A lot of Windows programs and updates require a system reboot to complete the installation. Although we can always click the Cancel button to manually restart later, we have to restart Windows in order to access the newly installed program.
The other day, I had plenty of programs running when Windows asked me to restart computer to install all downloaded updates. This happens because some programs and updates require access to some system files that are being used by already running programs.
When you need to quickly log out or restart your Windows, you might want to quickly close and then restart all running applications after rebooting your PC. Although you can manually kill all running applications and open all of them again after logging into your account again, would not it be nice if you could close all running programs with a few clicks and then re-open all programs again with another few mouse clicks?
SmartClose
SmartClose is a small application to designed to help you quickly close all running programs and launch them again when you need. In other words, you can use SmartClose to quickly close all running programs before rebooting Windows and run all previously closed programs again after restarting your PC.
SmartClose creates a snapshot of your PC and running programs (including Windows Explorer) before terminating all running programs. SmartClose restores the snapshot again when you ask the program to re-open all closed applications.
If you want to reduce the number of clicks while closing or running programs, you can configure SmartClose not to show programs while closing and running. The option to show/hide the list of programs while closing and running programs is present under Settings.
With default settings, SmartClose stops all Windows services while killing programs. You can change this behaviour by navigating to Settings if you don’t want to stop services.
While creating the snapshot of the system, you will be given an option to enter a custom name for the snapshot file, so you can quickly restore your favourite programs.
The only downside of SmartClose is that it requires a couple of mouse clicks to close all running programs. An option to close and re-open all programs with a click would have been nice.
SmartClose is compatible with all versions of Windows, from Windows 7 to the latest Windows 10. The program is not portable, meaning you need to install SmartClose in order to run the same.
We suggest you pin the shortcut of SmartClose to taskbar, so you can quickly close and launch all programs.
Jeff says
SmartClose only works with 32-bit processes, so it’s useless in modern 64-bit Windows era. :(
wolf max says
what is the answer to that question? can it reopen multiple docs in word etc.? can i tell it to click ‘restore last session’ when browsers open up?
Brrrsh says
Will Smartclose re-open other apps (like Word) multiple documents that you had open before the restart?