Haesslich

Mobile View - DinarSoft's MemMaid 2.0 Reviewed!

Just got the program myself, since I knew it'd be out today. Will try it out and see how it goes. Remember: current MemMaid 1.0 users get an upgrade discount; check out DinarSoft for details and the upgrade discount information.

Edit: First impressions are as follows:

1) Redone interface. Very VGA friendly, unlike the old one.

2) The RAM reclamation and compression functions are in the main Cleaning area, rather than in a separate "Reclaim RAM!" option in the right softkey. Much better this way, and the reclamation part actually WORKS now, like SKTools' version.

3) The "Look and Feel" menu lets you change the background and add custom highlights. Not necessary, but like the rest of the UI changes, it makes things prettier and a lot easier to look at, especially with VGA.

4) The Registry and other browsers are quite useful - you can actually edit the registry somewhat with MemMaid 2.0, as well as export and import portions of it.

5) The System Tweaks section is a lot more organized and useful this time - being able to edit things like the Opera Download Directory, cache size, and other things is handy, and easier than doing edits from the Opera.ini file with NotePad. Haven't tried adjusting the SD/MMC transfer size yet though I remember how to do it in the registry, and I haven't edited that on this system yet as it didn't improve file throughput that much.

6) The Services/Startup area hasn't changed one whit, unlike all of the other sections. It's prettier, but functionally identical.

7) The new Storage Usage option, which replaced the previous version, seems to take forever to run. The one in 1.0 was done in about 20 seconds; this one's been going a minute and it's still searching. The Cab installer option's interesting if you're trying to organize any CAB files that might be on your PPC, but since I keep all of mine on the same folder in the same card, it's less necessary for me as a way to locate files than it is to figure out how much space I've used up. The same cannot be said about the Card Tools; the latter has options to reformat a card, scan it, and tweak thinks like adding "Ignore My Docs" and other settings.

8) The CPU usage view is VERY useful, and a feature missing from SKTools, which is the main rival for this program as far as I'm concerned. Separating "Running Programs" from "Running Tasks" was also very useful for cutting through the clutter, providing a desktop-like interface for managing active tasks.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the improvements; it's bulked up into a tool suite like SKTools, but with a far more user-friendly interface; the SKKV software people have made great strides in organizing SKTools and making sure it had explanations for every feature used, but DinarSoft's MemMaid 2.0 is far ahead of them in terms of ease of use, and has one extra benefit in the CPU Usage viewer. However, they're missing in-program access to the Help files, which could be problematic if you're using the Scan or some of the other features in the program which can potentially screw-up your install. The ability, on first start, to go into "Basic" mode rather than "Advanced" mode helps mitigate this - it moves MemMaid into a more 1.x like state, which keeps it from being able to trash a program install or a storage card, at the expense of power and customizability.

LocutusBorgMan

Originally Posted by Haesslich

Mobile View - DinarSoft's MemMaid 2.0 Reviewed! Just got the program myself, since I knew it'd be out today. Will try it out and see how it goes. Remember: current MemMaid 1.0 users get an upgrade discount; check out DinarSoft for details and the upgrade discount information. Edit: First impressions are as follows: 1) Redone interface. Very VGA friendly, unlike the old one. 2) The RAM reclamation and compression functions are in the main Cleaning area, rather than in a separate "Reclaim RAM!" option in the right softkey. Much better this way, and the reclamation part actually WORKS now, like SKTools' version. 3) The "Look and Feel" menu lets you change the background and add custom highlights. Not necessary, but like the rest of the UI changes, it makes things prettier and a lot easier to look at, especially with VGA. 4) The Registry and other browsers are quite useful - you can actually edit the registry somewhat with MemMaid 2.0, as well as export and import portions of it. 5) The System Tweaks section is a lot more organized and useful this time - being able to edit things like the Opera Download Directory, cache size, and other things is handy, and easier than doing edits from the Opera.ini file with NotePad. Haven't tried adjusting the SD/MMC transfer size yet though I remember how to do it in the registry, and I haven't edited that on this system yet as it didn't improve file throughput that much. 6) The Services/Startup area hasn't changed one whit, unlike all of the other sections. It's prettier, but functionally identical. 7) The new Storage Usage option, which replaced the previous version, seems to take forever to run. The one in 1.0 was done in about 20 seconds; this one's been going a minute and it's still searching. The Cab installer option's interesting if you're trying to organize any CAB files that might be on your PPC, but since I keep all of mine on the same folder in the same card, it's less necessary for me as a way to locate files than it is to figure out how much space I've used up. The same cannot be said about the Card Tools; the latter has options to reformat a card, scan it, and tweak thinks like adding "Ignore My Docs" and other settings. 8) The CPU usage view is VERY useful, and a feature missing from SKTools, which is the main rival for this program as far as I'm concerned. Separating "Running Programs" from "Running Tasks" was also very useful for cutting through the clutter, providing a desktop-like interface for managing active tasks. Overall, I'm quite happy with the improvements; it's bulked up into a tool suite like SKTools, but with a far more user-friendly interface; the SKKV software people have made great strides in organizing SKTools and making sure it had explanations for every feature used, but DinarSoft's MemMaid 2.0 is far ahead of them in terms of ease of use, and has one extra benefit in the CPU Usage viewer. However, they're missing in-program access to the Help files, which could be problematic if you're using the Scan or some of the other features in the program which can potentially screw-up your install. The ability, on first start, to go into "Basic" mode rather than "Advanced" mode helps mitigate this - it moves MemMaid into a more 1.x like state, which keeps it from being able to trash a program install or a storage card, at the expense of power and customizability.

Thanks for the heads up. One of the original reasons I bought MemMaid was the Reclaim RAM feature. Unfortunately it never really worked. Glad to see that you report it works in the new version, but its a shame to have to fork over more $ to get feature that was advertised to be in the last version.

Haesslich

It works better in MemMaid 2.0 (it did the equivalent of SKTool's "Compact heaps" tool, but SKTools seems to be a tad more thorough when it comes to cleaning up - the latter actually goes through the whole 'system resources are low' call, and I haven't seen MemMaid 2.0 doing that yet. However, given how rarely I use that in SKTools, I can forgive Dinarsoft for avoiding that type of feature, at least for what I've done with it.

One extra point: The 'reclaim RAM' bit can be done as part of the "Quick Cleaner" - it's a checkbox, so you can clear the cache on the storage RAM and also have it clearing Program RAM. With the 'Scheduled Cleanup' functionality, this potentially could leap ahead of SKTools in that one respect. It also means I don't have to depend on SKTools as often for a lot of the things I used to (the Compact Heaps feature I use all the time, due to WBA3's RAM usage), and the ability to muck about the registry from within the same program is a very nice perk.

I forked over the $10 to get everything else, to be honest - the RAM cleaning feature's great, but the better interface and extra cleaner tools are why I feel I'm getting my money's worth with this. It's evolved from just being a 'maid' to a 'major domo', as far as the PDA's concerned. SKTools, however, remains the groundskeeper and fixer-upper of things. But they make a GREAT combination.

gasusan2005

:yeah:

Thanks!

Susan

Haesslich

Yup. I knew it'd be out today, so jumped on it as soon as it showed up. Wisbar Advance 3, SKTools, MemMaid, and a few other applications have process viewers which allow one to kill running processes. Previously, the only other applications to show CPU usage took about $10-20 to get just for that and some of the same process killing functionality, so I'd have to say I'm quite happy with MemMaid 2.0. I haven't dug much into the Storage Card management features yet (the scan seems to be something akin to a disk scan, to judge by how it risks killing data), but so far everything else seems to work well.

And while the ReclaimRAM function is supposed to ask programs to free up space as well... it doesn't feel as aggressive as SKTools' version. Not that I really mind, not in the end - it does a good enough job, and it's pretty easy to get to. So far, I'd have to say this is a worthy upgrade, and a no-brainer if you bought MemMaid 1.x in the past two or so months (which entitles you to a free upgrade).

ZipperHead

Hey, thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out.

-Zip

DinarSoft

Haesslich,

You did a very good review actually.

We have updated MemMaid 2.0 to address the performance issues as well as the Help menu item.
Storage usage as well as the notifications are a lot faster now, even faster than 1.73.

We have other comments/explain on your review:

- Services/Startup did actually change in this version. You can now stop/start services. Disable/Enable services and startup programs. Also you get information about the program that installed the service or the startup

- The CAB installed has an added feature on top the default system behavior which MemMaid will prevent deleting the CAB file during the install.

- There is the installed programs feature. It shows the currently installed programs, all the installed files and their sizes. and unlike other programs we show also the install date.
Finally if you want to uninstall, we recommend using MemMaid as it will keep track of what's left to make sure you get clean install that you do not even need to execute any cleaner after.

- With the running processes/programs, you can compact select programs which could help you diagnose specific programs that eat up your memory.

Another diagnostic tool is if you tap & hold on the list of installed programs/ list of running programs/ list of notifications. you can actually export the list to a text file that you can later diagnose or compare.

- Did you try the cleaning schedule?

Haesslich

I noticed that Services functionality after I posted the review, while tinkering with it. The Notifications part didn't change as much, but you DID add the Services list and have those Green circles to show what's running. No, I haven't tried the cleaning schedule yet, but I may set up one this weekend - and I didn't know about the ability to compact specific processes. I think this is what I wanted the 'in-program access to the help file' functionality for... which you put in, along with improvements in loading up the "Storage Card" functionality with 2.0.093.

Thanks again for reading and providing timely updates. :D Like I said in the other thread, this is the sort of thing which made me jump in without hesitation when you released the program a few days ago.

DinarSoft

Originally Posted by Haesslich

I noticed that Services functionality after I posted the review, while tinkering with it. The Notifications part didn't change as much, but you DID add the Services list and have those Green circles to show what's running. No, I haven't tried the cleaning schedule yet, but I may set up one this weekend - and I didn't know about the ability to compact specific processes. I think this is what I wanted the 'in-program access to the help file' functionality for... which you put in, along with improvements in loading up the "Storage Card" functionality with 2.0.093. Thanks again for reading and providing timely updates. :D Like I said in the other thread, this is the sort of thing which made me jump in without hesitation when you released the program a few days ago.

Thank you again for the nice comments :)
We actually want to invite you to take another look at the notification queue tab as we have many updates to this feature too :)

- Ability to create WM5/6 notifications
- grouping of the notification based on their types
- icons for the associated programs for easier identification
- Find duplicates/expired/dangling and invlid
- Search for notifications by program or type
- Rebuild notification queue
- Recreate ActiveSync entries

We have so many updates in each feature we used to have, it's just going to be very hard to list all updates :)

Regards,
DinarSoft

Haesslich

I saw the 'Rebuild' option there after installing - I take it this'll compact the ever-growing Notification queue DB somewhat in the process for a smaller size? And I've been using this to do some cleaning, so no complaints about the extra functionality.

Incidentally, could you put a changelog up somewhere? It'd be nice to have as a reference, to show 'what got added'.