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Gianluca

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11/08/2015 Topic: Creating New SPS Files - Useful? Gianluca Administrator	Hi Euphoria. This is the perfect place to post your questions because I can reply to you and to all the users interested in helping the SPS thing at one time. SPS Submission You are right. Every SPS is personally checked by me, at least if you aren't yet a reliable editor. In fact for some editors that are really expert in SPS (by now someone is more expert than me!) there is no validation. They produce or update their SPSs and the system publish everything in a few hours automatically and without any validation. Package source URL You are right again. There are a lot of software authors that protect their free programs from automatic download. SyMenu and SPS Builder are classified as automatic downloader because they don't browse to the download page but they download directly from the URL. Let me say something: Dear software authors... why!??!? Don't you want that your creatures spread worldwide at the speed of light? Free your software, free the download URLs... Ok, now I can continue. When you find a situation like this you can, accordingly with the software license, publish the package elsewhere, but... not in a cloud service that, again, doesn't allow automatic download. Mediafire is one of this because if you try to download something form one of the Mediafire URL you posted on your SPSs, you get an error, a redirect and again a fresh new URL. They want you go to their web pages and for a third party repository is a perfectly understandable need. So please use other cloud services such as Dropbox, Drive, Box... they allow to publish public URLs. One last thing: search well in the author web site before publishing the package in a different repository. Sylpheed for example is available at this url http://osdn.jp/frs/redir.php?f=%2Fsylpheed%2F63519%2Fsylpheed-3.4.3-win32.zip that is the official author repository and it that is an automatically downloadable URL. Do we need more SPS? No need to say yes. We need new SPS files for high quality and really useful programs every day. SPS safety SyMenu doesn't check the posted programs but I personally check the editors reliability. If you are a reliable editor you can publish SPS otherwise you are banned. Anyway check everything you download from the Internet. It's a good thing in any time. SPS program report I take this opportunity to stress out that the field SPS program report in SPS Builder is not mandatory but it should be always present. It is important that a user can report a broken URL, an error in SPS, a new version available. If you have no online form to publish and don't want to publish your personal mail , please publish my online contact form (http://www.ugmfree.it/ContactMail.aspx) and I'll redirect the user message to you privately.
12/08/2015 Topic: Creating New SPS Files - Useful? Gianluca Administrator	Euphoria wrote: I'll take a guess that you use VirusTotal or something similar to scan all uploads (and possibly other scans just to be safe). If that's the case, some of the programs I know of and intend to add DO have detections on VirusTotal but they are false positives. Of course I run 1-2 other virus scans on my computer after using these programs just to be sure. If that's a problem let me know so I can avoid those uploads altogether. I'd never want to cause a virus to spread through a file I uploaded and give SyMenu a bad reputation. So, although I try to double/triple check them all first, if there are any concerns about that, I'd like to avoid them altogether (unless we can figure it out and verify without doubt that the software is safe). I think that in case of a false positive is it enough to post a note about that. As I already told, scan every downloaded file from the Internet regardless the source assurance or whatever... Internet is a dangerous place Euphoria wrote: Last question, I promise! For some programs that will allow auto-downloads, the structure of the software's folders can be... rather ugly. I prefer to have a clean structure, usually with the main .exe being within the folder and not inside multiple sub-folders. I know this is something that many users will never notice or care about and I may be the only one. In those cases should I always use the author's URL anyway or is it okay to re-arrange the structure to something easier to view if needed and the upload it and provide a new link? Is there a way to do both? The only reason for using a different download URL than the official one is that it is impossible to automatically download the package from there. BTW when SyMenu installs a program that has a root folder alone, it removes the root. One little contribution to a uniform file system organization. Euphoria wrote: Let me know if this is incorrect. If it is correct you can disregard this: To update an SPS I just have to click "Load from UGM", edit the file and then click "Save in UGM"? Exactly. When you load a file from UGM you are loading one of your posteed SPS, edit it, and re-submit it again. Euphoria wrote: I reuploaded the fixed SPS files, I believe they all work now. If you notice any problems when reviewing them let me know. Still trying to figure out how to make sure a link will work for everyone and not only me. If each time the SPS is reuploaded, you have to view them separately, than I am VERY sorry. It took me a few tries on the first 2 before I remembered to fill out everything possible (correctly). Hopefully uploading just replaces the last submission. A link surely work if you succeeded in testing it with SPS Builder. You can test it with the buttons: "Download package" or "Test SPS online". Your SPS files are perfect now and I've just publish them. Congratulation! You are on board
12/08/2015 Topic: tooltip for SyMenu system tray icon Gianluca Administrator	You are right. I was careless to use the term environment variables. We can call them SyMenu variables. Ok the customizable tooltip is in my TODO list.
12/08/2015 Topic: Menu customization Gianluca Administrator	Next version contains a new action modifier that allows you to click an item from the contextual menu to open the configuration form with the item already selected. So please have patience. The idea to split the behavior of the right and left click on the task icon still doesn't convince me at all. Think about the Explorer example. If you left click on a item no contextual menu pops up, if you right click a contextual menu appears. Two different clicks for two extremely different effects. You are proposing to shows two different contextual menu according to the left or right click. It risks to become chaotic.
13/08/2015 Topic: Creating New SPS Files - Useful? Gianluca Administrator	I'm trying to be clearer. False positive from an unknown anti virus software? Who cares. In my opinion the program is perfectly eligible for SPS. Check and double check the programs you want to upload and if you find a false positive add to the SPS notes a remark about that. Conversely if a program is really suspicious avoid to upload it.
13/08/2015 Topic: Windows Command Label? Gianluca Administrator	You are right. For an uniformity requirement I'm not free to change the name for the entity. So I can change the second label (the real command one) from "Windows Command" to "Command". I hope it's good the same. edited by Gianluca on 13/08/2015
13/08/2015 Topic: Creating New SPS Files - Useful? Gianluca Administrator	I'm so supportive and involved because SyMenu is one of my main working tools... Essentially I'm SyMenu most demanding user
18/08/2015 Topic: New SyMenu version 4.12 Gianluca Administrator	After a long and hard work the new version is finally out. You will find a lot of new features on the executor modifiers. Now they are always visible and we have two new: - the action modifier to execute an item as administrator (with elevated privileges); - the action modifier to configure an item: select the option, click on a SyItem and the configuration form will show up highlighting that item. Moreover now you have a clear way to understand when SyMenu itself is running ad admin. The last news regards the availability of the first file flag. The READONLY file. If you create this kind of empty file on the root of SyMenu folder, SyMenu will run in read only mode. That's all. Have fun! edited by Gianluca on 19/08/2015
18/08/2015 Topic: One little bug UAC icon and "humble" features sugg Gianluca Administrator	UAC icon bug in Windows 7 Yes you are right. The method I use to check the elevation is buggy in Windows 7. Since this is a first implementation be patient, I'll check it and, I hope, solve it ASAP. With UAC active SyMenu shows "Elevate SyMenu" tool This is a bug too and in the next version it'll disappear. Moreover I think it is not possible to execute a program without privileges from an elevated one. So if you run SyMenu as admin this is an undoable status for SyMenu and for every program launched from it. UAC Shield on the application icon Which icon are you speaking about? The big floating one? The task bar one? It's a good idea indeed. In the next version I put the shield on either. Favicon for SyWebLink Nice. I'll put on my TODO list. Sure your message is helpful. If you have other ideas let me know.
18/08/2015 Topic: One little bug UAC icon and "humble" features sugg Gianluca Administrator	I think it is impossible to know if a program needs or not the elevation before executing it. You assert that Windows do that autonomously for programs that need this... Is it real? How can Windows know that a program needs elevation before executing it???? Maybe it scans the program during its installation? Isn't a simple graphical trick from the program author that puts the shield on his own icon to give the users this further information? Sorry but I'm a bit ignorant about that.
19/08/2015 Topic: One little bug UAC icon and "humble" features sugg Gianluca Administrator	One only thing to check. Are you really sure you are using the last SyMenu version? The UAC icon should appear only in the last version (4.12.5707) and not in the 4.11.5655 that you reported. I checked SyMenu in a system with W7 x64 with .NET Framework 4.0 installed and the behavior is correct.
19/08/2015 Topic: One little bug UAC icon and "humble" features sugg Gianluca Administrator	That's the first time I observe this particular Thank you for that. I haven't found any official documentation to get this information from a file like explorer does. If someone out there has some experience with this topic please make a noise. Can you send to me a screenshot of your menu? It's an interesting bug because if SyMenu is elevated the icon should appear.
23/08/2015 Topic: One little bug UAC icon and "humble" features sugg Gianluca Administrator	Wow a lot of information here. UAC problem There is a little problem. If you are working as administrator your programs are not automatically elevated. You only have the chance to elevate a running program. Indeed your SyMenu are not working in elevated mode because its shield doesn't appear and the little shield for the action modifier is not deactivated. So I have two other questions for you. 1) Which level your UAC is set? Press Windows button write UAC and execute the program "Change User Account Control settings". 2) Have you already tried to execute SyMenu then go to Tools - Elevate SyMenu? I don't understand that. Tooltip You are right. The description attribute can't be deactivated and always produces a tooltip. It's a bug. Wait the next version for the resolution.
23/08/2015 Topic: Windows Command Label? Gianluca Administrator	It's true. Mine was a last minute bug fix but the translators can't be so flexible. Surely in the next version you'll find the fix in all the other languages too. I wish to take advantage of this thread to publicly thank our brave translators! They are great. They work in a professional manner only to support SyMenu, they are fast, precise, willing and above all they keep up with me even if my releasing rate is crazy! THANK YOU GUYS!!
24/08/2015 Topic: Need help creating SPS files Gianluca Administrator	Hello sl23. Here's your replies. Unknown Author In my opinion your solution is OK: writing Unknown in place of an unknown value, reports that you haven't forgotten to fill the field but that those detail was unavailable. Maybe in the future the author will appear to take his credit. Unknown License This is a little more complex. How can we know that the software distribution is allowed without a license? If, and only if, the software is clearly a free one (I don't know how it is possible to understand that without a license but in certain cases it is possible) we can publish it. In this case the license field can be filled with the Unknown word. How to perform silent Install This problem is not in charge of SyMenu. The silent install for an executable installer is an optional feature. If natively the installer can't offer a silent mode there is no chance to convince it to stay quiet. The only exceptions are the SyMenu/SPS Builder built-in unpacker features that precisely are: Inno Setup installer, PAF installer, solid archive installer. SPS Builder fails to unpack This is an interesting topic. Let's take your example with the program ReNamer Lite. Are you really sure you are downloading the right package? I tried to download the 7z package with the URL you set in your SPS but the SPS Builder downloads a file of 7Kb... too small for a program, so stay alert. Try to use the option "Download package" and open the resulting file with Notepad, and you'll see that the SPS Builder downloaded an HTML file instead your package. It means that the author bans the automatic downloads. To solve the problem choose one of the mirror that allows the automatic downloads and use those URL instead the original one. BTW it seems to me that snapfile allows automatic downloads. Add a custom file during first installation Some portable programs need an empty file called in a certain way in the root folder to understand that they have to work in a portable mode. You can use the SPS Builder feature "First Install Create Files" for this. If you need to create a not empty file during the SPS installation, unfortunately SPS format can't help you. Instead create a custom package and deploy it into a cloud repository service (Dropbox, Box, Drive). Then link those package instead the original one from your SPS. However the license must allow the redistribution and alteration of the original package. $PLUGINSDIR You are right the folder is useless. I'll take care of this in one of the next SyMenu/SPS Builder version. Installation into a subfolder Don't worry about that. SPS Builder respects the original package structure and your SPS must follow that structure when it maps the various resources. SyMenu instead hates empty folders so it removes a root folder if no other file is located at the same level. The only alone root folder allowed in SyMenu is the folder that SyMenu creates by itself. Where to find icon for an SPS When you try to "install" your SPS, anyway remember that SPS installation is not a proper install, press Add Icon button on the SPS Builder and go to the target folder. Select the program main executable and SPS Builder will do the work for you extracting the icon directly from the executable. Do it during the SPS editing to save time! Calibre It's an impossible mission. Read here. http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=262613 Can SPS convert a not portable program in a portable one Not a all. SPS is not a portabilizer tool but a descriptor tool. IMHO a program that is not originally portable should be excluded from SPS. So don't try to fold something that is not foldable, you'll risk to break it. Wow, what an effort!!!! edited by Gianluca on 24/08/2015
25/08/2015 Topic: Need help creating SPS files Gianluca Administrator	SyMenu will implement UniversalExtractor? UE is build as a simple script that launches several unpackers. SyMenu works in a similar way. Go on the SyMenu root folder and you'll see Innounp.exe that is the unpacker for Inno Setup installer, and 7z.exe/7z.dll that is useful to unpack compressed archive including PAF. Surely in the future I will implement more unpacker but not as UE does. You have certainly experienced that in some conditions UE requires the user attendance. SyMenu must remain completely unattended during the installation phase. Furthermore always remember that SPS is thought for portable programs while UE is thought for all programs so they have really different needs. For example it is highly unlikely that an .msi installer could contain a portable program therefore SyMenu will never implement a tool to unpack .msi installer. Add custom file during first installation This is a possible future implementation but I'm not so convinced that it is an urgent one. Usually portable programs doesn't need a configuration file with certain content. Just in case the portable version with the special file is already offered by the program author. For now if you have this need, simply create a custom package with the configuration file already set and deploy it in a cloud hosting service. Then link the SPS to this package instead of the original one. Can SPS convert a not portable program in a portable one If you don't find the silent install ability in a custom install, try to contact the program author. Maybe he haven't thought to this scenario and the implementation is trivial. Usually the freeware program authors are very helpful Last thing. If the program is using a standard installer try to search for silent install options among the installer documentation and not among the program one.
26/08/2015 Topic: Need help creating SPS files Gianluca Administrator	This thread has been extremely useful to explain in deep how SPS works from the editor point of view and thanks to your last post I can complete the explanation. Since you are not a trusted editor, and not because I don't trust you but because you are not so experienced , the publication of your SPS requires a manual operation. Usually the new/updated SPS files from trusted editors are published automatically once a day without my supervision. In the next days, please be patient , I'll check your SPS one by one, eventually correct them, and then publish them all. If I find any error I'll contact you privately because probably the topic will no longer be of public interest. App saved to UGM through SPS Builder When an SPS is ready for publication SPS Builder offers the option to save it to UGM. To activate this button you need to be a UGM user (registration through the forum) and the SPS has to be formally correct but the most important thing is that the SPS must be complete and working!!! The Save in UGM option is the right way to insert your SPS files into the SyMenu suite. Don't send an SPS file directly to me otherwise my only chance to publish it is to take ownership and publish it as it was mine. App can't be deleted from UGM through SPS Builder This is a desired behavior. If you need to delete something please directly ask to me. I can't download a file It is a common problem for several web sites that don't allow automatic download. But a tons of alternative exists. I take your SPS as an example: Registry commander The web site refuse the download unless you ask for it directly from the web site download page (probably a check on the requesting browser) You can surely use this URL instead http://files.snapfiles.com/directdl/RegCmd_15.02.13.zip Renamer Lite Same problem, same solution http://files.snapfiles.com/directdl/renamer.zip edited by Gianluca on 27/08/2015
28/08/2015 Topic: One little bug UAC icon and "humble" features sugg Gianluca Administrator	I tried in any way to reproduce this cosmetic bug without success. Probably I'm not able to reproduce your entire OS configuration... Anyway I confirm that in the next version you'll find the button to downlod the favicon for the SyWebLink.
31/08/2015 Topic: One little bug UAC icon and "humble" features sugg Gianluca Administrator	Are the three machine inside the same corporate network or are they installed by the same person? In this case maybe the problem is a particular configuration during the installation that produces a policy that restricts the analysis of the UAC status. Anyway as I already said I'm not able to reproduce the bug so it is really difficult to understand what the problem is.
31/08/2015 Topic: Elevate individual applications (as admin) Gianluca Administrator	You can always elevate applications through the contextual menu (select the action modifier with the shield icon and click on your application) but your idea for a new feature that allows elevation during autostart/autoclose is great. I'll implement it soon. P.S. Your discussion link is uncorrect so I can't understand what you are referring to.