Auto Close Idle helps you monitor and safely close unattended applications automatically. It's designed to work with most database or accounting application and monitor their use. Auto Close Idle can be used to close applications in four ways:

1. Based on the number of licenses left: When the number of used copies reach a certain threshold, ACI tries to close the most idle copy. If the most idle copy cannot be closed within 10 seconds, ACI tries to close the second most idle copy and so on, until a copy is closed. This insures that users can logon whenever they want to.
2. Based on an Idle Time Limit, which can be specified per user.
3. By one client closing the most idle client directly by right clicking on ACI Client tray icon(if enabled).
4. By the Administrator when using ACI Manager, and right clicking an entry and selecting "Close this app", or using "Close App", or "Close Most Idle" toolbar buttons.

These methods can be used simultaneously. So choose the method that suits you the most. However, it's recommended that you use method #1 exclusively, which maximizes available licenses' usage so users are not closed unnecessarily when there are two many licenses available.

Telling users to close the application when they don't need it doesn't work in practice. Employees can leave their desks for variety of reasons. A simple trip to make coffee can be interrupted by a cell phone call, or a meeting with a client, or the employee can be given tasks or field trips by a supervisor when they are away from their desks. The last thing in their minds is to waste a trip to their desks to close an application.

Auto Close Idle closes the monitored application by clicking on the close button at the top right corner of the application's main window, and responds to any configured confirmation dialogs when prompted. Auto Close Idle will not end, terminate, or "kill" the process; an activity which usually leads to data loss or corruption. If there are any validation dialogs present, you can use Auto Close Idle built-in remote control functionality to see the user's screen and interact with the application remotely; so you can respond to any validation dialogs and close the application safely if needed.

Since users can run a CPU intensive operation in the target application that could take a long time and leave their desk, it may not be wise to close the application while it's busy doing something. Auto Close Idle waits for the CPU to be idle for a certain guard time before attempting to close the application when it's in "Auto Close" mode. When the administrator tries to close the application manually, a warning message appears. This is a safety feature so whatever operation the user has started, is not cancelled.

Features and benefits:

• Free your time from having to respond to phone calls and emails from users who can't log in.
• Improved productivity by making the application readily available when they need it.
• Fully automated, there is no need for you to intervene beyond the initial setup.
• Centrally manage all users, and from any workstation that you installed ACI Client or Server on.
• Supports monitoring applications by executable path, or part of the main application window title.
• Supports monitoring applications that consist of multiple EXE's that start other EXE's as a part of the whole application suite. Closing the last EXE can be delayed until all other EXE's are closed.
• Supports clicking on confirmation dialogs that are encountered during exit.
• Waits until the CPU usage for the application drops below a certain threshold before closing it, just in case the application was left running a long term operation.
• Monitors only the idle time of the application in question, not other applications.

• Closes unused applications based on the number of licenses left, with an idle time limit, at a specific time, or by making users close each other by using ACI Client tray icon.

• Users can close the most unused copy of the application directly by using ACI Client tray icon(can be enabled/disabled).
• Closes the application normally, like the user would.
• It could optionally kill the process if it couldn't be closed normally within a configurable timeout value.
• Closes all copies of the application at a specific time to make nightly backups possible.
• Most applications can be closed while minimized and without bringing them to the foreground, so users' work is not interrupted.
• Clients see a clock like icon in the task bar notification area and the time remaining before closing the application. This icon can be hidden.
• Allows you to see the user's screen and interact with the application remotely to see how it's closing and if it's showing any dialogs during exit, so you can ask ACI to click them in the future.
• Supports roaming users profiles.
• Supports terminal servers, including Citrix based servers.
• Unlike terminal servers when you configure them to auto end sessions when idle, ACI closes the application normally, while terminal servers give the application 5 seconds to close, if not, the process is killed, so if the application is showing a validation dialog, or "Are you sure you want to exit?" message, then it will kill the process after 5 seconds.

• Optionally closes the application sooner when a terminal services session is disconnected, such as after 1 minute. If the user reconnected, the normal Idle Time Limit(if enabled), such as 30 minutes is used.

• Remotely update Auto Close Idle software without visiting each computer. Digital signatures are used to verify any updates before being applied.
• Compatible with Windows 2000, 2003, and 2008 Terminal Servers, including Citrix based servers.

Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows 95 OSR2 or above.
• 32 MB RAM.
• 20 MB Free hard disk space.

Recommended System Requirements:

• Windows 2000 or above
• 64 MB RAM or above.
• 20 MB Free hard disk space.

Compatibility: Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/2008 Server/7, all editions.