jv16 PowerTools - NMV - Release Candidate 3 (Build 438)

jv16

Here is the Release Candidate version of the brand new, New Major Version of jv16 PowerTools:

https://www.macecraft.com/downloads/betas/jv16PT_NMV_RC3_Build438.exe

Please read the following before downloading

This is Release Candidate level software. It means that this version has been made available only for testing purposes - for you to try the upcoming version and offer us feedback and bug reports. This version is not meant to be used to replace any current version of jv16 PowerTools for everyday use.

Please help us with the development by doing the following:

1) Download and install the jv16 PowerTools NMV Release Candidate.

2) Run all of the tools main tools ("Internet Optimizer", "System Cleaner" and "Software Uninstaller"),

3) When back at the Main Screen of the program, go to File > Save As. This will generate a ZIP file to your desktop, with all of the debug logs from the program.

4) Upload the ZIP file to WeTransfer.com (or other similar service), and send the download link to this thread, directly to me via forum Private Message or email it to support@macecraft.com

This would greatly help us with the development as the debug logs file contains information about how this release candidate performed, what items it listed as registry errors and what software you have installed in your system. We can use this data to improve the safety and accuracy of the new registry cleaning engine. The more data we get, the faster we get the new jv16 PowerTools released!

Privacy notice: The debug data will contain information of your system, such as the basic hardware setup, what software you have installed etc. If you are running the program in a system with private information, please review the debug data before sending it. We will store and treat all received data as confidential and will not share the data with any third parties.

As always, we will give out free licenses to the best beta testers. If you find and report bugs or provide any other kind of valuable feedback we will give you a free license to the final product.

Change Log since Release Candidate 3 build 422 1) Bug fix: Running the System Cleaner can report zero errors found. 2) Bug fix: Running the System Cleaner can show an error message about No mapping for the Unicode character exists in the target multi-byte code page. 3) Bug fix: It's possible for the program to get automatically updated in a way the translation file is not also properly updated. In this case, the program's main user interface will contain corrupted texts, such as "custom_strings_misc". 4) Bug fix: Running the Internet Optimizer many times in a row may cause some of its user interface elements not to be fully visible. 5) Bug fix: The Starting text in the progress screen may move around few times during the starting of any tool. 6) Bug fix: The System Cleaner scan can display No Issues Found until the very end of the scan progress, and then it lists all the issues which were found. 7) Bug fix: In case a backup file's description contains non A to Z characters, the Backups window will not display these characters correctly. 8) Bug fix: The program can create a file called __performance_summary.log incorrectly to the program's main installation directory (instead of the Debug subfolder). 9) Bug fix: The System Cleaner's results may contain additional hyphens, such as "File system issues - - 25 file found". 10) Bug fix: It's possible to accidentally click the Abort button in the scan progress screen because the Abort button's clickable area is wider than the actual text. 11) Bug fix: The Initial Setup screen can show up very large in certain screen resolution or high PPI value screens. 12) Bug fix: The version number in the program's splash screen can visually overlap with the "The program is starting, please wait" text. 13) Bug fix: the main window's tool caption texts may be partially drawn outside of the main window area in certain screen resolutions. 14) Bug fix: The scan status window's texts and other visual elements can move around even if the size of the window is not changed by the user and there is therefore no need to adjust the screen. 15) Bug fix: Opening the Software Uninstaller many times in a row could cause it to start with a progress screen value of 99% and never move, but the list of found software would be shown normally after a few seconds. 16) Bug fix: If you start the program but don't do anything with it for about five minutes, it can freeze program in some situations. 17) Bug fix: Running the program for multiple times can trigger the Initial Setup to be executed again, even if it had already been ran recently. 18) Bug fix: The Check For Updates will say "fetching data" forever, if there is no internet connection, or the downloading of data fails for any other reason. Improvements: 1) Improved the accuracy of the sizes of the user interface elements in systems with different screen resolution or PPI. 2) Major improvements how the program sets its user interface in the case user resizes the program window. 3) Reduced the amount of black box screen corruption in the Software Uninstaller results list. 4) Significant speed and accuracy improvements to the Initial Setup and the Software Uninstaller. 5) Improved the overall smoothness of the progress indication of all the tools. 6) The results lists of System Cleaner and Software Uninstaller now also work better with screens of high resolution and high PPI value. 7) The splash screen image now adjusts according to the screen resolution. 8) The program will not automatically detect the system's language and use a translation for the language, even if one exists in the app's Translations folder. 9) Improved the smoothness of the progress indication when uninstalling a single software with the Software Uninstaller.

Known bugs and issues we are still working on (no need to report): 1) My Account does not indicate what type of license a registered user has or how long it is valid. 2) Using the browser data cleaning feature of System Cleaner can disable or clean the bookmarks from Firefox browser. So far three users have reported this. We have not been able to reproduce or fix this yet. 3) Using the Internet Optimizer may disable IPv6 connectivity. If you experience this problem, it can be fixed by restoring the System Restore point jv16 PowerTools automatically creates. 4) Using the tools one after another can cause the description text in the scan progress screen (the text under the circular progress indicator) to display the wrong text. For example, if you first run the Internet Optimizer and then run the System Cleaner, while the System Cleaner is running, it can contain the text about "The Internet Optimizer is currently running benchmark tests ..." This is simply a cosmetic issue and does not affect the way any of the tools work. 5) In some cases the buttons of the program are too small to display their text fully. Especially if using a non English translation or high screen resolution or PPI value.

How to send your feedback

* Please use the Post Reply button of this thread for all feedback.

* Open the program and go to File > Save As. This will generate a ZIP file containing the debug data from the jv16 PowerTools installation. Send this file to us, even if you don't experience any problems. We can use the collected data to improve the quality of the program.

* If the "File > Save As" method fails, you can do the same manually: Simply create a zip file of the jv16 PowerTools' Debug directory (not the Backups directory as was the case before) - by default this is at C:\Program Files (x86)\jv16 PowerTools\Debug. 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.

* You can send attachments, including screenshots, to the thread from the Post Reply > Upload attachment tab (below the main text area).

* 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.

Release Notes:

* You can use this version to start to translate the program to your language. To translate the software: Please open C:\Program Files\jv16 PowerTools\Translations\English.txt with any modern text editor such as Notepad++, translate the texts inside the file and send it to us via support@macecraft.com - we will issue a free license for everyone who translates the software to their language (notice that we are not interested in any kind of computer software based translations, such as Google Translate based translations). Note: The translation file must be saved with UTF8 encoding.

* Please do not install this version over any previous version, install it to its own installation directory.

* This build ships with the following translations: English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Dutch, Finnish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Thai. Note: These translations are not yet final and can contain minor problems.

And remember, please send all your feedback regarding this beta version to this thread! Thank you!

jv16

Since I think you love numbers as much as I do, here are some statistics of the new build 438 against the previous ones:

Average run times:

Build 437 Initial Setup: 62 seconds

Build 437 Software Uninstaller scan: 29 seconds

Build 437 System Cleaner scan: 86 seconds

The previous released build:

Build 422 Initial Setup: 105 seconds

Build 422 Software Uninstaller scan: 61 seconds

Build 422 System Cleaner scan: 119 seconds

Release Candidate 2:

Build 397 Initial Setup: 119 seconds

Build 397 Software Uninstaller scan: 50 seconds

Build 397 System Cleaner scan: 119 seconds

Release Candidate 1:

Build 335 Initial Setup: 115 seconds

Build 335 Software Uninstaller scan: 107 seconds

Build 335 System Cleaner scan: 136 seconds

I think it's fair to say, we are making progress 8)

redseujac

Hello Jouni,

What are we - translators - supposed to do with the file "Trans_missing.txt" in the Translations folder?

Should the strings in that file be added to the existing translation files, e.g. Dutch.txt or French.txt? Are those strings already integrated in the most recent English.txt file or not?

Edit: OK, meanwhile I figured it out : So, indeed those strings must be added to the existing translation files.

By the way, I noticed that the Dutch translation file accompanying build 438 was not the most recent one I had sent to Support :(

So here it is in attachment and completed with the translation of the missing strings from the "Trans_missing.txt" file mentioned above.

Please, put this Dutch translation file on the website ready to be downloaded by the users and add it to the next program version.

Dutch.zip

There is still one issue for the translation: in the debug log message the header "Thank you" cannot be translated obviously because that string is also missing in the source file English.txt. Please fix it in the next build.

Debug_log_message.jpg

redseujac

Internet Optimizer

Finds nothing but my own server settings for IPv6 but it does find faster settings for IPv4.

The tool is still not OK for IPv6 server settings.

Important note: Level 3 Public DNS Server does not exist any more and wasn't safe for users (read that on user comments). Level 3 is now CenturyLink. I don't think CenturyLink is still offering Public DNS Services. It is very important concerning the tool Internet Optimizer that you check this seriously, because often the tool is showing Level 3 as fastest DNS server. Maybe it's worth to consider removing Level 3 from the list. Consider not offering too many Public DNS Servers but only the safest ones for the users.

Screen issues

All screen issues I reported for the previous version seem to be fixed.

System Cleaner

Seems to be OK now. Registry errors are found now.

gil-s

Hi,

Here are my files.

Crash every time I want to clean (three times).

Best regards

gil-s

Hi,

My files for another computer.

No issue for this machine.

Best regards

jv16

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jv16

Gil-s wrote

Hi,

Here are my files.

Crash every time I want to clean (three times).

Best regards

How does the program exactly crash? Does it show an error message? If so, what does it say? Can you post a screenshot?

I ask because I have analyzed the Debug Zip file you sent but it does not seem to indicate any kind of error.

redseujac

jv16 wrote

PS Redseujac, how is the speed of the program's Initial Setup for you now? With previous versions it has been quite slow in your system. Is there an improvement now?

Only a bit faster: 4 minutes instead of nearly 5 minutes. I wonder if that Initial Setup could still go somewhat faster.

Is it caused by the creation of the System Restore Point?

jv16

redseujac wrote

Internet Optimizer

Finds nothing but my own server settings for IPv6 but it does find faster settings for IPv4.

The tool is still not OK for IPv6 server settings.

Important note: Level 3 Public DNS Server does not exist any more and wasn't safe for users (read that on user comments). Level 3 is now CenturyLink. I don't think CenturyLink is still offering Public DNS Services. It is very important concerning the tool Internet Optimizer that you check this seriously, because often the tool is showing Level 3 as fastest DNS server. Maybe it's worth to consider removing Level 3 from the list. Consider not offering too many Public DNS Servers but only the safest ones for the users.

Noted and agreed. The IPv6 support is still not done.

redseujac wrote

Screen issues

All screen issues I reported for the previous version seem to be fixed.

System Cleaner

Seems to be OK now. Registry errors are found now.

Thank you for confirming!

jv16

redseujac wrote

jv16 wrote

PS Redseujac, how is the speed of the program's Initial Setup for you now? With previous versions it has been quite slow in your system. Is there an improvement now?

Only a bit faster: 4 minutes instead of nearly 5 minutes. I wonder if that Initial Setup could still go somewhat faster.

Is it caused by the creation of the System Restore Point?

Well, one minute in saved time is a very nice improvement, I'd say! Have you sent us the Debug Zip file of the 438 run on your computer? I could use that data to again see what operations take the longest time and try to optimize from there.

The System Restore Point creation does take a long time but the app does not wait for it to complete, so it should not be an issue.

redseujac

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samscram

Windows7 SP2 The Internet optimizer hangs at 99%. Can only abort.

On two occasions it ran to 118% before hanging.

redseujac

At regular moments jv16 PowerTools is showing a message that Windows Registry Backups are disabled and asks if those Backups should be enabled again.

This is what I've found about those Registry Backups:

Microsoft published a new support page recently that brings light into the darkness. The company notes that the change is by-design and thus not a bug. The change was implemented in Windows 10 version 1803 and all newer versions of Windows 10 are affected by it.

Microsoft made the change to reduce the size of Windows on the system.

Starting in Windows 10, version 1803, Windows no longer automatically backs up the system registry to the RegBack folder. If you browse to to the \Windows\System32\config\RegBack folder in Windows Explorer, you will still see each registry hive, but each file is 0kb in size.

This change is by design, and is intended to help reduce the overall disk footprint size of Windows. To recover a system with a corrupt registry hive, Microsoft recommends that you use a system restore point.

The Registry backup option has been disabled but not removed according to Microsoft. Administrators who would like to restore the functionality may do so by changing the value of a Registry key:

1.Open the Start menu, type regedit.exe, and select the Registry Editor entry from the list of results.

2.Navigate to the following key: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Configuration Manager\

3.Right-click on Configuration Manager and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.

4.Name it EnablePeriodicBackup.

5.Double-click on it after creation and set its value to 1.

6.Restart the PC.

Windows 10 will backup the Registry again from that point on.

Windows backs up the registry to the RegBack folder when the computer restarts, and creates a RegIdleBackup task to manage subsequent backups.

Of course you could use also jv16 PowerTools to restore the functionality: go to Menu > Tools > Windows Tweaks > Enable Windows Registry Backups.

jmlepercq

@jv16,

Build 397 was excellent in all the sections ! Since i installed 422 and 438 there are everywhere more problems than before.

I have installed 438 already 4 times as a clean install and every time optimizer ==ok, cleaning shows the items but do not clean, the program is blocked with mention ""no reaction"" and the section software uninstall == ok

I reinstalled build 397 is ALL SECTIONS are working 100 % !!!!

So what has been ""changed"" in the program since 397 to 438 ??

Greetings,

Jean-Marie,

olyfant22

I am a bit puzzled...!

If I am correct, the "Initial Setup" is measured from the first startup of the program to the main options screen with the 3 menu-options:

- Internet Optimizer

- System Cleaner

- Software Uninstaller

I installed PT RC3 438 twice and in both cases it measured about 1 minute and 32 seconds!

redseujac wrote:

Only a bit faster: 4 minutes instead of nearly 5 minutes. I wonder if that Initial Setup could still go somewhat faster.

Am I doing something wrong here?

redseujac

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leon_heller

Other users have probably mentioned this, but it has always annoyed me. When scrolling down the results, the view isn't updaated until the scroll bar is released. I'd much prefer if the view was updated with the scroll bar movemen, and the PgDn and PgUp keys.

dnpolister

Something new that popped up. I had build 422 installed. Then found this update to 438 and am still having the same issue all of a sudden. It worked 32 days ago without issues is the notification I had when I first opened NMV again today.

Upon trying to "clean my system" after doing its findings and attempting to fix/correct all it found... its locked up. I even rebooted and only program I opened and did same thing.

This last time. I let it sit there for over an hour. I think closer to 2 as I forgot I had it in background and had a guest pop by. Didn't even make it to the progress screen.

Not sure what's up either with program that worked before... or my system.

redseujac

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