List of Windows Mobile Processes (Wisbar Advance 3)

We all know that Windows Mobile (at least in it’s current incarnation) supports multi-tasking, providing the ability to run multiple applications at one time.  One might think that the ability to multi-task, along with the large amount of RAM available on some of the newer devices (my Touch Pro includes over 200 MB, 160 MB+ as user accessible) means that as many apps as the amount of RAM can account for are able to be open in one instance.  At least, that’s what I thought.  I run several applications that maintain processes in the background, including Wisbar Advance, Hi-Launcher, and Resco Contact Manager.  I also keep one app minimized in the background:  Pocket Battery Analyzer by WizCode.  The app does a good job of charting battery percentages over time.  I like to know how my battery fares.

Recently I started noticing Pocket Battery Analyzer seemed to be closing by itself.  I went through all of the typical troubleshooting issues, include a soft reset, reinstalling the program, checking for registry problems, etc.  Growing frustration with the problem, I started looking for a trend.  I began to notice that when running a couple of additional programs at one time, or checking my mail, which also caused my weather and RSS to update, it would close.  This was irritating since it meant my graph would not be accurate after restarting.  I like accurate graphs.

After doing some research (the guys and gals at XDA-Devs are a wealth of knowledge), I learned that how many apps you can run at once is not dictated by a device’s RAM.  Instead, it is dictated by a number hard coded into the operating system.  You can run 32 applications at one time.  When you start to approach this number, the operating system starts closing programs without your interaction or permission.  This is what I was experiencing.  You might say that there’s no way a person will be running 32 programs at once.  You’re likely pretty right on there, but you have to keep in mind that this limit of 32 processes also means anything that the OS has to run to stay active.  This includes processes like gwes.exe, which controls your devices touch screen interaction with the hardware and cprog.exe, the phone application.  If you run programs that provide additional customization, like Finger Menu, Wisbar Advance or Hi-Launcher, you can bet that they are adding a process or two into the mix behind the scenes as well.  Also, programs that auto-update also tend to keep a process running in the background, waiting for their time to fetch.

In conclusion, if you start experiencing anything like I’ve described here, you should grab a task manager that shows running processes and start monitoring what is being opened at startup.  You might need to trim down your startup apps or turn off auto-update on a few programs.  In the end you should end up with a much more stable OS, and one that’s not prone to closing down your much needed background apps.

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