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Service Protector Version History / Release Notes |
We're dedicated to keeping Service Protector up to date by constantly adding features, fixing bugs,
and supporting the latest Windows releases.
Take a look at our past updates to see our ongoing commitment to continuous improvement
Version 10
10.5.1.94 (December 20 2024) 
New features
- New sanity check: Restart the service if one or more critical events are written to a Windows Event Log.
- Added support for sorting protectors/services in the main window.
Fixes & Improvements
- Improved efficiency when processing records from the Windows Event Logs.
- When a sanity check fails, write its transcript to the Event Log (to facilitate troubleshooting).
- Fixed a problem searching the event logs for a specific, non-standard ID.
- Additional improvements for Windows Server 2025.
10.0.6.29 (May 10 2024)
New features
- New sanity check: Restart the service if a given drive letter isn't mapped/available.
- The web server sanity check now accepts a timeout parameter, to indicate how long to wait for a response from the server
before failing the request.
- When configuring the TCP/IP network connections sanity check, you can test it on the selected service.
Fixes & Improvements
- Show the HTTP response and/or headers when manually running the web server sanity check.
- The web server sanity check now treats HTTP status codes 1XX and 3XX as success. Only status codes 4XX and 5XX are treated as errors.
- Launch the sanity check on the interactive desktop, to satisfy programs like "cscript.exe" that won't run on a non-interactive desktop.
- The text and icons on the taskbar tray menu have been enlarged, to improve readability.
- Support for Windows Server 2025.
- Dropped the SHA-1 digital signature. Executables are digitally signed with SHA-256.
Version 9
9.5.2.83 (November 3 2023)
New features
- New sanity check: Verify TCP/IP network connections.
- Full support for monitoring "Automatic (Delayed Start)" services.
Fixes & Improvements
- Improved efficiency when checking the status of a service.
- Augmented internal logging throughout the program, to provide better feedback when troubleshooting thorny customer issues.
- Enhanced coordination with Windows when a system shutdown has been initiated, to eliminate unnecesary restarts.
- When waiting, show the wait time in the "protected" tooltip.
- Implemented a slight performance boost when reading Windows Event log records.
- Detect and handle the situation when Service Protector is waiting to restart the service but it gets started by another process.
- Updated the icons on the "Tools" menu to match those on Windows 11/10.
9.0.4.72 (April 7 2023)
New features
- Introduced support for importing protectors from multiple files at once.
Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed an issue with the registration window on high-res, 4K screens.
- Added the ability to remove the registration code, to return Service Protector to the unregistered state.
- Improved the handling of non-English text when sending mail and reporting activity.
- The version licensed is now mentioned in the "About" window.
- The program now logs a line when a protector is started at boot.
Version 8
8.5.3.61 (October 14 2022)
New features
- Introduced a sanity check to detect when an important application isn't running.
- Added support for date variables in the file-updated sanity check.
Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed a crash when testing a custom sanity check.
- Improved logging when running a sanity check.
- Reduced CPU load when scanning for crash dialogs.
- Support for Windows 10 22H2.
- Support for Windows 11 22H2.
8.1.3.70 (April 2 2022)
New features
Fixes & Improvements
- Automatically enable the service if it's disabled.
- Full support for Windows Server 2022.
8.0.8.62 (November 19 2021)
New features
- Introduced a flexible framework for sanity checks that are able to detect when a running service is not
functioning as required (and subsequently restarting it).
- Added a sanity check to test basic TCP/IP network connectivity.
- Added a sanity check to test if a web server is responding properly.
- Added a sanity check to test if a file is being updated regularly.
- Added a sanity check that runs your own custom program/script.
- Full support for Windows 11.
Fixes & Improvements
- Improved internal logging on Windows 11.
- Added code to tolerate systems that apply timezone settings late, a few seconds after boot.
- Special handling for "splwow64.exe" processes, which may not exit properly following the completion of a print job.
Version 7
7.0.5.29 (February 13 2021)
New features
- Alert emails now include the most recent activity from the Windows Event Logs.
- The first sanity check can now be delayed to avoid conflicts when the service starts.
Fixes & Improvements
- Improved performance when loading 50+ services.
- Improved performance when loading 1000+ records from the Windows event logs.
- Bug fixes for internal TCP/IP networking components.
- Minor adjustments for Windows 10 October 2020 (20H2).
- Several improvements to the registration windows.
- Added the Help > FAQ menu, linking to popular FAQ entries.
- Minor tweaks for Windows Server 2019 and Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19577.
- Increased the "Additional info" field in emails from 30 to 60 characters.
- Link to our website when configuring the sanity check feature, email.
Version 6
6.5.3.71 (October 18 2019)
New features
- Added the ability to restart the service when the PC resumes fom a sleep/hibernation/low-power event.
Fixes & Improvements
- Single-CPU percent is now properly reported.
- Present additional information on the registration windows.
- Mention when the 30-day trial expires in the main window's title.
6.0.7.48 (February 22 2019)
New features
- Added the "Restart Protector" button to the toolbar.
- Disable switching to Session 0 on versions of Windows where Session 0
is no longer accessible (currently Windows 10 Version 1803 and later).
Fixes & Improvements
- Improved support for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016.
- Technical enhancements for Windows Server 2019.
- Boosted performance when reading from the Windows Event log.
- Added a workaround for a problem when licensing on Windows 10 SHB.
- Design improvements to the registration windows, process.
Version 5
5.6.0.19 (October 27 2017)
New features
Fixes & Improvements
- Don't attempt to restart the service when a system shutdown is in progress.
5.5.0.38 (August 24 2017)
New features
Fixes & Improvements
- Added a workaround for a problem when licensing on Windows 10 SHB.
- Fixed a bug on Windows 10 SHB where the main window becomes disabled.
- Improved logging for troubleshooting startup.
5.3.0.87 (October 30 2016)
New features
- CPU hog detection now supports windows services that use all CPUs.
Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed a bug when dismissing Windows popups.
5.0.8.43 (April 9 2016)
New features
- Added the option of starting protection immediately after adding a new Protector. The default is "on".
Fixes & Improvements
- Executable components are now signed with a SHA-256 certificate.
- Minor improvements to a few windows in the purchase process.
- Resolved a registry permission issue that occasionally occurred when registering the software.
- Removed HTML centering from email messages, to avoid poor formatting when viewed in Gmail.
- Show sanity check error codes in the range of -10 to -1 as negative.
- Events from the System log now show up on activity reports.
- Added links to tutorials under the Help menu.
- Tweaks for supporting Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012 R2.
Version 4
4.5.3.68 (September 6 2014)
New features
Fixes & Improvements
- Mail servers actually called "mail" weren't being recorded properly.
- Re-enabled the Desktop Security Settings entry in the Tools menu.
- Removed Local Security Settings from the Tools menu when Windows does not provide that functionality.
- Fixed a bug with the expansion of special sanity check command line variables.
- Improved the log messages for CPU hogs.
- Improved memory tracking.
- Dates and times were inconsistently formatted on non-English localizations.
These have all been normalized to the English locale, to be consistent with the rest of the program.
- Fixed a problem sending reports at midnight when a scheduled restart was configured at the same time.
4.0.6.39 (March 16 2013)
New features
- Identify and resolve service executables that remain alive after they have informed the Windows Service Control Manager that they have stopped.
- When stopping a service, wait for at least a minute before forcibly terminating the service's executable. The wait time is configurable.
- Multiple scheduled stops are now supported - daily or on specific days of the week.
Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed a bug when activating the main window and a warning was showing.
- Improved licensing on virtual machines (Azure, EC2).
- Registration would sometimes fail on PCs where there is no "C:" drive.
Version 3
3.7.2.16 (February 15 2012)
New features
Fixes & Improvements
- Fix for failing to protect some services (double quoting the command line).
3.7.1.28 (February 12 2012)
New features
- Added the ability to run a command when the service stops.
Fixes & Improvements
- Fix for the inability to read icons from some services.
3.5.0.91 (January 1 2012)
New features
- Added the capability to define the threshold for a CPU hog.
- Allow Protectors to be imported and exported from the command line.
Fixes & Improvements
- Cap the number of emails sent every 6 and 12 hours to avoid flooding.
- Improved a few error messages.
3.1.1.87 (November 23 2011)
New features
Fixes & Improvements
- Removing the underlying service would prevent Service Protector from starting properly.
3.0.5.79 (November 15 2011)
New features
- Added support for sending email with TLS or STARTTLS encryption (for Office 365).
Fixes & Improvements
- The correct peak memory was not recorded in the activity statistics.
- When the service is started after a delay, no entry was made to the Event Log.
- Restarting at a scheduled time didn't work when Service Protector hadn't started/restarted the service.
- Improved the graceful shutdown of the service when scheduled.
- Improved the handling of services that deliberately leave a process running after they have stopped (e.g. Windows Firewall).
Version 2
2.7.1.34 (June 28 2011)
New features
Fixes & Improvements
- Improved licensing on virtual machines.
2.6.0.75 (March 24 2011)
New features
Fixes & Improvements
- Note when a service that takes a while to start transitions to the started/running state.
- Reduced the number of emails sent when a service/application is repeatedly failing.
2.5.9.47 (March 2 2011)
New features
Fixes & Improvements
- Added support for volume licensing.
2.5.9.16 (February 13 2011)
New features
- Can now switch to Session 0 from the Tools menu.
Fixes & Improvements
- Fix for not detecting a hang in Windows Forms applications.
- Fixed a daylight savings time bug with emailed reports.
- Fixed a bug where time zones in email dates could be negative.
- Improved the performance of reading from the Event Logs.
2.0.3.91 (November 27 2010)
New features
- Provide up to 30 days of service history.
Fixes & Improvements
- Application crash dialogs were not always being dismissed.
- The sanity check doesn't accept a .CMD file with variables.
- Trouble licensing on Windows XP.
Version 1
1.4.0.31 (March 27 2010)
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