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 Gumby
Zoologist of sorts.
Registered: 06/13/01
Posts: 13,740
Loc: Where god would give Eart...
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 Start/stop XP services via shortcut?
#8594926 - 07/04/08 01:21 PM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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I'm running two instances of the console version of Folding@Home because I have a dual core processor. As expected, the two instances use up damn near 100% of processing power.
Now when I have to use some kind of processor intensive app, like Photoshop, I have to stop the services because I need the processing power. It's a pain to do the hassle of "right click my computer>manage>services and applications>scroll down the list>right click one service>stop>right click other service>stop"
I was wondering if it would be possible to start/stop these services via an intelligently crafted shortcut command.
Anyone know if this is possible or have any other quick solutions for starting/stopping services?
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"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power."
- P. J. O'Rourke
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 Ythan
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Registered: 08/08/97
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Loc: Upstate NY
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Re: Start/stop XP services via shortcut? [Re: Gumby]
#8594975 - 07/04/08 01:39 PM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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Quote:
Gumby said:
Now when I have to use some kind of processor intensive app, like Photoshop, I have to stop the services because I need the processing power.
Well, by default Folding@home runs at idle priority and on any modern operating system it will not steal cycles from higher priority apps like Photoshop. I suppose there could be a small effect if F@H pushes Photoshop instructions out of the CPU cache, but this probably isn't something you'd notice unless you're running synthetic benchmarks. If you're actually observing slowdowns (and not just worried about the possibility), I'd venture a guess it's because of F@H's memory utilization. Make sure you have the "allow workunits over 5MB in size" option disabled (bigpackets=no in your client.cfg).
But to answer your question you can use the commands net stop "servicename" and net start "servicename" to control services from the command line. You can easily create a shortcut for these commands if you wish.
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Gumby
Zoologist of sorts.
Registered: 06/13/01
Posts: 13,740
Loc: Where god would give Eart...
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Re: Start/stop XP services via shortcut? [Re: Ythan]
#8595434 - 07/04/08 04:10 PM (4 months, 17 days ago) |
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Thanks a lot Ythan.
I definitely notice a big difference when processing large images in Photoshop with F@H on/off. Photoshop renders images much more quickly when F@H services are stopped. Memory typically isn't an issue, I have 2 gigs physical RAM.
I'll try making that shortcut. 
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"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power."
- P. J. O'Rourke
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Diploid
Cuban
Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 9,909
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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 Re: Start/stop XP services via shortcut? [Re: Gumby]
#8599403 - 07/06/08 01:04 AM (4 months, 16 days ago) |
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I definitely notice a big difference when processing large images in Photoshop with F@H on/off.
This doesn't make any sense. F@H runs at idle priority. It completely stops executing and unloads its context a few nanoseconds after another application requests the CPU. And it stays out of the way as long as anything else needs the CPU.
In other words, it only uses CPU cycles that get thrown away in the operating system's idle loop. It doesn't steal any that would actually get used by anything.
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Gumby
Zoologist of sorts.
Registered: 06/13/01
Posts: 13,740
Loc: Where god would give Eart...
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Re: Start/stop XP services via shortcut? [Re: Diploid]
#8606479 - 07/07/08 11:03 PM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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Ehh...
If I try to apply some sort of filter or resize some massive image while F@H is running it definitely goes a LOT slower than if it was not running.
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"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power."
- P. J. O'Rourke
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zouden
Neuroscientist
Registered: 11/12/07
Posts: 3,219
Loc: Australia
Last seen: 43 minutes, 48 seconds
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Re: Start/stop XP services via shortcut? [Re: Gumby]
#8606902 - 07/08/08 02:23 AM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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It's easy enough for the OS to handle CPU timesharing, as Diploid says. But shifting memory allocation takes much longer. I think the RAM is probably the bottleneck here.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
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Re: Start/stop XP services via shortcut? [Re: zouden]
#8607038 - 07/08/08 04:22 AM (4 months, 14 days ago) |
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> This doesn't make any sense
Yet I notice the same thing as others... I suspect windows "only run when idle" scheduling is a bit misleading. Knowing windows, it probably just slows the entire system down creating idle time for the idle only processes to run within. 
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Just another spore in the wind.
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