jv16's development blog

That's all for today, I finished Directory Finder and Directory tool and moved on to Registry Manager, which is a bit more tricky to convert. But I should be able to do that tomorrow, with maybe some other tools as well. Over and out for today.

Registry Manager is now updated, that was almost a full day's job and it's still quite finished. But here is how it looks:

regmanager.jpg

No grouping here. I'll probably do Software Uninstaller next, no need for grouping there either.

Software Uninstaller and Service Manager updated to use the new list component, only a few more tools to go.

Automation Tool and Backup Tool also converted. Phew, I should be able to get all the tools updated by early next week if I keep myself busy. I'm hoping to get the first beta version out in next month.

Few more tools updated, few more to go. It's dull work, can't think anything more interesting to write :

I have lost count how many tools I have updated to use the new list component, but I hope I will be able to get the job done for all tools by Tuesday.

All the tools are now pretty much converted. I'll have to do Startup Manager later because it requires some changes to the new list component, something which I don't want to start right now.

Next I will be continue to work on the fully re-designed registry cleaner engine, it looks nice and clean on paper but there's alot of work in implementing it

Hukka did a great job with the new Messaging system:

screenshot.jpg

In earlier versions of PowerTools, the Message Windows were, in fact, new windows placed under the tool windows. This was a quick and dirty solution from my part, now my collegue Hukka improved the message system so that new Message Windows are no longer new windows but integrated parts of the actual tool window. A yet another nice new feature that will be included to PowerTools 2010!

Today I spent the morning working on the PT 2010's GUI (main window, some minor improvements there) and the rest of the day I worked with the Big New Feature that I have been talking about. After I get the next tests with it done, I can finally reveal what the new feature is. The feature that we have been developing since last year...

Today I have been mainly putting many things together, in a day or two the newly re-designed Registry Cleaner is in ready-to-run condition. Before that I must work blind, meaning that I cannot verify that the code works because it cannot be tested at all yet. This is something I hate, I would always wish to test everything I do while working on it and not work for weeks and only after that being able to see how it actually works.

A more-or-less final version of the new main GUI should be ready to show here within a week and everything looks like we are ready to start beta testing in next month. The final list of all the new features should also be ready to be officially published very soon, probably in the beginning of next month.

And oh, this is how the new Messaging System looks like:

screenshot.jpg

Before, these Message Logs were new windows placed below the actual tool window, now they are part of the tool windows themselves. Much less hassle, less code and simply more elegant solution. If you like this, thank my collegue Hukka :

I am at the moment running the final tests, after these are completed and if everything shows green, I can finally let you know what the new mystery feature of PowerTools 2010 is. If everything goes smoothly, I'll let you know this tomorrow.

Boofo wrote

When can we expect to get our hands on the first beta?

The first beta version will be available in next month, if there are no setbacks in the development process.

Alright, enough with the suspense. The new feature we have been working with since last year is:

Anti-Malware

Everyone who knows me knows that I am terrible at keeping secrets, so I'm glad I can finally tell you about this

To make a long story short, we have developed a 100% heuristic anti-malware engine that is designed to detect all common types of Windows malware such as viruses, trojans and so on. And by developed, I mean that we have developed the engine from scratch, this not any old engine that we have simply licensed and modified.

So, is it any good? Well, I just did the following test:

I used 4485 clean samples (i.e. files that are not infected with anything) a total of 7.12 GB and 2799 malware samples, a total of 1.14 GB. These samples were all fresh, meaning that the engine has not been trained with any of these files.

The engine gave the following result:

Detection rate of 39.81% with a False Positive rate of 0.07%.

I think that is a fairly good score. AV Comperatives (http://www.av-comparatives.org) is an independent organization that tests Anti-Virus products. They also do so called Retrospective tests which mean they will use an Anti-Virus product with one week old signature file to see how well it catches new viruses and other malware released during the week, this gives an idea how well the products' heuristic detection works. In their most recent test (http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_report22.pdf) the winner was Avira Anti-Virus with a detection rate of 69% of new viruses and of the 12 products tested, the mean score was 42%.

Anyways, the main design goal of this feature is not to be a full blown Anti-Virus product with all the bells and whistles. The main design goal is to create a complementary product to an Anti-Virus program. jv16 PowerTools 2010's Anti-Malware will not contain real-time scanning, it does not clean files, it does not play the piano. All it does, is tells you whether a file looks dangerous (i.e. infected with something) or safe. This makes the feature perfect for quickly checking a new application you have just downloaded.

As I said, the engine is purely heuristic, it does not use a database of any known virus signatures. It does, however, contain a heuristic database, which contains data the engine needs. The size of this entire system is around 7 MB at the moment, which means that the setup size of PowerTools will increase by this amount. Or, it might be possible that PowerTools does not ship with this feature, instead the user is asked whether he wishes to use the Anti-Malware and only then the database file is downloaded. But the point being, that adding this feature to PowerTools does not make PowerTools' setup file too big.

rdtmk5 wrote

Further, I'm worried it's adding unnecessary feature bloat that could add instability after you've been working so hard and long to remove bugs and instability.

Adding a new tool cannot create bugs or instability to other, separate tools.

rdtmk5 wrote

Have you considered offering this as a free-standing program, though? I doubt you'd find anyone who would pay for it, but as a freeware offering, along the lines of PT Lite, you might have a hit on your hands. You might even incorporate it into PT Lite.

Yep, the feature might be added to PowerTools Lite in the future.