jv16's development blog

jv16

The new Maintenance tool is now pretty much done:

screenshot.jpg

Please drop me a note if you would like to see other similar features added. Notice that I also extended some of the existing features, for example, you can now define exactly how old backups you want to delete. Very handy, IMHO

Next I will be implementing a global Ignore List feature as requested by siliconman01.

jv16

Global Ignore List feature now fully implemented:

screenshot.jpg

For example, if you want PowerTools to not to touch any files in C:\ drive, add "C:\" to the Global Ignore List, and no data from C:\ is listed by any tool of the PowerTools, including File Finder, File Cleaner, Registry Finder, Registry Cleaner, Software Uninstaller etc. But you can also write generic search words, if you run a system critical software "foobar" and you want to be absolutely sure PowerTools will not touch it, simply write it to Global Ignore List.

And, just to be safe, every time the feature ignores any data a line is written to the Debug Log (if Debug Mode is enabled).

boofo

Are you going to include the Norton ones I posted in the internal ignore list?

jv16

Boofo wrote
Are you going to include the Norton ones I posted in the internal ignore list?

Are you referring to this: http://www.macecraft.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3902&p=21006&hilit=norton#p21006

If you are, yes, these items have already been included to the program's internal ignore list.

boofo

Yes, that's the one I was referring to. Thanks for taking care of it. ;)

siliconman01

First of all, THANKS very much for these new options/features.

Does the Global Ignore List also apply to FileCache.dat in the Settings folder? In other words, if I put "D:\" in the Global Ignore List, will the D drive no longer be scanned during the building of FileCache.dat in the Cache folder? Or is another "feature" needed in Advanced that permits customizing FileCache.dat to prevent caching from scanning selected drives?

jv16

siliconman01 wrote

Does the Global Ignore List also apply to FileCache.dat in the Settings folder? In other words, if I put "D:\" in the Global Ignore List, will the D drive no longer be scanned during the building of FileCache.dat in the Cache folder?

This is correct, the Global Ignore List also applies here.

jv16

Implemented a neat new safety feature for the Registry Cleaner:

screenshot.jpg

User can now define additional safety settings for the Registry Cleaner with just a few clicks. For example, enabling the "Anti-Virus software" makes the Registry Cleaner to ignore all data relating to all common Anti-Virus programs. This feature has been requested by an user, and I think it's a great little additional safety feature.

Would you like to see any other items here? Let me know.

jv16

Implemented another nice small improvement: Drag and drop support for license files. In other words, with PowerTools 2010 you can simply drag and drop a license file to the PowerTools' main window and the program will automatically recognize it and convert itself from the trial version to the full version.

Of course, this is just a fail-safe system. The program should automatically find and use any license files stored in the computer, but still, implementing this feature only took a few minutes and it's very handy.

boofo

jv16 wrote
Implemented a neat new safety feature for the Registry Cleaner:

screenshot.jpg

User can now define additional safety settings for the Registry Cleaner with just a few clicks. For example, enabling the "Anti-Virus software" makes the Registry Cleaner to ignore all data relating to all common Anti-Virus programs. This feature has been requested by an user, and I think it's a great little additional safety feature.

Would you like to see any other items here? Let me know.

How about adding a setting for Common Anti-Malware? Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, Trojan Remover, etc.

jv16

Boofo wrote

How about adding a setting for Common Anti-Malware? Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, Trojan Remover, etc.

Hmmm... what about renaming the first item from "Anti-Virus software" to "Anti-Virus & Anti-Malware software" and include all of them under the same check box?

I see no real need for two separate check boxes, both "Anti-Malware" and "Anti-Virus" when we can tackle both of them together. And these programs tend to overlap anyway, this way we do not need to define what exactly is anti-malware program and which is just anti-virus.

boofo

Anti-Virus/Malware Software might take care of it.

jv16

Boofo wrote
Anti-Virus/Malware Software might take care of it.

Consider it done.

Anyways, today I have been focusing on small improvements. Tomorrow I will continue the seemingly never-ending job of getting the newly designed Registry Cleaner Engine back to 100% working condition. I'd like to get the in-house testing started in next week so we are ready to start the public beta testing at the end of this month.

siliconman01

Would you like to see any other items here? Let me know.

I like the "reasoning" on this new option; however, I feel you will need to add "sub-selections" under each of the main categories. I assume that you are handling this via some type of white listing based on program names...such as Norton, Symantec, Avira, etc.

It's my experience that many computer users swap in and out of various security programs fairly routinely. What is considered the best today turns into mediocre-to-marginal-to-junk security programs in 6 months. With a lot of limited-option free security programs available, users do not hesitate to change allegiance. So I feel that you need checkboxes for each of the various "brands" that you are white listing. Otherwise, PT will leave a lot of junk registry entries as users add/remove programs in the primary categories.

jv16

siliconman01 wrote

I like the "reasoning" on this new option; however, I feel you will need to add "sub-selections" under each of the main categories. I assume that you are handling this via some type of white listing based on program names...such as Norton, Symantec, Avira, etc.

If you wish to do so specific ignoring based on program names, you can simply use the Ignore Words feature. The Additional Safety feature's idea is to save the user from listing all the important software he has, checking a box is enough.

jv16

I am working to improve some error messages in the program. Before, the program could show a rather cryptic error message like this:

old.jpg

Now, if you try to click the Delete button without having first selected anything the program will use an error message that makes much more sense:

new.jpg

The screenshots also show how much better the new Message Windows look.

jv16

Improved the Backup Tool so it will now automatically start to the first tab with backups.

For example, lets say you have 0 registry backups, 2 file backups and 1 other backups in the Backup Tool. When you open the tool, it will now automatically open the File Backups tab because the first tab (Registry Backups) does not have anything in it.

A yet another small usability improvement.

jv16

Added a new little safety feature: if the user tries to ignore (using the right-click) more than 100 items or over 80% of all the items the user is shown a confirmation "You are about to ignore a lot of items, are you sure you know what you are doing?"

jv16

Now I'm working on a very unique feature I came up the other day: a Compare Results feature to the Registry Cleaner. After you have run the Registry Cleaner, you can go to the Tools menu and select "Compare Results". It will pop up an Open File dialog you can use to select a saved results list of a previous version of jv16 PowerTools or by other registry cleaner product.

Then PowerTools will automatically analyze the results and show a comparison, which of the two found more items and what the other program missed that PT found and vice versa. This will be very interesting feature for all who wish to do some research and comparisons between different registry cleaner products.

Rather neat, huh? 8)

boofo

That sounds great, but it means more work for you as you would have to update each entries results as they update their product, for it to be fair.

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