Duplictae Finder Starts; does nothing

dickpilz

I set "Files to find" at "*.*; -*.exe; -*.dll" (without the quotes, of course)

I set "Search from" at "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents"

I left "Options" and "Ignore words" at the defaults.

I then clicked on the "Start" button.

The screen changed to what should be a display of duplicates found, file analyzed, etc. All of the numeric values are currently "0" No numbers change. It just sits there.

It worked before I paid for a license, but not now.

I am running jv16 PowerTools 2005 v1.5.1.311 on Win XP Pro, SP2; updated every "Microsoft Tuesday"

What to do?

Dick Pilz

jv16

Have you tried to search for duplicates from another directory?

dickpilz

I just tried searchng for duplicates by adding another directory "F:\E" that happened to containing some Perl tutorial stuff. As such, it contained some known duplicates.

I was now trying to look in both "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents" AND "F:\E"

All the duplicates were found in "F:\E" but none in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents"

I then copied the "F:\E" directory into "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents"

Again, duplicates were found in "F:\E" but nothing, zilch, nada in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents". Yet, known duplicates were put there.

As you may have surmised by now, I REALLY want to know what duplicates I have in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents" but jv16 doesn't seem to want to look there.

Suggestions?

redseujac

Is the Option "skip system directories to improve saftey" unchecked?

If not Duplicate Finder does not search in "C:\Documents and Settings" nor in the subfolders! (Handbook p. 45)

dickpilz

You will probably need to update your manual to better reflect the realities of W2K and XP systems and start leaving Win9X behind.

A user's documents (and there is more than on on my system) by DEFAULT are placed in "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents"and shared documents are placed in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents". These are not considered by a user to be a System folder, but a Data folder.

If, for example, a user gets a new Windows machine today, It will have XP on it. And, if they use a word processor, guess where the user's documents are placed, by default? Yep, one of thes two folders I listed above. In XP whatever is exposed to a user by default is not a system folder. And if you click on "My Documents" you end up there.

I haven't used an NT system for over 5 years, so I thought that mention in the manual was referring to one of several "NT only" idiosyncracies that were fixed in W2K an XP. The instructions are somewhat misleading.

That manual page still has some space left on it so you may wish to be less terse and give better examples.

redseujac

But you must agree the handbook mentions explicitly "C:\Documents and settings"?

Is your problem solved now (by unchecking the option I have mentioned)?

Windows 2000, XP and NT4 are considered as "Windows NT based" operating systems.

"Documents and settings" does not only contain "documents" but also several "settings" you cannot always safely remove.

It is recommended not to store data in a subdirectory of the root C:\ but in a directory (e.g. "My Documents"?) on another logical or fysical drive.

dickpilz

Your suggestion flies in the face of Microsoft's mutiuser design.

Different users have different documents. Each of these users already has a folder with their name and security settings applied to it. Other users cannot see (by default) anything in my user area

Your sugggestion requires an entirely different, unsupported (by Microsoft) file access, security and management solution.

Just put some granularity in your "system" folders. You've had a decade now since this stuff came out.

If anything, the "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Documents" folder should be a default pre-selection for duplicate comparison, and not automatically and silently excluded. The program was silent on the subject, too. No popup saying "Sorry, I think this is a system folder. Are you sure you want to do this?"

In short, your usability and user interface need some polishing.

redseujac

Hello

... but you still didn't answer my main question:

Is your problem solved by unchecking the option I have mentioned?

Changing program options is outside my competence ...

I am NOT the programmer (jv16 is that person : )

I am a forum member and I try to help other members with their problems as good as I can :