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AlwaysUp version 14 is available for download!
This new release focuses on making AlwaysUp the best tool for running multiple applications as Windows Services. Here are some of the highlights.
Significant performance improvements when running many applications
Our development team rolled up their sleeves to review the code base and tune key internal components to improve efficiency. Expensive operations — like scanning the desktop for application crash windows — were optimized by caching frequent lookups and selecting lightweight Win32 API functions when possible.
The details are very technical so we won’t get into them here, but it was a major exercise that resulted in a huge performance boost.
And our in-house analysis indicates that customers running several programs with AlwaysUp will reap the most benefits. Specifically, tests on a Windows Server 2022 computer show that AlwaysUp 14 reduces CPU load by:
1 to 5% when managing a single application as a Windows Service
10 to 20% when 5 programs are installed as services
Up to 45% when AlwaysUp is running more than 25 applications.
We also benchmarked a few extreme scenarios to see how the new code performs. In one such test, we were happy to see that CPU load remained relatively low even after we overloaded our computer with more than 100 services:
Please don’t try that at home!
The Application Advisor helps you install Emby Server and Java WAR files
Do you want to start the popular Emby Media Server as soon as your computer boots?
Or are you deploying a Java WAR package to run 24/7 inside your organization?
If so, you’ll be happy to know that both Emby and Java WAR applications can be added to AlwaysUp in a few clicks!
Indeed, with the easy to use Application Advisor, you won’t need to mess with command line parameters or obscure options. That’s because the Advisor understands how applications and services work. As such, it will handle all complexity and quickly produce a Windows Service with the best/recommended settings.
For example, to setup Emby, all you need to enter is the password for your Windows account. The Application Advisor does everything else:
AlwaysUp is fully compatible with Windows 10 & 11 22H2
As usual, Microsoft continues to issue twice-yearly updates to its Windows operating systems.
Windows 10 22H2 began rolling out to customers on October 18. However, as a member of the Windows Insider program, we’ve been playing with that version since August.
Similarly, Windows 11 22H2 started rolling out in September. And like Windows 10 22H2, we’ve been evaluating it for over a month now.
Our assessment? AlwaysUp continues to work flawlessly with both operating systems. In some sense, that is to be expected as Microsoft has left the Windows Services layer untouched.
Other fixes & improvements
We’ve added support for services that don’t return a valid description (e.g. McpManagementService) on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
AlwaysUp now tolerates Active Directory slowness when creating a new Windows Service. In previous versions, service creation might time out when validating the Windows account with the Active Directory server.
In rare circumstances, handling Windows event logs with millions of records would result in hangs and slowdowns. Our team reworked the code to efficiency read records from massive event logs.
AlwaysUp 14 preserves the desktop’s visual styles/themes when launching the application in the current session. No more “strange looking” window borders!
As usual, please review the release notes for the full list of features, fixes and improvements included in AlwaysUp version 14.
Upgrading to AlwaysUp 14
If you purchased AlwaysUp version 13 (after October 2021), you can upgrade to version 14 for free. Simply download and install “over the top” to preserve your existing applications and all settings. Your registration code will continue to work as well.
If you bought AlwaysUp version 12 or earlier (before October 2021), you will need to upgrade to use version 14. Consequently, please purchase upgrades here — at a 50% discount.
See the complete upgrade policy for additional details.
Thank you for reading!
