Being productive in the background – background tasks

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

Hari Pulapaka - MSFT — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 01:40:27 GMT

Hello Gaurav, your app receives resource quota every 15 minutes and you can use all the resource quota that your app receives at the start of the 15 minute cycle. More info about this behavior is provided in the background tasks whitepaper linked above.

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

gaurav77 — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 06:18:06 GMT

Hello @Hari, As mentioned above the data limit is 180/30MB per day for lock screen/non-lock screen apps.

Can a task consume all of its data limit e.g. 30 MB in one time?

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

Hari Pulapaka - MSFT — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 22:30:49 GMT

@Eric, for connected standby (CS) devices, time trigger background tasks will run in connected standby mode as mentioned above. For an alarm app, you should however prefer scheduled notifications (link above) since that has smaller granularity than time trigger.

For devices which are not connected standby capable, timers need to be wake enabled for the system to wake up from sleep. And time trigger background tasks are not wake enabled. If they were, then if you put your laptop in your bag with the lid closed, the system may wake up and run unexpectedly. This would make your device very hot as it runs in the laptop bag and most of our users wont like this behavior.

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

Eric C. — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:43:11 GMT

So would it be possible to use a time trigger for an Alarm clock app? Could someone use the time trigger to wake the machine from sleep? (Assuming the user allows the program onto the lock screen, of course).

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

JSM — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:27:26 GMT

All this restrictions only prevent people from doing what they want or force them into doing it in a way they don't want.

On a desktop or any machine not running on a battery, Metro should lift all the restrictions.

On a machine running on batteries, the situation may look different but is not. What prevents a user from running expensive tasks on the desktop of a tablet ? Or what prevents a user to just launch an expensive app in the foreground and leave the tablet on a table doing its job ? People will do it if they need to. And thus, kill their batterires.

This restrictions only put a massive and useless burden on the developpers and limit the use of Metro. And why should people who will never use the desktop have restrictions on what they can do with Metro and thus with their machine ?

For me, if my app can perform expensive actions, it's better to tell it to the user so that he can decide whether or not to run it on batteries. That's it. If the users decides to run it and kill his batteries, it's his problem. Users should be in control.

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

dlenihan — Thu, 31 May 2012 22:07:19 GMT

>> But is background video encoding a common tablet scenario?

It could be.

I plan on using my tablet as my desktop: just plug in keyboard, mouse, 2nd monitor and connect to wall power. Why can't my tablet process large amounts of data overnight when it is hooked up to wall power and nobody is using it?

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

SimonRev — Thu, 31 May 2012 21:57:06 GMT

From what I get out of this, this is what a Maintenance task is for. Of course, your video will only encode when your app is active or the device is on AC power. But is background video encoding a common tablet scenario?

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

David — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:48:30 GMT

There is a topic that has been glossed over: CPU-intensive background tasks (like video encoding).

I am assuming it is just not possible and we need to come up with another solution (like not using Metro or using cloud computing).

It would be nice if this issue could be addressed.

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

Mac — Wed, 30 May 2012 06:50:51 GMT

Windows 8 Consumer Preview is not ideal for people using keyboards, and mouse like me. If you don't have a tablet, you won't benefit from the full-features. The metro style application is touch-friendly; it is not so practical drag to the application with your mouse. I have been using Windows 8 consumer preview now. I'm finding it difficult to adjust to the complicated, professional features of the new interface.

Negative Points

1) The Multitasking UI: Multitasking in Windows 8 has definitely improved. However, talking about next level interface and the delayed launch, it could have got some really drastic or fast interface.

2) Perhaps, it may be good for tablet-users. However, with a mouse, the four corners interface is a bit uneasy, where users can unexpectedly perform unintended actions. It can also be a little clumsy to drag apps -- where you need them to go or to stop them, using a mouse. And to top that, all the apps run only full-screen for PC users, which can make it difficult for the user to multitask.

3) The Mouse Mess: Well, for the PC users, equipped with a mouse and keyboard, it would be quite a problem to get used to Windows 8.

As moving the mouse wheel up and down will move the Metro UI to left and right. And the Charms UI would require the user to go to the right edge of the screen, which is not at all mouse friendly.

4) The Classic Desktop: The mix and match of Metro environment and classic Window 7 desktop (which is not needed now) can completely destroy the interaction for the users. To switch from one Window to a Task Manager, the user has to go all the way to desktop, instead of opening it directly through one or two clicks.

5) For managing any file or folder, the user has to go back to the classic desktop from Metro UI, which can complicate the migrating feature for any user. Hence, we can just hope that they fix this soon and migrate all the features in the Metro style UI.

It would be a fair wrap-up by saying that the users sporting a touch-based hardware platform to run the Windows 8 consumer preview would experience a far better performance as compared to the majority laptop and desktop users - especially, if you have a system which has a keyboard and mouse connected to your computer screen.

I'm thinking to return to windows 7.

To end I would like to see some of the plus points of Windows 8 consumer preview in the next windows 7 update or special pack 2.

re: Being productive in the background – background tasks

john — Sun, 27 May 2012 11:13:56 GMT

What about long-running CPU intentsive tasks (with all the CPU given)? I.e video conversion running for an hour? Are users allowed to switch to another app?