Running Tasks

The Running Tasks tab in Task Manager lists all active RTSS processes and/or Windows processes and drivers linked to RTX64 on your system and allows you to:

• start a new task
• end a running task
• schedule a running task to start automatically with the Subsystem
• view thread information for a running RTSS task

The Running Tasks tab includes the following columns:

Column	Description
Task	The name of the RTSS process or Windows process/driver linked to RTX64. Note that the icons for real time tasks (RTSS) are red and the icons for Windows tasks are black. Hover over a task to show the complete path. Click on a task to show additional information, such a list of threads in the process.
Parameters	The command line parameters associated with the task.
Status	The status of the active task: Running Under Debug Suspended Frozen
CPU	The percentage of CPU used by the running process. Information on the CPU usage per processor is available from the Performance tab.
Ideal	The Ideal Processor — the processor on which the thread will always run.
Affinity	Displays the processor affinity mask, as a list of comma-separated processor numbers that the application can run on.
PID	Process ID for the task.
Scheduled	Tasks that have been started automatically with the Subsystem as scheduled tasks are indicated with this icon: When multiple scheduled tasks are displayed, you can sort them using the sort arrow in the Scheduled column header.

Starting a Task

You can start real-time processes (.rtss) and/or Windows processes linked to RTX64 (.exe) through the Running Tasks tab in Task Manager.

NOTE: RTX64 Task Manager retains a history of recent processes and last known browse location on a per-user basis.

To start a task:

1. Click Start task... to launch the Start New Task dialog.
2. To select a process to run you can either:
   • Choose a recently run process from the Open dropdown (the last run process is selected by default).
   • Type the name of the .rtss file or .exe file.
   • Click the Browse button and choose an .rtss file or .exe file in the default directory (C:\Users\Current-User\Documents\) or navigate to a different directory. Executables can be either RTX64 or native Windows applications, for example SRTM.exe. If you select an .exe to run, the “Memory Allocation Behavior” section under Options is grayed out.

NOTE: You cannot run an RTSS process from a mapped drive.

3. (Optional) Type any required command line parameters. These are the same parameters you would enter if you ran the process from a command prompt.
4. (Optional) Click Options to see the available options:
   • Configure the process external MSpace (local memory only). Available options:
   • MSpace initial size. Change the initial size of the process external MSpace or use the current value set in RTX64 Control Panel.
   • Auto expand MSpace. To automatically expand MSpaces, select the check box and set the Expand size. To use the global configuration of this setting, clear selection of the check box (default).
   • Choose when to allocate the process external MSpace (non-deterministic). Choose whether to allocate process external MSpace at the first memory request (default) or at process start. In some cases, it might be preferable to absorb this allocation's non-determinism at process start time, rather than at an unpredictable later time in the process’s life cycle.

5. we offer this choice to the user because this allocation is non-deterministic, so the user may want to “spend” that non-determinism at process start time rather than at a hard-to-predict later time in the process’s life cycle.

   NOTE: These settings are grayed-out when Use Windows memory is set in RTX64 Control Panel.

   • Ideal processor: This is the processor on which this process's main thread will run.
   • Affinity mask: This is the set of processors on which this process' threads may run. Create the mask by enabling and disabling the processors provided. By default, the affinity mask contains all processors available to your application type. If you modify the affinity mask, it must at least include the processor you selected as the ideal processor.
6. Click OK to start the task.

Ending a Task

You can use Task Manager to forcibly terminate an RTSS process. However, you should always try to safely terminate processes whenever possible. When you forcibly terminate an RTSS process from the Task Manager, you have no control over when the process is terminated. The process might end in the middle of an operation that could result in a corruption of memory, which could in turn cause a Windows STOP.

IMPORTANT! It is recommended that you gracefully stop a RTSS process rather than kill it. When a process is killed, internal objects are not cleaned up correctly, which may result in an unstable subsystem state. You should only kill a process as a last resort.

To end a process:

1. Click on the process you want to end.
2. Click the End Task button or right mouse click and select End Task from the context menu.

NOTE: Ending a running task that is also a scheduled task does not remove that task. The scheduled task will start again with every subsequent Subsystem start until it is removed from the Scheduled Tasks tab.

Adding a Task as a Scheduled Task

You can schedule an active RTSS process to start automatically with every subsequent Subsystem start.

To schedule a task to start automatically with the Subsystem:

1. Right-click on the process you want to schedule to start automatically with the Subsystem.
2. Click Add as scheduled task.

The task is added to the list of scheduled tasks in the Scheduled Tasks tab.

NOTE: This method does not add command line parameters to the scheduled task. To do this, add parameters to the task in the Scheduled Tasks tab.