1) To have a sticky in this forum for wish lists and comments on each item (e.g. saying under consideration, in next version, will not be done due to reason xyz, etc.). I suspect many of these items have been noted before, but without spending a significant amount of time, I'm not sure (and perhaps the official response is elsewhere).

There are a few message boards (BOINC client, manager, etc) so I'm not sure where these should be placed, but will put them here as the BOINC manager could be part of the solution. Let me know & if any comment shoud be in another appropriate message board, I'll repost that comment.

2) I'm very surprised to see that the ability to adjust CPU utilization is missing from BOINC! This is something that is fundemental and needs to be added. And no, having some 3rd party patch (that doesn't always work) is not a solution.
There are many reasons why this is needed. 100% CPU utilization can be quite undesireable. e.g. For desktop computers, this could mean extra noise (due to fan control speed). For notebooks it often means getting quite warm to work with (e.g. hot keyboard on some models) plus noise. etc.

3) The pop-up box when going over the BOINC Manager icon in the system tray is not proper windows functionality and is annoying! Unlike just about all other icons in the system tray it needs to be manually closed! This needs to be corrected (or at least have an option to disable that "functionality".

4) Network access occurs every second from the BOINC manager, even if all projects are suspended. This is not acceptable behaviour for this application.

Item 2
from David Anderson on the Dev list

I added a "maximum CPU usage" preference.
If you set it to 50%, BOINC will use half your CPU time
(one second on, one second off).
This feature will appear in the 5.5.1 client
(which we'll start alpha testing soon).
The BOINC alpha web site has this new preference;
it will appear on other sites when they upgrade their PHP.

-- David

Item 4
Boinc is not accessing the network as such. Some firewall interpret localhost(127.0.0.1) communication as network activity.

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Boinc V 7.4.36
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB NVidia 470

Thanks for the reply! Is it possible to reduce the 1 second on/off to something much smaller? (e.g. 1/200 of second) or does that cause problems?
Ok - for item 4 (using ZoneAlarm - doesn't list 127.0.0.1 as a zone). Interesting though (is that how it communicates to the client?)

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Thanks for the reply! Is it possible to reduce the 1 second on/off to something much smaller? (e.g. 1/200 of second) or does that cause problems?

You know as much as I do at the moment.

Ok - for item 4 (using ZoneAlarm - doesn't list 127.0.0.1 as a zone). Interesting though (is that how it communicates to the client?)

ZoneAlarm as been a pain for a long time. I'm just regurgitating info, but from what I read from other posters, all you can do is make it a safe zone.

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Boinc V 7.4.36
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB NVidia 470

For item 1)
I guess this needs both the forum admin and someone (preferably related to BOINC dev) that is responsible to keep it up to date.

For item 2)
"If you set it to 50%, BOINC will use half your CPU time (one second on, one second off)." (for the Alpha version)
Hopefully they will consider faster switching for the released client.

For item 3)
"Hovering over the BOINC icon will display a status balloon which contains the project it is currently working on, how far along it is, and which computer it is connected to (Windows only)."
Is it just me or it takes only a split second before it appears and then it doesn't disappear unless I hit the close X.
Is there a way to disable this?

For item 4)
Thanks again - I tried Zone Alarm setting that IP range for 127 to no firewall - no change. Anyway, it does seem local as you have mentioned. Strange behaviour (haven't seen it with other programs & services).

For the other questions/comments, hopefully we'll have additional posts!

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3)...and then it doesn't disappear unless I hit the close X.

How long do you give it to disappear?
I'm using Win XP, and BOINC 5.2.8, and the balloon disappears in approx 30 seconds.

3)...and then it doesn't disappear unless I hit the close X.

How long do you give it to disappear?
I'm using Win XP, and BOINC 5.2.8, and the balloon disappears in approx 30 seconds.

It does disappear (took a bit over 1 minute for me) - I guess I never have been patient enough! But that is way too long (especially as some of the tools I use are also in the system tray). The best thing would be if it was one of the right click options instead of default behaviour.
If there was a way to shorten that (e.g. to 1 second) then that would be fine. I took a look at the files in the directory and didn't see any that applied.

How to disable ballon tips in XP.

Or look here for more registry changes to really disable them all.

Btw, I just timed the balloon tip for Boinc 5.4.9 in Windows 2000. It only stays up for 10 seconds.

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How to disable ballon tips in XP.

Or look here for more registry changes to really disable them all.

Btw, I just timed the balloon tip for Boinc 5.4.9 in Windows 2000. It only stays up for 10 seconds.

Thank you for your reply!
I tried your suggestion regarding the balloon tips - unfortunately it didn't work... perhaps I put it in the incorrect spot (I didn't see a better place...?)
I put the EnableBalloonTips Dword key with a value of 0 into the registy HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley\\BOINC Manager (and then exited then restarted the BOINC client)

Depending on what I do, how long the balloon tip stays up varies, but rarely for less than 1/2 minute (just experimented - seems to go away faster if I type).

By the way, is there a place where suggestions for improvements are stickied? I don't wan't to add new threads if they are already covered... (and probably annoy those that have to reply to something already discussed!).

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Btw, I just timed the balloon tip for Boinc 5.4.9 in Windows 2000. It only stays up for 10 seconds.

Depending on what I do, how long the balloon tip stays up varies, but rarely for less than 1/2 minute (just experimented - seems to go away faster if I type).

In my case, it lasts either 12-18 secs or 70-90 seconds or few minutes, when really idle.

Peter

I tried your suggestion regarding the balloon tips - unfortunately it didn't work... perhaps I put it in the incorrect spot (I didn't see a better place...?)
I put the EnableBalloonTips Dword key with a value of 0 into the registy HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley\\BOINC Manager (and then exited then restarted the BOINC client)

You don't add it in the UCB registry key, but in the Explorer key, as shown in both the links. It's Windows Explorer that shows the balloon tips, not BOINC by itself.

By the way, is there a place where suggestions for improvements are stickied? I don't wan't to add new threads if they are already covered... (and probably annoy those that have to reply to something already discussed!).

You can use this thread. Or if you want quicker answers, email the developers list. These forums are mostly manned by volunteers who crunch actively on the projects. The developers only peek in about once a month, or if someone points them at a thread.

And yes, even I am only a simple volunteer, even though I have moderator powers. ;)

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Ah - ok. Sadly it mentions "These steps disable all Notification Area balloon tips for this user. There is no way to disable balloon tips for specific programs only."

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Have you checked the second link?

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When I open the BOINC Manager, I sometimes see a task that was preempted shortly before it would have completed. I have one SETI task sitting at 99.251% with other projects going ahead.

For those of us that like to earn credits briskly, how about considering the following?

1) Modify the way Suspend-Resume works so that Resume actually makes that task the running task.

2) Add a "Run to Completion" preference to specify that any task that passes XX% (or has less than XX minutes left) will run to completion without being preempted. I would use 95% (or 15 minutes).

It also provides cheap insurance to protect work almost done against an unforeseen network or computer outage.

V/R,
Walt

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I would strongly suggest to use minutes. Some Boinc projects (such as climate prediction) can take months to complete so would starve other projects for weeks if it went to unsupendable at 95%.

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I would strongly suggest to use minutes. Some Boinc projects (such as climate prediction) can take months to complete so would starve other projects for weeks if it went to unsupendable at 95%.

Right ... I figured I would be too long-winded if I suggested the preference should satisfy both conditions at the same time. That way relatively short tasks don't dominate when they hit 15 minutes left, and long ones like you point out won't dominate when they hit 95%. It would be about the same either way for a 5 hour task.

Thanks for the feedback.

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OK, I'll chime in here.

- A "suspend all but" button would be a nice shortcut to force one project to run.
- When the screensaver starts up, start working immediately.

These two would help when previewing the screensaver for a given project. To do that now, I have to suspend all but the one I want to see, then click preview and wait for the idle timeout to expire before the project starts cooking.

In addition, I use a third party program to kick into the screensaver on demand, so I can lock my screen to walk away. It would be nice to have visual confirmation by having the project start immediately upon going into the screensaver.

BTW, I really like the new stats graphs in BOINCmgr 5.4.9. Only thing is, using the "one project" button, I haven't found a way to see the graph for any but the first project in the list to the right.

Thanks for the ongoing efforts!
Tom

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BTW, I really like the new stats graphs in BOINCmgr 5.4.9. Only thing is, using the "one project" button, I haven't found a way to see the graph for any but the first project in the list to the right.

Thanks for the ongoing efforts!
Tom

When One project is selected it activates the Previous and Next button above it.

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Boinc V 7.4.36
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB NVidia 470

using the "one project" button, I haven't found a way to see the graph for any but the first project in the list to the right.

There are two buttons in the middle of the menu on the LEFT side:

Project
< Previous Project
Next Project >

--- bt

BTW, I really like the new stats graphs in BOINCmgr 5.4.9. Only thing is, using the "one project" button, I haven't found a way to see the graph for any but the first project in the list to the right.

Thanks for the ongoing efforts!
Tom

When One project (Mode view) is selected it activates the Previous and Next button (Project).

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Boinc V 7.4.36
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB NVidia 470