What would you like to get for PowerTools 2011?

rdtmk5

jv16 wrote
Do you think there are tools that should be removed from PowerTools in order to make it less bloated? If so, which ones?

Jouni,

That is an excellent question! I don't have an immediate answer, but might this be worth a poll of some sort? For example, show a list of tools and, using radio buttons, ask the user to indicate which tools he/she uses regularly or finds useful. That way, at the end of the exercise, you'd know which tools are being used and which aren't. A variation could be to rate each tool from 1 (not useful) to 5 (extremely useful) and, again, at the end of the day, you'd know which tools are most important to your customers. There are numerous ways to do it - you just need to make it simple and quick to encourage participation.

Just a thought.

leonardo

jv16 wrote
Do you think there are tools that should be removed from PowerTools in order to make it less bloated? If so, which ones?

For a start, my personal thoughts on jv16P 2011 (for what it is worth):

1. A setting option and a choice during installation: choices are a 'Simple' or 'Advanced' user interface.

2. The Advanced interface does not show 'Home' and none of the linked tools like CFMC, -> , Verify my downloads are Safe to run.

3. The Simple interface only shows 'Home' and the linked tools like CFMC -> Verify my downloads are Safe to run, plus BackUps, Settings, Health indicators.

4. I am not using 'System Cleaner' (I tested it this morning for the first time and got a freeze!) because the functions offered are a duplication of what I can do with Windows Explorer and other jv16PT tools I use more frequently.

5. I never could actually use 'Disk wiper' because it does not work, reported several times elseware in this forum!

6. There are a few 'File Tools' for which I never could figure out what there use could be in my system environment. I have to reinvestigate this area!

leonardo

rdtmk5 wrote
jv16 wroteDo you think there are tools that should be removed from PowerTools in order to make it less bloated? If so, which ones?

............That is an excellent question! I don't have an immediate answer, but might this be worth a poll of some sort? ..........

The basic problem with a 'poll of some sort' is the number of people needed to respond. How many users are going to issue a worthy poll reply and how many replies do you need for a representative poll? Suppose even 50 users respond to this forum poll , can you draw design conclusions from that?

siliconman01

I agree with the above 100%. Forum users represent a small number of the total jv16 population.

And once you introduce a tool and then remove it later on, you are always going to have a group of users who are angry or disappointed. :

redseujac

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leonardo

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redseujac

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kira13

I have two wishes I can think of currently:

1. I'd like to see what will happen when I click "Fix" for a registry entry. I have only ever used "Custom Fix" because I need to know what kind of fix is going to be applied. (I have stuck with Registry First Aid for years because it's the only registry cleaner I've used that lists its possible fixes.)

2. I had to download a specialized duplicate finder program because what I really need is to search for duplicates *across my network*. I often need to check if I still have stuff on my local computers that has also been moved to my server. I hope it will eventually be possible to search using Windows 7's Libraries (I have added all the network locations I need to my Libraries), but I would settle for even being able to use a mapped drive if it gives the functionality.

To comment on some other things that were mentioned in this thread: I like the idea of having a user option to add things to the right-click context menu. I myself am unlikely to add any of PowerTools' functions to the context menu, but I am very picky about what I want in there--both in what I want to add in and what I don't want in there--so I understand others' strong feelings either way. It seems that a choice is the best option. Along that same line, I wonder if it's possible to make the different tools into subfeatures that can be installed or not during a custom installation. (I don't program so I don't know how complicated that is to do.) Then people who worry about bloat can install only the tools they want, while the default will still be the full install. Or, if you do a poll, you could break it into a full install and a minimal install based on which tools are listed as the most unneeded ones, if that's easier.

Kira

jv16

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rdtmk5

Given the program's current extremely small footprint and, using my 8+ year old AMD Athlon desktop as a benchmark, extremely good performance, maybe we should start the discussion with a recommendation to leave the current tool set as is. As with a conventional set of hand tools, you rarely, if ever, use all of the tools available. But when you need that 1 tool that 1 time, it's a lifesaver. I like knowing that PT is there, with a wide variety of solutions, if and when I need it even if I use it's tools only occasionally.

jv16

rdtmk5 wrote
Given the program's current extremely small footprint and, using my 8+ year old AMD Athlon desktop as a benchmark, extremely good performance, maybe we should start the discussion with a recommendation to leave the current tool set as is.

Personally I agree, but if someone makes a good case to have some feature or tool removed from the product, I'm also willing to do that. Especially if the results of our last user survey confirms this, there were a few tools that were most often asked to be removed.

jv16

Here is a preview of what the new Software Uninstaller will look like:

software_uninst.jpg

The GUI is a bit updated, but under the hood everything has been re-designed from scratch. At the moment the list looks very cluttered (IMHO), maybe it would be a good idea to show all the details (e.g. installation path and main executable) only for the currently selected software. What do you think?

rdtmk5

jv16 wrote
Here is a preview of what the new Software Uninstaller will look like:

software_uninst.jpg

The GUI is a bit updated, but under the hood everything has been re-designed from scratch. At the moment the list looks very cluttered (IMHO), maybe it would be a good idea to show all the details (e.g. installation path and main executable) only for the currently selected software. What do you think?

Or maybe, as a global setting, give the user the option to select a detailed view or a summary view? Actually, jv, your suggestion to show details for only the current selection is a really good idea - that would take care of the clutter and provide detailed information at the same time.

doogie

Just a minor annoyance I'd like to see changed for PT 2011.

My PC is used by one other person in my family so I password PT. After entering the password I need to click the OK button rather than just hit the Enter key.

Jouni can the Enter key be made to execute the OK button as presently the Enter key is recognised as another character in the password.

As I said just a minor annoyance but I guess that a lot of people who use a password automatically hit the Enter key after putting the password in.

redseujac

rdtmk5 wrote
...Or maybe, as a global setting, give the user the option to select a detailed view or a summary view?

I think this is a good idea. Agreed!

leonardo

jv16 wrote
Here is a preview of what the new Software Uninstaller will look like:

........ At the moment the list looks very cluttered (IMHO), maybe it would be a good idea to show all the details (e.g. installation path and main executable) only for the currently selected software. What do you think?

Yes that would be a good idea. Even if, by global choise, one good choose for a simple view instead or a detailed view; the user probably would still like to have a detailed view for the targeted software to be uninstalled.

redseujac

Leonardo wrote
If, by global choise, you can choose for a simple or detailed view; the user probably would still like to have a detailed view for the targeted software to be uninstalled.

Agreed. So, even if the user chooses a simple view in the global settings, he will still have the detailed view of the software he wants to uninstall indeed.

leonardo

jv16PT 'Main menu' -> 'Tools' - > 'Program maintenance' -> 'Remove Registry Compactor backups' will list the found backup files first and asks to confirm deletion.

It would be nice to have the same for 'Delete old backups'.

redseujac

Yes, I do support that suggestion of Leonardo.

regmos

"And now to something completely different"

In Registry manager > Shell extension/IE context menu/Open with menu it's possible to delete entries from the context menu.

It would be nice, if you could add (or replace the Delete function with) an Activate/Deactivate option.

As it is now, I'm using this little standalone utility from NirSoft to manage my context menus.

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