ProcessAlive is a simple tool that automatically restarts selected processes when it detects that they have stopped. It’s useful if you have a background program that occasionally crashes or wish to run the same program repeatedly. Ensuring that critical processes do not become unavailable can also be accomplished with this tool. This is especially useful if you are running a game/web server.

This tool is still a work-in-progress.

How do I use this tool?

Just select a program that you wish to monitor by clicking the “+” icon. You can add any number of programs to the “keep alive” list. You can only select programs with a .exe extension at this time.

How does it work?

ProcessAlive continuously scans all the running programs on your computer from the system tray. If it notices that one of your selected processes is no longer running, it will re-launch the program.

Advanced Information

– When a process is re-spawned by ProcessAlive, it will inherit the permission granted to ProcessAlive. If you require that processes are launched with administrator rights, ProcessAlive must be run as an administrator too.

– You can specify one commandline argument per process. You do not need to wrap the argument in comma’s or other punctuation; unless the software in question specifically delimits arguments using the backslash or forwardslash character.

– If the program you wish to preserve immediately calls a secondary executable then exits, ProcessAlive will cause an infinite loop and crash your system. Always make sure that you directly call x64 versions of executable files, rather than allow the x86 version to delegate. ProcessAlive automatically checks for programs that use the {process_name}64.exe convention; but it’s inadvisable to rely on the build-in protections.

– The /AUTO commandline switch can be used to have ProcessAlive start monitoring programs automatically when launched. It will also hide the UI.



Version 0.9.1 – 16-June-2016

Changelog

0.1 – Initial release

0.2 – Added ‘Start with Windows’ and ‘Save list to a file’ option. Improved UI.

0.3 – Fixed ‘Start with Windows’ issues.

0.4 – Minimizes to tray when closed if monitoring in progress.

0.5 – Now closes properly from context menu.

0.6 – Added commandline argument support. Fixed BSOD caused by Piriform products.

0.7 – Added restart delay option. Improved performance.

0.8 – Improved list saving. UI improvements. /AUTO is now silent.

0.9 – UI Tweaks. Fixed issue where program couldn’t be stopped.

0.9.1 – Minor change to notification tray icon.

Please feel free to leave any comments and suggestions.