SyMenu Forum

Gianluca

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23/11/2018 Topic: Config form enhancements. Gianluca Administrator	Yes it is, but now the unclear things is another. Is the drag + CTRL feature not enough? It clone the entire dragged item. https://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuManual.aspx#dragAndDropClone
24/11/2018 Topic: Config form enhancements. Gianluca Administrator	Ok, so, if I well understand the problem, the available copy feature is good for you but you would prefer a menu/mouse right click shortcut to reach it. Something like a new entry along with the Hide Item, Emphasize item, and Remove item menu entry with a name like "Clone item". Is it correct? If it is, it's not a big deal and it makes sense to implement if. The clone feature is indeed a bit hidden compared to the others. edited by Gianluca on 24/11/2018
26/11/2018 Topic: Config form enhancements. Gianluca Administrator	You can already change the Visit Website target URL by changing the URL text. I can't add another button for this because it'll be useless. I don't see the point to add a right click different behavior in clicking a button. When you click a button in Windows you don't have two different behaviors. I create an exception to this Windows gold rule on the SPS Manager where you can right click the links. But, speaking about links and not about buttons, it's a very common behavior on every browser too, so I thought the users were already accustomed to this feature. Plus the link values in the SPS Manager are not available in any other form while every buttons in the configuration form has its corresponding values right before it, inside its own textbox. If you right click on any of these textbox, Windows select the entire text for you and make the system contextual menu appears. From there you can copy your text with only another click on the Copy entry. IMHO it's not a too much demanding task and it preserves the Windows standard behavior. edited by Gianluca on 26/11/2018
26/11/2018 Topic: New SyMenu version 6.06 Gianluca Administrator	Thank you for your support! A "very hard job" is a very polite sentence to describe the hell of this activity. Luckily the nightmare is over now!
28/11/2018 Topic: Config form enhancements. Gianluca Administrator	I agree with your both requests. Consider them done!
06/12/2018 Topic: My SyMenu "wish list" Gianluca Administrator	Ho ho ho... So I'd be a sort of Santa Claus now Let's see what I have in my sack... 1) With the next version you'll have something similar even if not exactly what you are asking for. You'll be able to always force an update this means that you'll be able to force an update of a normal item and a 0.00 item too. Indeed you are already notified of any new update with the little "upd" and "new" badges placed over the program icons but I got your point and probably we will arrive there before or after. 2) It's one of the topic of the bunch I'm analyzing for the next version. It's not a sure implementation but likely. 3) Well it's not among the top priorities but who knows... in Christmas time we are all on our best behavior Since we are speaking about the next I have some anticipations of already ready features. 1) You'll have a logging feature (turned off by default) that can log your activity in SyMenu; 2) You can force an SPS updated (already covered before) 3) In the configuration form the cursors keys with the SHIFT modifier are able to move the items up, down, up level, and inside the very next folder 4) The item cloning available in the configuration form with drag & drop, can now be done with the special context menu entry too 5) The Visit web site link in configuration form is now a button 6) Fix - Deleting an item that shares its program icon with another item, doesn't remove the icon file anymore 7) Fix - The item description textbox in configuration form now selects all its text on enter as the other textboxes
12/12/2018 Topic: Minor flaw: button only visible in half Gianluca Administrator	It's a normal behavior. Almost every form is now resizable so you simply have to increase the form height. On the next run your setting will be preserved and you won't need to resize it again. Please try it and report.
30/12/2018 Topic: Prog settings different if run from shortcut Gianluca Administrator	Absolutely not. HandBrake is a program that works in the right way (right way from a Windows point of view) because it asks the system where the Roaming folder is through the right environment variable query. When a program is so good, we can use the SyMenu power to rewrite those environment variable just before the program execution. In this way the program thinks that the Roaming folder is placed elsewhere and writes its setting there. The trick is feasible with almost all the system environment variables. HandBrake wants to write in the Roaming folder but other programs could write in the Temp folder or Local folder or ProgramData folder... The variability is extraordinary you can not even image that. But, a lot of programs act in the wrong way, and find their data folders in other ways so the environment variable rewrite become useless. If you want you can experience by yourself the effects of the environment variable rewrite. Start with HandBrake (go to the configuration form, select HandBrake, select advanced tab) to understand how SyMenu redefines the Environment variables. Then if you find some other rewrite trick for some other program, please let's us know! ;-)
31/12/2018 Topic: Prog settings different if run from shortcut Gianluca Administrator	1) Yes sure, they already exists and you don't need to create a batch file for this purpose. SyMenu is able to create a so called Desktop shortcut for every configured item (see https://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuManual.aspx#DesktopShortcut). It's true, this kind of shortcuts are temporary by design but you can force them to become permanent with an easy workaround. SyMenu recognize its own temporary shortcuts because all of them have a comment equal to the SyMenu GUID. In this way you can have more than one SyMenu version running at the same time and every version is able to recognize its own shortcuts. If you want to convert a temporary shortcut in a permanent one, please remove that value from the comment. To access the comment ask for the shortcut properties - shortcut tab. 2) A stable search items is quite impossible to get for SyMenu because of its design. The only stable window in SyMenu is the Separate launcher (not search then). You can find info about it here: https://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuManual.aspx#SyContainerSeparateLauncher But you can test one alternative way of working. Why don't you use the search shortcut? Since the search is effective only if you type on the keyboard, prepending a customizable shortcut to make the search directly appear won't be too annoying.
31/12/2018 Topic: Prog settings different if run from shortcut Gianluca Administrator	jimlad68 wrote: I am not sure if there would be any other downsides to leaving it unticked?? Who knows...? It depends on how HandBrake works jimlad68 wrote: [...]I could not find the "temporary desktop shortcut" (I looked for .lnk on C: drive + SyMenu drive) That's probably because when you activate the checkbox for "Desktop Shortcut" you haven't restarted SyMenu. SyMenu creates all the Desktop shortcut at start time, and removes them at quit time. So tick the checkbox for HB, save the configuration, quit SyMenu, start SyMenu. Your new shortcut will appear in your desktop and it'll be called "HandBrake (x64) (Sy).lnk". jimlad68* wrote: I did notice this file: ….\SyMenu\ProgramFiles\SPSSuite\SyMenuSuite\HandBrake_(x64)_sps\portable.ini.template You did it!!! This file didn't exist when I first studied HB. It's probably a recent addition from the author. Now the HB portability becomes easier and doesn't need the Environment Variable rewrite. I've just changed the definition so if you want to check it, remove HB, download again the program definitions from within SyMenu, install HD again. No more Advanced parameters but the program is portable the same thanks to the ini file (the file renaming is made by SyMenu itself during installation). Thanks for the tip!!!
02/01/2019 Topic: Prog settings different if run from shortcut Gianluca Administrator	IMHO the "Send to" feature is, by its nature, opposed to the portability concept. Your case is a bit extreme in the same way. If you want HB to be fully portable, why do you need it in the send to menu? I understand the need for a clean PC but a clean PC must be clean even in the send to menu Anyway the Windows send to feature is nothing else than a folder with some shortcuts in it. In my PC I can find it in: C:\Users[user]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo If you want a SyMenu Desktop shortcut appears in the send to menu, simply copy it inside the special folder. The Windows send to menu will gain a new item where the executable called will be SyMenu that consequentially will call your program.
09/01/2019 Topic: ULTRASEARCH Multiple Instances Gianluca Administrator	jimlad68 wrote: Interesting to "hide" a useful feature. I'm sure more people would use it if it were not hidden! Well I did it the same to test some new features or to implement things I though were not so useful for all the users. It's not so unusual doing so. jimlad68 wrote: I have no idea why the default is only 1 instance so I do not know if you would wish to make it the SyMenu default Well SyMenu doesn't alter the hosted program behavior. It's an house rule. jimlad68 wrote: This works fine in the SyMenu portable version, but, because a SyMenu call of Ultrasearch does not pick up the selected file for Explorer "send to" a standard target shortcut (e.g. Target E:\zPortAps\SyMenu\ProgramFiles\SPSSuite\SyMenuSuite\UltraSearch_(x64)_sps\UltraSearch.exe) needs to be used there, which works well for 1 instance, but does not MIX a SyMenu shortcut call for say a 2nd instance, it starts but fails. So, this is one of those instances where I may also have a non-portable version on my PC. So (as similarly discussed in the HandBrake topic) this workaround works: Always call from either a shortcut (say on desktop) or via Explorer "send to" with Target E:\zPortAps\SyMenu\ProgramFiles\SPSSuite\SyMenuSuite\UltraSearch_(x64)_sps\UltraSearch.exe I'm sure I said that very well, but basically use either ALL SyMenu shortcut calls for all your instances, OR use ALL standard shortcut calls Really... I don't understand what are you talking about. I don't understand either if it's a request or a tip for the other users... If it is a question, please help me to understand.
29/01/2019 Topic: SyMenu Backup Gianluca Administrator	You are right. The plugin was from a developer that disappeared after a while. Probably his program did the same because it was stored on an external repository. Well is a backup tool dedicated to SyMenu useful? Not so much. SyMenu is a program strongly tied to the file system so if you backup the entire SyMenu folder, you are backing up SyMenu itself, its configuration, and all the suite programs. You can use a normal backup tools for this purpose. My advise is to use a tool with differential/incremental backup features to limit the backup size. Well probably I have to close this thread too...
02/02/2019 Topic: Position on the SyMenu icon screen Gianluca Administrator	It should be already this way unless you: - drag it intentionally to another place; - open SyMenu in another PC. In this case the floating icon is located in the screen center. Can you explain better your request please?
02/02/2019 Topic: Position on the SyMenu icon screen Gianluca Administrator	So you need something to avoid any unintentional movement, don't you? Sorry it's not possible. The only workaround that comes to my mind is to move SyMenu in the desired position, close it, then re-open the program in read-only mode. When SyMenu runs in read-only mode you can move it here and there but you'll find it again in the previous position on the next run, because it is not able to save its new position. But working in read-only mode is not the best way you can use the program.
04/02/2019 Topic: My SyMenu "wish list" Gianluca Administrator	VVV_Easy_Symenu wrote: I'm trying the new version: 6.07.6972 [2019.02.02]. Some quick returns: "An already updated program can be forced to update itself again. It works with autoupdatable programs too (0.00)" I don't understand how this works. I explain myself with an example with a 0.00.sps app "Mozilla Firefox Portable": I have the 61.0.2 version installed. How I knows? Because when I run it alerts me that there is an update and I can see it in the inner FireFox menu. In the Get New Apps windows today it apears with the version 65.0 updated in 29-01-2019 as Added (and no UPD banner over the icon, even when yesterday was in 64.0) If I check it and "Apply All" in the Get New Apps windows it ask me for Remove, not for update, logical usual behavior. So, How I can force to update this app? How I know that has been a change in the Added app? (I have expected a banner UPD over the icon) Well so many questions here. 1) How I know that a new program version is available? It depends. You are notified from the Get New Apps (UPD banner over the icon) only if the person in charge (the SPS editor) supplies the update information to our system. You are notified from the program itself only if the program has this functionality. FF represents a particular case. It will always alert you instead of our SPS system because, since FF is so reliable about its updates process, we tagged it as 0.00 that means: "please dear user, trust FF and update the program from its internal update feature, and don't expect any update information from our system". 2) The UPD banner never appears on the 0.00 programs. I can't remember why I decided to adopt this behavior but, at the time, it seemed sane. 3) The group behavior of the programs doesn't change in the Get New Apps window. So it is correct it asks you to remove an added program. 4) How I can force to update this app? Go to the Get new apps, right click on an already added program, choose Force update from the web site. It works with either normal and 0.00 programs. 5) How I know that has been a change in the Added app? As usual an available update is notified with the red update banner. Don't expect a new behavior with the 0.00 programs instead. If they are already added, they never show the banner. All your questions are done because of a misunderstanding: the forced update is not an exclusive feature for the 0.00 programs but it's a common feature for every already added program that you want to refresh for any reason.
04/02/2019 Topic: New SyMenu version 6.07 Gianluca Administrator	Here we are. A "real" SyMenu version update, has been missing for many months by now. If I'm not wrong from April 2018. All the following versions brought graphical improvement and UI redraw but very little changes in the program features. But now it's over, finally, and I'm here again with some real implementations. Here is the changelog: Breaking change on the customizable menu structure: the Host programs item is now separated from MyComputer item The program logging activity becomes optional and is now on SQLite The item execution can be logged on SQLite An already updated program can be forced to update itself again. It works with auto updatable programs too (0.00) In the configuration form the cursors keys with the SHIFT modifier are able to move the items up, down, up level, and inside the very next folder The item cloning available in the configuration form with drag & drop, can now be done with the special context menu entry too The Visit web site link in configuration form is now a button Fix - Deleting an item that is sharing its program icon with another item, doesn't remove the icon file anymore Fix - The item description textbox in configuration form now selects all its text on enter as the other textboxes I hope this new version is well valued. Stay tuned for next news.
06/02/2019 Topic: My SyMenu "wish list" Gianluca Administrator	But why you need to force the update for 0.00? A 0.00 program should be able to force its own update. This is the behavior for Firefox for example. Is there any 0.00 program that doesn't behave in that way? Because in that case the program shouldn't be tagged as a 0.00 in the SPS.
11/02/2019 Topic: My SyMenu "wish list" Gianluca Administrator	If you think that having the UPD read banner even on installed 0.00 can be useful I can try to add it. I'm not sure it's possible because the UPD banner is strongly associated with the Update status which is tied with the option to update that entry. I have to separate the two things. Or... add a third banner (NEW, UPD, AUT). AUT means: "dear user, there is a new version for this program but since it's a 0.00 it's in AUTo update mode, so please make it autoupdates or force the update from here!!". It's still a draft but what do you think?
14/02/2019 Topic: My SyMenu "wish list" Gianluca Administrator	Consider it done.