Apr 7, 2010 Posted by Albert Becker in Tools, Utilities | 13 comments

ArkSwitch 1.1.4 – windows mobile 6.5.x users have to try this task manager

ArkSwitch is a finger-friendly task manager for Windows Mobile 6.5.3 devices (with a WM6.5 compatibility mode). There are a lot of task managers in the windows mobile community and I have tested nearly all of them on my own device, now I can say that I have found one task manager that fulfills all my wishes.

After the installation and a soft reset, the task manager starts unnoticed in the background. If you touch your screen in the right top corner the application appears. And this happens very fast, during my test I have never seen a lag or problems with starting ArkSwitch. The user interface is very clear. If you have running programs in the background you will see them listed in the task manager. You have the possibility to close every program by pressing the cross on the right side or even all programs by using the “close all” button. If you press on the icon of any program you can see some information about it. If you don’t want to see the program in the task manager (when you are using it all the time) you can add it to the exclusion-list easily. Other way to exclude some applications is to type in directly the full path and filename of the process (this is the difficult way). Similarly simple is the way to delete the programs from the exclusion-list. To switch between different running applications you need to press the activation field of ArkSwitch on the taskbar and choose your app, this is very easy and very fast way to use more than one program at the same time.

Another great idea from the developer (Arktronic) is the customizable activation field! In the options of ArkSwitch you can determine where on the taskbar you want to press to launch the task manager. You have the possibility to occupy the whole taskbar of your device or you can put the field into a corner! So it does not matter if you are left or right-handed, you will always be able to adapt the task manager to your needs.

But ArkSwitch does not only show the running programs, it also shows you all running processes in the background! Just slide your finger across from left to right and task manager will show you all running processes. But be careful, here you are able to close even operation system processes, so if you don’t know what the strange processes (like device.exe or gwes.exe) are, don’t close them!

You are looking for a task manager for your windows mobile device that has a nice looking and very clear user interface? You need a task manager that always works reliably? Then I recommend ArkSwitch! This is one of the best task manager applications I have ever used. You can download it for free from codeplex or xda-developers.

Screenshots:

Tested On : HTC HD2

Pros :

• easy to use
• very clear user interface
• free of charge
• customizable activation field

Cons :

• no sorting possibility
• no automatically updates
• only one language (English) Update : ArkSwitch isn’t English-only; right now it supports French, Italian, and Russian.

Possible Improvements : The developer should add the function to sort the running programs by their resource size or by their name. There is not much of text in the application but I think our non English speaking friends would appreciate localized languages support. The developer is still working on his task manager, it would be great to have automatically updates.

Want custom themes ? Check out these from xda-developers : SimpleGloss Blue | Dusk | NinjaBlack | Purple Pimp | SRG

Tags: ArkSwitch, Arktronic, open-source, task manager

13 Responses to “ArkSwitch 1.1.4 – windows mobile 6.5.x users have to try this task manager”

1. Saijo George says:

   April 7, 2010 at 6:37 pm

   personally I would keep the activation bar on the top left and not at the top right

   Reply
   • msrox says:

     April 7, 2010 at 6:54 pm

     hi there,
     would you please let me know what is the theme that you used in the video in this page? my htc hd2 has start at top and has X button, but yours does not have, and is very beautiful.

     thanks for your reply.
     msrox

     Reply
2. Albert Becker says:

   April 7, 2010 at 7:45 pm

   hi, if your start button is on the top you have windows mobile 6.5! what you see in there video is windows mobile 6.5.3! there is no official update to this version, the only way to get it its to flash your device. I would recommend to visit home of xda-developers.com to get more information about it.

   Reply
3. Andrew Pelt says:

   April 30, 2010 at 10:49 pm

   best reviews for me.

   Reply
   • Albert Becker says:

     May 2, 2010 at 2:03 am

     we are glad to have helped you with our review

     Reply

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