Author Topic: Filenotes for Downloading Amnesiacs (Read 21636 times)

patteo · « **on:** March 09, 2006, 08:54 AM »

Do you have this problem with download amnesia ?

You are busily surfing download sites, you see an interesting download at www.lifehacker.com or wherever, and you download them over a period of weeks/months.

And you told yourself that one of these days you are going to install and try them.

But

now the "That" day of reckoning has arrived. You see all the .exe and zip files with cryptic names, you cannot for the life of you remember why you downloaded them in the first place or even where you got them from.

There's a solution www.filenotes.com

But it does have some problems with a 3rd party file detection service it uses that conflicts with some software I use.

But it can still be used effectively without this file detection service although with some incovenience.

Some have claimed that the 3rd party file detection service multiappnt.exe contributes to system instability leading to BSOD Bad_Pool_Header. You can read about this in their forum. I have experiend the BSOD problems although I cannot say for certain it's due to this.

As a result, I now use the program without the file detection service.

I'm also wondering if anyone knows of another way to annotate files with filenotes easliy besides those below:

Xplorer2 Professional www.zabkat.com

xplorer2 allows you to annotate files although the annotation:
"add comments to any file, providing it's on an NTFS partition. These comments are different from file-internal comment/preview features of some files like Word or Excel. They are strored in an alternate data stream (ADS), and can be added/edited from x2 with Alt+Z.
Yes they are limited; but 257 characters seems like a lot to me. "

Filenotes Professional Edition (I have not tried this)
http://home.flash.ne.../FileNotes/index.htm

Darwin · « **Reply #1 on:** March 09, 2006, 09:51 AM »

Hi Patteo,

There's a PCMag app that lets you annotate files (ExplorerNotes: http://www.pcmag.com...0,1895,116403,00.asp). I don't know if this app runs under WinXP or not...

DOpus *might* let you do this but I don't know for sure. It's a *killer* file management app and is available with a donationcoder discount of 50%, so worth a closer look.

Hope this helps,

Mike

rjbull · « **Reply #2 on:** March 09, 2006, 10:55 AM »

I'm also wondering if anyone knows of another way to annotate files with filenotes easliy
-patteo (March 09, 2006, 08:54 AM)

Total Commander. Ctrl-Z gives you a box to type in that's compatible with 4DOS-style DESCRIPT.ION files ( I suspect that's where your 257 character limit comes from, but could be wrong). I try to remember to capture a short-form description from the file's Web site to use. If you enable it in Options, TC will copy the description when it copies the file to anothr location. Pressing Shift-Control-F2 on a directory listing shows you file name and comment.

An old DOS program, DEDIT, part of the INKUTILS, INK153.EXE available from the Free Software for DOS Web site is another non-4DOS way of maintaining DESCRIPT.IONs.

brotherS · « **Reply #3 on:** March 09, 2006, 11:09 AM »

You are busily surfing download sites, you see an interesting download at www.lifehacker.com or wherever, and you download them over a period of weeks/months.

[...]

But now the "That" day of reckoning has arrived. You see all the .exe and zip files with cryptic names, you cannot for the life of you remember why you downloaded them in the first place or even where you got them from.
-patteo (March 09, 2006, 08:54 AM)

That's why I'm always renaming downloads to have the file name display exactly what's in it!

Makes keeping track of versions far more easy too, my installer files are named like this:

FastStone Image Viewer 2.4 Beta 3
MediaMonkey 2.5.2.948 RC2
AutoHotkey 1.0.42.03
CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) 1.27.260

etc.

patteo · « **Reply #4 on:** March 09, 2006, 12:07 PM »

That's why I'm always renaming downloads to have the file name display exactly what's in it!

Makes keeping track of versions far more easy too, my installer files are named like this:

FastStone Image Viewer 2.4 Beta 3
MediaMonkey 2.5.2.948 RC2
AutoHotkey 1.0.42.03
CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) 1.27.260

-brotherS (March 09, 2006, 11:09 AM)

The only problem is you cannot associate one or more urls with a file and you will have to Google for it. Over time, you may not be able to find the exact site you downloaded it from together with the associated description or review etc or put in information about a site that referred you to this file.

These are all useful information I would like to retain that renaming cannot achieve.

nudone · « **Reply #5 on:** March 09, 2006, 12:56 PM »

if you allow acdsee to show 'all' files (turn off the filter) you can use it to add notes to any file you like (i don't think there is a limit character either???) - then use acdsee like a 'file manager/explorer', with 'thumbs + details' mode turned on. it has all the virtual folder type things and there's no reason why you have to stick to just 'rating' and adding 'keynotes' to image files. now that i think about it, these features could be quite useful though it would have to be well maintained.

some of the other features of 'file notes organizer' do look nice.

nevf · « **Reply #6 on:** March 09, 2006, 01:58 PM »

Hi Patteo,
Here's a suggestion - use Surfulater. Grab whatever content from the page into a new Surfulater article, add some notes then download the file and use Article | Attach File... This stores the file in the Surfulater database so you can even delete it from your PC if you want.

What you finish up with is a link to the original site, detailed information on the product including the complete web page if you want and the download file, all neatly put together in one convenient place. Then just click on the file to open it.

Down the track we'll be adding Reminders which will enable Surfulater to prompt you in a week, a month on June 6th etc. to go and install that download you've been meaning to try.

As an aside I'd strongly encourage everyone to use a product such as VMWare or MS Virtual PC when trying out all these endlessly interesting applications, as you never know what sort of mess the leave behind on your PC when (if) you uninstall them or what problems they may create in the first place. If your PC is at all important to you please seriously consider this.

Darwin · « **Reply #7 on:** March 09, 2006, 02:47 PM »

Another step you can take to keep your PC clean when testing out downloaded software is to install it in a sandbox. You can do this for free with sandboxie and it works, most of the time...

http://www.sandboxie.com/

It's freeware, though the author does accept donations. Good user forum that is frequented by the author (tzuk) as well.

ADDED IN EDIT: note that the apps original purpose was to sandbox IE, hence sandboxie. It also works with Maxthon and has the added benefit of being able to sandbox ANY application and can be used to install apps into a sandbox.

nudone · « **Reply #8 on:** March 09, 2006, 02:56 PM »

what a brillaint idea for a program. going to give 'sandboxie' a try - the potential could be quite amazing. thanks darwin for mentioning it.

patteo · « **Reply #9 on:** March 10, 2006, 04:02 AM »

Hi Patteo,
Here's a suggestion - use Surfulater. Grab whatever content from the page into a new Surfulater article, add some notes then download the file and use Article | Attach File... This stores the file in the Surfulater database so you can even delete it from your PC if you want.

What you finish up with is a link to the original site, detailed information on the product including the complete web page if you want and the download file, all neatly put together in one convenient place. Then just click on the file to open it.

Down the track we'll be adding Reminders which will enable Surfulater to prompt you in a week, a month on June 6th etc. to go and install that download you've been meaning to try.

-nevf (March 09, 2006, 01:58 PM)

This is certainly an idea worth considering.

I do wonder if it will make the database a bit too big since a download can sometimes be quite large.

Right now I have a download directory which is why I need to annotate the downloaded files.

After a while I tend to move the files into another directory & categorise them at the same time. When I move the files, the filenotes automatically move if I have the file detection service installed.

I will certainly give a bit more thought to using Surfulater for this purpose. Only thing is whether there is a way to associate a file without actually saving the file into Surfulater database and whether there
is a way to move a file (if not in Surfulater database) and still maintain the link with the details saved in Surfulater. (That may be a tall order)

In any case, I would say that Surfulater is a great application for those of you who have yet to try it. Certainly for those who surf the web regularly, this is one really useful application you should not be without. And I have only scratched the surface and not really taken enough trouble to explore it yet. But even then, it can be really useful "right out of the box" without you having to delve deeper into it.

I find it to be very stable and useful. And Neville has been very responsive in responding to posts in the forums.

Take note though that unless you are a registered user of Surfulater, you cannot access all sections of the forum.

patteo · « **Reply #10 on:** March 11, 2006, 07:03 AM »

Hi Patteo,
Here's a suggestion - use Surfulater. Grab whatever content from the page into a new Surfulater article, add some notes then download the file and use Article | Attach File... This stores the file in the Surfulater database so you can even delete it from your PC if you want.

What you finish up with is a link to the original site, detailed information on the product including the complete web page if you want and the download file, all neatly put together in one convenient place. Then just click on the file to open it.

-nevf (March 09, 2006, 01:58 PM)

An initial concern of mine was the Surfulator data file getting too big as some downloads can be massive.

However, most downloads are just a couple of megabytes and I think that should not pose a problem for most people.

In addition, Surfulater allows you to create multiple databases. So what I have done is just create another one called downloads.

Perhaps Neville could consider adding another command and an Toolbar Icon called Insert Link to File so that we have the option to not place the actual file within the Surfulater database itself.

I thought another neat way would have been to allow me to drag a file into Surfulater and it would then become part of the Surfulater data file or at least create a link to where the file was dragged from. But that did not work. It launch the file instead.

patteo · « **Reply #11 on:** March 13, 2006, 04:46 AM »

There's a solution www.filenotes.com

But it does have some problems with a 3rd party file detection service it uses that conflicts with some software I use.

But it can still be used effectively without this file detection service although with some incovenience.

.....
As a result, I now use the program without the file detection service.

-patteo (March 09, 2006, 08:54 AM)

Just an update:

I have had some wonderful help from www.filenotes.com forum which provided me with a work around to the file detection service that I had to disable. TW (I think he must be the administrator) provided me with another working file detection system that did not conflict with my other programs.

Basically the file detection service prompts me to enter details into a dialog box when it detects that I have download or saved a file into a monitored directory. Works like a dream.

I must say their file annotation methodology with automatic prompting allows a lot more details (including hotlinks if a url is also included) to be captured and associated with any files, more so than the descript.ion method used by DOPUS or the ADS method used by xplorer2 which is quite restrictive (I think only 255 characters in the case of ADS)

For those who like to capture a url (I use Copy URL + firefox extension https://addons.mozil...;application=firefox) which makes the process very easy to capture web details plus the url.

By the way - there is another associated thread on file labelling in this forum at
https://www.donation...56.msg18616#msg18616

longrun · « **Reply #12 on:** March 17, 2006, 01:54 PM »

I, too, use Explorer Notes from PC Mag. Unfortunately it's no longer free and has a ~255 character limit, but if you use Explorer to drag a file or files to a new location the descriptions will move, too (if you want). I also use PowerDesk, which allows you to enter descriptions for files (supposedly for folder, too, but I can't get that to work. This holds longer descriptions than Explorer Notes but I believe the notes don't transfer if you move a file. There's a free version of PowerDesk; not sure if this supports notes (but the paid version is well worth the price).

wanderer · « **Reply #13 on:** March 20, 2006, 01:29 PM »

I admit to being a download junkie. I save the webpage for the program as an MHT file and zip it with the program in my spare drive. With the right name I can find programs and the authors details from years ago.

yan4.2.exe becomes a zip file containing;

yankeeclipper.exe,yankeeclipper.mht and sometimes yankeeclipper.txt containing passwords and sometimes my own review.

Works for me.

----

Additional note from brotherS: What MHT is: http://www.sycory.co.../mht_quick_saver.htm

skywalka · « **Reply #14 on:** April 24, 2006, 01:27 AM »

Another step you can take to keep your PC clean when testing out downloaded software is to install it in a sandbox. You can do this for free with sandboxie and it works, most of the time...

http://www.sandboxie.com/

It's freeware, though the author does accept donations. Good user forum that is frequented by the author (tzuk) as well.

ADDED IN EDIT: note that the apps original purpose was to sandbox IE, hence sandboxie. It also works with Maxthon and has the added benefit of being able to sandbox ANY application and can be used to install apps into a sandbox.
-Darwin (March 09, 2006, 02:47 PM)

I thought SandBoxIE was a dream come true. I just tried my first install with a simple application http://reg.imageshac...t.php?page=quickload & it didn't work. How much success do you get when installing programs into the sandbox?

Darwin · « **Reply #15 on:** April 24, 2006, 09:16 AM »

Hi Skywalka,

I downloaded and installed ImageShack into a sandbox with no problems. There are two issues (I think). First, in order to install apps that use msi, you must first open up the sandboxie control panel and go to file->Run windows installer service. Second, in order to try out the installation of ImageShack, I had to open up my file manager (in my case DOpus but usually it would be Windows Explorer) sandboxed as well - I just right clicked on the icon for it and selected "run sandboxed". Running my file manager sandboxed, the context menu option to 'upload to ImageShack' is there, running the file manager "regularly", it is not. I have a sandboxed instance and a "regular" instance running in my taskbar right now and I can confirm this by switching between the two of them.

I don't actually use this feature that much, but whenever I do, all is well. The only time I ever had a problem with it was the very first time I used it. This was when I was still using Ashampoo's Uninstaller and I foolishly let the uninstaller service take snapshots both before and after the installation. That was a bit ugly...

skywalka · « **Reply #16 on:** April 26, 2006, 03:40 AM »

Thanx Darwin.

Those tips are very helpful. I often install software & don't like it straight away. SandBoxIE will be very reassuring if I know that nothing has been altered or left behind.

skywalka · « **Reply #17 on:** May 06, 2006, 09:44 AM »

Well, I thought I'd try using SandBoxIE for my next experimental installation. I had no luck this time either.
---------------------------
OpenServiceA Error
---------------------------
Failed to open service [FLSPAR]
GetLastError() returned 1060.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Darwin · « **Reply #18 on:** May 06, 2006, 05:33 PM »

I've been trying out this feature (installing software sandboxed) and haven't had any trouble with it. I don't know what to suggest - if you're still interested in sandboxie, perhaps the user forum will be helpful? The author is pretty active there, though you may find that you wait for a week or so before he answers a post...

urlwolf · « **Reply #19 on:** May 06, 2006, 08:38 PM »

@skywalka: or try altiris software virtualization. Same idea, maybe it works better for you.

skywalka · « **Reply #20 on:** May 06, 2006, 11:10 PM »

Yes, Darwin, I should post on the official forum for optimum assistance. I just thought I'd give a bit of feedback to this forum's topic.

urlwolf, I tried Altiris SVS & I was able to get the installation working that SandboxIE couldn't. However I encountered a major system drama. I'll post about that here:https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=3176.0

kartal · « **Reply #21 on:** March 15, 2008, 12:19 PM »

I use Filehamster for my project asset management needs, but you can definetely use it for your downloads. It brings a pop up for entering text. It has a report plugin as well.

Cuffy · « **Reply #22 on:** March 16, 2008, 12:14 AM »

Guys,
File notes is old hat. I posted this Dec 7 and a long thread follows. Nod5 wrote File Noter to work with a 64 bit system, which works great and several more got into the act with File Notes, and modifications thereof.
I don't know how to get back to that thread from here but I suspect a search on Idea: File note 7 Dec would work.
You'll find a couple of kewl little utilities penned by a couple of resident coders. (Nod5 and Grorgy)
Big Jim also built a fire under Moonsoftware and they promised an update to FileNote.
---------------------------------------

Idea: File note
« on: December 07, 2007, 01:37:14 PM » Quote Modify

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back in 1999, Moonsoftware released a little app called FileNote. I used it so much it became second nature but when I moved up to a 64 bit OS it no longer worked. I emailed Moonsoftware about when it might be upgraded to 64 bit but received no response. It really is a neat little utility and when I ran across your site I thought it might be well to check since you guys seem to have talent bubbling out of your ears!
From the Moonsoftware page:

tomos · « **Reply #23 on:** March 16, 2008, 04:08 AM »

I use Filehamster for my project asset management needs, but you can definetely use it for your downloads. It brings a pop up for entering text. It has a report plugin as well.
-kartal (March 15, 2008, 12:19 PM)

presumably that means you make a backup of the downloads as well ?

kartal · « **Reply #24 on:** March 16, 2008, 11:47 AM »

Yes FH will make backups, that is the idea. But you can limit number of backups.Since you will only download the file one time, it will only add to library, it wont make anybackup first time the file is added to library.