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Messages - LuckMan212 [ switch to compact view ]

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1
I dont have too much experience w/ autohotkey, not sure where I would start with this one.  I use AutoIt because of its ability to compile native x64 apps.  Can you steer me in the right direction or link to some sample code (I am guessing I need to dive into WinAPI to achieve this, the built in AHK functions will surely not do what I am asking...)

2
ok... stay w/ me here..   I have some poorly coded apps that have very tiny dialog boxes with very tiny edit boxes, list controls, etc.  These days most of us run 1280x1024 or higher resolutions and this is just unacceptable for certain tasks.  I would like to be able to "grab" a control inside one of these dialogs and resize it.  I believe this is possible, I have seen other programs "fiddle" with controls such as enabling "disabled" buttons, and making "non-resizable" windows resizable. 

the way I see it working is, you run the program, it sits in the tray.  Then you click to activate it, and as you hover the mouse over standard windows GUI controls (buttons, dialogs, editboxes etc) they will be outlined in red.  Probably most of you have seen this type of thing with screen-capture programs when you choose "object" mode. Then if you select that control by clicking on it, you can grab its edge and resize it.

does anyone know if something like this is even possible??  I feel like it should be, but not sure.  Hoping somebody will have the answer!!
cheers,
Luke

3
Here's my idea:  I am looking for a win32 utility that basically just pops up a floating message window, similar to the one that Outlook uses for new incoming mail.  This titlebar-less window would contain text passed to it from the command line, and accept certain command line params such as

font size
x,y -position
w,h -width & height
window color
border color, border thickness
transparency level, 0-255
duration (e.g., 10 seconds, after which it would fade away)
sound to play
OnClick action -- commandline to execute if user clicks the box

so the format of the command could be something like:
notify.exe "<message>" <s- font size> <x,y pos> <w,h dimension> <r,g,b-win color> <r,g,b-border color> <n- thickness> <t- transparency> <d- duration> <path_to_snd> <onclick_action>

example:
notify.exe "this is a test" 14 50,15 200,80 255,255,255 160,160,160 4 255 10 "c:\sounds\beep.wav" "regedit.exe"
t1.png
the above command will display a message box saying "this is a test" in 14pt Arial at x=50,y=15.  It's 200px wide & 80px tall, with a white background and grey border 4px thick, with no transparency (255) for 10 seconds.  It will try to play c:\sounds\beep.wav and if the user clicks the box before it fades away, it will try to execute "regedit.exe".

What do you guys think?  could this be useful to anyone except me??  ;)

4
to the OP:  I'm very curious what solution you ultimately settled on (if any).   I looked at the suggestions and at least in terms of the freeware offerings, it appears that 'Everything' with it's ETP server option was a good choice.  However, it does not index the contents of files, only their names.

5
yay! processtamer is back, baby!  ;D
hey mouser, is this version ok to use on dual core/ dual processor systems?
example, I can have a process pegged at "100%" but my cpu having dual cores will only read "50%" load.  does processtamer know about this?  I think this may have been asked before but not sure I recall what your answer was.  Sorry if it's a rehash.

6
General Software Discussion / Re: what kind of keyboard you use?
« on: April 12, 2006, 10:38 AM »
I use it on my lap, lying on a coach
did you mean couch:tellme:

7
General Software Discussion / Re: what kind of keyboard you use?
« on: April 06, 2006, 11:26 PM »
I love ALPS keyswitches (buckling-spring technology -- google it)  This is the same tech used in the old IBM "M" keyboards which you can only buy on ebay now.

My current keyboard of choice is the "Classic 101/104" from PCKeyboard.com
I have the black/grey model:  http://www.pckeyboar...images/ub40416LG.jpg

None of those cheap-ass membrane keyboards can even come close to the feel, action and durability of a buckling-sping keyboard.  Plus the sound is really cool I think; when I talk to people on the phone they always say "man it sounds like you're working really hard!!" -- this is due to each keypress making 2 distinct "clicks", so it sounds like I am typing 240 words per minute...hehe

However, I recently found a pretty sick looking keyboard that is supposed to also use some high-quality cherry keyswitches that are rated for like 10+ years of use.  These boards are illuminated and come in various LED colors, looks very cool:
http://www.deckkeyboards.com/index.php

 ;)

8
superboyac-  have u heard of WHOIS?   ;)
http://www.dnsstuff....h?ip=alfasoftweb.com

9
be careful,
I have been told by the original owner of Alfaclock that the www.alfasoftweb.com site is a rip-off and the Alfaclock2 they are selling is an illegal copy that is based on old beta code.  Only use www.alfaclock.com or www.betaclock.com.  BetaClock is the latest incarnation but I am currently using Alfaclock Free v1.90 and find it completely stable.

10
oh this is great news... now we just need a recompiled .exe :D

12
What's the Best? / Voting & Ranking Programs in the Best Of section
« on: February 27, 2006, 04:27 PM »
with the first post in the thread summarizing the collective views
ok but if 3 people love a program and 3 people hate it, then what is the "collective view" - is it positive or negative?  I also am not sure I see the merit in having a best-of section that lists programs rated poorly in general by just about everyone (e.g. Norton).  I am fine with everyone just posting their mini-reviews and opinions in fact that is fantastic, but if we just blindly list every single app in a category, then all we have done is to really recreate sites such as Download.com or SnapFiles, etc.  I guess I had a slightly different idea that this would be a place for people to come and quickly separate the wheat from the chaff and be presented only 2 or 3 apps for their purpose, then maybe they could download all of them and reach their own conclusion, without having to for example download 10 sticky note programs only to find out that 7 of them are rubbish.

13
What's the Best? / Re: Anti-Virus Package
« on: February 27, 2006, 04:18 PM »
What about linking the BN rating: text directly, like I'm doing now?
Done! good idea BrotherS :Thmbsup:

14
What's the Best? / Voting & Ranking Programs in the Best Of section
« on: February 27, 2006, 03:42 PM »
mouser, I see your point but aside from ranking the programs, how could we really determine which were the top apps?  To have detailed reviews of every single program in every single category would be a monumental task (there are already 53 categories, each would contain 4-8 programs so we are talking about hundreds and hundreds of programs).  Certain measures could be put in place to minimize fraud such as:
  • require XX number of posts before being allowed to vote
  • ban users who register multiple accounts from the same IP
  • require the user to post at least a few words about why they are voting that way (something more substantial than "it's great!")

In the end, the "worst case scenario" is that someone downloads and tries a program here based on its rating, and decides that they don't like it after all.  They can uninstall the program and come back here and post their reasons for doing so, which would benefit everyone.

edit: I was thinking of making a new sticky called "Guidlines for Posting in this Section" which would outline the basic format that we are looking for. Something like:
Guidlines for Posting in the "What's the Best" Section

Here's how to make a new suggestion for a program or vote for your favorite) ... blah blah blah ... this is only an example, any and all comments are welcome so please don't hesitate to post your opinions!

JoeUser:
 My favorite Clock Program is ZanyClock 1.1!
 ZanyClock is great because it shows you the time in up to 4 time zones, only uses 1.5k of memory, and runs on Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, and XP!
 I think it's better than BoringClock 4.0 because BoringClock takes up your whole screen and crashed on me when I tried setting the time.
 The ZanyClock website is:  http://www.zanyclock.com
 The program is FREEWARE.
 Here's a screenshot:
 http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/4893/zanyclock0ic.png


P.S.-I think further discussion of the voting should be moved to its own thread as it is not really specific to this AntiVirus thread.

15
What's the Best? / Re: Anti-Virus Package
« on: February 27, 2006, 03:21 PM »
thanks for the comments guys!  ;D
Personally if I see a bald - 'this is the best' and it is something I am not using it doesn't really make me consider if I should change - if I can see where it scores over my current package I will look twice and start thinking about it
agreed, I would like some suggestions for how to overcome this-  Polls?  Mini-reviews by other members?  I was thinking maybe rather than use the built-in forum Polls (which I have been told are vulnerable to abuse) we could get people to cast their vote by posting a message to the thread. I will from time to time tally the votes and create a new "DC rating" for each app so we can get an idea of what the "best" apps really are.  (sort them to the top) It can be as simple as:  "I vote for avast!" or more detailed with reasons, etc. (that is always helpful!)  :)

Don't forget the Symantec also do a free online scan.
Carol do you have a direct link to that scan so I can add it to the rest?

Regarding the 2 icons for avast! you can merge them by right clicking on the VRDB icon and clicking "Merge with main avast! icon".
Thank you for the info hamradio!  That is good to know.


Updates:
+added   AntiVir PE Premium to commercial section
+added   note about what "bn rating" means
~updated pros/cons for AntiVir free edition: no POP3 scanner, cannot manually scan a folder
-removed BitDefender free (no resident shield)

16
I guess that would be pretty easy to do, the only problem is the TimeIdlePhysical seems to be buggy at the moment and sometimes does not respond to keyboard and/or mouse movement even after you come back to the computer.

17
great ideas guys--
+added:  best sticky notes app (PIMs), best clipboard extender (Desktop), best Wallpaper Manager (Desktop), Best Email Client (Internet), Best Browser Plugin (Internet)

18
What's the Best? / Re: Anti-Virus Package
« on: February 27, 2006, 02:45 AM »
Thanks for the post Carol.  The "BN" rating refers the the rating from BetaNews FileForum.  The details as far as pros/cons for apps I have not personally tested come from the user reviews on that site.  As more people (hopefully) post here with their comments, I will keep the top post updated.

As far as the "list as many as possible" idea well that wouldn't really be a "whats the best" then now would it!  :tellme:  This section is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all programs available in a category, but rather a clear, concise and organized view at only the "cream of the crop".  Think "if I were stranded on a deserted island, what would I bring" -- only of course this time we are talking software and not pocket knives and twine.

Glad to see you are a fellow NOD32 user and yes, I have found many of the same shortcomings.  I have disabled its "advanced heuristics" feature for the time being because all it ever did was generate false positives for me, and it does have a noticable impact (slowdown) on the system.

19
skrommel you genius!!   :D
is there nothing you cannot do with AHK!!?

20
Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / Re: Best Anti-virus
« on: February 27, 2006, 02:20 AM »
I have started a thread that may be of interest to people subscribed to this thread..... over here:
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2566.0

it's part of the new "What's the Best..." section.  :)

21
What's the Best? / Anti-Virus Package
« on: February 27, 2006, 02:13 AM »
The goal of this thread is to serve as a basic guide for choosing the best AntiVirus (AV) package for your needs.  Everyone should have at least a basic AV these days.  Even the most careful surfer will occasionally encounter a virus- it may appear as an ActiveX control on a rogue website/popup, from a spam email that slips through your filter, or from a poorly-checked CD that was passed from a friend.  The focus here will be on the home user, however many of these products perform equally well in a corporate environment.  I have personally deployed NOD32 on several corporate networks with great success.

When looking for the best AV to fit your needs, there are a handful of key elements to consider. These are not listed in any particular order, so while some people might place more importance on Resource Usage (like myself!) others will consider the Price to be the most important factor.  So it's up to the individual to decide which is most important:

  • Detection Rate (how well does my AV catch known and unknown threats?)
  • Resource Usage (does it slow down my system noticably?)
  • Ease of use (is the interface cluttered? is it intuitive to navigate?)
  • Stability/Compatibility (does this program cause crashes or conflict with my other programs?)
  • Frequency of Updates (how quickly does the vendor respond to new threats?)
  • Price (freeware/shareware/commercial)

I will start this off by grouping the AV's into 2 sections, Freeware and Shareware/Commercial.  Within each section, I have sorted the programs from "Best" to "Worst" based on their current rating from BetaNews' FileForum section (Hence the BN Rating). However it should be noted that ALL of these programs are fairly good AVs and there are a few that were left off the list entirely because they were just too weak to make the cut.  So calling any of these "The Worst" is perhaps unfair.  Also, please note that of the following programs, I have only personally tested avast!, NOD32, Norton, and AVG.  So I would appreciate some comments on the other apps if you have used them and love/hate them.

Freeware

avast! Home v4.6
BN rating: [4.6/5.0]
Pros: very low resource usage, very stable.  one of the only free AVs with x64 support.
Cons: slightly cluttered GUI.


AntiVir Personal Edition 7.0 (mouser's favorite freeware AV!)
BN rating: [4.3/5.0]
Pros: high detection rates. low resource usage.
Cons: shows nag screen during update. download of updates is sometimes problematic.
Cons: no POP3 scanner (however, infected attachments will be detected as soon as they are opened or saved to your disk).
Cons: it has been suggested that the nag screen can be disabled using Group Policy however the details of this are still unknown.


AVG Free 7.1
BN rating: [4.0/5.0]
Pros: low resource usage.  easy to navigate interface.
Cons: only average detection rate.  somewhat prone to getting corrupted and requiring re-installation.


I am still undecided as to which freeware AV I prefer. Of the 2 that I've tested personally, I prefer AVG's simple user interface over Avast's. I found Avast's GUI somewhat scattered (why do we need 2 separate tray icons?) and the meaning of the various options were not as obvious to me (exactly what does the "P2P shield" do?).  I admit that I did not delve too deeply into the manual however.  But, in Avast's favor, it has a loyal following and resource usage is also quite low, perhaps even lower than AVG's.  I did not experience any perceivable slowdown when using either AVG or Avast.  I have not tested any of the other freeware AVs mentioned.  I will leave them open for others to comment on.

Shareware/Commercial

NOD32 v2.5 (my personal favorite at the moment!)
BN rating: [4.5/5.0]
Pros: low resource usage (when not using advanced heuristics). clean GUI. also detects (some) spyware. very frequent updates.
Cons: complicated exclusion feature.
Base Price: US $39 / Renewal Price: $27.30


BitDefender 9 Standard
BN rating: [4.5/5.0]
Pros: updates often.  simple interface.  high detection rates.  cheap!
Cons: unknown
Base Price: US $29.95 / Renewal Price: $14.98


Kaspersky AntiVirus (KAV) 2006 (beta)
BN rating: [4.2/5.0]
Pros: excellent detection rates.  lower resource usage than v5.0 (although still not as low as some of the competition).
Cons: seems to have some conflicts with the popular ZoneAlarm firewall.
Base Price: US $39.95 / Renewal Price: $27.97


Panda Titanium 2006
BN rating: [3.3/5.0]
Pros: very high detection rates. nice interface. talking guy with spanish accent on the web page :-)
Cons: expensive. reportedly a "resource hog" using 35-40MB of RAM.
Base Price: US $49.95 / Renewal Price: unknown


McAfee VirusScan 10.0/2006
BN rating: [3.2/5.0]
Pros: fast. resource usage is low, on par with NOD32.
Cons: requires installation of the "McAfee Resource Center" which is used to promote other McAfee products.
Base Price: US $39.99 / Renewal Price: $39.99


Norton AntiVirus 2006 (beta)
BN rating: [3.0/5.0]
Pros: probably the most well-known AV.  esay-to-use GUI.  very good detection rates.
Cons: resource hog.  expensive.
Base Price: US $39.99 / Renewal Price: $29.99


AntiVir PersonalEdition Premium 7.0
BN rating: [unknown]
Pros: high detection rates. low resource usage.
Cons: unknown
Base Price: 20.00 € / Renewal Price: unknown


Having personally tested only NOD32 and Norton in this category, I can say that between the two, NOD32 wins hands-down.  I have been a NOD32 user for several years now and have not had a single infection despite what most would consider "heavy" downloading!  I am somewhat obsessed with system optimization and efficiency so therefore my priorities were skewed towards low resource usage and speed, both areas in which NOD32 excels.  I like the fact that individual modules within the program can be turned off depending on your needs.  NOD32's "IMON" module detects viruses mid-stream as they are being downloaded (yes-before they have even touched your hard drive) which is a nice feature (can be disabled if you want).  I have always found Norton Antivirus to be a resource hog and I have seen it conflict with/slow down many a system in my time.  This is especially true of older, less powerful systems (<512MB RAM, <2ghz CPUs) In Symantec's defense, NAV does have decent detection rates and an easy-to-use GUI.

As this thread fills up (hopefully) with comments from other users, I will keep this post updated and add/remove AV programs as needed.  Eventually I hope to narrow the list to only 1 or 2 "best" programs in each category (Free/Commercial).  And hopefully I would like to DROP the poorly ranked Commercial suites from the list (Panda/McAfee/Norton), unless I get a lot of users posting that they disagree with those ratings. So come on and post your opinions!


Here are some additional related posts on DC's forum concerning AntiVirus apps:

Perhaps also worth noting are some online/web-based scanners (all free):

22
cool!  ;D I updated the OP with a new "Desktop Tools" section and moved a few things into it.  However I dont think that the "dialog box extenders" leaf should link directly to that child board-- simply because users clicking on that would expect to be taken to a "best of" thread that showed them the top apps in the category, and instead they would get something else. What I would like to do is once the "Best Dialog Box Extender" thread is started (as they all will be over the next few days) then I will put appropriate links to both the Main Review that you did of all the DBX extenders as well as the child-board.  Similar to what jgpaiva did in his other threads, something like:

Best Dialog Box Extenders

This thread is about the best Dialog Box Extenders blah blah...

Relevant links to other DC areas:
Mouser's Comprehensive Review of all Dialog Box Extenders
Discussion thread for those reviews

Based on everything we know, the top 2 dialog box extenders seem to be:
...blah blah...

This way everything is kept consistent.  What do you think?


23
What's the Best? / Re: AddressBook Utility
« on: February 26, 2006, 11:29 PM »
this is slightly Off-Topic but does anyone remember the BeOS?  I remember seeing a demo of it at the MacWorld expo maybe 11-12 years ago. One feature that stuck out in my mind was they had a pervasive Address Book built right into the OS itself.  You could enter an address once into this address book and then call it up from ANYWHERE in ANY app and use the information.  It was very cool and still somewhat amazing to me that Microsoft has still not implemented something like this.  Microsoft's "Address Book" app that is linked basically only to Outlook Express still pales in comparison.  :(

24
ok you've sold me... I think I agree with you now.  This also has the advantage of the threads that are active bubbling to the top, regardless of what category they are in.  Let's leave it 'as-is' and see how it goes. 

25
oh arrgh! I just spent about 2 hrs writing my "Best Anti-Virus" starter thread and my blasted system froze while accessing the Trend Micro HouseCall (an online virus scanner) website!  :mad:  Not sure why it did that-- rarely happens to me.  Murphy's Law I suppose.  So I am in the process of rewriting as we speak... grr! 

Anyway, mouser I do think it would be useful to have the folders for the major (bolded) categories shown above, however please hold off on creating them for now, I would like to wait and hopefully get some more users to comment on whether I have forgotten any categories etc.

I will continue to link/update the tree above and it can be used as a "launch pad" into the specific threads but I think having the categories grouped by folder would just keep this whole section cleaner and easier to navigate.  But of course the final decision is yours.

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