Application Processing Time

[Bubba]

G'day. I have a general question regarding running apps.

If one has TWO applications open (say Adobe and Word), both are maximized
and Word is the app that has focus and adobe is behind Word. Does the
processing time (CPU allotment) for adobe diminish?

Also, if I minimize one app (say Adobe) does this mean that the front
running app (i.e. the one that is maximized) have or receive more processing
time?

I understand the priority strategy of running apps and that one can change
them (carefully of course).

Using Task Manager, I cannot see any loss of processing time (cpu
utilization) for either app.

I hope these make sense.

BTW: The reason I ask is that a sales person told me that a minimized app
will not receive the same amount of processing time as if it were maximized.
I think I call nonsense on this one...

 

[ayestyles]

G'day. I have a general question regarding running apps.

If one has TWO applications open (say Adobe and Word), both are maximized
and Word is the app that has focus and adobe is behind Word. Does the
processing time (CPU allotment) for adobe diminish?

Also, if I minimize one app (say Adobe) does this mean that the front
running app (i.e. the one that is maximized) have or receive more processing
time?

I understand the priority strategy of running apps and that one can change
them (carefully of course).

Using Task Manager, I cannot see any loss of processing time (cpu
utilization) for either app.

I hope these make sense.

BTW: The reason I ask is that a sales person told me that a minimized app
will not receive the same amount of processing time as if it were maximized.
I think I call nonsense on this one...

The minimized application would not be doing anything so it would not
be using any more or less processor time. When you scroll in adobe-
you will increase the amount of processor utilization, making the
statement by the salesman true- but it's not because it's minimized
it's because it's not UTILIZED. Same goes for any application.
Services of course, can do things in the background (i.e. run a
scheduled routine for application maintenance) but these are very
different fromd desktop applications such as word or adobe.

A

 

[Bob I]

G'day. I have a general question regarding running apps.

If one has TWO applications open (say Adobe and Word), both are maximized
and Word is the app that has focus and adobe is behind Word. Does the
processing time (CPU allotment) for adobe diminish?

Also, if I minimize one app (say Adobe) does this mean that the front
running app (i.e. the one that is maximized) have or receive more processing
time?

I understand the priority strategy of running apps and that one can change
them (carefully of course).

Using Task Manager, I cannot see any loss of processing time (cpu
utilization) for either app.

I hope these make sense.

BTW: The reason I ask is that a sales person told me that a minimized app
will not receive the same amount of processing time as if it were maximized.
I think I call nonsense on this one...

The application would have to be actually "processing" data for
"processing time" to be valid. A word document is normally static as is
an adobe PDF file. On the other hand IF you were to be "creating" a PDF
then you would be "processing", and the "foreground/background" thing
used to apply when we were using Windows 98, this is NT. You can select
betwen Services and Programs, but forground/background, pffffttt.

 

[Bubba]

Thanks Bob for the comments. However, I think I have to disagree to some
degree.

In the 20+ years that I have been an MCSE and MCT, I actually never gave
this
too much thought, so thought I'd do some additional research.

I downloaded SysInternals Process Monitor and set up the following test:

1) Ran Word,
2) Ran Photoshop.

I then ran Process Explorer and monitored the Performance tab for both apps
and had Process explorer in the foreground (i.e. both apps in background NOT
minimized). Both the User and Total times counters kept increasing. I then
minimized both apps and the same results occurred (albeit smaller changes).

I then monitored the Thread Counts for both apps and they constantly
changed.

I thought "something is happening in both apps that has to have something to
do with the counters and time changing".

Trying to be as detailed and accurate as I could, I then disabled the NIC
and low and behold the User and Total times (as well as the Thread counts)
did not change as rapidly. So I attribute those changes to "perhaps" both
apps connecting to the web for updates or something similar.

I made sure that every other Tray App and Anti-virus software was shut down
(thinking perhaps they were chatting with Word and Photoshop - hmmm - just a
guess here).

In any case, I then shut down one app and left the other app running (1st
Word, then Pshop - I then reversed the process). In both cases, when one
app shut down, the other app received more process time (even though it was
behind Process Monitor).

As another test, I then minimized both apps and the counters decreased
again.

In other words:
When I minimized Word (first) it's user time counter slowed down. I then
maximized Word and minimized Pshop, the same result occurred, specifically
Pshop User time slowed down.

So, my interim conclusion is that apps will receive process time even though
they are in the background and/or minimized.

From some quick Googling, I discovered that apps will receive process time
in a Background/Foreground scenario "At All Times". The amount of process
time they receive is dependant on whether the app is running in "Synch or
Async" mode, in addition the type of threading (Apartment Single Thread, or
Apartment Multiple Threading) effects how much time the app will receive.

Finally, one of my associates that helped develop OpenBSD suggested that
an app will "Always" receive some process time since a thread (or multiple
threads) are running waiting for "System Messages" etc.

I hope this doesn't offend and in retrospect, I could/should have done this
research first, instead of being laxidazicale.

Cheers and thanks for sparking me to do what I should have done at the
outset.



BTW: I ran a few similar tests using PMS (Performance Monitoring System)
and added counters for each app. The results were similar, but weren't as
conclusive as Process Monitor.