Recent Posts

2451

Post New Requests Here / Re: REQ: HTPC Util - Hide Desktop for x seconds while program is being executed.

« Last post by 4wd on March 23, 2014, 01:01 AM »

It's vacant these days: http://goo.gl/maps/G4rth

2452

Post New Requests Here / Re: REQ: HTPC Util - Hide Desktop for x seconds while program is being executed.

« Last post by 4wd on March 22, 2014, 08:45 PM »

v0.0.1.32 <- Link

• Change: Reverts to timeout value if a handle to the process can't be obtained.
• Added:  Set focus to program window, (if it has one), before exiting.
• Added:  Simple usage directions, (run it without any arguments).
• Change: Compiled as a CLI program, it produces no GUI, all errors go to the CLI.
• Change: Slightly better args parsing, (not much better but it is an improvement).
• Added:  Checks for executable existence, (full path not required if executable is in same folder as BlankIt).

[Pre-update silly remarks below]

Nice.

-mouser (March 22, 2014, 08:00 PM)

Thanks, although I expect a much more polished version from you

Will the new window get focus, or might that be a feature to add?

Feature? ... to add?

I'll look at bringing the program window to the front before exit, although usually it'd get focus anyway wouldn't it?

That's how Windows usually works, run a program and it forces itself in front of everything else unless told otherwise.

I'll also change it so that if it can't get a handle to the process it'll drop back to timeout instead of throwing up a requester.

Just a note, I'm on a slow convict ship back to the UK in just over a week - I'll be incommunicado for 6 weeks ... yes, I know, much cause for celebration on the forum  

2453

General Software Discussion / Re: Office 365 and Outlook

« Last post by 4wd on March 22, 2014, 08:12 PM »

Just a couple of scripts I knocked up for @questorfla to see if it makes Outlook any easier.

Both only work with Outlook 2007+ but I don't bother checking to see if you have the right version - part of my minimal error checking approach to life

Outlook needs to be running first.  Run one or the other, not both - although that scenario hasn't been tested.

AutoOutSync - Forces a Send/Receive action in Outlook every 15->180 seconds.  Has a countdown timer and you can enable/disable the Outlook progress window.
TrigOutSync - Forces a Send/Receive action 5 seconds after a Send Event is reported by Outlook.  Outlook progress window can be disabled/enabled via tray icon menu.

I've tested both with Outlook 2013 on a Windows 8.1 Pro x86 VM and they seemed to work OK.

2454

General Software Discussion / Re: couple of one-click requests

« Last post by 4wd on March 22, 2014, 07:53 PM »

I am trying to Dl your latest scripts right now but the net must be slow to Aussie-land.

-questorfla (March 22, 2014, 06:02 PM)

Jacksonville, Florida, actually - Aussie-land is closer than you think

I'll attach them to the other thread so that others can be experimented on ... errr ... with them.

See this post.

Just cleaning up my downloads for the last 4 years and found another hosts file editor: Host Mechanic

2455

General Software Discussion / Re: OneNote is now free

« Last post by 4wd on March 22, 2014, 02:28 PM »

This is exactly the reason for Microsoft's recommendations. 99% of the MS Office plugins available are 32-bit & they will not work with the 64-bit version of Office.

-Innuendo (March 21, 2014, 07:04 PM)

Thus the farce of downloading the x86 installer and running it at their recommendation then finding that they apparently installed the x64 version instead ... without telling you.

-4wd (March 21, 2014, 10:49 PM)

Did you by chance already have some Office x64 products installed before you installed OneNote?

-Deozaan (March 22, 2014, 01:24 PM)

Other than Windows 8.1 Pro x64, there's no other Microsoft programs installed, (except those installed by WHS2011 - also x64).

When I ran the x86 installer I ended up with a folder in Program Files (x86) of ~200kB and one in Program Files of ~1GB - which if the folder under Program Files actually contained the x86 version, seems contrary to Microsoft's stipulations.

2456

Post New Requests Here / Re: REQ: HTPC Util - Hide Desktop for x seconds while program is being executed.

« Last post by 4wd on March 22, 2014, 06:47 AM »

Proof of concept: BlankIt

Usage: BlankIt.exe "full\path\to\executable" [timeout]

Where [timeout] is an integer, (no limit, in seconds), if a value isn't given, (or 0), then the default is 15 seconds.

What it does:
Screen goes black until the called programs GUI is ready for input.  The timeout will kick in if the GUI doesn't open in time or the program has no GUI.

I've only done limited testing with a few programs but it didn't seem to format my HDD.

Executes the program argument, then displays a topmost, borderless black window.  The PID from the Run command is used to execute a Process.WaitForInputIdle call.  If it's received or the timeout occurs, the window is hidden and BlankIt exits.  (Not really necessary to hide the window since BlankIt exits immediately after but wth ...)

NOTE: VERY minimal error checking is done in the program, (doesn't even check for existence of argument program).  Now it does.

Also note, if the program you want to run normally requires Admin privileges, then BlankIt will need to be run from a CLI with Admin privileges to avoid the UAC requester, (unless UAC is disabled).

Code: AutoIt [Select]

1. #Region ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
2. #AutoIt3Wrapper_UseUpx=n
3. #AutoIt3Wrapper_Change2CUI=y
4. #AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_Fileversion=0.0.1.32
5. #AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_Fileversion_AutoIncrement=y
6. #EndRegion ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
7. #cs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.  
9.  AutoIt Version: 3.3.8.1
10.  Name:           BlankIt.au3
11.  Author:         4wd
12.  
13.  Script Function:
14.         Blanks screen until called programs GUI opens and is ready for input.
15.  
16.  Requires:
17.         Ascend4nt's Process Function UDF: http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/115352-process-thread-dll-functions-udfs/
18.  
19. #ce ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.  
21. #include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
22. #Include <WinAPIEx.au3>
23. #include <WindowsConstants.au3>
24. #include "[includes]\_ProcessFunctions.au3"
25.  
26. Opt('MustDeclareVars', 1)
27.  
28. Const $iAccess=0x00001000
29. Local $iTimeout = 15, $sCommand, $sPath
30.  
31. #Region ### START Koda GUI section ### Form=
32. Global $Blank = GUICreate("Blank", @DesktopWidth, @DesktopHeight, 0, 0, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_TOPMOST)
33. GUISetBkColor(0x000000)
34. #EndRegion ### END Koda GUI section ###
35.  
36. If $CmdLine[0] = 0 Then _Usage()
37. For $i = 1 To $CmdLine[0]
38.         Switch StringRegExp($CmdLine[$i], "(?i)[a-z]+", 0)
39.                 Case 0
40.                         If $CmdLine[$i] > 0 Then $iTimeout = $CmdLine[$i]
41.                 Case 1
42.                         If StringInStr($CmdLine[$i], "\") > 0 Then
43.                                 $sCommand = $CmdLine[$i]
44.                                 $sPath = StringLeft($sCommand, StringInStr($sCommand, "\", 0,-1))
45.                         Else
46.                                 $sPath = @ScriptDir & "\"
47.                                 $sCommand = $sPath & $CmdLine[$i]
48.                         EndIf
49.                 Case Else
50.         EndSwitch
51. Next
52.  
53. If $sCommand = "" Or Not FileExists($sCommand) Then
54.         ConsoleWrite("Error: Executable does not exist!" & @CRLF & @CRLF)
55.         _Usage()
56. EndIf
57. $iTimeout *= 1000
58.  
59. Local $iPID = Run($sCommand, $sPath)
60. If $iPID <> 0 Then
61.         GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)
62.         Local $hProcess = _ProcessOpen($iPID, $iAccess)
63.         If $hProcess <> 0 Then
64.                 _ProcessWaitForInputIdle($hProcess, $iTimeout)
65.                 _ProcessCloseHandle($hProcess)
66.         Else
67.                 Sleep($iTimeout)
68.         EndIf
69.         Sleep(250)
70.         GUISetState(@SW_HIDE)
71.         Local $Data = _WinAPI_EnumProcessWindows($iPID)
72.         If IsArray($Data) Then
73.                 If $Data[0][0] > 0 Then
74.                         _WinAPI_SetFocus($Data[1][0])
75.                 EndIf
76.         EndIf
77. EndIf
78.  
79. _Exit()
80.  
81. Func _Usage()
82.         ConsoleWrite("Usage: BlankIt.exe <executable> [timeout]" & @CRLF & @CRLF)
83.         ConsoleWrite("Where: <executable> = full path to executable, (include quotes if required)" & @CRLF)
84.         ConsoleWrite("       [timeout]    = optional time to wait for program interface in seconds" & @CRLF)
85.         ConsoleWrite("                      Default = 15" & @CRLF)
86.         _Exit()
87. EndFunc
88.  
89. Func _Exit()
90.         Exit
91. EndFunc

2457

Post New Requests Here / Re: REQ: HTPC Util - Hide Desktop for x seconds while program is being executed.

« Last post by 4wd on March 22, 2014, 02:04 AM »

I haven't used/seen MCE but if it has a GUI couldn't you use Process.WaitForInputIdle to detect when the MCE interface comes up?

You could always have a timeout option to fall back to.

2458

General Software Discussion / Re: OneNote is now free

« Last post by 4wd on March 21, 2014, 10:49 PM »

This is exactly the reason for Microsoft's recommendations. 99% of the MS Office plugins available are 32-bit & they will not work with the 64-bit version of Office.

-Innuendo (March 21, 2014, 07:04 PM)

Thus the farce of downloading the x86 installer and running it at their recommendation then finding that they apparently installed the x64 version instead ... without telling you.

2459

General Software Discussion / Re: OneNote is now free

« Last post by 4wd on March 20, 2014, 07:17 PM »

It was a dig at the size of the download and the fact that x86 versions of (any) programs are generally smaller than their x64 counterparts.

Maybe in the future I need to add more 

2460

Developer's Corner / Re: Interesting tool for generating WMI queries

« Last post by 4wd on March 20, 2014, 07:04 PM »

There's the old Scriptomatic v2.0 tool also:

Scriptomatic 2.0 isn’t limited to writing just VBScript scripts; instead, Scriptomatic 2.0 can write scripts in Perl, Python, or JScript as well.

AutoIt WMI Scriptomatic
Scriptomatic4AutoHotkey
Powershell Scriptomatic
ADSI Scriptomatic

Probably a version for every language ...

2461

General Software Discussion / Re: OneNote is now free

« Last post by 4wd on March 20, 2014, 06:51 PM »

• Some people see 64-bit programs being installed when they chose the 32-bit version, not sure what exactly the difference is

-Jibz (March 20, 2014, 04:11 PM)

Since x64 versions are usually a bit larger than their x86 counterparts, maybe it accounts for 900MB of the download?

2462

General Software Discussion / Re: couple of one-click requests

« Last post by 4wd on March 20, 2014, 04:52 AM »

There's also HostsMan.

I've been using the MVPS hosts file for the last 3-4 years on my computer.  Plus my router also downloads, combines, and redirects to an internal pixelserver, hosts lists from:

• MVPS
• pgl.yoyo.org
• Hosts file project
• The Chameleon Project
• hpHosts ad/tracking/malicious servers - Disabled because it's quite large (6MB).
• MalwareDomainList.com

Size of the blocklist in the router is about 500kB.

2463

General Software Discussion / Re: Photos that spontaneously change

« Last post by 4wd on March 19, 2014, 08:14 PM »

Yes/No questions:

1) Have you tried another monitor?

2) Does it only affect the images you have modified?

3) Does it only affect images that are stored on your computer?
     If you answered YES to question (3): Does your image program actually save the modifications to the image, (eg. Picassa doesn't unless you tell it) ?
     If you answered NO to question (3):  Are you sure?

4) Have you tried saving the modified image to a different name?
     If you answered YES to question (4): When the change occurred, did you then compare the original image with the modified image using a program, not your eyes, (eg. Beyond Compare, AntiDupl, XnView, etc)?

5) Have you tried saving the modified image to another format, (eg. PNG, TIFF), as well as the original format?
     If you answered YES to question (5): When the change occurs, does the alternate format image exhibit the same change as the original modified format?

6) Have you tried copying an image you have modified to a flash drive, (then remove it from the computer)?
     If you answered YES to question (6): Did you then plug it into another computer and ensure that the image had been modified?
     If you answered YES to question (6): When the change occurs, did the version on the flash drive exhibit the same change?

7) Have you tried making a large modification to an image, (ie. put "This is a modified image" across the middle of it) ?
     If you answered YES to question (7): When the change occurs, did the large modification also disappear?

2464

Living Room / Re: Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Beagle Bone: Choosing between tiny DIY computer kits

« Last post by 4wd on March 19, 2014, 03:55 AM »

For those interested in the Arduino, Little Bird Electronics have a Kickstarter project up.

-4wd (March 18, 2014, 07:29 PM)

are you going to back it?

-Target (March 19, 2014, 03:37 AM)

I'd like to but as always, it's dependent on monetary considerations.  I have a EtherTen that's been sitting in a drawer for a couple of years that was for a project I wanted to do but then ... procrastination set in 

Although the MicroView would fit in nicely with what I wanted to do ... actually more than nicely ... hhmmm ... maybe I'll have to introduce Mr Piggy Bank to Mr Hammer ...

2465

Living Room / Re: OneNote now on Mac as well, +FREE everywhere, + Cloud service powered.

« Last post by 4wd on March 19, 2014, 12:19 AM »

...So, now to remove this bloated piece of ...

-4wd (March 18, 2014, 06:20 PM)

Ruddy heck. Poor you.

-IainB (March 18, 2014, 08:47 PM)

Considering that Office 2013 Pro is only 1 CD, this should have been a 50MB installer download at the very most.

Inline with the Win8->8.1 update, yet another FU by Microsoft to anyone with a monthly data cap or a slow broadband connection.

2466

Living Room / Re: Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Beagle Bone: Choosing between tiny DIY computer kits

« Last post by 4wd on March 18, 2014, 07:29 PM »

For those interested in the Arduino, Little Bird Electronics have a Kickstarter project up.

They're taking your normal size Arduino and shrinking it a bit:



Called the MicroView, more info here: Chip-sized Arduino with built-in OLED Display!

2467

Living Room / Re: OneNote now on Mac as well, +FREE everywhere, + Cloud service powered.

« Last post by 4wd on March 18, 2014, 06:20 PM »

^^ Well, I've been spending some time setting this up in my OneDrive/OneNote.com account, ...

-IainB (March 18, 2014, 09:47 AM)

I know what you mean, I thought I'd install it to see what it's like ... it took longer than installing Windows from scratch ... twice.

Over two hours, due to the 1GB+ of download they don't mention, as @rgdot mentions above, and even though I selected, (at their recommendation), the x86 version I find that the x64 version is installed instead.

So, now to remove this bloated piece of ...

2468

Living Room / Re: OneNote now on Mac as well, +FREE everywhere, + Cloud service powered.

« Last post by 4wd on March 18, 2014, 08:11 AM »

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=37538.0

Better late than never I guess 

2469

Living Room / Re: what does this say?

« Last post by 4wd on March 16, 2014, 10:04 PM »

English people really need to learn to enunciate better

-4wd (March 15, 2014, 08:00 PM)

Is that a widespread matter or is that limited to few cases?

-Giampy (March 16, 2014, 03:12 PM)

I've found it to be reasonably widespread, (your normal person in the street), I'm kind of used to it now.
My wife, (English), said that one of the things she noticed when she came to Australia was that everyone talked slower than what she was used to.

Back to the OP, dropping the audio into Audacity, reducing speed by 15% and adding a bit of bass made it a lot easier but still the person speaking ran a lot of her words together.

2470

General Software Discussion / Re: How link to pix in Tumblr?

« Last post by 4wd on March 16, 2014, 09:28 PM »

^^ Logoff would also do it!  

-IainB (March 16, 2014, 09:22 PM)

So does the small button on the front of the computer ... just below the power button ...

2471

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: [Android] JuiceSSH PRO *FREE* until Tuesday 18th March 11:00 GMT

« Last post by 4wd on March 16, 2014, 09:26 PM »

Fixed

2472

General Software Discussion / Re: How link to pix in Tumblr?

« Last post by 4wd on March 16, 2014, 09:01 PM »

In Firefox I run AdBlock Edge, Ghostery, and TrackMeNot, plus I don't know what else; maybe that's interfering?

-bit (March 16, 2014, 07:23 PM)

I run Ghostery, AdBlock Edge, RefControl, Request Policy, Self Destructing Cookies, and a couple of others - none of them interfere with the Inspector.

The Waterfox official download page only shows 64-bit; but I see they do offer a Portable version which is far preferable to me.
Can I install Waterfox Portable 64-bit on my Win7 32-bit OS?

Waterfox is only x64, and no you can't install 64-bit programs onto a 32-bit OS - unless you do so via a VM (which is beyond the scope of the problem).

I found a 32-bit Waterfox but it's from Softonic, ...

Only version on there that shows up in a search is Waterfox x64 v18.0.1 ?

Is there a way to just convert my OS from 32-bit to 64-bit, or do you have to start all over and reinstall and rebuild the entire OS from scratch?

-bit (March 16, 2014, 07:34 PM)

A full re-install is required if you're changing architecture, x64<->x86.

BTW, when I've got a million windows open and want to close them all at once, is there a shortcut command for that?

-bit (March 16, 2014, 07:39 PM)

From SuperUser:

Simultaneously close all open windows:

•     While pressing the Ctrl key, successively click each of the task icons on the taskbar.
•     Right-click the last task icon, and choose Close Group.

If you only want to minimize the windows, use the 'Show Desktop' shorcut.

2473

General Software Discussion / Re: How link to pix in Tumblr?

« Last post by 4wd on March 16, 2014, 07:17 PM »

You're doing it wrong 

Firefox (Pale Moon/Waterfox):

Menu->Web Developer->Inspector:
 (see attachment in previous post)
Click picture:
 (see attachment in previous post)

-4wd (March 16, 2014, 12:37 AM)

Okay so far that doesn't seem to bring up a link for me in Firefox.
Do you think I should install Pale Moon or Waterfox and try again?
Maybe I should try that.

-bit (March 16, 2014, 07:09 PM)

Works fine here in Firefox 26.0 and Pale Moon 27.0 - so if you're not seeing it you're holding your tongue wrong.

You don't even have to click on the image on a page, just mouse over it and the relevant line in the source will be highlighted in the Inspector window.

2474

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: [Android] JuiceSSH PRO *FREE* until Tuesday 18th March 11:00 GMT

« Last post by 4wd on March 16, 2014, 07:11 PM »

Direct link to the offer page: https://sonelli.com/500k

-mwb1100 (March 16, 2014, 03:27 PM)

Or you could click on the image in the OP 

2475

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: [Android] JuiceSSH PRO *FREE* until Tuesday 18th March 11:00 GMT

« Last post by 4wd on March 16, 2014, 11:20 AM »

I would have thought the SSH gave it away  

If you don't know what it generally stands for w.r.t computers, chances are you don't need it.

But I know people can't resist anything with the word FREE attached  ... even if they have no use for it  

Secure SHell client for those that are interested, eg. connect to your Linux VPS, etc.

PRO upgrade adds the ability to proxy over the connection, among other things.