SyMenu Forum

Gianluca

all messages by user

08/06/2024 Topic: Clicking 'Updates available' Crashes SyMenu Gianluca Administrator	Ok. Thank you. I'll investigate further and remove the limit if I understand the reason why it's there
10/06/2024 Topic: Clicking 'Updates available' Crashes SyMenu Gianluca Administrator	I confirm there's a problem with the password length even if it's not a SyMenu problem but a web site one. The web site doesn't put any limit to your password length and it's not the right behaviour. The max length should be 50 characters because SyMenu truncates a longer password to 50 chars but the web site doesn't. I'm fixing this behaviour ASAP. If you want to use a longer passphrase, you can do it because both SyMenu and the web site will ignore everything beyond the limit. The only problem will be with all the longer passwords stored until today because they'll be invalidated with the new logic. But guys... you are three. I will apologize to every one of you with a beer In the meanwhile change your passphrase and limit it within 50 chars to prevent any problem. AllonZ, thank you for your patience and help, I owe you two
15/06/2024 Topic: Clicking 'Updates available' Crashes SyMenu Gianluca Administrator	As you've already understood, the problem is different than before because this time your second attempt always succeeds. The shorter password does the magic but it's clearly not enough. I suspect in fact that there's another bug caused by a not well managed timeout in the first SyMenu connection. Your description represents a good clue that drives me in this direction so my next attempt will be to find why the timeout is not managed the right way. Unlucky this time the fix concerns SyMenu so the resolution and release will be slower than before. So be patient please. Anyway as a workaround and supplementary test I suggest you to follow this steps: - before first opening SyMenu, open your browser and visit this url https://www.ugmfree.it/api/SPSUserAgentApi - then open SyMenu. The first visit wakes up your system making it solves and navigates to the SyMenu web api. If your DNS system cache already knows where to find the SyMenu web api, the SyMenu attempt shlud be faster. I'm curious about the outcome of this test.
19/06/2024 Topic: Customize Start menu button? Gianluca Administrator	Sure. https://www.ugmfree.it/manual#Customization
19/06/2024 Topic: Ignore downgrade Gianluca Administrator	Yes, you are right. SyMenu is not able to read in a reliable way a program version. In fact sometimes the program version is the same as the executable version but often it is not. The only way SyMenu has to safely know a program version is trusting on the SPS infrastructure i.e. on its own update system. For every program managed by the SPS system, SyMenu creates a placeholder file called something like 24.06.sps.version where naturally the first part is the current program version. This is the only way SyMenu has to track the current version of a program. If you want to update a program before SPS does, you should move your program folder outside the SPS main folder (SPSSuite\SyMenuSuite) to prevent the collision and the notification. Or accept the fact you will update the program again when available on the SPS system. Or you can manually edit the placeholder file name modifying the version part with the version SyMenu wants to move with the update. I hope everything is clear now otherwise, please, ask.
19/06/2024 Topic: Customize Start menu button? Gianluca Administrator	It's exactly in that manual chapter. It's called Start menu replacement button.
28/06/2024 Topic: Clicking 'Updates available' Crashes SyMenu Gianluca Administrator	AllonZ wrote: I have not seen a post in the New SyMenu releases section since 8.01. What updates have been made since 8.01? You're right. The reason is the two releases introduced a bug fix and some new library versions. Not really interesting things for a normal user. Anyway even if I don't create a post on the forum you can always consult the changelog where I describe every single version features. https://www.ugmfree.it/symenudownload#changelog
14/07/2024 Topic: Windows 11 Voice Access Gianluca Administrator	It's something tied with the folder permissions because if I copy the voiceaccess.exe file in another folder and link it to SyMenu, everything works as it should.
15/07/2024 Topic: Windows 11 Voice Access Gianluca Administrator	Yes, that's exactly what I've said. It would be something tied with the System32 folder or executable permissions because if I copy the executable in another folder, the same operation in SyMenu succeeded.
15/07/2024 Topic: Windows 11 Voice Access Gianluca Administrator	Me too. What I told you before is that the problem is not tied to SyMenu because it links the file with zero problems when the executable is located outside the System32 folder. It's something due to that particular executable inside that particular folder. If I try to link some other executable files located in the System32 folder, they work as expected. VoiceAccess.exe doesn't. So don't ask SyMenu why it doesn't succeed but instead ask Windows. My advice is to do some research on the Internet and if you find anything, please post your solution here.
22/07/2024 Topic: Can no longer open txt or pdf files. Gianluca Administrator	In my opinion your folder location is too deep to work. Windows has a limit, coming from the old time, of 256 chars for a path length (256 plus 4 chars for the prefix). The Windows APIs I'm using for SyMenu are still affected by this limitation. If your path is deeper than 256 chars, the resolution won't work. To workaround that limit you can use junction points.
22/07/2024 Topic: Placement on Windows taskbar? Gianluca Administrator	No it isn't but it's a good idea to make it possible through customization. I'll put it in my TODO list.
24/07/2024 Topic: Can no longer open txt or pdf files. Gianluca Administrator	Nice catch.It's definitely the ampersand character. I think I know why this is happening. It's because the menu component I'm using to build SyMenu considers the ampersand (& as a placeholder for the accelerator key. An example is due to better explaining my theory. If you have a Movies&Series folder and link it to SyMenu you'll see a folder called MoviesSeries. Please note that the ampersand is missing and that the S is underscored. Everything works in SyMenu if you explore the folder content but whenever you try to execute something the path is wrong because SyMenu considers something like this: D:\MoviesSeries\MyTextFile.txt that obviously doesn't exist. Strange enough I confirm your other observation... the executable files work the same... Anyway now I'm able to reproduce the bug and you'll find it fixed in the next version. Thank you a lot for the excellent job. You are a terrific bug hunter.
25/07/2024 Topic: Can no longer open txt or pdf files. Gianluca Administrator	SvenH wrote: There are also problems with parentheses, but it might work out with the solution you intend to implement. Which kind of parenthesis? "(" and ")" should work with the current version.
25/07/2024 Topic: Can no longer open txt or pdf files. Gianluca Administrator	SvenH wrote: Two more things that I think are incorrect. 1. If you drag to SyMenu a shortcut that points to a program, the shortcut is placed in a Document container and it does not work. 2. If SyMenu refers to a folder that contains shortcuts, only those shortcuts that point to programs will work. I checked both issues but I found no problem by my side. Could it be a problem tied to paths with strange characters? Have you tested the same issues with normal folder paths?
26/07/2024 Topic: Placement on Windows taskbar? Gianluca Administrator	I'm already working on an option to activate the taskbar button for SyMenu. This way the pinning becomes viable. The only problem is the button doesn't behave as one would expect. When you click on a taskbar button you expect that something will popup but SyMenu does not have a normal window like the other programs, it only has a contextual menu. I did some experiments to make the contextual menu appear when you click on the taskbar button but, again, it seems unnatural. Plus since the contextual menu disappears when it loses focus, in some circumstances you have a sort of blinking because the taskbar button is still active even if the main control loses its focus, for example when you click on a SyMenu item... it's a mess. For these reasons the new version will be released with the option to show a taskbar button that will have no use unless the pin one. I hope it'll help the same.
26/07/2024 Topic: Can no longer open txt or pdf files. Gianluca Administrator	There's something strange in your issue. I did all the due tests but I don't have any problem. Maybe the problem is caused by those strange UTF8 chars you use in your shortcuts? Please do this test: - make a copy of the notepad++ shortcut - rename the shortcut name in something more usual for example "notepad++.lnk" - try to drag it to SyMenu
27/07/2024 Topic: Can no longer open txt or pdf files. Gianluca Administrator	SvenH wrote: Would it help to look in my config files for SyMenu? Unfortunately not because, indeed, everything is working. These are my tests in detail. 1) I have a link to a folder that contains a shortcut to a web page and a jpeg file. When I launch them, they work. 2) To be really sure I copied the same folder to C:\Users[myUser]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\, drag and drop the folder to SyMenu to create the logical item, and execute the shortcut and the image the logical folder now contains. They work. 3) Then I copied the same folder under C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\, drag and drop the folder on SyMenu to create another logical item, and execute the files. They work. So what is happening to you? It's probably a problem with the Windows permission rules because the folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\ is not so friendly if you have no admin privileges. I don't understand why you are using that one instead of the more correct C:\Users[myUser]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\ This is the folder Windows creates for you, it's a folder where your user is the owner, and where SyMenu can access with no problems because it itself uses your user to run.
28/07/2024 Topic: Can no longer open txt or pdf files. Gianluca Administrator	SvenH wrote: Why the shortcuts to programs don't end up in the personal start menu, I don't know. It's not something I control. Sure you can. You can manually move/copy the programs' shortcut wherever you want. SvenH wrote: I am attaching my test folder so maybe you can test and see if it works for you. Done and quite everything works for me. I created the destination folder in c:\Users and copied every target inside it. Then drag and drop the folder with the shortcuts in SyMenu. SyMenu resolves every single shortcut in the right way, because it finds every target file and every target file is accessible with my current permissions. I have a problem with the jpeg file with the "&" inside because, as we already know, there is a bug that I'm currently fixing. What I found is not working, it's the execution of the URL through its shortcut. And the reason is because the target is located inside C:\Program Files (x86) folder that has particular permissions. If I move it inside a different folder and link from there it works. So, again, it's a problem with permissions. Apart from the "&" bug, I won't solve the problem with the permissions case because, in my opinion, it is not a problem. It's a limitation due to Windows security policies and I don't want to waste my time with these things. The workaround I suggest you is to always use portable programs and not the installed ones. Faststone image viewer and Paint.net are available in the SyMenu suite so I don't understand why you are not using them instead of the installable counterpart.
11/08/2024 Topic: Integrity Failure Warning: Mozilla FireFox Gianluca Administrator	Well it's a sort of protection that John Haller put in his PAF format to prevent the use of his packages with other software like SyMenu. In spite of the pretending openness of the portable apps platform. Anyway don't be scared about the message.