{"id":13165,"date":"2025-10-27T06:54:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=13165"},"modified":"2025-10-27T06:54:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:54:40","slug":"version-11-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/service-protector\/version-11-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Service Protector 11: Resource Monitoring, Help for Slow Services, and More"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Service<\/div>\n

Our team released Service Protector<\/a> 11.0 on October 25. Here’s what’s included in this new and improved version:<\/p>\n

Automatically restart your Windows Service if it consumes too many resource handles<\/h2>\n

Is your Windows Service a “resource hog”? Does it chug away in the background, quietly accumulating references to files, registry keys, tokens and other operating system objects?<\/p>\n

If left unchecked, bad things can happen in that situation. For example, your service can eventually tie up so many handles that it crashes. Or worse, it can hang, turning into a stumbling zombie that refuses to do its job.<\/p>\n

Service Protector 11 is here to help you mitigate those tricky scenarios. It features a new sanity check that monitors resource handles and takes action when the count spikes above a given threshold.<\/p>\n

How to monitor operating system handles with Service Protector<\/h3>\n

The “check resource handles” sanity check is very easy to use. For example, we already have the Print Spooler Windows Service<\/a> protected on our server. To ensure that the service is quickly restarted if it consumes more than 500 handles, we would:<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    Edit the Spooler service in Service Protector.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Switch to the Monitor<\/b> tab.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Check the Whenever it fails a periodic sanity check<\/b> box and click the Set<\/b> button to the right:<\/p>\n

  4. \n

    In the “Add Sanity Check” window that pops up, choose Check that your service doesn’t have too many resource handles open<\/b> from the list and click Next<\/b> to proceed:<\/p>\n

  5. \n

    Enter 500 in the Maximum handle count<\/b> field:<\/p>\n

  6. \n

    After clicking the Next<\/b> button, specify how often Service Protector should check the service. Every 5 minutes is a good starting point; we can always change it later:<\/p>\n

  7. \n

    Moving on, confirm that the sanity check is configured as expected and click Add<\/b> to confirm:<\/p>\n

  8. \n

    Save all changes in Service Protector.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And that’s it. With the sanity check keeping watch, Service Protector will automatically recycle the Spooler service if it sucks up too many resources.<\/p>\n

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    \"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    Increase the time for Windows Services to start<\/h2>\n

    Let’s face it — some Windows Services take ages to start. And when they dilly-dally too long, the Service Control Manager<\/a> may tire of waiting and shut them down.<\/p>\n

    If this is happening on your machine, you may see events 700 and 7009 in the Event Log. That’s the telltale sign of a slow moving service.<\/p>\n

    But there’s a workaround. As described in this entry in the Windows Services FAQ<\/a>, you can update a registry value to give your services more than 30 seconds to come up to speed. Today, we’re pleased to announce that Service Protector 11 makes it super easy to update that registry setting. Simply select Tools > Set Service Start Timeout<\/b> and enter a duration that works better for your services:<\/p>\n

    \"Set<\/a><\/div>\n

    The setting applies to all services so please keep that in mind.<\/p>\n

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    \"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    Register Service Protector online<\/h2>\n

    Over the next few months, we’ll be rolling out a simple and straightforward online registration system. Instead of handling the serial number and registration code as you do in the offline process, you’ll have the option of doing everything from the computer where the software’s installed. Early feedback is that it’s a time-saving improvement!<\/p>\n

    Choose Register Online<\/b> from the Help<\/b> menu to get started. It’s self-explanatory from there on out:<\/p>\n

    \"Register<\/a><\/div>\n
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    \"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    Other fixes & improvements<\/b><\/h2>\n