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101

General Software Discussion / Delete protected index.dat files in Win XP with IE6 without reboot

« on: July 01, 2007, 07:57 AM »

I just learned how to delete protected index.dat files in Win XP with IE6 installed without reboot and thought I might as well post the instruction here in case someone else is interested.

note: IE7 seems to have a built in solution for this already: http://blogs.msdn.co...06/01/12/512232.aspx  Does it work as advertised?

Until recently I thought ccleaner regularly cleared the index.dat files (I have that option ticked in ccleaner) but apparently not on my system at least. Tools like ClearAllHistory ($20) claim to be able to delete index.dat on each window startup (I haven't tried it). If anyone knows of some easy and free way to mimic that feature of ClearAllHistory without IE7 then please inform me.

Instruction below condensed and modified from http://www.arstdesig...icles/index.dat.html

-----------------------------
INFO ABOUT INDEX.DAT FILES:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index.dat
- index.dat are files related to cache, visited URLs, history, cookies that are hard to remove
- 3 types of index.dat: cache, cookies, history
- each user account contains all three
- index.dat might be loaded/locked by multiple processes at win start
- therefore index.dat files can't be deleted the regular way

---> 3 * num of accounts * num of processes to kill (but many are the same process)
---> 3 * num of accounts index.dat files to delete

To see for yourself, do a search for "index.dat" in path "C:\Documents and Settings"  (might require enabling viewing of hidden files in Explorer settings first). Browse found index.dat files with Index Dat Spy , http://www.stevengou...datspy/download.html . Alternatively, just check the size and creation date for the index.dat files. If a file is old it probably contains track records of internet usage.

NOTE: I've only tried this on index.dat in the "C:\Documents and Settings" path Windows puts index.dat files at other places too. For example:
C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\OfflineCache\index.dat
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Cookies\index.dat
But those files seem different and deleting them might create problems (from what I've read - I haven't tried it). Also, at least on my system, those files can either not be read by Index Dat Spy or can be read but contain no internet usage related information.

-----------------------------
NEEDED TOOLS:
sysinternals handle (command line freeware)
http://www.microsoft...dThreads/Handle.mspx
sysinternals pskill (command line freeware)
http://www.microsoft...tilities/pskill.mspx
autohotkey + compiled script DelIndexdat.exe (source below)
http://www.autohotkey.com/

-----------------------------
DO THIS:
0. get & prepare tools
0. Put delindexdat.exe , handle.exe , pskill.exe in some folder and open two cmd windows there.
1. Cmd-line: handle \index.dat
2. For each process using index.dat, do in 2nd cmd window: pskill pid   
(note: pid = the process id as listed by handle.exe. Do pskill on explorer.exe last)
(note: Antivirus tools might resist being killed. If so close/disable them manually and repeat 2.)
3. Cmd-line: delindexdat.exe
4. restart explorer (cmd-line: explorer)

-----------------------------
PREPARE TOOLS:
AUTOHOTKEY, save as DelIndexdat.ahk and compile to DelIndexdat.exe

[Select]

Loop, C:\Documents and Settings\index.dat,, 1
FileDelete, %A_LoopFileFullPath%

HANDLE needed syntax: handle index.dat
PSKILL needed syntax: pskill <process name | process id>
             example: pskill 1496   
             example: pskill explorer.exe


---------------------------------
note: http://www.arstdesig...icles/index.dat.html also suggests creating read-only dummy index.dat files to prevent windows from later recreating some of the index.dat files. I haven't tried that and don't know if it gives any problems.

102

General Software Discussion / screen capture tool that appends captures to single image?

« on: March 21, 2007, 07:38 PM »

I currently use FastStone Screen Capture since it is simple and lightweigth and since I most often do not need the more advanced features that other screen capture programs offer.

But today I did need a feature that FastStone lacks. I needed to take a sequence of (partial area) screencaps and append/stitch them into one single image.

So I'm ideally looking for a tool that: makes a screen capture each time the user presses a hotkey/button and draws an area with the mouse (many tools do that already) AND automatically appends/stitches the capture to a single image (this is the critical feature I'm after). At the end of the sequence, the user presses another hotkey/button and the image is then saved somewhere.

A plus would be if parameters like maximum width/height and background color could be set in advance. So for example, after stitching two screencaptures together horizontally, if appending a third capture on the same "row" would exceed the set maximum width then the program "linebreaks" and continues appending at the start of the next "row". If both maximum width and height is reached the image is saved and a new appendable image is started.

Is there any screen capture tool that can do something like that? (Note that I want each capture to retain it's size, so a tool that makes thumbnail image sheets out of a set of images would not be a solution here)

I suppose this is a feature that only few have use for on a daily basis. But on occasions when it is needed it could be a real timesaver compared to manually saving single screencap images, opening them all in a editor, creating a large canvas and copying and pasting them together.

103

General Software Discussion / batch create image contact sheet from videofiles?

« on: February 24, 2007, 06:46 AM »

I have a large amount of TV recordings made with a DVB tv-card. The files are .mpg and in most cases 2+ GB in size. The collection is large enough for me to need a good catalog system. I have a text index but recently got the idea of also making a contact sheet image for each video. By contact sheet I mean one image which contains a mosaic of many small thumbnail images from different parts of the video file. That provides a quick visual overview of the video.

I've recently made a few such contact sheets through a many-steps-process: I manually make screenshots in the application I use to also trim the video (commercial breaks and so on) before archiving it. After that, I use ACDSee to create a contact sheet out of the images.

Now I'm searching for a way to automate contact sheet creation from videos into a simple batch process.

So I want an application with these features:

1. read a video file and make screencaps
 - formats to handle: .mpg and ideally other formats like xvid .avi, .wmv ...
 - interval screencaps: I want a coherent contact sheet format and so want a sure way to get at least X number of screencaps (let's say 30) from any video regardless of it's length. So a "screencap every N seconds" setting might need to be complemented by a "screencap at every 1/N time segment of video".
 - timestamped screencaps: add a (customizable) timestamp to each screencap
(I understand that many automatic screenshots will be less useful than those taken manually but if I make many screencaps some of them will probably still give a good overview of the video.)

2. make contact sheet from screencaps
 - add a user customizable title/header for the contact sheet. Allow variables in header. Example: "$filename -- $year-$month-$day"
 - customizability for the amount of thumbnails, number os rows/lines, size of thumbnails, borders, background ...

3. saving
 - automatically save the generated contact sheet to some preset folder. Allow variables in filename just like for header/title above.
 
4. batch capabilities
 - run 1-3 over a set files/folders.
 - Or at the very least, allow complete command line control so that users can make external scripts to get such batch capabilities.
4 is important for me since I don't have the time to manually or even semi-manually make contact sheets for all older videos.

Can anyone recommend a tool that does all that? Or something that comes close? All suggestions are welcome!

I googled some before writing this post, but didn't find much. One problem is that I'm unsure what the definite keyword for such software is. I write "contact sheet" only because ACDSee call it that. So suggestions for what terms to search for might be useful for me too.

104

Word Processor Roundup / extra advantage with OpenOffice.org: possible portability

« on: February 08, 2007, 07:17 AM »

Great, detailed review! Will read it more carefully later. For now, I want to comment one thing that I don't think is mentioned in the review: an additional plus with OpenOffice.org is that it can be made portable.

Portableapps.com keeps a portable version updated. Just download, unpack and you're ready to go. I always carry around the portable version on my USB memory stick.

OpenOffice.org Portable - http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable

105

Coding Snack Guidelines / IDEA: slim folder menus on taskbar (not in system tray)

« on: January 08, 2007, 06:14 AM »

In Win XP it is possible to add menus to the taskbar that displays any folder and all its subfolders and -files.
I use that feature a lot for very quick access to C:.

The only downside with the built in feature is that it wastes taskbar space for no good reason:
- the "arrow" that opens the menu is 1cm to the right of the label (could be above it)
- for root drives, XP forces the text "(C:)" to the right of the drive's name.



I have three harddrives and would ideally like to have a menu for each drive's root folder plus one more folder but refrain because it wastes too much taskbar space.

So my idea is this:

A tool that retains all the built in features for taskbar menus but that decreases the taskbar space for each menu.

Here's how I imagine it:





Clarification 1: there are several small apps that allow customizable menus from a tray icon. LaunchBarCommander , https://www.donation...Commander/index.html is one example. But I very much prefer a menu on the taskbar area to the left of the tray, since the tray icons tend to rearrange themselves as new applications start and close.

Clarification 2: my idea was to only find a way to decrease the taskbar space usage. The idea does not involve any added functionality on top of the built in folder menu feature. Again, there are several apps (again, like LaunchBarCommander) with a very rich set of features. I emphasize this because more features tend to come with larger file size and slower operation. Since I use the menu feature a lot even a small delay between a click and folder display would be annoying in the long run.

Any ideas how this idea could be implemented? I know that some applications add a search field, drop spot and so on to the taskbar so it is clearly possible, but I have no idea how complicated it is.

106

DC Website Help and Extras / req: add "DonationCoder.com" to forum page titles

« on: October 11, 2006, 04:55 AM »

I've recently tried to follow the many great GOE-threads in the forum. In the process of doing that I've made many bookmarks, but bookmarking is slowed down by the fact that the page title for forum threads does not include the string "DonationCoder.com" like all non-forum page titles does. Manually adding such a string to the title of each bookmark is time-consuming (in the long run at least).

So I request such a string for forum page titles. It's a good thing to consistently include some such string in all page titles since it makes searching and managing all and only bookmarks to the site much easier.

Also, a better system, IMO, would be to reverse the current page title phrases for regular pages, like this:

"DonationCoder.com - Software - Mouser - PopUp Wisdom"

With that order, all bookmarks from the site can be grouped simply by sorting a bookmarks folder alphabetically.

These are minor problems, I grant that.  But also perhaps minor tasks to fix?