Author Topic: NANY 2020: ISMONISM - search Start Menu (or any folder) for 'missing' entries (Read 15902 times)

Winkie · « **on:** December 28, 2019, 09:44 AM »

NANY 2020 entry information

Application name:	ISMONISM (*In Start Menu Or Not In Start Menu*)
Version:	0.5.0 (2020-11-30)
Short description:	An utility for scanning folders recursively, to find files for which there is no matching shortcut in (a subfolder of) of any user-defined folder.
License:	MIT License
Supported operating systems:	Windows NT (in theory) and later (tested in Window 10).
Scripting language:	AutoHotkey 1.1
Web page:	See Repository on GitHub.
Download page:	See Releases on GitHub.
Version history:	See Releases on GitHub.
Author:	Winkie

Description

Originally an idea by mouser.

This utility was created with the Windows Start Menu in mind. By default it scans the Program Files folders and its subfolders (defined the 'search folders'), to find executables (*.exe) for which there is no matching item in (a subfolder of) the Start Menu (defined the 'shortcut folders').

Any file that is in (a subfolder of) the search folders, but does not have a shortcut in (a subfolder of) a shortcut folder is listed in the application when it is started.

As mouser pointed out, this application can be used to:

find programs that aren't on your start menu for some reason, maybe because they were left over from an uninstall;
scan a portable app directory that one would like to have added to the start menu.

The shortcut folders, the file extensions to search for, and the search folders are user configurable, so it is not limited to the Start Menu alone.

Features

Portable application with a minimalistic interface.
The ability to create shortcuts of found items in a user configurable 'personal shortcut folder' (By default a subfolder of the Start Menu).
The ability to copy paths of found items to the clipboard.
The ability to jump to a found item in Windows Explorer.
The ability to search for a found item online.
The ability to save a search and re-open that when the application is launched.

Planned features

Some sort of ignore function for search folders (suggested by mouser and Darthagnon).
Save up to 10 searches (and maybe do something fancy with them).
(Maybe) Retrieve file descriptions of items and use them for shortcut names (suggested by mouser).

Screenshot
See screenshot on GitHub.

Usage

Installation
Extract the zip-file to a new folder. The application will save its settings in a subfolder named 'Data'.

Using the application
After starting the application, clicking the 'start search'-button will scan with the default settings.
It will scan the 'shortcut folders' first, then the 'search folders'. When that's done you will see the 'missing items' in the list view.
Then you can check one or more check marks, which enables the buttons on the right. Or right-click in the list view for other functions.

Uninstallation
Delete the folder containing the application.

Known issues

There is no check for hard links. This means that some applications in the Program Files folder are listed (wmplayer.exe, wordpad.exe etc.), at least at 64-bit systems.

tomos · « **Reply #1 on:** December 29, 2019, 04:07 PM »

This is great

I was trying to write a reply yesterday when they started messing around with the site ;-) let's see...**

Very nice !

Possible features:

ability to resize or make window fullsize (would be helpful due to long list of exe's)
ability to sort by selected/unselected OR filter unselected

**EDIT// just reading the thread re upgrading of the site -- sounds like it was difficult (thanks to all involved)

Winkie · « **Reply #2 on:** December 29, 2019, 08:31 PM »

This is great

Very nice !
-tomos (December 29, 2019, 04:07 PM)

Thanks!

Possible features:
ability to resize or make window fullsize (would be helpful due to long list of exe's)
ability to sort by selected/unselected OR filter unselected
-tomos (December 29, 2019, 04:07 PM)

Implemented. Both will be possible in the next release.
Sort is easier to implement so i'll add that to the to do list. No promises on filtering...

Cheers Winkie

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** December 29, 2019, 09:13 PM »

Wonderful!

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** December 29, 2019, 10:25 PM »

Working really well here.. You did a great job!
It would be nice if there was a gui options tab where user could set the search directories and personal shortcut folder name..

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** December 29, 2019, 10:26 PM »

Another nice feature would be a custom IGNORE list, so that we could specify patterns to ignore when scanning.. That would be useful to let us ignore items that we don't care about. Bonus would be right-click add folder or add file to ignore list.

mouser · « **Reply #6 on:** December 29, 2019, 10:34 PM »

It does seem to be mis-identifying some items as not having Start Menu shortcuts when they do.

Here's an example:
Screenshot - 12_29_2019 , 10_32_13 PM.png

That shortcut is on the path that ISMONISM is scanning.

Winkie · « **Reply #7 on:** January 02, 2020, 07:06 AM »

Thanks (again) mouser for your comments.

It does seem to be mis-identifying some items as not having Start Menu shortcuts when they do.
-mouser (December 29, 2019, 10:34 PM)

Yep, that's a bug (all MS Office apps are false positives on my system, among others). I seem to have fixed that.

Release: ISMONISM v0.3.0 (2020-01-02)
- [Add] Settings GUI. See screenshot on GitHub.
- [Add] Main GUI resizable (but not remembered). Thank you tomos.
- [Add] ListView sortable on check marks (only sort checked at the top) Thank you tomos.
- [Bug fix] See above. Thank you mouser.
- [Bug fix] 'Show in Windows Explorer' function not working.

tomos · « **Reply #8 on:** January 02, 2020, 07:28 AM »

Release: ISMONISM v0.3.0 (2020-01-02)
- [Add] Settings GUI. See screenshot on GitHub.
- [Add] Main GUI resizable (but not remembered). Thank you tomos.
- [Add] ListView sortable on check marks (only sort checked at the top) Thank you tomos.
-Winkie (January 02, 2020, 07:06 AM)

Working nicely, thanks

mouser · « **Reply #9 on:** January 02, 2020, 07:02 PM »

Loving the new settings

Really nice how we can uncheck or check the default folders.. Makes it easy to test things.

Minor suggestion: I think it might be nice to have a button on the main form to start (and cancel) scanning, rather than starting immediately.
If you need to restart after settings change, the button could do that after settings change.

I think that would be a gentler user experience.

mouser · « **Reply #10 on:** January 02, 2020, 07:06 PM »

Bug report:
Trying to create shortcuts does not quite work for me.

I checked one item (ISMONISM.exe itself), and asked to make shortcuts. It told me where it made it, and indeed it did make a .lnk file in the directory it said, but here's the file it made:

Screenshot - 1_2_2020 , 7_06_07 PM.png

As you can see, no name to the file (should be ISMONISM.lnk I presume) and the contents of the .lnk are empty..

mouser · « **Reply #11 on:** January 02, 2020, 07:12 PM »

Bug report:

I'm thinking something must have broken slightly with the new version -- now when I right-click the menu says "Search online for " and nothing after the "for".
Copy selected path also does nothing.

[In previous version, the search online menu and copy path menu work fine]

The "Show focused path" doesn't seem to work in either old or new.

Winkie · « **Reply #12 on:** January 02, 2020, 08:47 PM »

Bug report:

-mouser (January 02, 2020, 07:06 PM)

Bug report:

-mouser (January 02, 2020, 07:12 PM)

Crap, I already thought I had forgotten something, but couldn't remember what...
When adding the check marks-sort, I inserted 2 columns (1 for the check marks and 1 hidden). But I forgot to update all ListView-data retrievals...

Release: ISMONISM v0.3.1 (2020-01-03)
- [Bug fix] See above
- [Bug fix] Status bar did not update personal shortcut folder if changed in settings.

mouser · « **Reply #13 on:** January 02, 2020, 10:21 PM »

New version is working like a charm

Love it

It's fun to let it find itself in portable apps directory and make a shortcut to itself.. There is a special pleasure that comes with such things..

Ath · « **Reply #14 on:** January 03, 2020, 05:18 AM »

Bugreport:

Besides .exe files, also .e and .ex extensions are found, and, after adding com to the list of extensions, also .c (and probably .co) files are listed. I'd expect these extensions to match exactly, and .e or .ex files are not executable files, AFAICS.
On the settings pages, one button has the caption 'Edit focused' and another 'Remove selected'. IMHO, 'focused' should be replaced by 'selected', as focused is a seldom used term in this context.

mouser · « **Reply #15 on:** January 03, 2020, 09:44 AM »

Bugreport:
If launched from it's portable directory manually, it finds the settings file properly.
But if I (or in this case ISMONISM) creates a shortcut in the start menu, then when launched from the start menu I think it must be looking elsewhere for its settings file, and it starts with default settings.

Winkie · « **Reply #16 on:** January 03, 2020, 08:49 PM »

Bugreport:

Besides .exe files, also .e and .ex extensions are found, and, after adding com to the list of extensions, also .c (and probably .co) files are listed. I'd expect these extensions to match exactly, and .e or .ex files are not executable files, AFAICS.
-Ath (January 03, 2020, 05:18 AM)

Ah, should have known that. Partial extension matching fixed.

On the settings pages, one button has the caption 'Edit focused' and another 'Remove selected'. IMHO, 'focused' should be replaced by 'selected', as focused is a seldom used term in this context.
-Ath (January 03, 2020, 05:18 AM)

Hmm, not 'fixed'. You can select more than one row in the ListView and then remove them in one go. With edit you can only do that for one row at a time (the last clicked row, which has the focus...). IMHO there need to be a distinction. Suggestions are welcome for other wording.

BTW, there are bugs with edit (for folders: add instead of edit; it works on an empty ListView). Fixed.

Bugreport:
If launched from it's portable directory manually, it finds the settings file properly.
But if I (or in this case ISMONISM) creates a shortcut in the start menu, then when launched from the start menu I think it must be looking elsewhere for its settings file, and it starts with default settings.
-mouser (January 03, 2020, 09:44 AM)

Fixed,

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

SetWorkingDir, %A_ScriptDir%

Next I'm going to work on the 'not automatically start searching when launched'-thing, then I'll release a version which includes above fixes.

Winkie · « **Reply #17 on:** January 04, 2020, 03:34 PM »

The joy of seeing a screenshot of something you made in your news reader:
ISMONISM is (also) the favorite of Martin Brinkmann at gHacks.

Winkie · « **Reply #18 on:** January 04, 2020, 04:33 PM »

Release: ISMONISM v0.4.0 (2020-01-04)
- [Change] Not start search automatically.
- [Add] Button to start search.
- [Add] Option to start search automatically.
- [Add] Option to start maximized.
- [Add] Keyboard shortcuts (see menu).
- [Change] Re-order GUIs and menu for the above.
- [Bug fix] Partial file extension matches. (Thank you Ath)
- [Bug fix] Edit folders in settings GUI.
- [Bug fix] Not always checking own folder for settings. (Thank you mouser)

mouser · « **Reply #19 on:** January 04, 2020, 04:38 PM »

Nice

Working well here

mouser · « **Reply #20 on:** January 04, 2020, 07:47 PM »

If you're looking for features to add, you could extract the file description from the exe files and show them in the listview (and add them to the shortcut created in start menu).

So apache.exe would be apache.exe - Apache Web Server
etc.

mouser · « **Reply #21 on:** January 04, 2020, 10:41 PM »

The bad news about the name of this app is it's hard to remember and pronounce.. the good news is its going to be easily find in a search..

Ath · « **Reply #22 on:** January 05, 2020, 05:23 AM »

On the settings pages, one button has the caption 'Edit focused' and another 'Remove selected'. IMHO, 'focused' should be replaced by 'selected', as focused is a seldom used term in this context.
-Ath (January 03, 2020, 05:18 AM)

Hmm, not 'fixed'. You can select more than one row in the ListView and then remove them in one go. With edit you can only do that for one row at a time (the last clicked row, which has the focus...). IMHO there need to be a distinction. Suggestions are welcome for other wording.
-Winkie (January 03, 2020, 08:49 PM)

Well, 'Edit' actually works on the last selected item only, thus can be confusing to users (as the focused item isn't recognizable from other selected items). So an alternative solution could be to only enable that button when exactly 1 item is selected, less confusion, and 'selected' is correct.
Another solution could be to edit the selected items in succession (but I doubt if that would really be useful/helpful or less confusing).

the name of this app is it's hard to remember and pronounce
-mouser (January 04, 2020, 10:41 PM)

Well, SIMON then? (Shortcut In Menu Or Not)

Darthagnon · « **Reply #23 on:** January 09, 2020, 03:56 PM »

Thank you so much for making this program! I've been wanting something to "install" my portable programs, since Windows sadly doesn't offer much in the way of native support for portables.

ISMONISM works perfectly, and sounds like a new religion

Any chance I could feature request:
- icon support (makes telling EXEs apart easier),
- scanlist caching (faster scanning, only scans changed/new shortcuts)
- and a blacklist (select an entry, press delete, and it hides it from the list of EXEs - very useful for e.g. portable Blender, which has a zillion EXEs)?

Winkie · « **Reply #24 on:** January 14, 2020, 09:20 AM »

If you're looking for features to add, you could extract the file description from the exe files and show them in the listview (and add them to the shortcut created in start menu).

So apache.exe would be apache.exe - Apache Web Server
etc.
-mouser (January 04, 2020, 07:47 PM)

Yeah, I thought of that also. I'll have to look into that (A quick Internet search didn't lead to a description-retrieval-solution that works).

Thank you so much for making this program! I've been wanting something to "install" my portable programs, since Windows sadly doesn't offer much in the way of native support for portables.

ISMONISM works perfectly, and sounds like a new religion

Any chance I could feature request:
- icon support (makes telling EXEs apart easier),
- scanlist caching (faster scanning, only scans changed/new shortcuts)
- and a blacklist (select an entry, press delete, and it hides it from the list of EXEs - very useful for e.g. portable Blender, which has a zillion EXEs)?
-Darthagnon (January 09, 2020, 03:56 PM)

Thanks Darthagnon, and welcome to the forum.
- Adding icons to the list view makes the search process really really really slow when I tried that. The alternative: showing the icon of the selected item below the 'Start search'-button.
- Caching isn't planned. I don't think it makes the scanning considerably faster.
- Some sort of blacklist function is planned.