Messages

1

LaunchBar Commander / Re: My experience with LBC

« on: September 03, 2010, 01:12 PM »

SuperBoyac:

 most programs that implement autohide have the option to popup instantly, LBC too and works okay ( apart of the minimal delay to draw the bar ). I personally prefer a delay specially if the bar occupies one whole side of the screen, for example if you have a bar at the right when you click a window's close button is very easy to show the bar by mistake.

There is another possibility, a bar that popups instantly if you reach the hotspot AND holding a special key ( CTRL ), or like RUnit hotspot ( top of the screen ) + right mouse button, I like that.
MouseExtender shows the launcher with middle mouse button click, and works nicely too.

2

LaunchBar Commander / Re: My experience with LBC

« on: September 03, 2010, 12:39 PM »

Thanks mouser,

  I have installed it in my main machine ( Windows 7 x64 with lot of software, including Dexpot ) and netbook. "OnTop" option activated and "full screen untopmost" deactivated.
 The results are consistent and repeatable in both machines:

  - The hotkey works perfect now too with delay option.
  - I can't broke the OnTop status doing maximize/restore/maximize/restore/... with a explorer window. The border keeps visible and bar shows okay.
  - When I open a image with FastStone Image Viewer as full-screen the bar dissapear, I close the image and the bar is not more on top.
     To recover the normal behavior I can:
         1.- Use the hotkey ( my favorite )
         2.- Open and close configuration dialog
         3.- Right click -> fixup OnTop status.

I tried with XnView but I get mixed results with full-screen images, sometimes bar hides and sometimes keeps on top. So there are improvements ( the hotkey working with delay option checked is BIG improvement for me ) and tests are more coherent that is very welcome .

Anyone that use FastStone Image Viewer get different results ?

3

LaunchBar Commander / Re: My experience with LBC

« on: September 02, 2010, 01:39 PM »

hotkey works if "Delay on Unhiding" option is disabled.

and if "delay on unhiding" is checked, what is the behavior?

-mouser (September 02, 2010, 01:18 PM)

Bar only shows if I press the hotkey several times.

4

LaunchBar Commander / Re: My experience with LBC

« on: September 02, 2010, 01:08 PM »

Yes I am very interested, that fix sounds promising for my case.

I have seen that when in full-screen mode I invoke the hotkey ( now with a mouse gesture, working nicely ) the taskbar shows too, I mean the launchbar seems integrated with explorer shell so probably some setting I have for taskbar ( at rightclick->properties dialog ) is affecting LBC.  I have autohide disabled, small icons enabled and "block taskbar" disabled.
I'm going to play with the options a bit.

One important thing I forgot in previous message, hotkey works if "Delay on Unhiding" option is disabled.

5

LaunchBar Commander / Re: My experience with LBC

« on: September 02, 2010, 12:25 PM »

I have tried in my netbook ( Windows 7 32bits ) without any relevant software running ( only the typical Windows services and Intel stuff for netbooks ) and the bar keep disappearing. I tried to save a screencast but was a failure, sorry.

My test was to open a folder in Windows explorer and open an instance of Internet Explorer and begin to maximize/restore/maximize/restore/change window/maximize/restore... until I can't see the border of autohiding bar, after some seconds the border dissapear, I put the cursor on the left and nothing appears. Then I restore both windows and the border is visible again at the desktop.
This test is very difficult to reproduce with consistency.

Another test was to open a image in full screen mode with FastStone Image Viewer and here always the bar dissapear. If I close the image and go to LBC's context menu->Fixup OnTop Status and then open again a imagen in full screen mode the bar dissapear again. I have the doubt if there is some setting for full-screen apps ( I mean, if it's the expected behavior ) but I haven't seen anything.

Last test, like you suggested I set a hotkey with "toggle dock instead of showing popup menu". Success, the bar always shows even with full-screen image.
This is interesting, probably I can associate for example a StrokeIt's mouse gesture for show the launchbar with hotkey action, I'm going to try and see if it works.

Thanks and regards !

6

LaunchBar Commander / My experience with LBC

« on: August 26, 2010, 07:15 AM »

Hello,

  I know LBC since 2007 and I've tried it several times since then but always I had strange issues with autohiding docks so I never used it for more than one day.
 Now after looking the great screencasts I have used it for some days in two machines, PC with Windows 7 x64 and netbook with Windows 7 x32. The result is that I'm very impressed with drag&drop implementation and the flexibility to design bars with tool buttons, menus and so on, but I continue to get strange issues with bar's visibility.

I have tried to reproduce the issues in a logical and repeatable way but I can't, the more recurrent problem is that the bar I have configured to the left side of screen doesn't appear, and the other problem is that sometimes a invisible window appears in my taskbar and alt+tab list, if I click it nothing happens ( I have tray icon option marked ):


I use software like Deskpins, Dexpot or Sandboxie that probably interferes with LBC. With Dexpot is very curious, when I change active desktop and go back to the first there is an empty area in the desktop reserved to the bar but the bar is hidden so the area is empty and the other windows are aligned to that empty space. The visible launchbar is a second bar that is aligned to the space reserved for the autohiding first bar.

To solve the problem I open the LBC configuration dialog and then close, all is reconfigured.

My personal opinion ( that probably is wrong ) is that LBC uses COM to create docks that are managed by Explorer Shell, like when you create a toolbar by right click at taskbar -> toolbars -> new toolbar and select a folder path, and surely there are differences between each Windows version ( so LBC wouldn't run with BlackBox or Emerge in place of Explorer shell but I haven't tried ).
If the visibility problems come from creating 'Windows toolbars', wouldn't be possible to create normal windows like other software do ( PowerPro or bbIconBox in bbLean shell ) ?
I read this in RUnit's webpage ( btw very nice to make a help page with links to other launchers ):

http://www.magister-....at/RUNit/index.html

"how does RUNit detect the mouse click?
   
when not running in "whole screen mode", RUNit creates a window at the edge of the screen.
the window is created with the extended style WS_EX_TRANSPARENT, so you usually don't see much of it.
CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_ACCEPTFILES|WS_EX_TRANSPARENT|WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW, szAppName, szTitle, WS_POPUP, 0,0, iScreenWidth,1, NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);

so "detecting" the mouse click is nothing more than processing the WM_RBUTTONDOWN message in this case"

I suppose that with autohiding docks the event would be WM_MOUSEOVER or something similar. My point is that RUnit's method works perfect because it only depends on core Win32 Windows functions that work the same between all versions.

Leaving this topic usability of the program is excellent, I configured a very useful bar in minutes with drag&drop. And man I've tried many launchers ( freeware and shareware ).
If someone has some trick to maintain autohiding bar on top ( I don't like visible bars that reduce workspace ) I would be glad to hear, some hotkey that reconfigures the app, ...

7

LaunchBar Commander / Re: LaunchBar Commander Screencast Videos

« on: August 23, 2010, 02:22 AM »

Cool videos  .
I saw them two days ago, then I created a bar adapted to my workflow and now is the launcher I use. I'll open a thread to detail my experience, many thanks !

8

General Software Discussion / Re: Alt-tab replacement ?

« on: September 20, 2009, 05:27 AM »

VistaSwitcher ( the replacement to the amazing TaskSwitchXP ) has been released in beta phase:
http://www.ntwind.co...e/vistaswitcher.html

I'm trying it since a few minutes, for the moment it's stable and it looks pretty good !

9

General Software Discussion / Re: Alt-tab replacement ?

« on: June 21, 2009, 07:34 AM »

I use the autohotkey script posted by tomos above since two years, the forum thread is here for previews:
http://www.autohotke...f64c07e1dec56b751650

For sticky mode ( dialog doesn't hide when alt key is released, better for mouse advanced users like me ) I did an easy modification, removed the code for hiding the dialog. And I associated a StrokeIt gesture with the hotkey ( that I changed from alt+tab to ctrl+w or something similar ) so I don't have to touch the keyboard to move between apps quickly.

I also tried taskswitchxp that has nice previews and configurable user interface, but for some strange reason Windows crashed when I was using Spotify. I suppose taskswitchxp uses some very low-level apis to work, shame because it's good software 

10

General Software Discussion / Re: managing file permissions under windows (madness?)

« on: May 29, 2009, 01:39 PM »

Nice thread. Windows filesystem security is VERY powerful, you can have an actually secure system if you create several users and run programs under the adecuate user, and the shell under a limited account.

But yes... it's difficult to maintain, slow and not intuitive. Having for example 10 users for security profiles, you'll have 10 logins at welcome screen unless you hide the users using the registry trick or a program that does it.
And running programs as another user is a bit irritating because you can't drag and drop between them and so on...

I'll love to have an option to restrict a program to only have access to its folder ( ideal for portable software ), for example for uTorrent or eMule. Doing this in Windows is a pain in the ass.
Then we have the security model of Vista/7 that solves the administrator problem ( well done, it's the most important problem ) but there is no new solution to run software with different users ( = different filesystem rules, registry, ... ).

I am tired too, I would be glad to pay for shareware that builds a security layer above Windows one and it's EASY to administer.

11

General Software Discussion / Re: App launchers and 'run as' another user

« on: March 08, 2009, 09:44 AM »

I'll play a bit with the SDK , I've seen there is a wrapper for C# so it's a good oportunity to some fast prototyping.
My intention is to develop again native win32 code since 4 years without doing it, so if the thing works I'll try with a native version... at least I wish

12

General Software Discussion / Re: App launchers and 'run as' another user

« on: March 08, 2009, 08:08 AM »

One year and three months later, I continue looking for the same app launcher. Probably it's time for trying to develop it myself, but man it's so HUGE amount of work to build a decent app launcher...

Advanced Windows users don't use several accounts for launching stuff ?  It's the same with Linux users ?
Any decent and minimalistic open source app launcher to begin with ?  The portableApps.com launcher it's pretty simple but I don't actually like it much

13

General Software Discussion / Re: Mouse gestures program looking for beta testers

« on: March 08, 2009, 07:46 AM »

StrokeIt is absolutely amazing in XP and under ( it hasn't been updated years ago  ). Over only 900Kb of private memory usage, fast, stable, drag & drop enabled, intuitive, near perfect recognition of gestures, ...

I use gestures for example to move between the apps I use most, like my file manager or browser. It's impossible to change so fast using taskbar or alt+tab.
I have gestures for showing PowerPro menus with documents, apps, scripts... Another to close a window, to invoke FARR's window, to move between virtual desktops, to show my latest clipboard items, ...

14

General Software Discussion / Re: Mouse gestures program looking for beta testers

« on: February 28, 2009, 05:55 AM »

I'm trying it and it's stable with only two actions at the moment ( keystroke and multiple keystrokes ). Well, keystroke it's probably the most useful action to control other programs.

Very nice news

15

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your favorite launch bar? Your favorite features? Missing Features?

« on: February 14, 2009, 08:00 PM »

I'm looking for something like bbIconBox in bbLean, auto-hide and movable panels with shortcuts and full drag-n-drop support.

16

General Software Discussion / Re: post your 5 most used applications in 2007 here!

« on: December 31, 2007, 11:10 AM »

- Total Commander
- Portable Firefox
- PowerPro
- StrokeIt
- Process Explorer

17

General Software Discussion / Re: App launchers and 'run as' another user

« on: December 31, 2007, 10:18 AM »

I'm currently using an AutoHotKey script compiled with encryption option for launching apps with different credentials, something like:

if %1% = "Restricted"
  RunAs, %2%, pass
else if %1% = "Admin"
  RunAs, %2%, adminPass
else if ...

But for example, when I want to run uTorrent with a very restricted account ( only read/write rights to its own folder ), I have to manually edit in PowerPro a new entry with COMPILED_SCRIPT.EXE as the program and "restricted D:\bin\uTorrent\..." as arguments.
So it's very boring to add new entries under special accounts. For Process Explorer or AutoRuns I have the same for the admin account.

Launcher like PStart has an Run as... option, but you have to type the password all the time.
I agree that if the pass is decrypted at memory it wouldn't be very difficult to capture it, but not so easy like calling SetWindowsHookEx() and capture the keys.

18

General Software Discussion / App launchers and 'run as' another user

« on: December 31, 2007, 07:34 AM »

Hi, I'm new here 

I'm looking for an application launcher ( with autohide bars and icons, I'm a mouse guy ) that allows to run any of the programs like a different user if you want to, but if possible without typing the password all the time ( very dangerous if you have a nice keylogger at memory ).

For example, there is a .net utility called Raise my Rights that generates a shortcut that runs the program under the user you want, and the password is saved encrypted with salt and so on. Using that shortcut you don't need to type the password but creatring all the shortcuts you need is a pain in the ass.

Currently I am using PowerPro as my app launcher because it's very powerful for creating nice bars with several fonts, colors... but only one copy of PowerPro is allowed to run  and of course I use a limited user account.

Windows Vista with UAC gives a relative solution to this, but how to implement something similar in XP ? Any idea ?

Thanks !