DonationCoder.com Software > BrowserTraySwitch

BrowserTraySwitch V2 BETA

(1/6) > >>

mouser:
V2 Beta of BrowserTraySwitch is now available for the brave:

* Download: https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/browsertray/downloads/BrowserTraySwitchSetup.exe
The beta should be fully functional with all features working. BUT.. this stuff is inherently weird and i advise people who are really scared of registry to not mess around with this.

If you don't have a need for this program, don't use it.  It's only for people who really want to be able to switch their default browser very frequently (e.g. multiple times per day), and don't want to have to go through the normal processes.


I should have done it this way to begin with.. i would have if i had known how weird all these different browsers and registry settings would be.

Let me explain a bit about how the old way worked, and how the new way will work.

OLD WAY:

* It turns out there are more than a dozen various registry values that are set differently when the default browser is changed.  These are not fully documented anywhere, and are a mishmash of strange items.  Most of the dif registry values point to the browser exe, but some specify the icon to display, some specify a commandline to invoke the browser exe, and some are just weird.  They used to be in LOCAL_MACHINE section of registry, now it seems they are in CURRENT_USER mostly.
* The old(current) version of BrowserTraySwitch takes the browser exe path as specified in the its config file, and tries to set all of these values.  [It stopped working for you because BTS sets HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and it seems the new use of HKEY_CURRENT_USER was overiding that, rendering BTS settings ignored].
* Setting all of these values correctly is tricky -- especially when it comes to a browser deciding if it needs to ask the user if it should make itself default -- even a change in the uppercase/lowercase value of any registry key could make a browser think its not the default and offer to set it for you on startup.
* So what is the better way?
The New Way:

* BrowserTraySwitch knows which set of registry values are affected by the default browser.
* The new version lets you take a "snapshot" of these values and save them to different browser config files.
* Then it lets you restore these when you choose.
* The GUI for the user is unchanged.
* The main difference now is: You dont have to configure a settings file with your different browsers, but you DO have to take "snapshots" of each different browser you use after it is set to default.

Make sense?

VsUK:
So, in staid of editing the config file, id have to set each of my browsers as default & then take a snapshot of it so it then can change my default browser from just a click or click, click?

So if i have lets say 5 browsers installed, id make a snapshot of each browser when ive set it as default & then those browsers will then show up in the list in the GUI so i can just click like i did before to change browser defaults?

As i switch quite often between 4 or 5 browsers that all perform better at something than the others..

mouser:
yes you have it exactly right.

only modification to that is that BTS2 will actually automatically detect if you pull up the menu and you have a not-yet-snapshotted browser set as your new default and will take a new snapshot.

so the procedure is:

* start BTS2.
* for each of your browsers, run them and set them as default, then Click on the BTS menu to have it snapshot it.
after that you can select browsers from the BTS menu as normally.

mouser:
Tips and Tricks:

Advanced users can manually add additional registry values to change when switching browsers by editing the btsregfile files .. this should let you change default identities in Firefox, etc.

Rename shapshot .btsregfile files to have them say what you want in the BTS menu.

In previous versions, if you left clicked on tray icon to bring up the menu, it launched the browser without setting it as default, which i think confused people.
In v2, it doesnt matter if you left or right click on the tray icon to bring up the menu -- but if you RIGHT click on the actual browser name instead of the normal left click, it will launch it without setting it as default.

The new v2 understands the ConfigDir.ini mechanism for specifying custom/portable config directories, and will default to docs+settings if run under Vista/Win7.

mouser:
Looking forward to hearing how the beta works for you..
There is no help file yet, or install file, its just a zip with the new files.  You can overwrite your existing copy or run it from any location.
Download url is a full setup program which can also be manually unzipped.

Note:
unlike BrowserTraySwitch v1, this one is built with visual studio runtime libraries, which means if you have an older version of windows it will complain about missing dlls or libs or some such nonsense.  After testing i'll probably go back and compile it with visual studio 2003, which i think was the last one that had sane options for static compilation for win9x stuff.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page