Recent Posts

301

Unfinished Requests / IDEA: Coding for system tray icon hide application.

« Last post by JeffK on April 27, 2005, 09:32 PM »

I thought of another one.  I want to prevent my daughter from logging into her account and shutting down the Kerio firewall.  (If it wasn't for her doubtful P2P software I wouldn't need a firewall).  I'd like to be able to hide the Kerio firewall in the system tray automatically on her account.  I've trawled the net and there are plenty of system tray managers but I can't find a simple one that will simply hide or reveal one or two icons.

Jeff (cross posting from another place on the forum).

302

Finished Programs / DONE - IDEA: launch apps on Fast User Switch (set vol., etc).

« Last post by JeffK on April 27, 2005, 09:31 PM »

I thought of an idea.  My 16 year old daughter and I are continually coming to blows about our joint use of the computer.  Quite apart from her forgetfulness about who pays for it and is therefore entitled to use it as he sees fit, she is always complaing because I mute the sound.

She goes on, turns her music on up loud, and leaves it on loud when she's finished.  I get on and straight away I either turn the speakers down or mute it in some other way.  Whaen she returns she whinges about having to turn the sound up again.  I swear the next time she does it the speakers a re going in the trash.

What would be nice would be a preset speaker volume for each user (we have Win XP Home SP2).  When the computer is being used under my name the volume level returns to a default (for me that would be zero) and when she switches to her account it swithches to her default (set by me so that the neighbours don't complain).

Probably harder than it sounds to program.  What do you guru's think?

Jeff (cross posted from another place in the forum).

303

Living Room / Re: BACK FROM THE 10th CIRCLE OF HELL WITH FULLY RESTORED FORUM/BLOGS

« Last post by JeffK on April 27, 2005, 02:37 AM »

You weren't asleep for long.     I don't know about patient, many of us would have realised there was something difficult to solve.   Thanks for all your work on the site.

Jeff

304

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by JeffK on April 27, 2005, 02:27 AM »

I found the following "startup delay" type program...

http://www.xpertdesi...sw_xecutor_info.php4

Tray Wizard seems to have been deleted from the net.  The site is dead and I couldn't find a copy.

I have the current free version of Kerio.  The password protection is only available in the paid version and having already bought Outpost through the forum I'm reluctant to part with any further firewall cash.

Jeff

305

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by JeffK on April 26, 2005, 10:02 PM »

I thought of another one.  I want to prevent my daughter from logging into her account and shutting down the Kerio firewall.  (If it wasn't for her doubtful P2P software I wouldn't need a firewall).  I'd like to be able to hide the Kerio firewall in the system tray automatically on her account.  I've trawled the net and there are plenty of system tray managers but I can't find a simple one that will simply hide or reveal one or two icons.

Jeff

306

Living Room / Re: BACK FROM THE 10th CIRCLE OF HELL WITH FULLY RESTORED FORUM/BLOGS

« Last post by JeffK on April 26, 2005, 07:13 PM »

time for sleepies mouser

Jeff

307

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by JeffK on April 25, 2005, 05:46 PM »

I thought of an idea.  My 16 year old daughter and I are continually coming to blows about our joint use of the computer.  Quite apart from her forgetfulness about who pays for it and is therefore entitled to use it as he sees fit, she is always complaing because I mute the sound.

She goes on, turns her music on up loud, and leaves it on loud when she's finished.  I get on and straight away I either turn the speakers down or mute it in some other way.  Whaen she returns she whinges about having to turn the sound up again.  I swear the next time she does it the speakers a re going in the trash.

What would be nice would be a preset speaker volume for each user (we have Win XP Home SP2).  When the computer is being used under my name the volume level returns to a default (for me that would be zero) and when she switches to her account it swithches to her default (set by me so that the neighbours don't complain).

Probably harder than it sounds to program.  What do you guru's think?

Jeff

308

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by JeffK on April 22, 2005, 06:40 PM »

I found this.

http://www.joejoesoft.com/sr.php

Help is negligible but it doesn't take much working out.  Can control order and speed of startup and appears to have some sort of CPU wait feature.  Source code is provided so the more astute among you can see how it's designed.

Jeff

309

Mouser's Zone / Re: launcher tool

« Last post by JeffK on April 22, 2005, 07:49 AM »

FWIW for years I have been using Quickrun. 

www.partridgesoft.com

Jeff

310

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by JeffK on April 18, 2005, 03:53 AM »

Aargh!  Poor Scott.  He will feel set upon.  No offence or malice intended, Scott.  A legitimate question you asked indeed.

BTW Startup Delay does not appear to work properly on my Win XP SP2

Jeff

311

Backup Guide / Re: Image for Windows

« Last post by JeffK on April 17, 2005, 08:57 PM »

I find fun (and sometimes frustration) when the obvious software doesn't quite fit and one then can go scouting around the net for those hidden gems which can be relatively early in development but do what you want.  There is some good stuff coming out of Asia but I find  alot of the stuff I actually purchase is from Germany and Eastern Europe.

Jeff

312

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / Re: Reviews content suggestion

« Last post by JeffK on April 17, 2005, 08:33 PM »

I would like to see such a review also.

Jeff

313

Backup Guide / Re: Image for Windows

« Last post by JeffK on April 17, 2005, 08:30 PM »

I think your first impressions on the software you test are very important, mouser.  It's the same with me.  One has an idea in one's head about what a particular package should do and if it doesn't do it in a friendly and intuitive way then the demerit points start counting straightaway.  Better for us to have a "I didn't like it because..." then reconsider on more thorough testing then never publish our impressions because we haven't tested every detail.

To give a recent example, I received a promotion for a newly updated mind mapping program and downloaded the trial.  I liked the interface and began using it very quickly.  Nice look, very simple to add new topics and to format them.  Then I made a mistake and accidentally deleted something.  No problem I said to myself just do an "undo".  There was no undo functionalty.  No need for further testing ... Program closed and deleted off my computer.  It could be the best mindmapping program on the net, but it has no undo, to my mind a basic essential for such a program.

Jeff

314

Backup Guide / Re: Image for Windows

« Last post by JeffK on April 17, 2005, 05:31 PM »

Thanks for that commentary, Scott.  I will check out Image for Windows again.

Jeff

315

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by JeffK on April 17, 2005, 12:11 PM »

Do you really need an application that let startup applications load depending on CPU load? 

-Scott (April 17, 2005, 08:24 AM)

About the same as I need a program that does random searches on Google 

Jeff

316

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by JeffK on April 17, 2005, 12:03 PM »

Tried that one, JeffK
Difficult to set up for newbies.
And do you know how long program X needs before the next one starts? I sure didn't. 

It doesnt really do what I would like such a program to do. The key word here is AUTOMATIC.
I shouldnt need to set a spesial time setting everytime something worked its way to my startup...

This program is more a sceduler, not a tool to make your startup easier IMHO...

-Ozzy1 (April 17, 2005, 08:17 AM)

Yes, for your needs, something that works on CPU use would be better.  I think this is good for programs that you can afford to start later.  An example would be mst Defrag discussed elsewhere on the forum.

Jeff

317

Backup Guide / Other commentary on incremental backup options

« Last post by JeffK on April 17, 2005, 06:44 AM »

I found the commentary of Mark Taw on some file copy type programs useful.

http://www.marktaw.c...nds-FreeBackups.html

Jeff

318

Backup Guide / Information about Paragon Drive Backup

« Last post by JeffK on April 17, 2005, 06:16 AM »

Just to fill in on the functionality of Paragon's Drive Backup as mentioned in the review.

To make a backup of a complete disk one chooses the menu item "Hard Disk"  One then has the option to make a copy of the hard disk to another hard disk, make a image of the hard disk to the same or another partion or disk (this image may be split into files of equal size for subsequent saving to CD or DVD media), or make an image of the hard disk directly to CD's or DVD's.

To browse a backup volume one right clicks on the archive in the lower panel and choose "Browse Archive".  One can review or restore a partition or files by doing this.

I agree with the reviewer that this latter function is certainly not as user friendly as it could be.  Also while I have not viewed Acronis Trueimage for a while I can imagine it is more user friendly than the Paragon product, especially for more inexperienced computer users.  The ability to view backups just like you can view original files and folders is a very good idea.

Jeff

319

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by JeffK on April 17, 2005, 04:27 AM »

I found one of the startup delay programs I was thinking of...

http://r2.com.au/sof...02f8068a527510467edf

Jeff

320

Mouser's Zone / Re: Any new ideas for small utilities?

« Last post by JeffK on April 16, 2005, 07:11 PM »

I really like Ozzy1's idea.  I have been trialling software lately (eg firewalls) that requires multiple reboots.  It would be nice to control the speed/order of startups.  I think the previous programs may have had names like "start delay".

Jeff

321

General Software Discussion / Re: DirMS and Buzzsaw

« Last post by JeffK on April 16, 2005, 07:07 PM »

mst Defrag has a more friendly interface/operation than Buzzsaw.  However it is not easy to customise and I'm not sure about their relative performance.

Jeff

322

Living Room / Re: Should I increase avatar size? Poll.

« Last post by JeffK on April 16, 2005, 07:03 PM »

I like smaller avatars/graphics on a forum were words are the main communication.

Jeff

323

Living Room / Re: Who are you & what do you do?

« Last post by JeffK on April 16, 2005, 07:00 PM »

I am a 52 yo guy who lives with his wife and 16 yo daughter in a provincial town in Australia called Kingaroy.  Kingaroy is approx. 220km north west of Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland.  We have about 12,000 people.

I work as a mechanical engineer in a power station, looking after monitoring the non financial parts of the business eg plant reliability, energy efficiiency and greenhouse gas issues.

I am a Christian and like to read, watch sport, computing especially mucking around with software as a user (I can't/don't program).

I moderate on a forum at www.emailaddresses.com which is about email and is a good place to visit if you are looking for a provider or have email problems.  I have mentioned donationcoder.com over there but no advertising is allowed so I have to be careful not to breach the forum's guidelines, especially since I am a moderator.

Ozzy1's home, Norway, is also the home of an excellent email privider at www.runbox.com which has a forum over at emailaddresses.

Regards,

Jeff

324

General Software Discussion / Re: DirMS and Buzzsaw

« Last post by JeffK on April 16, 2005, 02:14 AM »

I use mst Defrag Home Edition, and it works quite well.  I absolutely love having a defragger that I can literally install and then forget about.  The only (very highly questionable) benefit that something like PerfectDisk offers, to me, is the ability to defrag a few bits of NTFS metadata in offline mode.  But no one is going to convince me that those metadata files are causing a performance hit.

-Scott (April 16, 2005, 01:04 AM)

Yes mst Defrag seems quite good doesn't it.  No doubt it will also get better as time goes on.  Documentation/help leaves a bit to be desired though.

Jeff

325

Living Room / Re: Everyone happy with PayPal?

« Last post by JeffK on April 14, 2005, 02:45 PM »

I think Paypal is fine and I like vendors who give a PayPal option.

Jeff