Nightly Lab

Swedish ViStart

2011-08-11T21:56:00.000+01:00

Åke has finished his Settings.xml Swedish translation. Thanks Ake!

settings swedish.xml

ViStart Dwwin Fix

2011-08-11T21:52:00.003+01:00

Well it's summer time again. The UK is a disaster right now with the riots and all, too. Though I have no intention of staying in the UK for much longer.

Well for all you XP and Vista users, I thought I'd pump out another build of ViStart. I am aware of the winkey combo hook issue which plagues all ViStart users. Also Windows X has found a few minor bugs with DPI and ViStart's Orb. I will be looking to fix this soon too.

Changelog::

* Dwwin shutdown error possibly fixed
* Random parts of vistart showing at vistart launch
* Force menu close on each function/command

(Stable version updated on official site - http://lee-soft.com/vistart)

Obtaining a handle to a 48 Icon is no longer a dream...

2011-03-14T09:42:00.003Z

** Updated to include demonstration build at end of post

Obtaining a handle to a 48 Icon is no longer my dream... but I might as well take a trip around the world, its quicker and easier. It's been a while since I updated my dev blog, I will admit. We know ExtractIcon and any API that does the same function for all intensive purposes does not load "Very Large Icons / 48x48 Icons". I said I wouldn't give in and resort to bit block transferring of the icons, and I didn't. It's quite a long winded process.. not for the faint hearted.

Load desired file into memory
Pull out resource binary data for the icon
Create an icon from such data, to give us a handle.

The way to get a handle to the 48 icon of your choice is to use LoadLibraryEx passing it the file you want to get the 48x48 icon from as a data file (LOAD_LIBRARY_AS_DATAFILE) because we don't need to execute the code in there, we just want read access to the data. Remember icons come as groups in Win binaries, you want to isolate all the RT_GROUP_ICON resource types with their ID's. Assuming you don't know the resource ID for that group icon, you will probably know the group icon index though. In that case simply select the Nth group icon from the icon groups that you isolated. Where N is the desired group icon index. Then you have the resource ID for that group icon. I know.. by now you are thinking "Is it really worth this much effort" Well it would have been nice if Microsoft made an API that loaded 48x48 icons, I will go off on rant if I continue that train of thought so I will abort it. Hang in there mate!

So now we have the group icon resource ID, we have to find the specific individual Icon we desire.
So you then need to load the resource info (FindResourceByID followed by LoadResource) now that you have the resource loaded you will need to LockResource to get a pointer to that resource. Copy the resource binary data into a variabe, a byte array or string what ever using CopyMemory. We now have the resource binary data that contains our raw icon data as our variable in our exclusive memory space! celebrate. Sadly, we also have a bunch of other icons from the group. Select the icon that is the 48x48 icon using LookupIconIdFromDirectoryEx and passing 48x48 as the x,y desired parameters. Then repeat the above process to grab the binary data of the specific icon we want. Not far to go now!

Now its a case of creating an icon from the resource binary data, which can be done with CreateIconFromResourceEx. If you are still reading this, congratulations! you have a handle to your 48x48 icon. I will soon be posting a test build of ViSplore, thanks to this breakthrough..

I would like to say thanks to Google and about half a dozen people on forums that have had similar issues with icons in Windows. I didn't find these APIs by magic.

This build isn't a functional build as such, it's just meant to demonstrate the 2 components (ViFileView and ViTreeView) working in unison and show that 48 icons are obtainable from the module (Win\Sys32\Shell32.dll).

ViSplore 48x + Component Test

Download

ViSplore Icon Blues

2011-01-23T21:33:00.000Z

I am currently blitting a bitmap of a folder to the drawing context, which works fine except it doesn't support alpha transparency. Which presents a problem when applying a roll-over effect to a folder, I will of course require transparency. So I decided I would try to store folder icon externally as an icon file and use ExtractIconEx and DrawIconEx which supports Transparency. During the transition, A limitation was realized. The API mentioned above doesn't appear to support 48x48 (Vista Icons), the result is anything but pretty.

I will either go back to blitting but include 2 bitmaps (the rolled over effected bitmap and the standard folder). Though in this day and age, I don't see blitting as a viable option, when there's much more elegant solutions out there. Or I will find an alternative way of drawing the icons to the container's DC.

Lee

ViSplore (ViFileView) Update

2010-12-06T09:19:00.000Z

A - 8:59
Ad - 12:59
Ado - 19:59
Adob - 24:59
Adobe - 30:59
Adobe - 32:59
Adobe D - 40:59
Adobe Dr - 44:59
Adobe Dre - 50:59
Adobe Drea - 56:59
Adobe Dream - 67:59
Dreamw - 36:59
Dreamwe - 42:59
Dreamwea - 48:59
Dreamweav - 54:59
Dreamweave - 60:59
er - 12:59
er - 15:59
er C - 24:59
er CS - 30:59
er CS5 - 36:59

Custom Word Break

After a few hours of tinkering I made a custom string formatter function that simulates the word break behaviour of Explorer (the implied behaviour of DT_WORDBREAK).

It works by using the DT_CALC_RECT flag in DrawText to calculate the size of a given string with other proposed drawing flags set. So "A" is 8px and "Ad" is 12px, etc. When the width is over a given threshold (59px in my example) then a break is inserted where the last separator existed on that line. That appears to be what DT_WORDBREAK did too, however, if there are no valid separators then the break is inserted where the width is over the threshold. Giving us the desired result (This is illustrated above)

the DT_WORDBREAK flag is a lie

2010-12-01T12:14:00.003Z

Well, would you think that a flag named "DT_WORDBREAK" would actually break words? Well you would be wrong. In Windows Explorer the way folder text is rendered in such a way that when an item's name cant fit into the specified width it is dropped to a new line (breaking the word). I thought I could simulate the same behaviour with DT_WORDBREAK as the flag implies it would break words (Sadly not!). What's even more frustrating is that even the MSDN (Microsoft's official documentation of it's own API's) thought the same as I did. This isn't the first time that Windows API's has been misleading either - this is just one example. The documentation could at least state that it means it separates words where a separator is present (such as a space) - not BREAK them! Having worked with this convoluted mess for so many years I guess this is just a minor annoyance.

ViFileView for ViSplore

2010-11-29T18:13:00.001Z

During the weekend I have been developing the new component (ViFileView) to be integrated into ViSplore. Now it is able to calculate the required number of rows and columns for any given number of items and work out the width between variable when given a minimum and maximum range. As illustrated above- It is also able to draw the default "medium" sized folder icon (Dynamic folder construction won't be available just yet).

ViExplore component?

2010-11-26T09:39:00.000Z

Windows 7 Explorer Component

Now that I have implemented the ViTreeView component into ViSplore, I will focus my attention on the file view component adjacent to the treeview. Currently ViSplore just uses the Explorer component itself - Though between XP and Vista, this component has changed significantly. Since Vista, this component can now have a multitude of different viewing modes (one which incorporates a custom sized folder technique - where by the user can adjust the size of the folder objects to his or her preference to the pixel). Another significant change is the fact folder icons are not simply a static folder image anymore, but a dynamically constructed folder image for each folder. This will not be easy to reproduce, especially as Vista and 7 probably have support from the indexing service to pull data about folder's contents to dynamically construct such folder icons.

The cheapest solution in terms of 'least amount of effort' would be to use the already available ListView component, though that doesn't even begin to provide the complex viewing modes which we intend to simulate. Not to mention dynamic icon construction. I am wondering how feasible it would be to even attempt to reproduce such a component. I will start by making a very basic explorer component anyway, one which uses static folder images and would be limited to 1 viewing mode at first. Then depending on the interest in ViSplore, I will continue to develop the other viewing modes as long as the project remains feasible (Generates enough interest).

ViSplore (With ViTreeView)

Until then I will continue to implement the functionality of the ViTreeview component. As you can see right now It is just sitting there looking pretty, but doesn't do anything for the time being. Then I will consider a nightly release of it shortly (hopefully before christmas).

ViSplore ViTree Demo

2010-11-20T08:41:00.002Z

I apologise for the lack of updates recently, I have only just managed to get a stable rig up together (with good memory). It's also my sisters birthday soon, So I have been scratching my head trying to figure out what I can buy her for her birthday. If it's not one person's birthday it's another's. Then there is Christmas just around the corner - I hadn't realized how much better life was when I was still at secondary school (high school - American English). When programming was this mysterious thing that intrigued me and I thought I was great for making a Stop Watch application. It was difficult to imagine that only 7 years later I would be writing software that is now used internationally by thousands of people. Though isn't that every programmer's dream; to make software that people really want or depend on and for it to be published and praised in magazines and other websites?

Anyway, yea - the reason you're here. Here's that tree-view that I have been continuously posting about, I'd like some feedback on it before I implement it into ViSplore. Easier to perfect it whilst it's a separate component as I said. It's pretty self explanatory and right now it just adds random items to nodes (This is obviously intentional for the moment). Specifically focus the feedback on the scrollbar, because I am still not pleased with it. I think I will tweak it a little more before I implement it into ViSplore.

Download

Bad ram...

2010-11-10T18:47:00.001Z

It's one of those things that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Your compressed files fail to extract with CRC errors, and you hope it's just a bad download from the source. Then you notice your hash checks on files fail, again you shrug it off as a bad download. Then your worst fear is confirmed.. you get a BSOD related to a memory error. I tried memtesting each RAM stick individually, and all of them failed OR all of them passed (depending on the how long the computer had been running). I could only guess the RAM was overheating somehow, although all my RAM sticks have crosshair heatsyncs. Anyway this is obviously hindering my development. I am writing this from my very old laptop for the moment, though I really dislike using laptops. If my keyboard was USB, I would simply connect all my input devices to my laptop and hook it up to my monitor on a VGA cable. I think the time has come for me to build a DDR3 generation PC..

ViSplore Treeview Upgrade; Scrollbar blues

2010-11-08T09:32:00.000Z

Windows 7 (Treeview)

Making the scrollbar in the treeview function the way 7's does would seem to be an easy task. However, problems have occurred in calculating the 'large change' value (Which basically decides the object that moves up/down the scrollbar inner height). I assume Microsoft do it as a percentage of the scrollbar's height, though my algorithm would not seem to perfectly match 7's scrollbar yet. Such object size is much too small in my component. I am considering making my own scrollbar component if need be, so I would have the control I need to be able to match the scrollbar with 7's.

Once the scrollbar issue is resolved it's just a matter of offsetting the Y coordinate on the draw objects to give the appearance of scrolling.

ViSplore Treeview Upgrade (2)

2010-10-30T10:23:00.001+01:00

This build fixes a few Windows 7 differences. As you can see in the screenshot, the rollover object now draws all 3 states correctly (selected, hover, selected+hover) just like Windows 7 treeview does. This build also fixes the resized icon quality issue where the program was extracting large icons and then redrawing them as small icons. Instead of doing that, this build actually extracts the smaller icons directly (so that the icons don't look shoddy when they are drawn smaller). There is still a drawing issue to be addressed, however, when you move a window over the ViTreeView window it doesn't redraw itself. Though that shouldn't be a problem to fix. I just need to catch the WM_PAINT message and tell the treeview to redraw which ever area needs to be drawn again.

Update 01/11/2010

Sorry if unintentionally mislead anyone, but these builds are of the treeview itself which will eventually be implemented into ViSplore. Developing the component inside of ViSplore would prove troublesome, so the component is being developed as a separate project. It is missing several key features such as a vertical scrollbar and an interface for other programs to interact with it. Once these features are complete I will implement the component in ViSplore and make it downloadable.

ViSplore Treeview Upgrade

2010-10-22T10:28:00.002+01:00

There's not much point in releasing this build to the public, I can already in-vision the response I would get from people that misunderstand it. I have been busy reinventing the wheel the last few months and making a custom tree-view component, something that's usually frowned upon (For good reason, the wheel is fine the way it is). What if the wheel doesn't do the job though? We need a new snazzy wheel which is more lightweight. I already did this for ViStart (Its program menu is a completely rewritten treeview component), however the tree-view component in ViStart didn't quite fit the new requirements I had in mind for ViSplore. I didn't consider portability at that time of writing ViStart either. So I am making another 'wheel' for ViSplore by making yet another tree-view component (Instead of trying to hack ViStart's treeview). This one is completely portable to other projects (If I should need a tree-view in a 3rd project, which is somewhat unlikely I know).

The new tree-view component isn't complete yet, I still need to add the expanded/collapsed indicators and a little more polish to make it look like 7's explorer tree-view. Currently it supports adding icons, adding an unlimited amount of nodes to any other node including the root node as well as a functioning rollover indicator that indicates the selected node. When it is complete though I will be integrating it into ViSplore. ViSplore will be getting a well needed updade, including but not limited to;

A new side/treeview (What this post is about)
Index integration with ViStart
It's own explorer component (Yea.. time to reinvent the wheel yet again)

I feel like I've been reinventing the wheel forever..

ViStart 3738

2010-10-06T14:30:00.002+01:00

There's nothing exciting in this build - it attempts to address the hidden folders appearing in ViStart bug by examining the folder's attributes (is hidden flag set). I also tried to add more error handlers in an effort to try and catch the 'item already exists' bug. You may need to review the errors.txt file in the application's directory. ViStart self check now checks if 'settings.xml' is present as well (doesn't validate it yet).

As usual this build is based on the 'true blur' build. You need a relavent startmenu mask to be placed in your resources directory.

(Stable version updated on official website - http://lee-soft.com/vistart)

ViStart 3736

2010-10-04T10:52:00.005+01:00

This build attempts to fix the 'no icons' bug that occurred since the new program discovery routine was added. This happened because the icon maker was attempting to use the redundant program discovery routine (which has now been removed) Icon maker now calls the new program discovery routine. (You may need to flush your %appdata%\ViStart to flag an icon rebuild to ViStart - otherwise it will think it doesn't need to rebuild your icon cache).

A new bug had been discovered where by ViStart will always try to cache at startup (this is again linked to the fact ViStart was calling the redundant program finder) this has also been corrected in this build. Also the program discovery routine now excludes hidden files. So ViStart will no longer cache or show hidden files in the program file list.

I am still investigating 'item already exists bug', as well as the winkey block bug which is forever plaguing ViStart users. The bug is caused by the fact ViStart is intentionally blocking the windows key to prevent the real Windows start menu from appearing and then showing it's own menu. However the side effect of this is that WinKey combos may not work as intended. I am lead to believe that Explorer registers a hotkey (WinKey) when it starts up, maybe if ViStart can register that key before Explorer does then i can solve this issue.

As this build is based on the 'true blur' build, you still need the blur mask to be placed in your 'Resources' directory.

Download blur mask

(Stable version updated on official website - http://lee-soft.com/vistart)

ViStart (true blur)!

2010-10-01T21:03:00.004+01:00

Introducing the best blur yet!

I have been continuously trying to improve the blur in ViStart without hindering performance too much. With previous blurs the 'blur' effect was minimal and it didn't blur that well. This new algorithm improves blur quality x10 over the existing build. It's actually difficult to tell the difference between this blur and Vista's/7's blur - ~~I am assuming this build may under perform on systems without UI hardware acceleration~~. ViStart will take advantage of UI hardware acceleration (where it is available).

Also this build fixes the annoying blur border that was appearing around the start menu (Found in the other 2 blur builds). In order to achieve this a new bitmap mask is required to tell ViStart which sections of the png's it should and shouldn't blur. This file isn't part of a default ViStart installation so I have included the mask with the resources folder. You will need to extract the contents over your default ViStart installation (be sure to backup your orignal ViStart installation before doing that).

This build also adds a file checking routine to ensure all files are present before initializing - This ensures all users are actually running ViStart from it's installation directory.

I would appreciate feedback (Specifically on speed and performance). There are NO bug fixes in this build. I will however be investigating the 'item already exists' bug further.

Update:

I have tested this on my XP Sp3 box and I can't see any noticeable performance loss. Though there should be increased performance on machines which have hardware acceleration available.

(Stable version updated on official website - http://lee-soft.com/vistart)

ViStart 3720 (better program support)

2010-09-29T14:00:00.031+01:00

This build introduces a new and optimized program discovery routine (This should address the runtime error: item already exists bug) and it should also ensure ALL programs exist on the start menu as well initialize quicker than previous builds of ViStart. The older program discovery routine was based on the BETA 5 of ViStart and was poorly optimized for ViStart Appreciation Build (Published last year). (Reduces executable size by a few kb with this new routine)

This build should also address the frequently used programs bug discovered in build 3714

Download

ViStart 3714 (new blur)

2010-09-27T10:46:00.004+01:00

I apologise for the slow updates, however I have been experimenting with different ways to blur (some quicker than others, some which 'blur' more than others and so on). The biggest problem I am currently facing is performance vs appearance. I originally made a very pretty blur but it took too long to render it and then I rewrote it to be quicker but it looked terrible as many have pointed out in the first Blur i published. I may have an option on the options dialogue with a slider that says 'Blur Quality' and let users find the most appropriate blur quality (Depending on their CPU).

This build of ViStart attempts to improve the existing blur with a new rendering method I designed. It may not perform as fast as the previous version but it should produce a better quality blur. I welcome feedback-

Download

ViOrb 27

2010-09-13T15:49:00.003+01:00

The first version of any Vi-Software to introduce dynamic skin selection (without having to reload the whole application). Also this version of ViOrb streamlines existing code and fixes the 'bad icon' bug from build 5. With the added option of starting with Windows.

To add new skins - simply add the file to the "Resources" folder and then they will be shown in the options dialogue. You should call the file name for that skin something relevant -

ViOrb 27.zip

ViOrb 5

2010-09-11T20:34:00.002+01:00

Here's a small present for those ViOrb fans out there. Using ViGlance's new and improved Start Orb I made this separate version of ViOrb. This is not yet complete and I hope to more options such as those the original ViOrb had and more if I can think of any. This marks the first release of ViOrb to have 'fading orb' support. Feedback please -

ViOrb 5.zip

ViStart 3713

2010-09-09T10:46:00.001+01:00

This build attempts to add the 'Start > Run' functionality to ViStart.
So users can type 'cmd.exe' in the searchbox and expect Command Prompt to open when they press enter.

Download ViStart 3713.zip

ViGlance 1276

2010-09-07T20:24:00.001+01:00

Nightly build of ViGlance 1276

This build potentially fixes the 'no icons' appearing issue that some users reported. As usual this build requires that you have the last major version of ViGlance installed before you can use it. You should backup your ViGlance executable before using this build of ViGlance - Eventually I will stop writing these warnings.

ViGlance 1276.zip

ViStart Blur

2010-09-06T08:46:00.001+01:00

This build marks the first nightly build of ViStart. Since it's the first I have given you all a little present - a feature request. It's finally here - an experimental build of ViStart that has the long awaited blur support. This build is mainly to demonstrate the possibility of blur so I need feedback on speed and the quality of the blur.

Remember this is just the executable and you will require the default installation of ViStart to be able to use it. It is highly recommended you backup your ViStart executable before overwriting it with this one.

Download 3712.zip

ViGlance SE2 Released!

2010-07-22T09:41:00.000+01:00

Windows 7 SuperBar/ViGlance SE2 Demonstration Video

Usually I would write a big long post but.. instead of that i will let the video do all that for me. I think you get the idea. ViGlance Summer Edition 2 will be released the end of this month. Special thanks to Rainoffire for Vista testing.

Update 01/08/2010
During final testing rainoffire and a few other beta testers have found a new "blank icon" bug when testing with 64bit platforms. Until this bug is confirmed fixed I regret to inform you that I will be delaying the release of the new ViGlance SE2 build. I hope to fix this issue within the week however. Thanks for your understanding. Lee

Update 11/08/2010
The OneStep program is ready for the latest build of ViGlance SE2 and I will publish it this evening if I receive no further problems from my BETA testers.

Update 12/08/2010
It is now released and can be downloaded from the product's homepage

ViStart 7 Released!

2009-09-08T20:56:00.000+01:00

The magical transparent text box? (17/11/2009)
After releasing ViStart 7 it seems Windows XP users experienced what i like to call the "magical transparent text box bug". The bug seems to only occur when applying visual styles to the controls. Setting the Edit control to "opaque" with the SetBkMode API seems to have no affect. What's even more strange is how Vista or 7 users don't get this bug. Anyway after giving the edit control a container window (with an opaque background the same colour background as the textbox) it shouldn't matter if this text box bug is fixed or not. It's a work around though. The latest build has been updated to include this fix. You can get it on the ViStart Homepage.

It seems the Orb added in ViStart has got mixed feedback. The Orb was not something i intended to add. The Orb is the button that summons the start menu and is thus an essential part of the program. Doing this allows all platforms to be compatible with ViStart. I intend to improve it so it fades like the ViGlance one though. The next version of ViGlance however will use it's Orb to summon ViStart. (So ViGlance users will see the fading Orb). Previous unstable builds of ViStart would 'hack' explorer to provide an effective means of replacing the start menu (Which is part of explorer). This is completely unacceptable and often causes explorer to crash. The only reason i didn't use ViStart myself was because it kept crashing Explorer.

Lee

Final Update (16/11/2009) - ViStart 7 Released!
Well, The product that launched Lee-Soft in Spring 2007 has been reprogrammed almost completely, and it's faster, more stable, more customizable, lighter and cuter than ever before. With a brand new Windows 7 interface. Is it ViStart and ViGlance or Windows 7? The build was actually finished a few days ago but i spent a few more days ensuring complete backward compatibility with ViStart 6 skins. I am still looking at adding blur for the next release of ViStart, but it may affect performance so i am leaving it out of this release. Finally a release of ViStart that i can call stable. I spent the last 4 months reviewing the ViStart bug threads in my forums. As well as digging up old bug reports from my inbox to bring this build of ViStart. You can get this build from the official ViStart Homepage.

Lee

UPDATE (09/11/2009)
The final beta test versions have been released. Only 3 bugs were found during initial testing. The third is the most humorous though.

Remember the shutdown bug people were experiencing with "ViOrb Remastered". The bug where the application seems to prevent a shutdown request ? Well it looks like this bug is in ViStart 7 as well. The bug occurs when programs don't respect the close window message or allow the window default message handler to destroy window but it fails. The close window message is sent to all windows after the shutdown message has been processed and accepted by all handlers. The shutdown message (sent before the close message) gives software the opportunity to respond and even cancel the user's shutdown request. The default message handler responds positive and allows the shutdown request. So ViStart 7's default handler was responding positive. Then Windows politely requested all Windows to close with a close message. This is where ViStart 7 was not respecting the close request (but accepting the shutdown request through its default message handler). Hence causing the shutdown hanging bug. It's more like laziness than program design flaw. Fixing this bug is a simply a matter of respecting the close message and ensuring that window is destroyed in each handler when the default message handler isn't able to destroy the window normally. The default handler calls the DestroyWindow Api.

The other bug was a keyboard focus bug. Again this bug is exclusive to ViStart 7 and ViGlance. Sometimes ViStart 7 steals keyboard focus (even though it's thread doesn't own the right of keyboard focus). Which should be impossible since Windows 2000 when stealing keyboard focus from another thread was prevented. There's a question of why was ViStart 7 granted keyboard focus and next - why did ViStart 7 request keyboard focus in the first place. My responsibility is obviously to solve the latter problem. Instead of simply blaming Microsoft. We should take responsibility ourself. Anyway i can confirm that this bug has been fixed (at least ViStart 7 isn't requesting keyboard focus at inappropriate times anymore).

Finally don't make the mistake i did and assume that the mouse move message is only sent when you move the mouse cursor to a new position. In some situations it may also be resent (even if the cursor hasn't moved to a new position). Depending on which window is capturing the cursor. You can of course get around this problem by checking the cursor coordinates manually by comparing the reported position with the the last known reported position. Why does that even matter? Well imagine a situation where you want to navigate your interface with a keyboard but the mouse cursor is hovering over a 'hotspot' on your UI. (Like keyboard support in ViStart 7) If your not switching focus around different windows then it's not a problem, but if you were and you relied on the mouse move message only reporting new positions then as you can imagine.. the mouse move message could start causing you some problems.

I am also opening my personal blog this week. So look forward to that. Though i don't know what im going to write on it yet. I hope everyone had a good weekend though. I watched StarWars and fixed the bugs mentioned above. I am considering using 7TP as a testing grounds for ViStart before releasing it to the public. Though i will be releasing ViStart exclusively to the community this week. Every member of the forums will have unlimited access to the latest build.

Lee

ViStart7 -Windows 7 Start Menu for Vista and XP
ViStart Series 7 ? Take a look at the screen shot. Can you tell me what operating system that is ? ViStart is fixed for the most part.. but i am not stopping there. As you can see in the screen shot. This is the new Windows 7 theme I have made by combining Lucifiar's work and FediaFedia's work. With Beta 6 of ViStart this theme would usually be impossible to make. Elements before now could not be changed by the theme author. Now ViStart elements can be customized via a "Layout/Theme" XML file that is placed in the Resources folder. This will allow components of the start menu to be moved and resized by the theme author. (This was one of the hidden experimental features available in older versions of BETA 6 and BETA 5. Not available in the VTP Versions). I will also be ensuring ViStart 7 is backward compatible with Vista 6 skins.

Oh.. By the way.. 7 is the version number. It is purely coincidental that 7 happens to be the version number Microsoft used. I will not be changing the name of "ViStart 7".

UPDATE (30/10/2009)
Windows Vista and Windows 7 render 2D graphics significantly slower than XP (70% slower according to some websites). ViStart is rendered in 2d graphics via GDI. So it seems that ViStart is less responsive on these systems than with Windows XP. So I have spent most of this month optimizing and rewriting the rendering algorithms used in ViStart. This should make ViStart more responsive on all compatible platforms. It has also quadrupled the invoking and rendering speed for ViStart and it's sub-menus (Power sub menu, Recent items sub menu, etc). ViStart now also uses less CPU cycles and memory. I have also fixed several other annoying bugs today. The infamous invalid picture bug, Clear frequently used programs list tickbox in options sometimes didn't work (It would remain ticked) and also ViStart not loading the correct picture for Windows Vista users.

UPDATE (26/10/2009)
Good morning. Since my academic year started. I no longer need to go to University on Mondays. So this morning i fixed the blank rollover image problems people were occasionally getting. Edit 12:57AM: I have also just fixed the annoying recent items bug in Vista. Edit 15:10PM: I have made the recent items menu more responsive. Also I bid on a broken PSP with a dead screen. It shouldn't be too hard to replace a dead screen. The component is really cheap also. I will be playing my PSX collection on a PSP in no time!

UPDATE (25/10/2009)
I woke up this morning and my sister and i had an arguement about what the time was. (I forgot the clocks went back in the UK today). Anyway, after further testing i can confirm that the infamous "disappearing text" problem has been fixed today. The bug documented here has been fixed. Also Lucifiar told me yesterday he is preparing his new ViStart theme (I am asuming its a Windows7 theme) for the ViStart Appreciation Build. I am looking forward to seeing his work over the next few days. Enjoy your Sunday, guys.

UPDATE (19/10/2009)
Nostalgic? I've finally produced a build of ViStart that is the way I intended it to be. However trying to fix the bugs mentioned above has meant having to rewrite some major parts of ViStart. It is bringing back memories of when I was releasing BETA versions through Lucifiar's site. Fortunately the results seem pleasing (at least for me). I always intended to rewrite ViStart when I became a little more experienced. Well anyway, I feel this build is good enough for closed beta testing. I will be giving it to valued forum members and close friends during the week.

UPDATE (18/10/2009)
Well it's been a busy week for me. Anyway i have fixed a few more minor bugs (such as the keyboard focus bug). Apparently since Windows 2000 windows are not allowed to have keyboard focus unless they belong to the thread that currently has the keyboard focus. I can see why Microsoft has done this, since some cowboy programmers might be stealing keyboard focus in unsuitable situations. However there are legitimate cases when programs may require keyboard focus. Anyway, this isn't an issue anymore. I have found a way to work around this restriction.

UPDATE (28/09/2009)
Today i was rewriting the start menu base to fix the "floating objects" bug which some people on multiple moniters seemed to experience. This may have some affect on the taskbar disappearence bug.

The key focus here isn't "how many features can I squeeze into the latest build of ViStart". It is to carefully restructure an already existing project by adapting my new techniques from my more recent projects. Unfortunately it seems that some companies don't ethically respect their position in an art which has no defined standards for quality.

I often want to talk about somethings on my development blog but I feel it's inappropriate. So I am also considering opening a blog (separate from lee-soft) where I will be ranting about various things that annoy me or things I like.

So it's been a few weeks since I've updated my development blog. I have been trying to get a work placement in any respectable IT company during my university vacation. As well as talking with my friends known on the website as (Will and Lord Weng). There have also been some personal problems in my life which have hindered my development.

One thing I can't help but notice is the popularity of ViStart even today. It is still the most downloaded program on Lee-Soft. For that reason I have decided to halt development of another Lee-Soft project yet to be revealed in favour of maintaining ViStart. Unfortunately the way I structure software has changed dramatically over the last 2 years since ViStart was released. One of the reasons I didn't continue developing ViStart was not simply because I forgot about it, but because it was a complete headache to work with. ViOrb got rewritten for that very reason.

ViGlance and ViSplore are my 2 most recent projects that used a different approach to explorer integration. ViSplore whilst generally the least popular product available on Lee-Soft, it was however the only stable product. I adopted that structure into my new project (ViGlance). This has proven to be the most stable approach to explorer integration. I am hoping to adopt that approach in ViStart, to make a version of ViStart that in theory would be stable and safe.

Honestly, I had no plans to continue developing ViStart. However I never released a build of ViStart that I deemed "stable". So I will dedicate some of the time in my evenings to reprogramming ViStart with the technique mentioned above. I will call this build of ViStart, "The ViStart appreciation build". This build should fix the following very annoying problems with ViStart;

Explorer keeps crashing randomly - CONFIRMED FIXED (17/09/2009)
Start button sometimes freezes - CONFIRMED FIXED (17/09/2009)
Games or full screen applications cause ViStart to sometimes stop being invoked - CONFIRMED FIXED (17/09/2009)
Sometimes ViStart disappears - CONFIRMED FIXED (17/09/2009)
Heavy hard drive usage at start-up - Not planned to be fixed in VAB
Taskbar disappearence bug - CONFIRMED FIXED (26/10/2009)
Winkey combo-block bug - CONFIRMED FIXED (19/09/2009)
Poor interaction with ViGlance - CONFIRMED FIXED (17/09/2009)
New Programs Installed (Old Start Menu) bug - CONFIRMED FIXED (19/09/2009)
Floating Objects & Dual Screens bug - CONFIRMED FIXED (28/09/2009)
64bit Support - CONFIRMED FIXED (18/10/2009)
Textbox invoke delayed focus - CONFIRMED FIXED(18/10/2009)
Invoke speed is about 9x faster - Verified (19/10/2009)
Font/Text not appearing on the right of the start menu - CONFIRMED FIXED(25/10/2009)
Blank hover image on Power menu and Frequently used programs - CONFIRMED FIXED (26/10/2009)
Recent items doesn't appear on Windows Vista and Windows 7 - CONFIRMED FIXED (26/10/2009)
Recent items menu is more responsive (26/10/2009)
Full support for Windows 7 x64/x86 - CONFIRMED FIXED (26/10/2009)
Unresponsive/slow recent items menu in Vista and 7 - CONFIRMED FIXED (30/10/2009)
The invalid picture bug - CONFIRMED FIXED (30/10/2009)
ViStart not loading the correct user picture in Windows Vista - CONFIRMED FIXED (30/10/2009)
Clear frequently used programs list tickbox in options sometimes doesn't work - CONFIRMED FIXED (30/10/2009)

Don't get too excited, there will be no additional features added to ViStart unless they help to fix some of the bugs mentioned above. However the "ViStart Appreciation Build" will offer partial interaction with the new project I will be working on. There are several hidden experimental features in previous versions of ViStart that can only be activated with a specialised registry configuration. They were deactivated due to the presure of "VTP" deadlines and never completed.

Lee

ViGlance 1194 Released

2009-08-11T10:10:00.000+01:00

If you want to cut out my ranting and get straight to the point then just get the latest version and read the changelog file. This post is about to describe in a useless and pointless fashion the bug fixes done to ViGlance. C'mon, these posts are getting boring these days...

Latest version of ViGlance can be downloaded from here as usual;
http://lee-soft.com/viglance/

Instead of adding fancy features or just working on some other project or something to that affect, I thought I would dedicate my spare time to exterminating the most infamous bugs in the ViGlance town. Sheriff Lee is on the case. Our most wanted criminal (The randomly appearing preview window) has now been terminated. Along with his partner in crime the desktop that couldn't keep its clothes on (The flashing desktop). Read the change log times for additional criminals that have been locked up.

However a few other law breakers are still around, Sheriff Lee won't rest until they are brought to justice.

Have a good summer
Lee

ViGlance SE Released!

2009-07-09T19:17:00.000+01:00

It is finally here, a version of ViGlance that completes the Windows 7 transformation. The ViGlance Summer Edition.
The summer edition of ViGlance adds the following new features and fixes since ViGlance 1 / winter edition

Added Feature - Dynamic Window Thumbnails
Added Feature - Application Pinning
Added Feature - Custom Item Positions
Fixed - Blank taskbar startup bug
Fixed - Vertical taskbar glitches
Fixed - Active Window showing wrong item state colour unlike Windows7

Well i have not managed to complete every feature request for ViGlance. Unfortunately trying to cram features into ViGlance at the last moment would mean having to retest everything over again. I hope you enjoy the latest version of ViGlance. I think i will invest some of my free time now into relaxing.

ViGlance SE

2009-07-03T10:04:00.000+01:00

Windows 7 SuperBar/ViGlance Demonstration Video

It's sure been hot recently in the UK, so it's been difficult to do much work recently.

ViGlance (The Summer Edition) is almost here . So I thought I would post a teaser video demonstrating some of the latest features of the summer edition. Before releasing it though I want to try to fix a few more minor glitches. I am trying my best to implement semi-automatic "live thumbnails" for XP users as well as Vista and Seven users (Originally I didn't intend to extend "live thumbnail" support to XP). Which can be seen in the video demonstration. 7TP mark 2 is almost ready for ViGlance. Though if you read my last post, you will know Lucifiar is probably swapping hosts right now. No doubt this will delay the initial release of ViGlance. (ViGlance is infact ready for release now)

The bad news is that previous skins are no longer compatible with ViGlance. The button graphic may require some additional modifications to be able to work with the latest versions of ViGlance.

Update
The blank taskbar bug that strangely occured at startup has been proven to be fixed.

ViGlance Teaser!

2009-06-15T19:48:00.000+01:00

I just thought I would post some screenshots of the latest internal build of ViGlance. Right now the static thumbnail system is partially complete. I am working on "live" thumbnails for Vista and Seven users now. This is just an internal release, Window icons and Window text can be expected in the public release, along with the features mentioned in the previous post. Taskbar transparency will be disabled by default. It will be available for enabling via the new options dialog however. The options dialog is due to be implimented by this weekend.

ViGlance 1098 showing a thumbnail of Thunderbird

ViGlance 1099 showing some thumbnails from Windows Live Messenger

This is obviously experimental and may not reflect on the public builds of ViGlance.
If you want an ETA, i would say around a month to 6 weeks. This isn't definate though

ViGlance Update

2009-06-10T10:58:00.000+01:00

Well my university exams are finally finished. I have a long 4 month holiday(vacation) now. So I can play OutRun on my Xbox 360.. I mean so I can tell you about the features I have been developing in ViGlance.

I have been getting more data about the blank taskbar bug that some users appear to be having. I can confirm that this doesn't just happen at start-up. All XP users are affected by this bug. Very rarely it may occur when you simply open the ViGlance executable.
.
So far the list of features implemented in the new builds of ViGlance (though experimental at this stage are)

Pin to taskbar - Add favourite and commonly used applications to the taskbar
Movable taskbar items - Personalise the taskbar item order

Before release, I plan to have those features stable. As well as adding these additional features

Windows live previews (dynamic for Vista)
Windows live previews (static/non animated for XP)
Options dialogue to turn on/off features

Enjoy the summer holidays,
Lee Chantrey

ViGlance for Vista?

2009-05-15T13:57:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy week this week. I have finally completed support for both Vista and Windows 7 in ViGlance. Since Windows 7's architecture at the moment is not much different than Vista's (as far as the taskbar layout is concerned) no additional effort was required to make it work with Windows 7. Hold that thought, no this post isn't to start a debate about the differences between Windows 7 and Vista.

Though I will say it's intriguing to see that Windows 7 shell is finally making good use of the available technologies that have been implemented since Vista. I am of course referring to the "new" hardware accelerated rendering system in Windows Vista (DWM) and naturally in Windows 7.

For those who haven't used windows long enough to know how it works (lucky people), I will attempt to explain why this is significant (to me and my software). Perhaps the only significant change between Windows Vista and XP is the way in which Windows displays information on your monitor. Traditionally (before Windows Vista) Windows displayed and constructed visual information that's sent to your video memory (the actual stuff you see on the screen) using your computer's primary processor (CPU). That sounds logical. Its fine in most cases where visual information isn't in a potential 'flux' and when there's little visual information to deal with. However consider a game (I don't mean games like PacMan or Space Invaders, consider <insert another randomly over hyped FPS here>), or a Vista window animation. Visual data is almost in constant flux during the animation. That's a lot of visual information to process and then display. "Did you ever wonder why Vista really isn't Laptop battery friendly? Why you should never play games when on your Laptop when it's unplugged and why NetBooks don't use Vista?".

This post got too long. In order to cut things down, accept that hardware became more powerful and various concepts got redesigned. Today a separate processor deals with graphical data. (GPU) and separate memory buffers are used to store such graphical data. This is directly connected and handled on a separate computer (or rather mini-computer) that is specifically designed to handle graphics based commands inside your actual computer. That about sums up a graphics card today. Microsoft had developed a technology that gave developers an almost direct contact to this mini-computer. (Direct X), which was originally designed for games. They then decided to integrate this into the way that Windows displayed graphical information. They called this implimentation (DWM; Desktop Window Manager).

DWM among other things is the technology responsible for "Windows Live Thumbnail Previews". So I don't intend to simply "support Vista". I intend to make the most of what's available on each individual NT based operating system. I intend to prove this with later releases of SuperBar, ViSplore and ViStart. The first part is finally done. To get SuperBar (ViGlance) to be compatible with Windows Vista.
I will be making this build public somepoint this weekend.
ViGlance has now been updated to support Vista and Windows Seven. It can now be downloaded from the ViGlance home page

Enjoy the weekend,
Lee

ViGlance Released!

2009-04-25T11:22:00.000+01:00

Finally, the first version of ViGlance has been released and available for download here; www.lee-soft.com/viglance .

ViGlance has been updated to Build 1054. This build just fixes a few bugs reported. Check changelog-en for more information.

Features include in this release (Build 1024);

True 48x48 Vista Icon Support
Dynamic Process Grouping
Fading Start Orb
Glide transitional effects
Resource PNG skin support
Native Right-Click support
Dynamic taskbar transparency
x64 and x86 Windows XP Support

I plan on adding support for pinned items, support for Vista and recently used files list associated with the process in the near future. This build has been tested thorougly and deemed stable.

I hope to see your feedback,
Lee Chantrey

7Bar (SuperBar)

2009-04-13T13:04:00.000+01:00

Windows 7 SuperBar/ViGlance Demonstration Video

I have been very busy with 7Bar development and with university work recently. I regret that I have not been able to update my blog in a while.

The rumours are true. Development of 7Bar had actually began a few months ago. I have been using Windows 7 recently and I am prepared to officially announce that 7Bar is being developed and is somewhat near beta testing.

As you come to expect from most software i develop with Lucifiar; The graphical user interface is alpha blended with existing windows. Skins are in PNG format. ViOrb skins can easily be ported to the SuperBar resources folder without additional image modifications. It will include a module based on the new version of ViOrb (with additional transitional effects) and process grouping with process/group transitional affects like Windows 7's superbar. At the moment we have decided that the first public version of 7Bar will packaged in Lucifiar's 7TP. The download link will be made available about the same time as the transformation pack is released.

One feature that tends to be overlooked in the software I develop is "Right Click". I have read hundreds of e-mails of people requesting "Right Click" functionality for ViStart. So the implementation of Right Click and context menus have been implemented since the beginning of 7Bar. ViStart will be completely rewritten this summer (with right click and a new rendering system (as seen with 7Bar). ViSplore's future is still pending at this time.

7Bar will be fully compatible with Windows Vista and Windows XP. There is also experimental 64bit compatibility. As well as partial Windows Seven support. There are noticeable abnormalities with the way Windows 64bit handles x64 and x86 processes and thus there are often 2 versions of the same executable. (64bit will compatibility will be implemented in the first public version though not officially supported). It may mean that 7bar will perceive them as two separate group objects on it's task list. This contradicts the way Windows Seven defines separate groups on 64bit editions of Windows.

There are other features being implemented that I am not prepared to announce. As I am uncertain I can safely implement them in the first public build of 7Bar. Development will continue after the initial release of 7Bar. Even though I am the only programmer of 7Bar, Lucifiar has helped out a great deal. He has produced some promising concept art and given up his personal time to ensure the quality of 7Bar meets certain expected standards. He has tested over 900 builds of 7Bar so far.

All major feature of 7Bar are already complete. You are probably waiting for me to announce a deadline. We are aiming to finish before the end of April.

Enjoy the easter holidays!
Lee Matthew Chantrey

ViStart Build 3468

2008-12-11T10:57:00.000Z

ViStart has been due an update for some time now. With the release of it's little brother ViSplore people have began to wonder what about ViStart ? I didn't forget ViStart. This build was being suspended until the release of VTP 9. Now with VTP 9 being released i can publish the build here.
Build 3468:

DPI issues fixed
Some Explorer instabilities fixed
Wondering/Hovering button on the Desktop for computers with high resolutions fixed
Reload shell option as a work arround for when ViStart looses it's hook to the real Windows start menu

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