Is it possible to temporarily freeze (pause, block) an application in Windows – so that it doesn't use processor at all and sit in the memory only – and unfreeze it later when you need it?
I am asking this because I figured out if I have 3GB of memory, at least 1GB always free, why not use it to speed up the applications startup: if I kept, for example, 10 of my most used applications open all the time, but blocked, so they don't consume processor, but memory only.
If this is possible, I hope there is some system application that can manage the frozen apps, so their usage can appear as normal: you open them with a shortcut and close them with the 'X' button, only that they are not really closed, but frozen and just hidden again.
Best Answer
Process explorer will do a Suspend in XP. you could test that , then see if the programs have a fit or lock up other things when they get suspended. Then resume them and see if they still function correctally.
http://forum.sysinternals.com/various-pe-feature-requests_topic11122.html you can see pictures of that there.
PE has a command version of it (if i remember right) that could be batched.
http://j00ru.vexillium.org/?p=118 This link has some of the information about what can happen badly, and better he linked to a lot of utilities that perform the function. So check out the bottom of the page there.
The more Complex a program is, and multi-threaded and dependant , the less likly it will suspend properly and safely. The more Simple a progam is, the less likely that suspending it will do any good. :-)