States Tab

The States tab is used to change the runtime state of your PC, that is, alter what's currently open and running. It does this by clean-slating and temp tasking (Figure 1) and PC state restoring (Figure 1 and 2). PC states are snapshots of all your current open windows, apps, docs, and folders (folders for Windows 11 may need a cosmetic system tweak); plus current system parameters like the clipboard text, desktop resolution and icon layouts, sound volume, etc. This means you can set up different workflows or workspace layouts on your PC depending on the work you're about to do.

Windows and apps are restored in the same order you originally opened them, and are set up exactly the way they were saved (such as if they were always on top, dimmed, transparent, etc). You can create a PC state snapshot at any time by holding down all four [Ctrl] and [Shift] keys together (like a "freeze" cartridge on Commodore 64 computers), or by a custom hotkey, or by clicking the camera button in the States tab (item E in Figure 1). Restoring a PC state is done in various ways such as from the "States" tab itelf, or from different hotkeys for different states, from a system tray selection, on a schedule, and so on.

Figure 1

Clean-slating your PC (item A) will immediately close all open apps and windows, and also optionally perform other clean-up actions (item B) like clearing the clipboard, terminating specific processes, resetting all remaining processes to normal priority, and so on. Warning: Make sure you've saved all open work and finished all important tasks before clean-slating; otherwise you may lose files or data. Always treat clean-slating as though you're rebooting your PC.

Optional additional functions to perform after clean-slating has closed all open apps and windows. Tick the items that you want to be applied after clean-slating.

Near the bottom of this list is a "Run action" item, which can be used to run an automated action that you've created in the Automation tab.
At the very bottom of this list is a list of apps that AlomWare Toolbox detected that run when your PC boots or you log in. You can tick any of these to re-launch them after a clean-slate, or select and press the [Delete] key to remove them from running at boot or log-in. Note: Items shown here in gray (rather than black) require AlomWare Toolbox to be run with administrator rights to be deleted.

The "Temp Tasker" button makes AlomWare Toolbox take a temporary note of all current open apps, windows, and processes when you click it. You can then run new apps that are temporary in nature and when done with them, click the "Kill unsaved items" button (item D) to immediately terminate them. The noted apps, windows, and processes are not affected and continue running as normal. This feature is intended only for short-term temporary tasks, so don't click this button and then click "Kill unsaved items" hours or days later!
This button immediately terminates all new apps, windows, and processes that weren't open or running when "Save current items" (item C) was clicked. You will lose unsaved data in those new apps and processes.
This button takes a snapshot of your PC's runtime state, and then presents the PC state editor window (see the next section below) so you can tweak and save the state information. You can also hold down all four [Ctrl] and [Shift] keys together to take a snapshot. Please note that only items that were pre-launched can be captured. For example: if you open Notepad, type some text, save it, and then take a snapshot; then this fresh Notepad document will not be included as it wasn't pre-launched.
This box shows all saved PC states that you've created, with thumbnails of your PC's desktop when each snapshot was taken. To restore a state, just double-click it. Right-click a state to get a pop-up menu of options for it.

If a state's icon has four red close icons in its upper-left corner (as shown for the "Close everything" state), this means restoring that state will close all open apps and windows before restoring, so make sure you've saved all open work and finished all important tasks first!
If a state's icon has an exclamation icon in its bottom-left corner and red text for its name (as shown for the "Funny scene" state), this means that state can't be restored due to missing items that occurred when the state last attempted to restore. Usually this is a deleted file that it expected, etc. You can right-click the state and select "Edit" to check that all files and apps listed are as they should be.

This is the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click a state. Select "Restore" to restore that state (or double-click it to restore). Select "Edit" to modify how it restores.
These buttons lets you specify up to 15 custom processes that you can kill by clicking their button, which saves you the hassle of using the Command Box to kill a process or opening Task Manager and scrolling to do it. Any unsaved data in the killed processes will be lost. Right-click a button to edit its process name (or set blank to not use it). If a button is disabled, it means that process isn't running right now (which can be a handy way to see if that process has started in the background without your knowledge).

Editing a PC state

When you've taken a PC state snapshot as explained in the above section, you may need to tweak and/or later edit it for fine-tuning. To edit a PC state, right-click its icon and select "Edit" from the pop-up menu, and the window shown in Figure 2 will appear. Make your edits and then click the [Save] button (item O) to keep them. Close the PC state editor window by clicking the [Close] button (item P).

Note: Snapshotting folders on Windows 11 and later might not initially save folders as part of the snapshot, as your PC might need a cosmetic system tweak to allow it. If this applies to you when taking a snapshot, then see the Support chapter for how to resolve it. This limitation does not apply to Windows 10 and earlier.

When snapshotting a web browser with multiple tabs open, make sure the first tab in the browser is selected, so that restoring it later will restore its tabs in the correct order.

Figure 2

If ticked, all your existing open apps and windows are closed before the PC state is restored. Ensure any unsaved work is saved first!

If ticked, you are warned with a prompt before all existing open apps and windows are closed. This setting is only used if item A is also ticked, which is why it's shown disabled.

If ticked, your PC specifications that were snapshotted at the time (the clipboard text, desktop resolution and icons layout, LED key states, sound volume, etc) are restored to that state.

If ticked, the items in the window list (item F) will be re-launched when the PC state is restored, in top-down order, one after the other. Note that the re-launched items are in addition to any existing items; for example, re-launching the Firefox web browser will not close an existing Firefox first. If you'd prefer to close an existing open item first, then please see item L below.

If ticked, the items that were re-launched in item D will have their window positions and sizes restored; plus their attributes such as always on top, etc.

This column is the window list of all items that were saved in the PC state snapshot from existing launched apps, docs, and folders; and this column holds the window title of the saved item. You shouldn't really change this item (by editing item J when this item is selected) as it can make restoring that item fail. To re-order the items (because they are restored in top-down order), select any item and press the [Ctrl]+[Down] or [Ctrl]+[Up] keys to move its position. To delete unwanted items, select them (with the [Ctrl] key held down for multiple items) and press the [Delete] key to remove them.

This column is the launcher for the selected item (item F) and can be edited by modifying item K when selected. For Win32 apps it will be the path the executable file, and for Windows 10+ apps it will show text starting with App for the launcher. For folders, this will hold the actual folder location on Windows 10 and lower, but for Windows 11 and later it won't hold a value at all because the OS doesn't provide a way for us to get the folder location automatically. This means you'll need to manually edit in the folder location on Windows 11 and later.

This column is any optional command-line parameters for the selected item (item F). See item L for details on how to modify or tweak these.

This column is any optional keystrokes to type for the selected item (item F) after it's been opened, which can be edited by modifying item M when selected. The keystrokes are not encrypted and will be typed as soon as the window has been restored. This is useful for navigating a restored window to set it a pre-set state, such as jumping to a specific time position in a restored video.

The edit field for the selected item's window title (item F). You shouldn't edit this unless you know what you're doing, as editing may make restoring that item fail if modified incorrectly. For windows that take a bit of time to get ready (such as a video loading in "Media Player Classic") you may need to put {z#} at the end of the title text, with # being the number of milliseconds to delay the title matching; for example {z2000} to add an extra two-second delay. For window titles that change often for the saved item, edit it by prefixing with ? to match by partial title. For example, a Winamp window will often show the music track being played, so rather than have a specific track name for the window title, you would specify the non-changing part of Winamp's title. For example, the scanned title might be 136. KISS - Detroit Rock City - Winamp but the edited title would be ? - Winamp.

The edit field for the selected item's launcher (item G). This is what gets launched for the saved item, such as an app or exe file, document, or folder name. It's not recommended that you edit this unless you know what you're doing. To force-close (terminate) an existing process for this launcher, put a dash (-) as the first character in this field, or tick the "Close all apps/windows" option (item A). For example, if this launcher was C:\Windows\System32\Notepad.exe but you edited it to put a dash at the front to make it -C:\Windows\System32\Notepad.exe, then all "Notepad.exe" processes will be force-closed first before launching this item.

The edit field for the selected item's command-line parameters (item H). These are optional parameters used by the launcher of the saved item, and are used in top-down order (for example, opening websites in new tabs). Specify them per the following launcher types:

If the launcher is an app or exe: This is the optional file that the app or exe opens. Win 10+ apps cannot be edited as they are internal to the OS.
If the launcher is a document: This parameter is not applicable.
If the launcher is a folder name: This parameter is not applicable.
If the launcher is a media player: This is the media file to be played by the launcher.
If the launcher is a web browser: This parameter are the list of websites to be opened in the browser. When captured, the item's window title (item J) matches the first website listed here, so don't edit the title or change the order of websites listed. Also, each website here must be on its own line and start with http.

The edit field for the selected item's keystrokes (item I). Keystrokes specified here are not encrypted, and will be auto-typed when the window appears after its app is launched. An example use of keystrokes is a web browser that needs to be started in full-screen mode by pressing the {f11} key after it opens, or starting a video in full-screen playback by pressing {altdown}{enter}. To insert a timed delay before the typing starts, specify {z#} where # is the number of milliseconds to wait. For example, {z500} means wait half a second and {z1000} is one second.
The name or description for this PC state.
Saves this PC state's configuration.
Closes the PC state editor window.