jv16 PowerTools 2007 Beta4 released

jv16

jv16 PowerTools 2007 Beta4 is now released, you can download it from:

http://www.macecraft.com/downloads/betas/jv16pt_setup_2007_Beta4.exe

(if the link doesn't work, it means the beta testing for this version has already ended)

Warning

Do not install this program over any previous version of jv16 PowerTools, always install beta versions to a new directory. This product version is not an official release, it will contain bugs and can cause harm to your computer. Do not download or install this program unless you are willing to take the risk and understand what beta testing means.

On Beta Testing

All beta testers who submit valuable feedback, such as bug reports, performance reports, improvement ideas etc, will receive a free personal license for the product after it has been officially released. Simply installing and testing the application doesn't mean that you would automatically receive a free license, free licenses are issued only to those who submit valuable feedback.

General Release Notes

* Do not start to translate the English.lng yet, the language interface will still change.

* This version still lacks a few new icons (for example to the new One Click Cleaner).

* This version does not run under any Win9x system, such as Windows 95, 98, 98 SE nor ME. The program doesn't start due to a missing NT-only DLL file.

* The Automation features of the One Click Cleaner are not implemented yet.

Main changes since Beta3

* Dozens of bugs fixed

* Major improvements to the History/MRU Cleaner (and also forgot one debug button to the GUI, you can ignore that)

* Major improvements to the Disk Defragmenter

* Improved compatibility with Vista

Development schedule

RC1 (Release Candidate 1) version is expected to be released after 3-5 beta versions, the final version should be ready after 1-3 RC's.

Please send all your feedback and bug reports to this thread (use the Post Reply button).

Thank you very much.

sunrunner20

In this version, if You select handbook from the help menu it brinks up a box. Bug free up to here, however if you drag the window closer to the bottom of the screen, the box will jump to the bottom of the screen. This leaves a ~5px gab between the box and the main jv16 window.

Edit: it does this on the left and right of the screen also.

Another bug:

This is with an startmenu that autohides. If you try to bring up the beta's hand book, it will again bring up a message box. Now, however, if you close the main Jv16 window, all is good for a coupple seconds, then if you look at your start menu again you can see an entry for jv16- but no visable window. Must rightclick->close.

System information:

OS: XP pro SP2 (Version 5.1.2600)

katydragon

Beta 4 (jv16powertools 1.7.0.364) downloaded today. Just a few comments so far:

(1) Installation

During installation, chose "run the program now"

"jv16 Power Tools" appeared as taskbar button, but nothing would open when I pressed it. Right-clicking offered "Restore" and "Close"; "restore" didn't do anything. Finally had to close it and restart using the desktop icon. Started okay then.

Initial cache update smooth and quick.

(2) FileFind

Set it to find files named swg*.* in a networked directory on a remote computer. I have several that fit this pattern, e.g. "swg Jul 20 2006.doc". Took a long time; the progress bar seemed frozen although the number of files searched was steadily moving. In fact, the bar was only about 1/8 of the way along when the search apparently completed: about 3 filenames popped up on the form, the progress bar stopped -- and then the lines suddenly disappeared before I could read them leaving a blank form with no progress bar or any other information. Tried again; again, it found 3 files. Tried to click on one, but before I could, all 3 disappeared as before.

Tested FileFind on local disk. Same query, but gave it a much smaller directory to search (subdirectory of My Documents). The FF window opened, but there was no progress bar, no search stats at top right. Nothing, just a blank form; it found no files at all. Same thing happened when I told it to search all of "My Documents".

OK, next I consulted the handbook for the last version of jv Tools, and found that these files were located in "My Documents" -- considered a "system settings" file because it's in Documents & Settings, and hence not included since I checked the option to exclude system files. But I really don't think most users would consider "My Documents" a system file that should be avoided for safety reasons; in fact, it's probably the one I'd want to search most often. Also, that doesn't explain the disappearing files when I did the search on the remote computer, since the files I was after were contained in a regular non-system folder (one that I use to back up My Documents).

(3) File Organizer

Tried File Organizer on my Downloads / Utilities directory. Didn't do a bad job of organizing, but didn't give me the option to edit anything before I applied the changes. If I can rearrange by drag / drop, I would also expect to be able at least to edit the names of newly created subdirectories.

It's not really clear what "Saved preferences" means in each dialogue box. (Does it mean the preferences you saved last time -- whatever they may be, since there's no apparent way to "save" them? Or the ones you're selecting now? If you DON'T want to use the saved ones, is there a way to turn them off?) ... Anyway, it's unclear!

(4) Start Menu Fixer - Manual Mode.

The resulting file list was quite confusing, and the handbook (at least the one for the last version) wasn't really much help... only 1-2 paragraphs of description, with no details of the form or what the various columns mean. In particular, the column "Fixed file reference" says either "N/A" or "Solutions" -- what do they mean?

Also, empty directories show up on the list, and that's fine since I chose that option; but it would be great if they were labelled "empty" to distinguish them from the ones with broken / missing links.

-- That's it for now; will test more later.

-- Katydragon

Sysinfo: Compaq R4000 laptop, AMD Athlon 64, 1 GB RAM, Win XP Home SP2

tullik

File Finder; History Cleaner; File Cleaner

Used FF to find *.bak_jv16pt files from prior Reg Compactor run; found four and removed them successfully with backup. However, two remained selected on the FF list, even though they were gone.

History Cleaner: this key is not picked up: Key=HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpaper\MRU -- it has 499 entries in my laptop's registry.

File Cleaner: using only settings shown, it picked up files accessed in the last few days.

File Cleaner: has no abort (stop) feature.

File Cleaner: using only settings shown, it picked up files used/modified recently. Also, closing the results list window before the scan finished caused all PT windows (including the main window) to close.

tullik

Abort (Stop) feature

There is no abort (stop) capability when "Status indicator policy" is set to "Don't show the status indicator."

tullik

One Click Cleaner; Directory Finder

1. The One Click Cleaner "Empty directories" feature does not remove empty subdirectories when they have the read only attribute. Windows explorer does delete these subdirectories. Directory Finder does remove these subdirectories.

2. Directory Finder no longer honors the "Always ask ..." backup policy setting.

3. One Click Cleaner does not honor the "Always ask ..." backup policy setting.

4. Directory Finder does not backup empty subdirectories. Perhaps One Click Cleaner does not also?

5. One Click Cleaner backups show in the Backup Tool's "Other backups" tab. There is no capability to restore individual files (or registry entries). Therefore, backup TypeCode 114 should show on all three Backup Tool tabs.

tullik

Registry Information Tool

The tool put five "System" lines in the message box. The lines had no text except the timestamp and the word "System."

Example: :

Note: when text is selected in the message box, the context menu should have a copy option. Workaround is CTRL+C.

redseujac

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drob

Disk Defrag - when trying to analyze a disk with open handlers, the analyze progress just hangs, and not giving any indications.

Start menu fixer - when checking and deleting some found errors, they may continue to show as checked but undeleted even after hitting remove, only a second run will show them as deleted.

Regcleaner in automation mode - will run the program with a taskbar icon but doesn't show the window or progress.

Edit:

Seems to be a problem with preferences saving on regcleaner, even that it is checked in the settings as remember last settings, until i actually saved them in the regcleaner window they didn't save, i kept getting the aggressive warning and so on, same goes for the automation mode, until i ran it manually from the automation manager and saved preferences i kept getting warning massages and so on.

redseujac

When leaving ('exit') the PowerTools without closing previously the Message(s) Window, the jv16PT.exe process never closes and you have to kill it manually in Windows Task Manager.

So, that was already noticed in previous beta's, but not fixed yet.

It is true the Messages Window closes now together with the Main Window, but the programs process is not closed at all.

redseujac

There are always issues with the feature "Show entries" for some found history items (e.g. Acronis True Image items, Microsoft Windows (logs), LavaSoft Ad-aware SE).

When highlighting one of those applications and clicking "show entries" only a Message Box pops-up with nothing in it unless "jv16 ..." the exit button and the OK button.

When right clicking the application row (line) and clicking "Open in RegEdit" nothing happens.

Also I noticed that sometimes a larger amount of "found history items" in the matching column are indicated then listed when clicking "show entries".

Maybe I am missing something, if not those are bugs.

dmckay

When analyzing drive it fills in the first line on the drive report, but subsequent tabs give the error message that the drive hasn't been analyzed yet. Rerunning the analyzer does not correct this.

blackdex

After a very quick few i must say its getting better :).

Not much time atm to test stuff.

But i will try as much as i can do.

ratzaz

I am pleased to discover new features in your fine software. I am an administrator on my segment of the AD network. I do NOT have domain admin rights, and control is passed down through group policy. Unfortunately, and this is not a new issue as i have brought it up before, I can not use some of the functions, such as defrag and registry compactor thru your software as it does not see me as a local admin (administrators group) on my machines.

jv16

katydragon wrote

It's not really clear what "Saved preferences" means in each dialogue box. (Does it mean the preferences you saved last time -- whatever they may be, since there's no apparent way to "save" them? Or the ones you're selecting now? If you DON'T want to use the saved ones, is there a way to turn them off?) ... Anyway, it's unclear!

The Preference Saving feature allows you to save your most common settings of each tools. For example, if you often search for *.doc from c:\docs\ you can save it to File Finder's preference for faster use.

The small disk icon next to the saved preference list allows you to save the current settings of the tool. The Preference Saving can be disabled from the Settings, in such case the preference saving features don't show in any tool window.

Do you have any ideas how this could be more clear to the user?

jv16

Ratzaz wrote
I am pleased to discover new features in your fine software. I am an administrator on my segment of the AD network. I do NOT have domain admin rights, and control is passed down through group policy. Unfortunately, and this is not a new issue as i have brought it up before, I can not use some of the functions, such as defrag and registry compactor thru your software as it does not see me as a local admin (administrators group) on my machines.

Does the program (Beta4) show an error message when you start it about not being able to access the registry or the file system? Or only about you not being the admin?

jv16

Here are the results of bug fixing of the Beta4 done since the last report. Notice that the Reported by field means the user who was the first to report the problem. If there are errors in these reports, please let me know since these are used when it is decided which users qualify for the free personal license.

Beta4 Bug Fixing Report 1

Issues found by beta testers

Issue: Used FF to find *.bak_jv16pt files from prior Reg Compactor run; found four and removed them successfully with backup. However, two remained selected on the FF list, even though they were gone.

Reported by: Tullik

Status: Fixed in Beta5 and later.

Issue: History Cleaner: this key is not picked up: Key=HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpaper\MRU -- it has 499 entries in my laptop's registry.

Reported by: Tullik

Status: Fixed in Beta5 and later.

Issue: File Cleaner: using only settings shown (list temp files not used in the past 999 days), it picks up files accessed in the last few days.

Reported by: Tullik

Status: Fixed in Beta5 and later.

Issue: File Cleaner: has no abort (stop) feature.

Reported by: Tullik

Status: Fixed in Beta5 and later.

Issue: File Cleaner: using only settings shown (list all files not used in the past 999 days), it picks up files used/modified recently. Also, closing the results list window before the scan finished caused all PT windows (including the main window) to close.

Reported by: Tullik

Status: Fixed in Beta5 and later.

Issue: There is no abort (stop) capability when "Status indicator policy" is set to "Don't show the status indicator.

Reported by: Tullik

Status: This is by design. The Abort button is a feature of the Status panel, if the user doesn't wish to see the Status panels the user also doesn't see the Abort buttons. In such cases it would be best to replace the Close buttons with the Abort buttons and this will most likely be implemented in the future but not for PT 2007, I'm afraid.

Issue: In this version, if You select handbook from the help menu it brinks up a box. Bug free up to here, however if you drag the window closer to the bottom of the screen, the box will jump to the bottom of the screen. This leaves a ~5px gab between the box and the main jv16 window.

Reported by: sunrunner20

Status: Fixed in Beta5 and later.

Issue: This is with an startmenu that autohides. If you try to bring up the beta's hand book, it will again bring up a message box. Now, however, if you close the main Jv16 window, all is good for a coupple seconds, then if you look at your start menu again you can see an entry for jv16- but no visable window. Must rightclick->close.

Reported by: sunrunner20

Status: Fixed in Beta5 and later.

Issue: Tried File Organizer on my Downloads / Utilities directory. Didn't do a bad job of organizing, but didn't give me the option to edit anything before I applied the changes. If I can rearrange by drag / drop, I would also expect to be able at least to edit the names of newly created subdirectories.

Reported by: katydragon

Status: Renaming of subdirs and removal of files and subdirs from the list features added to Beta5. There seems to be some strange focus jumping problem but as far as I can tell this is problem of Windows.

Issue: Also, empty directories (in Start Menu Fixer) show up on the list, and that's fine since I chose that option; but it would be great if they were labelled "empty" to distinguish them from the ones with broken / missing links.

Reported by: katydragon

Status: Fixed in Beta5 and later, I added a type column which shows whether the item is a broken shortcut or an empty directory

Issue: The One Click Cleaner "Empty directories" feature does not remove empty subdirectories when they have the read only attribute. Windows explorer does delete these subdirectories. Directory Finder does remove these subdirectories.

Reported by: tullik

Status: Fixed in Beta5 and later.

evest

History/MRU Cleaner

Glad it's working again! Right clicking on entries displays "Open in Regedit", however some of these entries fail to open regedit, my guess is that they're files on the harddrive rather than registry entries. Shouldn't there be an "Open files in Explorer" option available instead?

jv16

evest wrote
History/MRU Cleaner

Glad it's working again! Right clicking on entries displays "Open in Regedit", however some of these entries fail to open regedit, my guess is that they're files on the harddrive rather than registry entries. Shouldn't there be an "Open files in Explorer" option available instead?

You are correct, if the history items are only in files the regedit won't open at all. Some kind of solution to this problem must be made before the final release.

sunrunner20

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