Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   harpo2448
   Member

   Re: May-18-2011 offer:

   http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/true-timetracker/ (v1.7x)

   Anyone else notice the following issue with True Time Tracker (from ExtraSpy) that was offered earlier this week? Could it possibly be due to something else on my system, or is the buildup in the number of "handles" a process uses always solely due to the process itself (and needing a code rewrite)?

   Using TaskInfo ( http://www.iarsn.com , like Sysinternals Process Explorer) I found that True Time Tracker was using 150,000+ handles after about 8 hours use (many times the number of handles in use by all other processes combined), and my computer was starting to misbehave. This was WITHOUT enabling the option for saving any screen snapshots.

   Exiting TTT restored the responsiveness I originally had.

   Also I’m not sure what the “silent” option does since with or without it TTT seems to always repeat the pop-up-tip message that it will be available in the system tray. It’s annoying to not have an option to turn that reminder message off whenever I initially log into the account and it automatically loads.

   The features of TTT seem to work OK, but I can’t leave my system running for more than a day without it goofing things up due to the “handles” issue (is that the same as “leaks”?).

   Hopefully they’ll fix this as it otherwise seems to be a pretty good balance of basic/automatically-collected project time and cost management info useful for individuals.

   I noticed that v1.6 of TTT was reviewed by "dotTech"/Ashraf for the GOTD of December 16, 2010, but he did not mention the "handles" issue I've experience with this v1.7.0.146:

   http://dottech.org/shareware-reviews/19674
   http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/true-time-tracker/ (v1.6x)

   Any ideas, anyone?

   p.s. Thanks for the offer, ExtraSpy and GOTD -- it's got me checking into this kind of title for a good one but without the resource hog issues!

   Maybe I'll try some of the other titles that were mentioned in the Comments that day such as ManicTime and TimeSnapper (thanks, Fubar!), as well as those mentioned on "Best Free Project Time-keeping Utility":

   http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-project-time-keeping-utility.htm

   http://www.alternativeto.net/software/true-time-tracker/

   ManicTime: http://www.manictime.com
   Task Coach: http://www.taskcoach.org/
   Time Tracker: http://www.ttracker.sourceforge.net/
   etc.

   Posted 12 years ago #
2. 

   harpo2448
   Member

   Still no word from the developer in response to my message left directly to their technical support. I realize we are not entitled to "routine" support, but I thought this would at least have resulted in a comment.

   Perhaps they are actually investigating before replying (wishful thinking)?...

   Posted 12 years ago #
3. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Thanks for this post Harpo; I installed the program onto one of my older systems and am having the same issues. The pop up message that keeps floating upthe right side of the sceen has beome an annoyance moreso when I'm playing games like Terraria and Left 4 Dead 2 because it would drop the games to the desktop everytime the message appeared. I didn't think to check the handls question. I must reinsall sys internals

   Looks like it's time to delete.

   Posted 12 years ago #
4. 

   harpo2448
   Member

   Whiterabbit

   If you haven't uninstalled this yet, and you otherwise like it, then I'm pretty sure you can turn off the pop-up message that keeps floating up the right side of the screen.

   Open the main GUI window, select SETTINGS, then uncheck the box PROJECT REMINDER, INTERVAL where you'll also see the associated interval time in minutes.

   That should take care of it. I can see how that would interfere with full screen games where they take over the video from Windows, but I didn't encounter that problem (yet) since I hadn't tried any games.

   I like the display, but wish the "handles" in use wouldn't build up so rapidly. Did you get to check it out with, say, SysInternals Process Explorer? You'd have to double-click on TTT.EXE to bring up the process Properties window, then select the Performance tab to see the number of handles.

   (Personally I've been using TaskInfo (www.iarsn.com) for a number of years as I like the way it displays details like handles, read-rate, % CPU, etc., in a columnar format (which can be rearranged by dragging) so as to be able to easily compare processes and identify which ones are out of wack.)

   Sure wish the ExtraSpy folks would respond either here or to my e-mail. This may hint at their level of customer support (although I realize we're not entitled to any). I would think, though, they'd at least acknowledge a notification about an apparent flaw in their product... I know I would...

   Posted 12 years ago #
5. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   I've not got around to sorting it yet as it's on one of my secondary computers. I had to use it last week due to a minor disaster last week. I'm now bck to using my primary computer, so it's less of a problem .Still I should get it sorted as the kids use it when they have friends around and want to play a networked game.

   I agree with you about ExtraSpy. They are sort of shooting themselves in the foot if they don't respond (IMO) as the giveaway site has thousands of followers, most of which will look negatively at a lack of response. That could equate to a loss of decent money.

   I'll have to check out Task Info, not used it before. Thanks for the link.

   W.R.

   Posted 12 years ago #

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