Task Manager Solution for WM 6.5.1 ROM's

[hamidxa]

Like many of you I'm sure, I too found the lack of an easily accessible Task Manager in the newer WM 6.5 builds to be quite irritating to say the least, and NO, trying to poke around the upper right-hand corner hoping to get lucky and pull up the HTC task manager is NOT a solution!

I tried Task Facade 4.
Verdict: Too slow, and occasionally glitches.

I tried e-Natives Technology ShowcaseSuite-1.1.0.
Verdict: Doesn't play nice with TF3D in the newer builds, preventing it from launching altogether depending on build, and also doesn't work with every app, and occasionally doesn't come up at all.

I tried FdcSoft TaskMgr wm2005
Verdict: Not very finger friendly (and this is essentially what comes with most WM ROM's anyways as a default task manager)

I tried AEBPlus for mapping buttons to alt-tab, close, etc, but most newer phones just don't have the hardware buttons needed, and it's a crapshoot trying to get the buttons mapped properly anyhow.

I tried WkTaskL_1202. I tried QuickMenu WM 6.5 by utak3r, I tried Duttys Task Manager 2.1.19183631, I tried...well, basically you name it, I tried it.


They all had problems in some way, shape, or form. Be it lack of finger-friendliness, crashing, failure to launch, failure to show all open apps properly, conflicts with newer WM/Manila builds, etc.


Then I found the solution, and I can't take the credit for it, as it was posted over at XDA-Developers

- Go to file explorer
- Open "My Device/Windows"
- Find Task manager (taskmgr) and press long on this file so the file menu opens and select copy.
- Go to "My Device/Windows/Startmenu/Programs.
- Go to menu and paste shortcut.
- Now you can also add the shortcut to your today screen.

Here is the result:


Compare that to the default task manager included in WM and on most newer 6.5.x ROM's (which I already tweaked to show just Apps and nothing else except for About, which can't be removed, yet it still didn't cut it):


Big difference in terms of usability!


On my Touch Pro, I've mapped this task manager to long-hold on the talk button, so it pops up after about a second, and I don't have to fool around with thumbing through the start menu anytime I want to access my open apps, or close them for that matter.

Double tapping on any item will switch to it. You can kill all tasks as well as individual tasks with this task manager. It's finger friendly, and it just plain works!

Hope this may be of use to some of you who were just as frustrated as I.

[nanoware]

well i tried mapping task facade to the windows hardware key on my tp2, but it is too slow to be usable... task facade is great, but as far as i know development is stalled.....

i once sent a message to the task facade dev but never got a response.... here it is

task facade idea... i dont know if you remember the original HTC Touch (Elf etc..) had the 3d cube that would pop up when you would slide your finger up from the bottom of the screen up. I would think this would be an awsome feature to have in your app. If you wanna open up task facade, jus slide your finger up and bam, there it is!!!

what do you think

heres an example of the cube thing i was saying...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=336234

task facade would be a great solution if it wasnt so slow.

[hamidxa]

Originally Posted by nanoware

well i tried mapping task facade to the windows hardware key on my tp2, but it is too slow to be usable... task facade is great, but as far as i know development is stalled.....

i once sent a message to the task facade dev but never got a response.... here it is




task facade would be a great solution if it wasnt so slow.

Agreed.
That was my experience with it as well.
Nice to look at, but too slow. Perhaps the HD2 with Snapdragon will change all of that, but it's not very usable in its current state, not pragmatically anyhow.

The solution above is super quick though, pops up within a second after being mapped to a key.

Oh, and it's finger-friendly as well.

[Malatesta]

Funny how the simplest and oldest solutions sometime are the best.

[hamidxa]

Originally Posted by Malatesta

Funny how the simplest and oldest solutions sometime are the best.

Indeed.

Here is the exact file you need to access from File Explorer:

[hamidxa]

I will elaborate on this topic as it seemed to generate some confusion in another thread.

I just copied and pasted my post from the other thread below.

Guys, you're making the task manager solution harder than it needs to be, and well, so did I.

Believe me, I've tried EVERY viable solution out there, as I explained in my thread here:
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread...45#post1321945

The best solution remains mapping the built in task manager (one that most people don't even know exists, and honestly neither did I) to a hard button.

Here is how you do it step by step:

1. Open File Explorer
2. Select "View Options"
3. Select "Show All Files"
4. Go to \Windows folder on Device
5. Find the file called "taskmgr" (it is 29.3K in size)
Not TaskMan
Not TaskManager
Not TaskManagerApp
Not TaskManagerLite
Not TaskMgr

It has to be "taskmgr" ... It's there believe me:


6. Press down on this file for about 2-3 seconds so the file menu opens and select copy

7. Go to "My Device\Windows\Startmenu\Programs

8. Click on Menu -> Edit -> Paste Shortcut

PART 1 DONE

Now Map it to a hard button for quick access

1. Click on Start -> Settings -> Personal -> Buttons

2. All we need to do now is assign the Send Key(Hold) to "taskmgr"

3. So in other words, anytime we hold down on the Talk button for ~2 seconds or so, instead of making a phone call or flipping the screen orientation, it will launch the above task manager instead.
(you can still make phone calls of course by just hitting the talk button normally, i.e. no long hold)



PART 2 DONE

That's it.

[billyapd21]

Is this what everyone is using to switch between apps. I really miss the task man in the upper right had corner. That's what I used to multitask and switch between open apps. Is there a solution to this?

[bubble]

QuickMenu seems to work nicely on 6.5.1.
Just click where the old start menu used to be.

[amory44ever]

thanks

[Existentialism]

I still use taskfacade. It isn't too slow for me, usually launches pretty quickly. The only problem I have with it, is that it crashes pretty often. Someone really needs to take up development on that. If a few issues could be worked, I'd pay for a working version.