Here is the Beta4 version of jv16 PowerTools 2010:
(This version is no longer available for testing)
Please read the following before downloading
Remember that this is beta level software. This means that this version has been made available only for testing purposes. This version contains bugs and can damage your computer.
As always, we will give out free licenses to the best beta testers. If a beta tester already owns a license we can also issue VIP and Platinum VIP packages for free.
However, you are not entitled for any kind of free license by simply downloading these beta versions. Free licenses are given out only to beta testers who give us valuable feedback, such as bug reports or improvement ideas. We will publish the list of users who won a free license after the final version of the product has been released, not before.
How to send your feedback
* Please use the Post Reply button of this thread (http://www.macecraft.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4025) for all feedback.
* If you are reporting a bug, please give as much information as possible in regards what steps are required to reproduce the problem. Also let us know what version of Windows you are using. There is no need to post the hardware configuration of your computer, unless asked.
* If you wish to report that you have tested all the features of the program, please include to your post the Debug Report as generated by the Program Debug Tool (under the Debug menu of the Main Window).
* You can send attachments, including screenshots, to the thread from the Post Reply > Upload attachment tab (below the main text area).
* If you are reporting a bug that is not obvious, please include the Debug Log to your report. Note: the Debug Log contains information about your computer, if you do not wish other users to see all this information, you can use the Private Messages feature to send the Debug Log to us.
* You can also send you general feedback, how you feel the program works for you or if there is something you don't understand, or if some feature doesn't work the way you expected. Feedback like this is sometimes even more valuable than bug reports.
How to create a Debug Log
* If the problem doesn't cause PowerTools to crash: Go to the Main Window, open Debug menu and select "Save Debug Log". The Debug Log is saved to your Desktop.
* If the problem causes PowerTools to crash: Go to the installation directory of the program (c:\program files\jv16 PowerTools 2010 BetaX\ by default) and create an empty file called "DebugMode.dat" there. Then start the program and re-create the problem. The Debug Log is being automatically saved to your desktop as you use the program.
Release Notes:
* All features that requires the user to select a file using the Windows Open or Save To dialog such as "Save List As", "Export to .Reg" etc. do not always work with 64 bit Vista. This is a bug in Vista, not in PowerTools.
* The Age and Commenting features are not yet implemented.
* The buttons contain vertical bar characters, this is normal and part of the debug system. The vertical bars mean that these buttons are dynamically positioned and resized. If any such button is not correctly sized or placed, please report.
* The buttons have red (and green) font. This is part of the Debug Tool available from the Main Window's Debug menu. The color coding is simple: all buttons you have clicked show up in green, and all buttons you haven't clicked show up in red. This is to make it easier for testers to go through all the buttons of the program.
* If you have tried any of the private pre-beta versions and a bug you have reported is still in Beta1, this is a good time to re-report the problem.
* This release contains a brand new registry cleaner engine, so please be careful and use extra caution with the updated "ActiveX/DDE/COM/DCOM/OLE" scan module (not run by default and for a good reason).
* Do not install this version over any existing version of PowerTools.
* Do not start to translate this version to your language yet, there will still be major changes.
Known Issues (No need to report)
* The Statistics text of the Main Window doesn't wrap correctly: sometimes a space can start a new line.
* The updated GUI of the Main Window contains a few minor issues, like some white space in wrong places.
* The pie charts of the Registry Info tool do not show up correctly.
Known Issues (Only report if you can give steps that reproduces the problem every time)
* The Status Bar (at the bottom of tool windows) doesn't always show up after running a tool.
What's New (compared to PowerTools 2009)
1. Redesigned user interface and highly improved user experience.
2. Two User Interface modes: Simple (default) and Advanced. The Simple GUI shows the user less options and features, the Advanced GUI shows everything, similar to PowerTools 2009.
3. New unified list component, all the tools now use the same, custom developed list component.
3a. All lists now support Filter Panel, just start typing to open the Filter Panel
3b. All lists have a List Control option in the Right-Click menu, the List Control allows you to do many basic tasks such as remove lines from the list and copy lines to the clipboard.
4. Home feature in the Main Window allows you to easily launch the most commonly used tools.
5. "Clean and fix my computer" feature that runs the Registry Cleaner, History/MRU Cleaner and File Cleaner all at the same time.
6. New, 6th generation registry cleaner engine. The entire engine has been redesigned with safety as the number one design goal, and speed as the secondary goal.
7. All the registry features now use a new faster registry access component, it makes many tools, such as the Registry Finder work faster.
7a. Improved 64 bit Registry support. For example, the Registry Info Tool will now show the information for both 32 bit and 64 bit registry views of 64 bit Windows.
8. Program Debug Tool. When you start the program, all buttons you haven't clicked will show with red font, after you have clicked them they will be shown with a green font. This allows you to see which features you have already tested, and the Program Debug Tool under the Main Window's Debug menu will also list all the non-tested features for you.
9. Beta Release Version system. With PT 2010, we can define if a product version is a Beta Release or not. As Beta1 is a Beta Release, the logging feature is always on and the Debug menu is always visible in the Main Window. To save a Debug Log, just go to the Debug menu in the Main Window and select "Save Debug Log".
10. Re-designed Message Logs. With PT 2009 the Message Logs were windows under the actual tool windows, now they are integrated to the tool windows.
11. Fully rewritten Registry Monitor and File Cleaner tools.
12. Dozens of smaller improvements: Open in RegEdit now highlights the registry entry as well, improved Printing feature, improved Tab graphics, new Preference Saving GUI, faster Duplicate File Finder, Tab Notification icons show if any tabs have non-default settings that can affect the way the tool works, Desktop and other user folders are no longer being skipped as "system directories" by file and directory searching tools such as the File Finder, New Right-Click menu system shows you what features work with selected (checked) items of the list and which work with the highlighted item(s).
13. Improved all around safety. Not only has the Registry Cleaner been fully re-designed with safety as the number one design goal, the PowerTools 2010 also contains a feature called Global Ignore List. Any search word in this list and all data matching to it will be automatically ignored by all tools. We can also send new lines to the Global Ignore List over the Internet. So even in the very unlikely event of a critical bug found from the product, we can issue a fast fix by sending a new Global Ignore List line to all PowerTools 2010 users.
Bugs Fixed (since Beta3):
1. The Registry Cleaner can list False Positives relating to software Intel Matrix Storage Manager.
2. Registry Finder: when you abort the tool, it continues to run on in the background (high CPU usage).
3. Live support tool: the Abort button stays red (the other two buttons do turn to green after click).
4. Debug tool: it lists three buttons for the web browser tool, but that tool is not available in Beta 3.
5. Various lists: When you do “Never show again” with nothing selected, a Tip incorrectly says you did it. However, that feature only works when lines are selected.
6. Start Menu Tool can list empty folders twice.
7. Settings, Security: only the top half of the "Set password" button is visible.
8. PT 2010 cannot gracefully handle dual+ monitors. Both of my computers have dual monitors and I use program DisplayFusion to control the monitors. All of the various windows of PT 2010 want to open on the primary monitor.
9. With "Highlight selected items" option enabled, it's not possible to un-select items that have been once selected.
10. The Filter Panel can sometimes pop up outside of the list control.
11. File Tool's Move to Recycle bin feature results in a "Failed to access" error message every time.
12. Program's icon doesn't look good.
13. If you password protect the program you cannot open it again as the password query window is displayed too small.
14. File Tool's Right Click > Explore works, More functions > Explore does not.
15. The program chokes with operations that result a huge number of items being added to a list. For example, searching for ":\" using the Registry Finder.
16. If you change the tabs of Backup Tool, a text "(No backups found)" flashes to the screen before the list is populated.
17. Clicking the same tab of the Backup Tool always causes the list to regenerate, even if there is no need.
18. The new tool tips are not in use in the list components, except for the columns.
19. If you click Settings from the Tools menu the Backups tool opens and vice versa. Doesn't happen in the Main Window but happens e.g. in the File Tool.
20. Live Support in the Main Window says Live Support is Offline but the Live Support option under the Help menu says its Online.
21. The Live Support icon in the Main Window always has the same icon regardless whether the Live Support is online or offline.
22. The Unit Testing tool shows "Error: FileToolTestEx : 10"
23. If you start the Unit Testing tool and then close it, it will continue to run on the background.
24. Clicking Abort when the Anti-Malware is starting causes an Internal Error message to be shown.
25. Clicking Abort when the Anti-Malware is starting makes it impossible to start the Anti-Malware again due to "Tool is already running, please wait it to finish first".
26. If you abort the Registry Information tool, you can't access any of its features. (Fix: abort now closes the window)
27. The number of selected items can get mixed up in different tools. For example, a tool could show an error message of "Please select at least one item" even if there is one item selected.
28. Automation Tool's Top Panel is visible even if the list is empty. The Top Panels should not be shown with an empty list.
29. The last check box ("Run Start Menu Tool") is not correctly positioned in the Automation Tool's Create new automated task feature.
30. With some tools the "Please wait..." panel is shown too high, for example with the Custom Uninstall Software tool.
31. Some tools show "Nothing found" text in the list while the tool is still running; of course nothing is found yet as the operation is still in progress.
32. If you add a Search Word to the Duplicate File Finder, the blue "i" icon shows up over the tab icon only after you change the tab. The "i" icon should show up at once.
33. Clean and Fix my computer's Search Words and Ignore Words features do not update the "i" icon correctly (see item 32).
34. File Recovery's Ignore Words feature does not update the "i" icon correctly (see item 32).
35. The Results window of the Find and Replace data (inside files) tool does not show up properly. For example, the Status Bar only updated after clicking the list.
36. The Results window of the Find and Replace data (inside files) tool can show duplicate data if run many times in a row.
37. Startup Manager's "Create new automatically starting program" feature starts with the OK button disabled. (All tools should start with all the OK/Start buttons enabled and if the user clicks the button before all the required input has been given an error message should be shown).
38. Registry Cleaner's Search Words and Ignore Words features do not update the "i" icon correctly (see item 32).
39. Aborting a registry snapshot creation (with the Registry Monitor tool) can crash the program. Also, the operation can continue to run in the background.
40. Aborting Registry Monitor's Compare feature incorrectly shows the "Operation completed, following changes were detected..." message and the actual operation can continue to run in the background.
41. Registry Find and Replace tool's Ignore Words feature does not update the "i" icon correctly (see item 32).
42. Known bug fixed: The tab icons are missing.
43. Known bug (of PT 2009) fixed: The background of the tab icons isn't always transparent, and sometimes there is too much space before the first tab.
44. Custom Fix feature of the Registry Cleaner can freeze the entire program.
45. The Registry Cleaner and "Clean and fix my computer" can show a lot of internal errors relating to Safety Net component.
46. Mass File Renamer can crash when creating a new block.
47. It's not possible to move (by dragging) any blocks.
48. Changing the program's font within the translation file doesn't always work properly.
49. Using the mouse wheel or the scroll area of a laptop, it is possible to make the Main Window get stuck in a very long scrolling loop where the category selector on left keeps moving rapidly.
50. Removing a disabled item in Startup Manager seems to work (the item is removed from the list) but the item is not removed, it comes back after you open the tool again.
51. If you abort the Startup Manager while its generating its list, there is a delay of up to 5 seconds before the tool is again ready to be used.
52. Starting "Clean and fix my computer" can cause an Access Violation error.
53. The new Main Window does not properly scale to lonegr tool names and descriptions (texts are cut off).
54. The contentns of the Abbreviation tab of the Settings tool do not scale properly when changing the language of the program.
55. Sometimes when opening a tool it opens but shows an Access Violation error message. This can also happen when closing a tool.
56. File Cleaner and "Clean and fix my computer" can list important system fonts as "safe to remove".
57. File Cleaner and "Clean and fix my computer" can list "lock" files currently in use for example by Open Office or Microsoft Office.
58. "Mark item as old/new" is visible in the Right Click menu of the Startup Manager, even as the feature is not supported (yet).
59. Pressing F5 always brings up the Anti-Malware tool.
60. All the Ignore Words lists contain a vertical scroll bar but the Search Words lists do not, this occurs in all tools.
61. Trying to use any random file as a license file via Help > License Tool > Install license makes the program to show an error message about the license file being for an earlier version of PowerTools even as the file is not a valid license file at all.
62. Fixed a known issue: The file drag and drop features of the Main Window are not working.
63. Backup Tool slows down if you have many backups (10+).
64. The window for creating a new automated task has its OK button disabled, it's enabled only after all the information is filled. This is not correct, the default action button (OK or Start) should always be enabled and if user clicks it before giving all the required information an informative error message should be shown.
65. It's possible to create a new automated task that doesn't do anything.
66. "Automatically fix/delete all found items" feature of the Registry Cleaner does not do anything.
67. Known issue fixed: Automation of the new File Cleaner doesn't work via the Automation Tool.
68. Sometimes a tool can show two Message Logs, or a single Message Log can show up to an incorrect place.
Other Improvements (since Beta3):
1. Improved the safety of the Registry Cleaner. Nothing major this time, just bullet proofing some checks.
2. While File Tool is working the tool bar on top is disabled from now on.
3. Startup Manager's Top Panel is now hidden if there are no items on the list. This is the way all the Top Panels should work throughout the program.
4. The program now shows an error message if you attempt to do certain common operations such as Select or Search with an empty list.
5. The Security setting of the Settings window now reports to the user if a new password has been set, before there was no confirmation whatsoever.
6. Greatly improved the speed of many list operations, especially with long result lists and/or while running on a slow computer.
7. Added caching to the Live Support status check. This means the program doesn't have to check for the status of the Live Support every time you start the program, it can use previous data as long as the previous data is new enough.
8. Added a Status Bar to the Automation Tool.
9. Removed White List feature from the Anti-Malware, you can simply use the Ignore Words instead.
10. The Header File tab of the Custom Restore / Edit backup tool is no longer visible if the user uses the Simple GUI mode. The feature is only for the most advanced users, new users do not have to see the feature at all.
11. Updated the GUI of the Disk Wiper's Status window.
12. Updated the GUI of the File Split tool.
13. Updated the GUI of the Find and Replace data (inside files) tool.
14. Updated the GUI of the Startup Manager's "Create new automatically starting program" window.
15. Updated the GUI of the System Cleaner
16. Updated the GUI of the Registry Info tool.
17. Minor updates to the GUI of the Settings window
18. Migrated the entire program to use a new tab component, the new component has better support for transparent icons and also fixes a few known issues of the old tab control (such as too much space before the first tab).
19. Added support for a new format translation files. The old format is still supported to allow all the translators to have time to update to the new format. The new format is needed because the old format was prone to hash collisions, in other words, wrong item from a tool window was translated even as the translation file was made correctly.
20. Removed the Registry Cleaner's Network access feature. This feature has been depricated by the Global Ignore List (to which we can send data over the Internet to protect users in a very unlikely event of a critical bug is found from the Registry Cleaner Engine.)
21. Further improved the safety of the Registry Cleaner and the Clean and fix my computer. Again, no actual bugs fixes, only adding more extra safety checks.
22. Greatly improved the GUI of the Mass File Renamer, also added two new tips for the tool to help new users.
23. Removed unused data from the translation file (English.lng) and added support for translating the new User Interface elements (but please do not start to translate the program yet, there will still be changes)
24. Added confirmation messages to many tools, the confirmation is shown if user attempts to remove a lot of data at one time.
25. Improved the quantity and quality of debug information written to the Debug Log.
26. Removed the Shortcuts menu from the Main Window.
27. Added support for removing lines from the Global Ignore List via the Internet. In other words, we can send new lines to the GIL over the Internet in a case a critical error is found from the program. Now we can also remove these sent lines automatically, just in case.
28. The File Cleaner will now list old .regtrans-ms, TM.blf, and txr.blf files.
29. Added a fade out effect to the closing of tool windows.
30. Added "Collapse all groups" and "Expand all groups" features to the List Control (Right Click menu).
31. Improved the GUI of the License Tool.
32. If there are no backups, the Backup Tool doesn't any longer flash the "Loading the list of backups" panel.
33. Changed the default startup mode of new automation tasks from a desktop shortcut to a manual start within the Automation Tool.
34. Changed the caption of "Delete files with the File Cleaner" to "Run File Cleaner" from the Create new automated task window.
35. Added support for the protective form overlay for Registry Cleaner and File Cleaner if run via the Automation Tool.
36. Improved the "The list is empty" messages of the File Tool and Directory Tool. File Tool, for example, now says "(No files added, you can add files by dragging them to this window)" instead of generic "(No files added)".
37. Added support for defining the used fonts in the translation file.
Please send all your feedback regarding this beta version to this thread! Not via the Bug Tracker, not via the site's contact us page. And remember to be careful with these test versions! Thank you!
