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AllOff Lite monitors the mouse, keyboard and CPU load and initiates computer power off ot hibernation if there has been no keyboard or mouse activity for 900 seconds and/or the average CPU load has been below 15% for over 60 seconds. A fixed shutdown time or a time after which shutdown occurs can be set which will override CPU and Keyboard/Mouse activity shutdown. AllOff Lite is part of the JSutils group of software utilities which have a theme of energy saving. To find more energy and money saving ideas check out Practical Home Energy Saving.
Uses of ALLoff Lite include unattended backup (shutting down the computer when the backup has completed) and shutting down a computer if the user forgets. It can be started via the Windows Task Scheduler, on start up or manually. AllOff Lite is a great little utility for saving energy by making sure a computer shuts down when not needed. If you need more functionality check out AllOff. The program requires a registration code to run - this can be obtained free for personal non commercial use from the download page. Commercial licences can be obtained via the licencing page. Registration codes from previous versions are compatible with version 4.1. To find out what is new and changed in version 4.1 have a look at History. Installation is simple just unzip the installer from the downloaded file, double click on the installer and follow the on screen instructions, shortcuts are installed for all users. As well as installing the program this will also install the help pages. AllOff Lite can be safely installed over previous installations. To change the functions selected re run the installer. You do not need to overwrite the configuration file when prompted when doing this. As well as installing the program this will also install the help pages. Start the program and enter the registration code to start using AllOff Lite. AllOff Lite supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The program needs administrator privileges to install. The program needs administrator privileges to install. Technical Notes relating to AllOff Lite can be found in the support section. By default both CPU load and Keyboard/Mouse detection are enabled however during installation you are given the option to disable either and/or add fixed time shutdown or shutdown after a fixed time, functions not selected are not displayed by the program when it runs. AllOff Lite operates by checking for keyboard and mouse activity plus the CPU load once a second. Each time there is activity the countdown timer is reset until the countdown time is reached and power off is initiated. Each time a key is pressed or the mouse is moved the activity will be displayed on the left of the main screen (when visible) with a 'K' indicating key presses and an 'M' indicating mouse movement. The average CPU load is also displayed. When fixed time shutdown or shutdown after a fixed time is enabled the time can be set from the main screen, clicking reset activates and saves the time set. AllOff Lite runs in the System Tray. The tray icon shows program state (inactive - blue letters, activity - green letters, no activity - orange and green letters, shutdown initiated - orange letters). Right clicking on the tray icon shows main screen control menu enabling the program to be controlled whilst minimised. Double clicking on the tray icon will restore AllOff Lite. Once power off is initiated AllOff Lite switches to visible 'run on top' and the About, Exit, Update and Test buttons are disabled. Power off can be cancelled by clicking the Cancel button which will put the program back in the System Tray unless the program was already visible. Program operation is inhibited while the About screen is open, this screen will automatically time out after 30 seconds if left open. CPU averaging works by adding the CPU load measured every second over an averaging period of 5 seconds and dividing it by the averaging period. This does mean that the average load can increase after the instantaneous CPU load has decreased due to previous values. This is especially noticeable with wide variations in CPU load. If the time the program has been active is less than the averaging period the time active is used as the averaging period. Click on the Test button to enable Test Mode which reduces keyboard, mouse and cpu monitoring periods to 5 seconds and puts up a pop up rather than powering off the computer. If fixed time shutdown or shutdown after a fixed delay is selected these times will be set to 6 seconds and 7 seconds respectively when Test is clicked. Clicking the Test button while in Test Mode will re-initialise Test Mode. Click the Reset button to exit Test Mode or to reset the program in operational mode. ed from the keyboard by pressing the <Alt> key and letter combination shown below:
The program consumes very little system resources but it does run with a high priority. Power off has been configured to force all running applications to close. For information about the log file see Log File. It is only possible to run one instance of AllOff Lite at a time. If AllOff Lite is in power off mode when an attempt to start a second instance occurs the error message will open beneath the first program window which will take priority. Clicking on the Update button on the main screen connects AllOff Lite to the JSutils web site to check if it is the latest version. If not you will get the opportunity to download the latest version. The Update button is disabled in shutdown mode. As part of our quality assurance program AllOff Lite is digitally signed using a Comodo certificate to give you confidence the software comes from us and that it has not been altered since we produced it. We also virus scan software continuously during development and check for other unwanted software using Kaspersky software. In addition our software is submitted to a number of sites for independent verification that it is clean. See the listing page for more information on who we use. Our policy is to continually enhance and improve our software which means that new releases are quite frequent, often these updates are triggered by user feedback which is vital to us. If you have a problem with this program, have any suggestions for improvement or have a novel use for it then let us know. Before reporting a problem always check the latest FAQ, Known Issues and other updated information. |
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