Task Explorer 1.0

Changelog

Version 1.0

First release.

Task Explorer shows which applications are using the most processor time, in
a dialog built to be explored by ear.

• A dialog on NVDA+alt+R listing running applications ordered by processor
  use, with memory use and process count on the same line, so one arrow key
  press tells you everything about an application.
• Applications are grouped by executable, so a browser's forty helper processes
  are one row. Right arrow or enter expands it into the individual processes,
  left arrow collapses it again, and left arrow from a process takes you back to
  the application it belongs to.
• Processor use is reported as a percentage of the whole machine, the same way
  Task Manager reports it.
• Sorting by processor use, memory use or name, from a combo box or from
  alt+1, alt+2 and alt+3 without leaving the list.
• alt+T announces total processor and memory use. F5 updates the list.
• End task asks the application to close first, exactly as clicking its close
  button would, so it can prompt you to save. Only if it is still running a few
  seconds later are you offered the choice to force it.
• NVDA itself is refused outright. Critical Windows processes warn first.
  Applications running with higher privileges than NVDA report that they cannot
  be closed, rather than failing silently.
• Three commands report usage without opening any window: the busiest
  applications by processor use, by memory use, and total machine utilisation.
  All three ship unassigned, to be bound from Input Gestures.
• Settings in NVDA's own settings dialog for update behaviour, update interval,
  how many applications the spoken commands announce, and whether they mention
  memory.

Notes on how it works:

• Process activity is measured directly rather than read from Task Manager,
  whose process list is a very large data grid that is slow to navigate with a
  screen reader.
• Every process is read in a single system call per sampling pass. Reading the
  same figures through psutil alone costs roughly 750 milliseconds per pass on a
  machine running 345 processes, because psutil falls back to a full system
  enumeration for each process it cannot open. A pass now costs about 6
  milliseconds, and processes a normal user cannot open stay visible instead of
  reading as zero.
• The fast path checks itself against psutil at startup and falls back to the
  slower psutil route if the two ever disagree.