I don't want to keep talking about Process Lasso all the time, but I've just felt the need to go against the grain - and share my honest experience that Process Lasso hasn't been particularly useful - and to give an update on my experiences.
Since last posting about it, I finally learned why Process Lasso did absolutely nothing to stop processes like instup.exe and svchost.exe from using high amounts of CPU. By default, under "Options > ProBalance settings ...[,]" the option "Do not act on system services" is checkmarked.
Well, no wonder Process Lasso didn't do crap. I guess it'll work now, right? Wrong. It still hasn't been helpful. In some ways, it's actually made my system worse.
Now, Process Lasso did actually start trying to restrain processes like instup.exe and svchost.exe when they used high amounts of CPU. Hey, at least it was now trying - unlike before when it didn't do anything. But the thing is - it doesn't even matter. It still doesn't help. My audio still stutters, and the processes still use high amounts of CPU - regardless of the lower priority to which they've been set.
On top of that, I've noticed another really weird thing that Process Lasso has done - in a way actually making my system worse. On at least three different occasions (November 7th, November 15th, and today), I've noticed that whenever I do uncheck "Do not act on system services[,]" for some weird reason, Google Chrome starts using more CPU - and my audio stutters whenever I actively use Chrome. I must stress that this is not a computer hardware problem because I never had this problem happen before unchecking "Do not act on system services[.]" I've tried closing and reloading Chrome, but that does no good. The only thing that works is re-checkmarking "Do not act on system services" - and then restarting Windows. I've done that at least three times, and it has consistently fixed any audio stuttering that I experienced when actively using Chrome after unchecking "Do not act on system services[.]" There shouldn't be any reason why my computer should be acting this way, but it has.
Process Lasso doesn't work by default by controlling the processes that need to be controlled, and even when I do adjust the settings so that it can control the right processes, it doesn't work. Not only that, but it actually creates more audio stuttering and high CPU usage that didn't previously exist. So the only thing that I can do - short of getting a real CPU tamer (if one exists) is to keep checkmarked "Do not act on system services" - and grin and bear the occasional CPU usage surges of instup.exe and svchost.exe. At least the CPU usage surges and audio stuttering caused by those processes were occasional - but the ones caused by Chrome after unchecking "Do not act on system services" are much more annoying.
If Process Lasso doesn't work by default, and if changing settings creates more problems, then what's even the point of Process Lasso?
Process Lasso should make a user's experience smoother - and stop important, foreground programs from locking up, lagging, stuttering, and so on. It does none of that. It's almost completely ineffective. Yeah, it'll nominally lower the priorities of some processes, but that doesn't matter. They'll still use high CPU and cause my audio to stutter - and will cause programs to use more CPU when they didn't do so before.
I don't want to insult or criticize the designer(s) of Process Lasso, but it has just simply been a big disappointment. Aside from helping somewhat with disk usage on my HP laptops, it has been largely ineffective. Process Lasso should be designed so that it maintains dedicated resources for active, foreground programs.
