Version 2.8.4 of App Tamer is available now. It fixes bugs and alleviates headaches when using App Tamer in specific configurations.
Most importantly, App Tamer will no longer mess with processes that it isn’t actively controlling. In the past, if a process was stopped, App Tamer would start it running again if none of your settings in App Tamer indicated it should be stopped or slowed down. That could interfere with other apps that were controlling that process, including using Control-Z in Terminal to stop a process using zsh (or whatever shell you’re using). Now App Tamer won’t restart a process if it didn’t stop it in the first place.
There are also small changes to alert messages so that App Tamer’s suggestions are more understandable. And the Priority slider is more clearly separated from other options to show that its effects are separate from the slow / stop features. Note that you need to hold down the Option key to get the Priority slider because it’s a macOS process attribute that’s not always useful. It can help in very specific cases, but App Tamer’s other process controls are more effective.
Speaking of specific cases, you can also hold down the Option key and turn on “Stop this app completely” and “Slow down this app” at the same time. When combined with the “Also slow this app when it’s in front” checkbox, App Tamer will slow the app to the specified CPU limit when it’s in the foreground and will stop it completely when it’s not in front. Again, this is a configuration that’s useful in a few particular situations, but you can do it now – there you go.
And finally, there’s a bug fix for a very quirky issue: You could get a prompt from App Tamer to save a debug file seemingly at random if you happened to be holding down the Option key at the wrong time. (What is it with the Option key in this release?) Anyway, that’s fixed and won’t happen anymore.
A full change history and download links are available on the App Tamer release page. If you’re already running an earlier version of App Tamer, just choose “Check for Update” from the menu in the lower right corner of its window.
