Here is the Beta 5 version of jv16 PowerTools 2016:
(this version is no longer available)
Please read the following before downloading
Please, please please do remember that this is beta level software. This means that this version has been made available only for testing purposes. This beta version is slower than the upcoming, official release. This version most certainly does contain bugs and can potentially damage your computer and cause hair loss. Send all your feedback, comments and bug reports relating to this version as a reply to this thread (use the Post Reply button).
The purpose of releasing beta level software like this is to allow people to try the software out and give us feedback on what parts of the program still need some fine tuning.
It is not recommended to run this software in a work or production use computer. Whatever you do, always create a system backup before running beta level software. If you do not do so, please do not complain to us about it.
As always, we will give out free licenses to the best beta testers. If such a beta tester already owns a license we can also issue VIP and Platinum VIP packages for free, or other similar prizes for the trouble.
However, you are not entitled for any kind of free license by simply downloading these beta versions and reporting that all is fine. 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. All free licenses are decided on case-by-case, sometimes it takes just one message with two lines to earn a license (e.g. if you found a really good bug that no one else reported), sometimes it takes much more.
How to send your feedback
* Please use the Post Reply button of this thread for all feedback.
* If you are reporting a bug, please create a zip file of the jv16 PowerTools' Backup directory - by default this is at C:\Program Files (x86)\jv16 PowerTools 2016 Beta5\Backups. IMPORTANT NOTICE: The zip file can contain detailed information of your computer, if you are worried about your privacy, use a service such as https://www.wetransfer.com/ to upload the zip file there and send me the link to the file via a forum Private Message.
* 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 False Positive by the Registry Cleaner (or by "Clean and SpeedUp My Computer" tool), there is no need to send a Debug Log, this version does not have debug log enabled for the Registry Cleaner to show its true performance. To report a False Positive, simply send a Screenshot of the False Positive, and please mention what aggressiveness settings of the Registry Cleaner you were using at the time of the scan.
* You can also send your 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.
Why the buttons have red dots?
* This version ships with the Debug Mode enabled. This means that each button of the program will have a red square on it. The red square will turn to green when you click it. This colour coding helps you to keep track what features you have already tested and which not. You can use the Program Debug Tool to see the list of buttons you haven't yet clicked. The Program Debug Tool can be found from the Main Window's Debug menu.
What is TEST_ENGLISH?
* This version ships with a special translation called TEST_ENGLISH. If used, the entire user interface of the software should be displayed in UPPER CASE LETTERS. The idea of this is to verify all text content in the user interface is originating from the translation file and therefore can be translated. If you enable the TEST_ENGLISH translation and you notice any areas of the user interface that are not in UPPER CASE LETTERS, please report it as a bug. Notice: The buttons of popup message boxes (such as the one asking whether you want to restart your computer) are handled by Windows, therefore they are not in upper case and cannot be translated.
Why is this version finding so many registry errors?
* This version ships with the new registry cleaning engine that is a huge step forward from the previous versions in regards of accuracy and registry cleaning performance. However, since this is the very first time this registry cleaning engine is released to the general public, it can still contain bugs, so please be careful.
Why is this version so slow?
* This is a beta release build, which means it generates as much debug data as possible. All this debug code makes the software both bigger in size and in memory consumption and it also makes it very slow. Please do not consider the speed of these beta versions a representation of the speed of the final version.
Release Notes:
* Do not start to translate this version to your language yet, there will still be major changes to the language file (English.lng).
* The new icons are not included (in /Settings/Icons) yet.
* The Download Handbook will download the PowerTools X handbook.
* Do not install this version over any existing version of PowerTools. If you do, strange things can unfold.
* This is a testing version, it means a lot of debug code is turned on, which makes the program run much slower than the final version. It also means the file sizes are not final.
What's New (compared to jv16 PowerTools X)
1. New feature: Home screen feature in the main window shows you a summary of your computer's health and performance, with shortcuts to the relevant tools to repair any detected issues. The home screen also allows you to see the progress of how these numbers change over time, such as after using jv16 PowerTools.
2. New tool: Startup Timer measures the time your computer takes to start up. It also measures the impact of all your automatically starting software have on the system startup to allow you to see exactly what is causing your computer to start slowly.
3. New tool: Pictures AntiSpy allows you to remove privacy threatening metadata from your picture files. The feature can be used manually or it can be set to run automatically.
4. New tool: Windows AntiSpy allows you to disable the privacy threatening features of Windows.
5. New tool: Easy Mass File Renamer offers an easier way to rename many files at the same time. The previous Mass File Renamer tool is still available for more advanced and customized mass file renaming operations.
6. New tool: Startup Details shows you the exact details of what processes were run during system startup and how much slower they are making your computer.
7. Improvement: The System Health measurement has been completely updated to give you a more exact and detailed rating of your computer's health. Furthermore, it is now ran as a background process, meaning you no longer have to wait for it to complete. It runs periodically on the background without using much if any system resources.
8. Improvement: Fully redesigned user interface for easier user experience and the new user interface also works better with different screen sizes.
9. Improvement: Fully rebuilt Startup Optimizer allows you to easily speed up the Windows startup without removing any software. The new Startup Optimizer supports disabling the optimization per individual software and its implementation no longer requires the use of multiple starting processes.
10. Improvement: Clean and Fix My Computer has been renamed to Clean and Speedup My Computer and the tool contains dozens of improvements to allow a safer and more optimized user experience.
11. Improvement: Major improvements in the Startup Manager. For example, it can now can show the impact that each automatically starting software has on the system's startup speed. This impact measurement is collected in real-time by the Startup Timer while the system starts and it offers a greater detail level compared to Windows 10's Startup Manager's "Impact to startup" rating. The Startup Manager can now also show detailed data of the resource usage at startup time per starting software, for example, you will be able to see how much system memory each starting software used during startup.
12. Improvement: Major improvements in the Software Uninstaller for more accurate listing of installed software, as well as improved software uninstallation ability.
13. Improvement: The Initial Setup of the software now needs to be run only one time - instead of once every 15 days of the previous versions - and it also takes less time to run.
14. Plus, hundreds of smaller improvements and bug fixes.
NOTE: Not all improvements and fixes are yet included to this beta version, they are still under internal testing and will be included later.
Change Log - What's New (compared to Beta 4)
Fix: Create System Restore Point option in the Tutorial does not work in all systems (no system restore point created).
Fix: After using jv16 PowerTools, a hidden instance of the software can remain running in the background.
Fix: The health data in the Main Window's Home view is not always populated, especially if the software has been just installed.
Fix: After changing specific settings in the Settings window, the software says it will need to restart itself in order to apply the new settings. The program closes, but does not start again automatically.
Fix: Fixed many grammar mistakes from the English user interface.
Bug fix: The software can in rare cases display an error message of Access violation at address 006AE5AF.
Fix: The software can in rare cases display an error message of Access violation at address 0047318E.
Fix: If user has many recorded startup times, the Home view will only show the first ones that fit to designated area on the screen.
Fix: At some window sizes, the system startup time bars could get clipped (shown only partially).
Fix: Startup Timer's Clear Data buttons do not work.
Fix: Startup Manager's Hide System Files option doesn't always hide all the automatically starting operating system related files.
Fix: Fixed many grammar errors from the user interface texts.
Fix: Clean And SpeedUp My Computer can display a non-relevant message about Startup Optimizer when fixing the found registry errors.
Fix: Running the Clean And SpeedUp My Computer can cause the software to display an Access Violation message in some specific system configurations.
Fix: The Home view's Registry Integrity bar doesn't always show.
Fix: The software can display an Out of Memory error when generating the list of software installed to the system, or when uninstalling software.
Fix: The software can display an Out of Memory error when using the Clean And SpeedUp My Computer.
Fix: The software can display an Invalid class typecast error when using the main program window.
Fix: The Main Window's Home view can display System health analyzed on: lblHealthCompareCurrent_BIG.
Improvement: Running the Registry Compactor will show a status window during the Windows restart, similar to previous versions of jv16 PowerTools.
Improvement: The software now contains all the improvements to the registry cleaner engine, in most systems this means much more registry errors found by the Clean And SpeedUp My Computer tool. That being said, use caution and manually check the results before doing anything!
Improvement: Greatly improved the software's startup time (the time it takes for the software to fully load).
Improvement: Added an option to periodically create System Restore Points when Clean And SpeedUp My Computer or Software Uninstaller is used. A new automatically created System Restore Point is created at most once per five days, and the feature can be disabled from the Settings.
Improvement: The "New!" icons from the new tools (Windows AntiSpy, Pictures AntiSpy and Startup Timer) is automatically hidden after the tool has been used by the user, also an option to hide the "New!" icons was added to the Settings. Furthermore, the "New!" is not shown if user is using the software with other translation than English.
Improvement: The Home view will now scale better to smaller screen sizes.
Improvement: The software will suggest the user to restart the computer five times to establish a baseline of system startup speed before starting to use the software. This is not required by the software, it is only suggested.
Improvement: Added a new way to create simple automation tasks for PowerTools. You can now start the program with a command line and define what buttons or menu items should be automatically clicked. For example, executing the following command line "jv16PT.exe /CleanAndSpeedUpMyComputer /Click,Select All,Fix,Exit" would start the program, start the Clean And SpeedUp My Computer tool, click its Start button, when the scan is finished, it would execute Select All and click the Fix button to fix all the found items and after that Exit the software.
Improvement: Minor improvements to the Quick Tutorial's user interface.
Improvement: If the Quick Tutorial detects the user is using an anti-virus product and the user didn't seem to read the Tutorial's important information about anti-virus products, an additional confirmation box is shown to the user.
Improvement: When saving result lists (File > Save List As), the software will now remember the last directory you used for saving and will automatically open the directory selection window to that directory. For the very first time use, the default directory will be the Windows desktop, instead of the jv16 PowerTools' installation directory, as it was before.
Improvement: The Home view's message of system health being updated on background will only be shown if the user has manually started the update OR if there is no health data on screen yet.
Special request: After you have tested this version, even if you have no bugs to report, please zip the entire contents of the \Backups folder (By default it is at C:\Program Files (x86)\jv16 PowerTools 2016 Beta5\Backups), upload it to https://www.wetransfer.com/ and send the download link either as a reply to this thread or directly to me as a forum Private Message. We are asking you to do this so we can analyze the debug data saved under \Backups from your system to ensure everything is working correctly under the hood of the software, especially relating to the updated registry cleaning engine.
Remember, please send all your feedback regarding this beta version to this thread!
Thank you!
