Actual Booster 3.2

Overview

Actual Booster is a very small and smart application that will speed up the computer by changing the priority of foreground processes in order to let the CPU handle them in a way that is more efficient for the user. So any running games and tasks are given higher priority, minimizing lag and removing sluggishness. Actual Booster is unnoticeable while you work and takes up very few system resources.

Installation

With such a small installation file, you can’t expect a long and difficult installation process. And that’s true indeed; it will only take a few seconds before setup finishes, without asking you to make any special configurations.

The supported operating systems are: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, 7 and has also been confirmed to work in Windows 8 without problems.

Interface

There is no interface that you can view, except for the options menu that you can access by right-clicking in Actual Booster’s system tray icon. In there you will find a few settings, including Hotkeys for exiting the program or opening the options menu and changing the priority you’d like active tasks to have (from Idle to Real-time). You can also choose if you want to let the program start at Windows Startup.

From the right-click menu you can enable, disable and exit Actual Booster completely.

Pros

It needs no 3^rd party software (like .NET Framework, Java Runtime etc.) to work. This means that it can be installed in any computer, without having compatibility issues. In addition, the percentage of CPU and amount of RAM it eats up are really insignificant.

It is also quite configurable since you can assign hotkeys to open the options menu or exit the program, as well as change the priority of the active processes. There are 7 options for that: Idle, Below Normal, Normal, Above Normal, High and Real-time.

You can set Actual Booster to run at startup as well.

A portable version is available too, for anyone who wishes to run the program directly instead of installing it in his system.

Cons

When an active program becomes inactive, its priority changes back to normal and the new active task has now its priority changed.

If you are switching between tasks and windows often, the constant change of priorities can be quite struggling for the CPU and the system.

Alternatives

TopWinPrio3 Beta is a freeware application that does exactly the same job with Actual Booster. It changes the priority of the active program and assigns it a priority that you specify. It periodically checks if the active program has changed and then reassigns the priorities appropriately. You can customize the time interval that TopWinPrio3 checks for the current active program yourself. Moreover, you can change the priorities of the inactive windows too.

Conclusion

Whilst Actual Booster is very handy in general, it lacks some features that could make it a software way more convenient and helpful. Although we hope future versions will address the issues mentioned in the Cons section, we aknowledge that Actual Booster worked like a charm and the increase in speed of every active program was apparent, therefore any accusation regarding the functionality of this application is fallacious. You’d better stop hesitating and grab it now!