Messages

1

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: January 29, 2020, 01:47 AM »

Yeah the date is a bit in the past because I wanted to test it for a while, then got busy with other things at work and kind of forgot about it ^^'

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DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: January 28, 2020, 01:42 PM »

Hi there, a new version is available.
Here is what's new:

Version 2019-12-15 :
* New features:
 - added "Analyse" mode, which neither moves nor deletes anything
 - added "Delete" mode, which straight up deletes files instead of moving them
 - the logs directory and backup directory are now distinct and can be specified as command line parameters (see the Read Me file for details)
 - added changelog, license and "read me" files

* Bug fixes:
 - running a previous version of the script could lead to some patch entries with no information appearing on the "installed Updates" page of the Programs and Features control panel, due to left over values referencing deleted patch SQUIDs in the product SQUID's Patches subkey under "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\...". This shouldn't happen any more starting with this version.
 - the Undo script should now work even when ran by right clicking it and selecting "Run as an administrator" when UAC is enabled
 - some files could be mistakenly considered to be orphan files by previous versions due to not being referenced under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18 but under another key at the same level

* Other improvements and notable changes:
 - the logs now report an approximation of the total disk space used by the superseded updates and orphan files
 - the script's version number is now included in the log files it generates
 - the script now populates a complete list of which files and registry entries are considered to be unneeded before it attempts any change: thus the code lines relevant to making those changes are regrouped in a block, which made it much easier to debug (and allowed to implement Analyse and Delete modes)
 - the default folder where the logs are stored is now "%computername%.SGC" instead of "SquidGirlCleaner %computername%", and it should be within %userprofile%\desktop instead of a subfolder of where the script itself is

* Warning: if you already used the script in unattended mode before, you should know that the meaning of the values for possible exit codes have changed since the previous version. See the "Read Me" file.

3

Find And Run Robot / Re: FARR - Suggested Hotkey

« on: January 22, 2020, 05:57 AM »

What does your laptop's keyboard look like? Which layout?
We can't really suggest anything without knowing which keys are or aren't available.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Paint Shop Pro 7

« on: November 29, 2019, 07:51 AM »

If that's any indication, my mom uses version 4.14 on Windows 10 x64 almost without issues: sometimes it doesn't want to start any more but then I only have to delete its settings from the registry ("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JASC\Paint Shop Pro", might be different in newer versions as I don't remember when it was bought by Corel)

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Living Room / Re: How is this old interface called?

« on: November 04, 2019, 08:58 AM »

Hey there.

I suppose you mean these: https://en.wikipedia.../Text_user_interface ?

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Living Room / Re: Cooking with tourettes

« on: October 31, 2019, 04:26 PM »

Damn, it looks like it must be hard to live everyday of your life with that problem :/

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N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013 Release: Customizable Remote Administration Panel (CRAP)

« on: October 31, 2019, 07:30 AM »

All of the \n will still show up in the editing of the button.  I could probably make it an option to display the original caption or the easier to read caption in the list if you would like?

-hamradio (October 31, 2019, 06:42 AM)

Yes, please, that'd be nice

I believe that should be in the current version […]

-hamradio (October 31, 2019, 06:42 AM)

Indeed it is! I should have read tips.txt again.

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N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013 Release: Customizable Remote Administration Panel (CRAP)

« on: October 31, 2019, 02:44 AM »

Well so far I only really noticed 2 differences between the version I'm using and your screenshots:

1 - in your screenshot, a small sized version of the icon associated to the button is visible next to the checkbox: I like that

2 - in your screenshot, there is no grid or visible separation between the column headers: I'm not sure if that's related to Windows 10's theme or due to a change you made, but I must admit I'm not a fan of this … imho it's better to have a visible indicator of where you should move the mouse cursor if you want to resize the columns, like I circled on the attached screenshot.

From the screenshots only, I didn't figure about the "\n"s not being visible, but since they can't be seen, that wasn't obvious… and I don't think I quite like that either .
Since it is a dialog box intended for the user to review/change settings, and they are a part of those settings, I don't see much point in hiding them here. On the contrary, I suppose them not being visible might cause issues in figuring out exactly why a button is displaying as it is.
If you're editing the contents of a specific caption field, do the \n in that very field become visible then? If not, how do you make them visible, so you can know if there are any and where they are?

I'm interested in the "linebreak" feature. Does that make like a horizontal line splitting the space in the interface into different areas, or am I misinterpreting it? If that's what it does, is there a way for the user to add some sort of header/title caption to the different areas?

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N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY 2013 Release: Customizable Remote Administration Panel (CRAP)

« on: October 30, 2019, 04:00 PM »

Alright then, I'm still using it every day at work so I'm available if you have a version you want tested

10

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest GOG Giveaway

« on: September 26, 2019, 01:57 AM »

Nice
I remember the first Freespace game had cool music, so while I am terrible at those 3D space games, I'll still get it so I can extract the soundtrack xD

11

Screenshot Captor / Re: Tint is appearing over the whole window

« on: September 13, 2019, 06:40 AM »

So it seems the problem is actually related to the Lenovo Vantage software, as someone mentioned in the first link that mouser gave.

Softpedia made a new article on that topic: https://news.softped...enshots-527370.shtml

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Tint is appearing over the whole window

« on: September 09, 2019, 03:21 PM »

Hi.

It seems it's an issued related to Windows 10 itself (and maybe some graphics drivers), at least according to this article: https://news.softped...int-bug-527311.shtml

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DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: August 27, 2019, 04:38 PM »

Hello again to the 3 or so people who are following this thread

I've made an updated version again, which should (hopefully) prevent the issue of updating Adobe Reader, at least for the next update. Unfortunately I can not tell for sure that it won't crop up again for the second update after running the script :/

If a previous version of the script has already been ran on a system and Adobe Reader can't be updated or uninstalled any more because of it, running the new version should also fix it, as it will change the 'Uninstallable' value for the current patch(es) even if it doesn't clear any superseded one.

That new version shall be attached to the first post within a few seconds after the posting of this message.

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DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: August 25, 2019, 03:39 PM »

OK, so it seems that there can indeed be issues after using my script when you try to update or uninstall Adobe Acrobat Reader (and possibly Adobe Acrobat "not Reader" too).

I had to use the Adobe Reader and Acrobat Cleaner Tool on one computer (running Windows 10, not sure if that makes a difference or not) because update 19.012.20040 wouldn't install and the program wouldn't uninstall either using Programs and Features :/ … I guess that's why PatchCleaner has it in its exclusion filter.

Edit: I updated Adobe Reader without issue on several computers where I had previously ran my script, all of them running Windows 7.
But on another one that runs Windows 10, I had the issue too.
So I guess the problem is somehow related to how msiexec works on Windows 10 (and perhaps 8, but I don't have access to any computer running this version).

I'll try to figure out a way to fix that. According to the error code (1646), seems likely to be related to the "Uninstallable" value for the last remaining patch, which is usually set to 0 instead of 1 for Adobe Reader patches.

Edited again: seems like it can also happen on machines running 7 after all, as it did on one of my home ones. Changing the data of the "Uninstallable" value of the latest successfully installed patch from "0" to "1" did allow the newest patch to install at the next attempt.

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DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: August 22, 2019, 09:20 AM »

Alright, I have news: I made a new version, which is significantly faster than the previous one.

The speed change is mostly due to a major change in the algorithm: instead of starting from the list of files in %windir%\Installer and, for each and every one of them, searching for a match through potentially hundreds of registry keys, we start by looking at the registry and creating lists of known files, and patches with their current state. Then we work with those lists' contents.

The new version is attached to this post. I'm not sure if I should (or even can) change the attachment to the initial post (?)

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DC Website Help and Extras / Re: New anti-spam process being put into place

« on: August 21, 2019, 10:45 AM »

Nice, thanks! I hate spammers with a passion…

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DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: August 17, 2019, 12:56 AM »

Hmm perhaps I should replace the message with something like "it's advised to make a backup or your system before you use this script", and maybe remove the red background, then? ^^'

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DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: August 16, 2019, 02:55 PM »

OK, thank you for letting me know the results

Hmm I don't know if it's an effect of the summer vacation or if I should have tried to scare people a bit less, but only 2 answers in 2 days seems a bit low. I also didn't expect the testers to have such clean systems already xD

19

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: August 16, 2019, 12:56 AM »

Hmm while re-reading my own code, I noticed a bug in one of the functions (regread): while attempting to optimize it after debugging it, I went a bit overzealous and removed the line that set the "Value" variable, which would have been used if we tried to read the data from any registry value with 1 or more spaces in its name.

However none of the registry values we need to read has any, which is why it has no effect on the outcome of the script, so that alone is not worth publishing an updated version for. Still, it will be fixed in the "final" version.

Edit: found another minor bug: if the script was called by double clicking it instead of from an already opened command prompt, the script's window closes at the end, while it should stay open and pause to let the user read the statistics.
Again, it doesn't seem worth publishing an update yet, but will be fixed.

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DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: August 15, 2019, 11:41 AM »

That's not much. Was your system installed recently? Do you perhaps not have MS Office on it? Or maybe you used another cleaning tool already which may have removed most of the unneeded updates?

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DC Member Programs and Projects / SquidGirlCleaner: open source superseded update (re)mover - testers wanted!

« on: August 14, 2019, 04:59 PM »

Hello there

As some of you may be aware, Windows' "C:\Windows\Installer" folder tends to grow increasingly larger as time passes and more updates get applied to programs which rely on Windows Installer — especially if you've had the same version of Microsoft Office for a few years and let Windows Update do its thing automatically.
There are various solutions to this problem such as:

• reinstalling the system from scratch: huh, overkill much?
• completely uninstalling the big programs/software suites that had multiple updates in the past, and reinstalling them (if still needed) with only the latest, current patches: while less overkill than a complete system reinstall, it's still not a very practical solution
• moving the folder to a different drive and making a hard link to it: may not always be feasible, especially if you have a laptop with no room to add another internal storage drive… also, while that's kind of clever, it's only a workaround that doesn't really address the main problem
• using a dedicated cleaning tool such as PatchCleaner: IMHO, that appears to be the best option

However, some people may have trust issues with PatchCleaner because it is closed source.

So, since I was curious about how that worked, I tried to figure out how to identify superseded patches and started to script my own, open source (it's a .bat file, not obfuscated) solution that should give similar results — albeit with a much less sexy interface and less options, but the more suspicious people can actually inspect the code!

A few words of caution, though:

• I've only tested it on a few computers so far, all running the same version of Windows (7)
• while I've not noticed any issue after using my script to "clean up" those (again very few) computers I did test it on, and had no problem applying the august 2019 security updates for MS Office 2010/2013 on them, I cannot tell for sure if there won't be issues later on
• I'm not even a programmer, which I guess increases the probability for this script to not be extremely reliable ^^'

This is why I need testers, preferably technically inclined ones for now, so that if my script causes an issue, they're more likely to be able to clearly explain it and maybe even solve it by themselves.

With that being said, the script is in the attachment.

Feel free to reply with any constructive criticism!

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General Software Discussion / Re: Image editor with a zoom reticle?

« on: July 25, 2019, 11:44 AM »

That could work, especially with Windows' "mouse keys" feature to help with moving the cursor a single pixel at a time. Thanks for the suggestion!

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General Software Discussion / Image editor with a zoom reticle?

« on: July 25, 2019, 05:46 AM »

Hey there,

I've been wondering if there is any image editor out there (or maybe a plug-in for an existing image editor), preferably freeware, where the user can press or hold a key to activate a zoom reticle over a very localized area.

The point being: while helping my users via remote control, I often want to take screenshots of a specific window to document the issues they're having, however I can't exactly do that with Alt+Printscreen due to the active window on my end being the remote control software's.
So what I do is take screenshots of my whole monitor, which I then have to crop as I want to show only the relevant window(s).

However, I'm a bit of a maniac when it comes to cropping, and as much as possible, I want to avoid having a few lines of pixels that aren't part of the window showing on the edges, or the window's picture to have missing pixels — yeah, I should probably take some kind of medication for that ^^'.

So I use the zoom feature from whichever picture editor I have at hand, so I can see the individual pixels while making my rectangular selection, but then the whole picture is zoomed in and unless it's actually quite small, I can't see both the top left and bottom right corner at the same time, which is annoying.

Thus the idea of a zoom reticle which could be activated and deactivated with a keypress (or by holding a key).

I did try using Windows' magnifying glass, but its zoom is blurry and not "pixel perfect" — I guess they wanted it to have some kind of antialiasing.

Does anyone know of an image editor which includes that feature, or has/could have a plug-in which does that?

Failing that, maybe an alternate magnifying glass software which could be enabled and disabled from the keyboard (so I don't need to move the mouse to disable it), and if possible would even allow slowing the mouse movement when it's active? Obviously, it should allow to see exactly where the mouse cursor is.

If not, then I guess that could be a coding snack…

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General Software Discussion / Re: Best reliable freeware download sites?

« on: July 25, 2019, 05:02 AM »

Alright then, if French language isn't an issue, there's http://gratilog.net

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General Software Discussion / Re: Best reliable freeware download sites?

« on: July 25, 2019, 02:14 AM »

Do sites in languages other than english qualify?