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Gianluca

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31/08/2015 Topic: Menu customization Gianluca Administrator	No I'm not speaking as a programmer. It is complicate for end users too. Left and right click on a task icon are usually implemented when the left click shows a window and the right click shows an option menu. Do some tests. SyMenu instead doesn't have a main windows because it works with a contextual menu and it would be at least strange having the two clicks showing two different contextual menus. If you want I can remove the appearing of the contextual menu with the right click. I agree that this solution would be a more standard approach and less muddler too. You second proposal is to enable the right click on every item on the contextual menu. Well I liked so much this solution so that, in the past, I already tried to implement it. During my tests I found several problems because when the right click showed the item options contextual menu, you already have an opened contextual menu (the main one) and this produced a lot of issue (the main one closed or lost focus and you can't regain it without clicking again on the main menu). If you want I still have the aborted version. I can send to you to verify that it is a not practicable solution. I know that other menus have this feature and it works well but probably they don't use the same component as SyMenu does and you are not suggesting me to completely rewrite SyMenu for this reason, are you?
31/08/2015 Topic: Elevate individual applications (as admin) Gianluca Administrator	Your request is not stupid at all. Marking a program through Windows maybe solves your contextual problem but in case you use SyMenu and the program to run in elevated mode in several computers (in portable mode) you need this feature because the run as admin option has to be stored in SyMenu and not in Windows.
01/09/2015 Topic: One little bug UAC icon and "humble" features sugg Gianluca Administrator	I think that this is not a bug. If you login with the built-in administrator user you can execute whatever and the UAC alert never shows. I think that a process running as administrator is granted with the same privileges. I could search for the user running SyMenu and if it is the administrator force the shield to appear but... I think you are the only one with this issue worldwide :-) and since you've been able to solve it let's use your workaround instead of implementing the solution in SyMenu.
04/09/2015 Topic: SyMenu Metro App Manager Gianluca Administrator	SyMenu Metro App Manager Prerequisites SyMenu version 2.04 or higher. Description The Microsoft apps are here since a long time, so why not including them in SyMenu? SyMenu is a sort of Pac-Man that eats everything and the OS components are its frightened blue ghosts so now it's the Metro apps turn. Well this is a really really really preview version. I know that the apps in the list have no icons nor tiles, I know that the app names are so raw. Please don't report these obvious issues. In this initial phase I need to know if you really need that SyMenu is able to launch the Windows apps and if there are apps that don't appear in the list or that are not launchable. Just in case this plugin is considered useful, I'll include the apps management directly inside SyMenu. Installation: - Download the archive and extract it inside a folder with the same name. Put everything into \SyMenu\Plugin\ folder UPDATE 2015.11.10 - Update v0.2 - Extended compatibility to Windows 10 2015.09.04 - New Version v0.1 - First version (compatible with Windows 8/8.1) SyMenu.Plugin.MetroAppManager.zip edited by Gianluca on 10/11/2015
04/09/2015 Topic: What is it doing while green light flashing? Gianluca Administrator	Well it's a really complicate problem. First you can try resetting your SyMenu configuration. Simply quit from SyMenu, rename the folder Config under the main SyMenu root and restart SyMenu. It creates a fresh new Config folder but your former configuration is saved. If SyMenu runs normally the problem clearly is in your configuration. Let me know and then we will move forward.
05/09/2015 Topic: Menu customization Gianluca Administrator	You are right. Looking back the contextual menu component has been a wrong choice but when I started to write SyMenu, about 10 years ago, who could think that the programs would have been alive in the 2015? Not me certainly Why do you hate action modifiers? Don't you find those ones useful? Conversely for a developer it is essential to know the program weaknesses more than the program strengths to improve it more and more. Among other things it seems to me that you are using the compact menu where the action modifiers are not so invasive... so it is really important to understand why the modifiers are so disturbing for you.
09/09/2015 Topic: New SyMenu version 4.12 Gianluca Administrator	You're welcome. If you observe some strange behaviours please report to me immediately and if you have any other ideas to improve your collaborative experiment with SyMenu let me know the same.
11/09/2015 Topic: Custom SPS Gianluca Administrator	So you would like to have a custom suite instead of a custom folder inside every suite (_CacheCustom), wouldn't you? Have I well understand? It's a perfectly feasible feature. I could make SyMenu scans its SPSSuite folder and if it finds a folder other than NirSoftSuite, SyMenuSuite, SysinternalsSuite, it assumes that it is a custom suite folder. It will be a peculiar suite because its SPS couldn't be updated online, you'll be in charge for changing the SPS, but the programs inside work exactly as the other suites' programs, so you can install, update and delete them as usual. Even you can have more than a custom suite, naturally with different names. I like this idea. What do you think? Another improvement could be to make the custom SPS files located inside the _CacheCustom folder of an official suite, recognizable. In this way you can easily search for every custom program inside every single suite, even into the custom suite itself... I know it's a kind of recursive thing but who cares, maybe you want to have a custom suite for your personal official programs and inside the suite some other programs that are in test so you can put them inside the _CacheCustom folder. sl23 wrote: it would make life much easier if SyMenu/SPSManager to auto scan the _CacheCustom folder for any new SPS files users may want to add and use them as if they are like the built in ones Doesn't SyMenu behave already in that way? SyMenu does scan the _CacheCustom as it does with the main suite folder, otherwise it is a bug and in this case please report to me describing accurately the issue.
11/09/2015 Topic: App Updates... Gianluca Administrator	Either. First SyMenu copies to trash the entire old program folder. Second it overwrite the old program folder with the fresh files eventually preserving the Update No Copy Files file list. Third it updates the SyItem entries if necessary. If something goes wrong the new folder is deleted and the trashed one is completely restored. It's a very conservative way to deploy an update and maybe a bit expensive (time and disk space) but it is a good way to preserve any settings the user created. The only con with this method is that it could leave useless old files in place but usually it is not harmful for a program.
11/09/2015 Topic: X-Software Gianluca Administrator	Calibre is a really big lack in our SPS collection because it is a program impossible to manage for SyMenu. In fact when you install Calibre, even in silent mode, it checks the folder where you are deploying it and aborts the installation in case of this folder is not a quasi-root folder. In the past I spoke with the author and he explained to me that this conservative behaviour is necessary because Calibre works with an incredible deep file structure that could easily overcame the Windows limit for path (255 chars). The program tries to protect itself from the worse case where the book title and author name is really long (well I intend really really really long...). In my opinion this is not a great way to work but, since SyMenu has an already deep folder structure, the two are incompatible. I remember that the more common and smaller path for an SPS program is something like this: #:\SyMenu\ProgramFiles\SPSSuite\SyMenuSuite\Calibre_sps It's a path 55 characters long that leaves an availability of 200 characters for hosted program... if it is not enough, IMHO, it is not a SyMenu problem, but an hosted program one... Anyway I'm digressing and your question was different. So I reply with further questions. 1) Has X-Calibre resolved the problem I described above? Is in its X-version so demanding in terms of root path or it is a really portable program? 2) Does the WinPenPack license allows the installation with another platform? 3) I don't know the X-Format. Is it possible to silent install/unpack it? edited by Gianluca on 11/09/2015
11/09/2015 Topic: AppData Gianluca Administrator	Interesting question. When you active the Enable advanced params flag and set the AppData, you are simply defining some environment variables valid for your program. Precisely before launching the program, SyMenu sets these variables with the AppData value: - applicationdata - appdata - localapplicationdata - commonapplicationdata Naturally if the environment variable doesn't exist it replaces nothing and, from the Win7 and upper OS, the only existant environment variable among the four ones should be the second: appdata. Then SyMenu launches the program. In case of the program asks to the OS where the appdata folder is the reply will be your customized one.
11/09/2015 Topic: AppData Gianluca Administrator	It depends. The reply is yes only if the launched program reads from the OS environment variable where the appdata is located. The reply is no, if the program searches for the appdata in a different way (for example calling the SHGetFolderPath Windows API).
11/09/2015 Topic: AppData Gianluca Administrator	You have to tick the box and specify your appdata custom path otherwise the program will use the system one. Yes you have to create the custom folder before launching the program. SyMenu doesn't take charge about the creation of any folder (except for its own ones).
11/09/2015 Topic: App Updates... Gianluca Administrator	I hope that disk space is an issue for no one in the 2015
11/09/2015 Topic: Error when starting SyMenu v.4.12.5707 Gianluca Administrator	Hi Tom. I've written to you privately to get your configuration files and try to fix them. So please reply to me. Anyway I answer to your questions here too, because I think it could be useful for all the users. SyMenu is compatible with Win10 so this is not the reason for your issue. More probably your configuration files are not corrupted but simply inaccessible due to a security misconfiguration. Take ownership of the SyMenu folder and subfolder and everything will work again. If my theory is correct it is a Windows issue not SyMenu. If your files are really corrupted instead, it is not possible to rebuild them from SyMenu. You can surely move all your programs from PortableApps platform to SyMenu: - copy all the programs root folder to SyMenu\ProgramFiles folder - then use the Batch importer (http://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuManual.aspx#Item_Manager_menu_batch_import) to have them indexed inside SyMenu. Unfortunately the PAF plugin won't recognize them but, please, move on and use the SPS Manager instead. It's more powerful and we've got tons of software on it.
13/09/2015 Topic: Custom SPS Gianluca Administrator	sl23 wrote: The custom folder sps files are detected in sps manager, I needed to both restart symenu and scroll to the very bottom of the list, whereas I expected it would be listed alphabetically. Actually it's sufficient to exit from SPS Manager and re-enter without shutting SyMenu. Any time you enter in SPS Manager the file syste is rescanned. sl23 wrote: I was attempting to add GPU~Z ROG skin version. I'm curious why you didn't add it? Looks better than original version. I thought that add two different SPS files for a simple skinned version was a bit confusing for the users. Usually we add more than one version of the same program because there are actual differences, for example the 32 or 64bit platform. But if you think that the skinned version has a better look that the normal one I can replace the SPS. No problem for this. sl23 wrote: Actually, a single list for all apps, but with new headers for types of list, ie, nirsoft, custom, new release, updates, etc. Well for now I prefer to maintain the suites from different publishers in separated tabs for performance reasons but I fully understand the reasons for which you are suggesting this change and in the future, be sure, the SPS Manager will be transformed in something more similar to an app store therefore you will have no more lists but only search! Maybe you'll find a little group of suggested programs (the newest, the most downloaded...) and you'll have a stronger and elaborate way to search for your preferred application (by name, by category, by description, by user rating, by similarity with other programs, and so on). On the other hand I'll be able to offer more services such as the user comments and feedback for every programs, the user rates, a global counter for downloading, an online account where you can decide which programs to deliver to your local SyMenu installations and which programs to remove. This is a very big change because it assumes that all the SPS managing will be delegated to the web. But frankly I have not enough resources (time, help, money) to accomplish this big project today. Maybe in future, I don't know, it depends on the success the SPS will have.
13/09/2015 Topic: Menu customization Gianluca Administrator	Well you need to extra click even with a contextual menu (one click to make appear the contextual menu, one click to select the contextual menu item) so this is not the problem. The real problem with the solution I adopted is another. - You open your various submenus to reach the program you need. - When you find it you would like to change the action modifier because, for example, you need to execute the program with elevated privileges Now you have two options: 1) you click with the mouse on the action modifier under the SyMenu title, loosing the focus on the last opened submenu that closes itself... not good at all. Now that you have set the action modifier you have to search for you program again. 2) you click the CTRL key on the keyboard to change the action modifier and then click your item to execute it. Not so bad but you have to use either the mouse and the keyboard Since it's impossible to have a further contextual menu on your selected program item, I'm studying a solution to use the mouse right click to directly change the action modifier. In that way no contextual menu will popup but you can use the right click instead the keyboard to change the action modifier. Well the idea is shaping in my mind so I can't assure you that the implementation will be exactly this way but this is a probably future. Stay tuned.
16/09/2015 Topic: SPS Builder Template Gianluca Administrator	Hi guys. I've just released the new SPS Builder version (1.08). Download it with your SPS Manager and let me know. In this version I implemented the possibility to save and load incomplete SPSs, in short your desired templates Forgive me to be absent from the forum but in this period I'm working hard on the next SyMenu version... Practically I'm preparing the most important version since the introduction of the SPS. Stay tuned.
16/09/2015 Topic: Custom SPS Gianluca Administrator	Don't be alarmed, there is a long way to realize the SPS store. Indeed to really boost the SPS store project the donations from the users are not enough but it would be necessary (and beautiful) that someone strongly believes in SyMenu and SPS and finances the project. In my real job I'm a web architect and developer so I perfectly know what kind of infrastructure the store project needs. And how many person should work on it... For now let's play around this fantastic game and let's see how far it will come
16/09/2015 Topic: Menu customization Gianluca Administrator	Right click completed! It works like a charm... you should see it I will surely release it with the next version.