight sims the only thing that really matters is freeing up every last percentage of CPU you can muster and if you cant understand that then you arent really into flight sims.

AND this thread is about Vista which I know you would love to see eliminated altogether... so you should understand (as you have stated many many times how SLOW Vista is) why someone should want to shutdown processes automatically without having to go through a TEDIOUS 'by-hand' process.

Myself I would like to have computer profiles preset so I could chose 'FSX' or 'AHII' and finally 'CAD' and only the things I need for those programs to work well would be loaded... but DOS is long gone and MS isnt going to do things my way so I learn to live with it the best I can and I am thankful that individuals like Ken Salter go to the trouble of helping us out.

We cant all be system geniuses like you Ripley.

[Xasthur]

Chalenge, you are an absolute champion. Thanks for that 

[drdeathx]

looks like a nice program 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Believe it or not style permanent enditall: 



Notice how AH uses only a single core most of the time..



Yo what ended them all?

Notice how I still have unnecessary bloat running in background such as CCC.exe (catalyst control center) etc.

[FLOTSOM]

Believe it or not style permanent enditall: 

(Image removed from quote.)

Notice how AH uses only a single core most of the time..

(Image removed from quote.)

Yo what ended them all?

Notice how I still have unnecessary bloat running in background such as CCC.exe (catalyst control center) etc.

so your cool and the rest of us with sigle cores are heathans still living in the stone ages. thats wonderful to know.

challenge from one heathan to another, i downloaded the program and spent 6 hours trying to set it up properly to no avail.

it runs fine and shuts off everything that i tell it to, but i cant get it to stop shuttin g off my internet connect. i have tried everything i can think of including reading all the how to stuff at the web sight for it.

i am running XP SP3 not vista.

any idea which service is the hidden culprit?

thanx

FLOTSOM

[Bino]

I've been running AlacrityPC for several months on my coal-fired Prescott-AGP-DDR2 klunker under Windows XP Pro.    I like the program.

Flotsam, when I created my AHII profile, I created a new file and had it inherit from the default XP profile.  You should do the same with the Vista default.  Then, when you go to the "services" tab for the new profile, you have to be *very* careful.  You *must* know for certain all about each service you want stopped.  Maybe this is where you shot yourself in the foot?  You might try posting your profile up on the AlacrityPC web site.  While Mr. Salter is not likely to personally help you, there seems to be a pretty large number of good samaritans on that BBS.

Hope this helps.