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676

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Armando on November 30, 2009, 11:16 PM »

Thanks Darwin.

Hmm.... I haven't had Archivarius installed in about 8 months, so maybe things have changed (or you've got a much bigger OST than I do), but using Direct Access it used to "rip"  through updating my 400MB OST index in about a minute and a half.

-Darwin (November 30, 2009, 02:13 PM)

My PST file is 1.5 GB. So yes, it's a bit bigger, I guess.

Armando - what OS are you currently running? As noted above, when I switched to Vista, I finally moved to WDS and haven't looked back.

-Darwin (November 30, 2009, 02:13 PM)

I'm still using XP... I'm not sure if it's worth it to change OS at this point -- my laptop is about 3.5 years old, core duo 1.8ghz.

XP is pretty fast and it'd very time consuming to switch to Windows 7. Annoying stuff *will* happen. Plus, I know that a big chunk of RAM will be gone and -- to a smaller extent -- speed will be a tad slower. Still, I'm tempted... Maybe in January.

As for indexing Outlook stuff, I'm currently trying Google Desktop Search, but only to index Outlook. I might try other engines if they are as light, simple and non obtrusive...

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General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Armando on November 30, 2009, 12:02 PM »

Thanks Darwin for taking the time to answer.
Direct Access takes between 9-10 full minutes, even when the DB has already been indexed. Quicker, yes, but still very slow considering that Outlook needs to be closed etc. I usually leave Outlook open, and if I unadvisedly start the indexing and Outlook is open, it'll just plainly and simply render the last index unusable which is a pain. I don't why it does it but... it does and that's why I had to revert to OLE a while ago.
Mailstore seems to be an interesting option. I'll check this out -- it may mean that I'll have to rethink a bit the way I organize my emails.

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General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by Armando on November 28, 2009, 09:02 PM »

[...]

Is there anything out there that fits the bill? I can't get Copernic, Google and other free try-outs to work properly.

Can X1 be made to work like this? How about the others. Many almost get there, but the DJVU content support seems to be a a miss for many.

If you've tried out and solved this issue yourself, I'd really like to hear what your solution was.

-halcyon (November 23, 2009, 10:54 AM)

I used to use Archivarius quite a lot.

PROS :
1- It's good at indexing (won't miss a thing -- really... I made exhaustive testing a while ago...),
2- pretty fast at searching.
3- Low resources consumption (low ram, low cpu...)

CONS:

1- it's VERY slow at indexing Outlook content and maybe some other DB. This is my biggest gripe. X1 does outlook indexing 100x better.
2- It doesn't do any real time indexing. (this won't be a problem, most of the time... until you need some info fast... and you'll need to update your index)
3- Indexing is suppose to be automated (user defined schedule)... but will sometimes fail to start ! This is one of the big annoyances.
4- Interface is clunky (it's subjective but I find it harder to get things done as fast as with X1)
5- can't save past searches, etc. (as X1 does)
6- viewing the file content doesn't keep the formatting (I don't have any problems with this, usually).


However, if the cons are not a problem for you, I suggest you try Archivarius. Its indexing is really exhaustive and for research that's what matters most.


As for myself, I am looking of an replacement for Archivarius ... some of the cons really irritate me.

Was thinking of trying WDS, but...
Maybe I'll keep archivarius for files, and use something else for outlook.
I really wonder why it's so hard to have a Desktop search software that just works properly.  

679

General Software Discussion / Re: Graphics corruption -- Why?

« Last post by Armando on November 08, 2009, 02:43 PM »

Just slightly more expensive... usually.


[rant]

Must say that I won't buy a Dell next time. Absolutely not Mr Dell. And hopefully all of you who had unresolved problems with your Dell laptops won't either.

Here are some of the problems I had with my inspirons 6400/1505 :

1- DVD writer didn't write properly after 1 month. Had to contact support and wait to install a new one

2- tons of blue screens in the first few months and this was with the supplied drivers + original XP installation. Don't remember how but I finally fixed the problem. Spent many hours with tech guys who could barely speak english.

3- battery completely stopped working after 5 months. Got a second one that stopped working after 6 months -- warranty was over so couldn't get another one. Had to rely on ebay scams (got 3 other batteries from Hong Kong and other China provinces... that lasted not even 3 months each. The third one lasted 2 weeks only -- will never buy from Hong Kong again. Never, ever. It's too far and there doesn't seem to be any ethics... + ebay doesn't care once the few weeks period is over and you've been stolen. Bay protects the sellers, not the consumers. But that's another story)

4- A few dead pixels appeared after only a few months + white spots.

5- paint on the "palm resting" started to fade after one year.

6- Hinges broke after 2 years and cracked the LCD display. Had to to a repair myself with epoxy a few weeks ago. Took me a full day.

7 - power supply sopped working after 1.5 - 2 years. Had to get another one which also stopped working after 1 year !! Now relying on another one I bought second hand from someone who had a Vostro. Hoping that it'll work until I save enough money to buy my next laptop.

8- after 3 years I now have a vertical superb green stripe on the left my screen/display. Beautiful. Now if I could get to chose the color, at least...


Honestly, I wonder why people still buy from Dell. It's impossible this was an isolated incident. To many things went wrong. How can I trust them again ? And I take really good care of everything I own. Heck I still have my Linn Sara speakers from the early 80s, in perfect condition ! And my girlfriend is using one of my older laptops I bought in... 2002 ! My scanner, printer, ... everything else works perfectly. Just this !!/?#$ laptop...


What will be my next laptop ? Don,t know. I'd like to rely on reviews of older laptops, to see how they went through real life. Not just these stupid tests like pushing at the back of the screen to see if it flexes, etc. etc. Really, those don't tell a thing about the cheapness of the components used to build the laptop... (the plastic, the battery, the hinges...)

[/rant]

680

General Software Discussion / Re: Graphics corruption -- Why?

« Last post by Armando on November 08, 2009, 11:40 AM »

Thanks for the help guys... Haven't got any corruption in the last few days, but will try looking at the Events in the event viewer (already looked and didn't see anything unusual apart from the usual unusualness... But will see...).

That's the one bad thing about laptops...with a desktop if a video card ticks you off you can launch it off the roof of your house & buy a new one.

-Innuendo (November 06, 2009, 05:39 PM)

yes, that's it... 

681

General Software Discussion / Re: Graphics corruption -- Why?

« Last post by Armando on November 06, 2009, 12:14 PM »

Thanks Lanux.

Unfortunately I didn't find anything there either...

Laptop : Dell 6400
Mainboard : Dell OXD720
RAM : 667 MHz, 3 GB (Kingston)
DualCore (CoreDuo) : Intel T2400, 1.8 GHz
HD : Scorpio blue 500 GB (WD)
Video Card : ATI x1400 (Discrete)

682

Find And Run Robot / Re: Reason for the "history list" upper limit ?

« Last post by Armando on November 06, 2009, 08:48 AM »

I also notice that the history list upper limit is still set at 990...

683

General Software Discussion / Re: Graphics corruption -- Why?

« Last post by Armando on October 26, 2009, 11:10 AM »

Thanks Innuendo.
I don't know if I'll have the patience to do the kind of inquiry this sort of problem require...
 
I believe it's probably a driver anyway.
The reason why I think it's a driver is that for a couple months, about a year ago, I tried using an older laptop on  which I just cloned my windows partition. I then had various problems, but not the graphic corruption problem -- so : same software, different drivers.
All my drivers are up to date... According to Dell.
Will see if I can find some more spare time this week to try a few alternatives (maybe even older drivers). It's going to be a looonnng process...

684

General Software Discussion / Re: Graphics corruption -- Why?

« Last post by Armando on October 26, 2009, 12:26 AM »

So... Report : Still experiencing graphics corruption + seemingly related VSS malfunctioning.
Will I have to change laptop or reinstall everything from scratch to finally be relieved ?!?
 

685

General Software Discussion / Re: Best free firewall for Windows?

« Last post by Armando on October 24, 2009, 11:18 AM »

The free version of Online Armor Personal Firewall suits my limited budget very well. OA offers excellent protection and solid customer support.

Hurry to their site before Oct. 31st for a 40% discount on their paid versions.

-sajman99 (October 24, 2009, 12:16 AM)

Online Armor works very well for me too. (I posted about it a few times.)

686

General Software Discussion / Re: Graphics corruption -- Why?

« Last post by Armando on October 21, 2009, 06:23 PM »

Thanks innuendo -- and yes... I forgot to mention it was a laptop before in this thread so there was no way you'd know.

So far so good. Still crossing my fingers... The Omega drivers seem to do a good job.

687

General Software Discussion / Re: Graphics corruption -- Why?

« Last post by Armando on October 21, 2009, 12:30 PM »

eheh... Thanks Curt. I thought about it as I receive Bits du jour updates by e-mail. but I change drivers so rarely that... Not sure if I really need that extra tool.

It would be interesting to see if it would've advice me to install the tweaked drivers (omega, for ATI) I downloaded.

Armando, I love Dell computers, but never run the drivers from their web site. They only post the drivers from the manufacturer's web site & more often than not they are woefully out of date. You don't gain any advantages from running the drivers on the Dell site because if you ever have to call Dell for technical support they'll just have you go to the manufacturer's web site and get the latest drivers anyway.

Glad you got your problem solved, though. :: knock wood ::

-Innuendo (October 21, 2009, 11:28 AM)

Well like I said : will only be sure the problem is solved in a week or so.

I've read that the problem with graphics drivers for laptops is that they're often adapted to a specific models from the generic ones... So one wouldn't really be able to successfully install the latest greatest generic ones. I actually think I tried it in the past and it didn't work. But maybe is my memory failing...

688

General Software Discussion / Re: Graphics corruption -- Why?

« Last post by Armando on October 21, 2009, 10:28 AM »

Hi Curt, Thanks.

I'm using Windows Classic theme... More default than that isn't possible. The extra buttons you see in my first post are from the FileBox extender and not from a custom theme.

However, yesterday, I tried display drivers I never tried before (I tended to stick to the Dell drivers to make sure I don't run into any instability issues) -- they're more or less meant for gamers and I don't play games -- and I went into standby several times without seeing any button issue. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Of course, it's still too early to tell.

689

General Software Discussion / Re: Graphics corruption -- Why?

« Last post by Armando on October 20, 2009, 06:55 PM »

Sorry to revive this old old old thread.

The driver thing never solved the windows button graphic corruption mentioned above.

I eventually got around it by skipping Standby mode altogether and just use hibernation. This worked for a long while, and now... the problem also happens when using (coming back from) hibernation!! 


One clue that could help me to solve the problem -- maybe --  is that when Windows buttons are corrupted, it's impossible for different backup apps to rely on the Volume Shadow (Copy) Service . Basically, when buttons are distorted, I know for sure that VSS won't work.


Maybe some window expert here would know how these 2 problems could be linked ? That might help me solve the problem (instead of rebooting each time I need to do a full backup or bring back my buttons...).

Thanks


PS : I did many searches with different terms and never found anything interesting in relation to the problem. Terms I tried were: Window(s) button(s) corruption garbled
in different combination, of course. If you guys have any suggestion for a web search, I'm all ear as English is not my main language.

690

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I force a process to never start more than once (only one instance) ?

« Last post by Armando on September 29, 2009, 01:38 PM »

Yes... I might do some further testing with SingleInstance, but activate seems to work... until then.

691

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I force a process to never start more than once (only one instance) ?

« Last post by Armando on September 28, 2009, 10:21 AM »

Hmmmm... It works well, but uses a certain amount of CPU power which I'm not sure I'm willing to let go for such a small app.

-Armando (September 28, 2009, 01:37 AM)

how much CPU usage? if possible, get the non-compiled ahk as well and compare the cpu usage.

-lanux128 (September 28, 2009, 03:01 AM)

Thanks Lanux.
Not much, hovering between 2 and 4%, but still... My computer isn't that powerful, so any app that continuously take CPU resources is considered unfavourably... Unless it's a absolutely essential.
I'll try your suggestion. Thanks !

692

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I force a process to never start more than once (only one instance) ?

« Last post by Armando on September 28, 2009, 01:37 AM »

Havent tried this Armando but it also sounds like what you looking for
Skrommel's SingleInstance

Allow only one instance of a program to run.

Features:
- User defined programs.
- Option to detect hidden programs.
- Won't close instances started before SingleInstance.

-tomos (September 27, 2009, 10:44 AM)

AH! this is exactly what I wanted. Thanks a lot Tomos ! 

-Armando (September 27, 2009, 08:36 PM)

Hmmmm... It works well, but uses a certain amount of CPU power which I'm not sure I'm willing to let go for such a small app.

693

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I force a process to never start more than once (only one instance) ?

« Last post by Armando on September 27, 2009, 08:50 PM »

  yup.

694

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I force a process to never start more than once (only one instance) ?

« Last post by Armando on September 27, 2009, 08:36 PM »

Havent tried this Armando but it also sounds like what you looking for
Skrommel's SingleInstance

Allow only one instance of a program to run.

Features:
- User defined programs.
- Option to detect hidden programs.
- Won't close instances started before SingleInstance.

-tomos (September 27, 2009, 10:44 AM)

AH! this is exactly what I wanted. Thanks a lot Tomos ! 

695

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I force a process to never start more than once (only one instance) ?

« Last post by Armando on September 26, 2009, 11:52 PM »

Hey ! That was quick. It seems to work. Thanks  a lot. 

696

General Software Discussion / Re: News: Could open source Blaze be the best Windows application launcher ever?

« Last post by Armando on September 26, 2009, 08:45 PM »

well you could imagine wanting to update the index that rapidly for some period of time while you were installing stuff, etc.

-mouser (September 26, 2009, 01:13 PM)

That's why Farr should meet Everything ... in a more integrated way.

697

General Software Discussion / How can I force a process to never start more than once (only one instance) ?

« Last post by Armando on September 26, 2009, 07:20 PM »

Hi everybody,
I have a few programs (like Outlook) which sometimes have multiple instances showing up in the task manager... against my will.
Are there any utility which could prevent that from happening ?
Thanks.

698

Find And Run Robot / Re: Feature Request: multilanguage keystroke reinterpretation

« Last post by Armando on September 24, 2009, 03:56 PM »

Here, have a look at this thread. Maybe will it solve your problem as it solved mine... in the mean time...

https://www.donation...index.php?topic=9805

699

Find And Run Robot / Re: Fast Keystroke Freezes Up FARR

« Last post by Armando on September 23, 2009, 10:42 PM »

(I've had a similar problem when loading conflicting plugins. The worst was loading the 2 different plugins for Everything at the same time -- Tiny Everything and the other one which name I forget. Apart from that, no problems.)

700

Find And Run Robot / Re: Fast Keystroke Freezes Up FARR

« Last post by Armando on September 22, 2009, 10:32 PM »

This never happened to me. Not saying that it can't happen, but I've tried to start typing as fast as I cam after hitting break... to no avail... Farr remains responsive.