Finding a good task manager is the first thing anybody should do when first getting a Pocket PC. You will find that it will help you greatly in navigating your PPC. There are basically two types of task managers: Pull Down, and Iconographic.

I tried out a lot of different task managers in order to find the one that I liked best. There are hundreds of them out there so I will only name a few here that I tried out.

(my ratings are out of 5 stars)

Pull Down Task Managers

Vbar
Vieka - Superior Technology For You
Rating: 5 stars
This application is very basic, it creates a pull down menu between the time and the X. you can set it up so that the x closes the application or not. And you can close any of the open applications from the pull down. All in all this is a very standard and powerful pull down, and I think the best one out of the bunch. It has a very very small footprint and will not load your ppc at all. Vieka also has some other pretty cool software that you should check out. I noticed that a lot of their software screenshots they are not using vbar though but gigabar (see below).



Battery Pack 2003 by Omega One
Omega One | Mobile Solutions
Download a free trial or buy it at PocketGear.
Rating: 4 stars
I used this application for a long time when I first got my Pocket PC. It has a very nice interface and makes your little X be red so that you are not fooled by it being different. The pull down menu is just below the x so it can be a little bit hard to hit. One thing that I did not like about it was that you must have the today plugin of programs active in order for the task manager to be active. The footprint is a little heavy for what it is, but still all and all a great program.



One of the subcategories of the text pull downs are the ones that take over your start menu.

Small Menu Plus
SmallMenu
Rating: 3 stars
I personally had a hard time with it taking over my start menu, just a personal preference. I kind of liked small menu, but it just wasn’t my style even though it was easy to use.

Iconographic Task Managers

Magic Button
Magic Button - Pocket PC Task Manager
Rating: 6 stars
This task manager is awesome. It makes little icons in the space that you are not using on the top bar. Once I figured out that you just hold down the X and it switches between the task manager view and the standard view (so that I could see if I had voice mail) I was in love. It is very easy to use and very easy to switch between tasks. It has a very small footprint so that I don’t even notice any lag time. The x can be programmed to close the task or not very simply and the areas that it does take over on your top bar don’t matter because most of the time you will have it in the standard mode and just hold down the x to go back to the task manager. In fact by default it does this, when you switch to a task it goes to your standard bar. So that if you need the icons you need to hold down the x. and you can program the holding down of the x key to be as long or short as you like. I personally shortened the default.



Gigabar
http://www.gigabar.com/
rating: 3.5 stars
This is the most powerful task manager that you can get. It is even hard for me to describe to you how it works as its complexity is off the charts. Although with some getting used to it can be quite useful to the right person. First off this bar takes over your entire top bar. It makes it look pretty with different themes and different skins for each theme. It has 1-4 icons in the upper right corner (the time and date included) and each one of these can be programmed to handle up to 6 tasks. These tasks are triggered by either single tap, double tap, tap and move left, tap and move right, tap and move up or tap and move down. All of the functions are customizable and there are some specific gigabar tasks. If you tap and hold down one of the icons it drops down a menu with all of the functions, in case you forget. You can create your own themes and skins for this stuff if you want as well to give it your own flare. This program has an extremely high footprint and seemed to lag my ppc a little bit. Not only that but I was kind of pissed that I could not find how to not have this program start on softreset. It seemed to keep in memory as well after I had exited it, don’t know why, maybe i700 specific but who knows. All in all this is the most powerful task manager that you can get for you PPC and it looks very pretty.

[img]images/software-gigabar-2.jpg[/img]


True Toolbar
ValkSoft True Toolbar
Download a free trial or buy it at PocketGear.
rating: 3 stars
I know a lot of people like this software but I was not that impressed. The main thing that I didn’t like was that in order to get to the task switcher or the neat icons it makes you have to go to the today menu and there is no easier way than start -> today to do it. Maybe I missed the option but I used it for a full days worth and liked some things like the full page applications list, but overall I found it was impractical for me to use.



Oz Minibar
ebwfoto.com
rating: 3 stars
I liked this software quite a bit, it was neat to use and look at. But for the same reasons I didn’t like true toolbar I didn’t like this one to use. If they had an icon in the top bar that popped up the oz minibar it would be great but alas there was not. But a cool program none the less.



Conclusion

So which one did I choose? Magic Button of course. I found it was easy to use, didn’t take up much memory at all, and was extremely functional (and pretty). As for you I cant say which one is best I would suggest trying them but be careful when you try some of these because you will need to softreset after exiting them. A good list of free ones is at FreewarePPC.com - Freeware Pocket PC: Utilities: Task Managers: Page 1 of 2 or search for “task manager” at any other ppc software site.