recent posts
1 days ago Topic: SyMenu 8.08 sl23 Posts: 309	sl23 Posts: 309 Topic: SyMenu 8.08 So it is! Never noticed that as I never use the Help menu. Good to know it's there though. Thanks.
1 days ago Topic: A crazy new adventure! sl23 Posts: 309	sl23 Posts: 309 Topic: A crazy new adventure! haha! Glad I don't disappoint! But then... doesn't that make me predictable? Hopefully in a good way! That's good news, glad your planning portability! I bet this is an interesting project for you eh? Re: Plugins - Also good news about current support. Not so about plugins, that looks quite complex when I looked inside the plugins folders to see what they consisted of O.o I assume it'll require quite a bit of knowledge of .NET and some other stuff to do this? Still, looks very useful indeed. Thanks for making it!
1 days ago Topic: SyMenu 8.08 Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378	Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378 Topic: SyMenu 8.08 Indeed it's availabel, maybe a bit hidden but it's there. Configuration - Help - Changelog web page
1 days ago Topic: A crazy new adventure! Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378	Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378 Topic: A crazy new adventure! Interesting questions (and I wouldn’t expect anything different from you, my friend ). Is it portable? Well, it will be. Once I exit the beta phase, I’ll include it as an SPS in SyMenu. At the moment it writes its data in AppData\Local\GANI, but as you know, SyMenu can easily redirect that folder into a program’s subfolder. The other file it creates is a virtual disk called GANI, which you’re free to place wherever you want. So when GANI becomes part of SyMenu, its setup will be torn to pieces, just like we do for every other program... no privileges for anyone inside the SyMenu suite. Plugin Currently, GANI can read any kind of text file with the following extensions: .txt, .log, .csv, .ini, .md, .htm, .html, so HTML is already supported. XML would be plain text too, but it’s more flexible than HTML because XML can define its own tags. So I can consider supporting specific XML formats. For example, if a data flow uses a specific XML structure, I can create a plugin to decode it without losing information. Remember that HTML relies on tag content, while XML can store information in attributes as well. As for the other formats: why not? I designed the plugin system exactly to expand the tool or to allow someone else to expand it. In fact, in addition to plain text files, I've already written plugins for xlsx, docx, pdf, pptx, and rtf. edited by Gianluca on 10/03/2026
1 days ago Topic: SyMenu Published App Track sl23 Posts: 309	sl23 Posts: 309 Topic: SyMenu Published App Track I couldn't find the topic for SyMenu Orphan Icons Cleaner, which also needs some updating too. If there's anything I can also do with that, let me know.
1 days ago Topic: SyMenu Published App Track sl23 Posts: 309	sl23 Posts: 309 Topic: SyMenu Published App Track Are you able to guide me with setting up the source code for me to work on it? I understand your time-limited, but if you can offer some guidance on getting the source into an editor where I can problem solve, amend, even update and then compile without your assistance, then I am willing to do that for you. Would be an honour and a pleasure to help you out. Can't promise anything, but I will give it a go. Once it's ready, I can then pass it back for your inspection and testing. Hopefully that isn't too intensive, time-wise I mean. What do you say?
1 days ago Topic: SyMenu Published App Track Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378	Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378 Topic: SyMenu Published App Track Well, I realized that I never gave proper closure to this thread. Anyway, VVV is still alive and kicking, but now he’s playing in a different league than the SyMenu community (he’s in the tough league now, the real‑life one 🙂). He handed the source code over to me, but unfortunately mrx gave up because PAT is too complex and not very well written, so it’s too steep a project to start with. I can’t take it on myself either, so I’m still waiting for someone new who might want to help with this project. In my opinion it’s a really interesting topic, and there’s room for tons of improvement. If I weren’t so overloaded, I’d be happy to work on it myself. Let me recap everything: - PAT needs to be updated: user agent, UI typos, architecture (x86 → x64) - PAT should be converted from its current language (VB.NET) to a more standard one (C#) - There’s plenty of room to improve the program’s functionality as well - We need a developer, even a young one, because I can’t manage a new project but I can supervise one If you want to write a small manual, I can republish PAT including this new resource — no problem at all.
1 days ago Topic: SyMenu 8.08 sl23 Posts: 309	sl23 Posts: 309 Topic: SyMenu 8.08 Would be useful to have this as a part of the SyMenu itself. ie, where the section of the menu includes Options, Check for Updates, About, etc, this would be a good addition to that context where you can quickly check the changelog to see what's new. Thanks for all your work Gian.
1 days ago Topic: SPS Builder Manual sl23 Posts: 309	sl23 Posts: 309 Topic: SPS Builder Manual Wow, great job! I was thinking of starting a new collection so this will be handy! Thanks for this.
1 days ago Topic: A crazy new adventure! sl23 Posts: 309	sl23 Posts: 309 Topic: A crazy new adventure! That sounds interesting! Are you bored with SyMenu now then? lol The most important question I have though... Is it portable? Will there be more plugins for other formats? I'm thinking: epub, mobi, djvw, html, xml, etc. These would be the most useful for me personally. I have many ebooks and this app would help in learning subjects. Thanks Gian! edited by sl23 on 09/03/2026
1 days ago Topic: SyMenu Published App Track sl23 Posts: 309	sl23 Posts: 309 Topic: SyMenu Published App Track After having designed my Rainmeter AppUpdateCheck skin, I thought more about using the PAT again. First, instructions aren't very clear, and are only available online. I would be happy to relearn it's usage and write a small text file or something for offline usage, but it needs to be included in the download. This will obviously need to be done by VVV. Also, I am wondering if there's any chance the PAT app can be updated to x64 due to the continued movement in this direction by MS. Thanks.
1 days ago Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Maaspuck Posts: 5	Maaspuck Posts: 5 Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Hi, the new beta works fantastic. 11 GB of programm data and 3 non accessible network drive letter configured.... start in 1 second !!! Brilliant :-) @Gian Thanks a lot for your kind words and thanks a lot for your quick support.
2 days ago Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378	Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378 Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Now the problem is finally clear. Windows uses a component called the Network Redirector to manage communications with network drives. Unfortunately, it has a very long default timeout (10-20 seconds) before declaring a unit unreachable. As we know... networks can be slow by definition. In my previous attempt, I only partially solved the problem. I used an API that 'wakes up' the Network Redirector on the first unit checked (X: in Masspuck's case). This still required those 10-20 seconds for the first check, but at least the Redirector was smart enough to realize that other units on the same IP were also down. Good boy, Redirector. Before this update, SyMenu didn't trigger this behavior, causing timeouts to pile up one after another. Since there’s no way to change how Windows works, I decided to run every check on separate threads in parallel. Why didn't I do this in the first place? Because SyMenu loads so fast that I was afraid a user might click on a unit before it was actually ready. With hindsight... well, who cares? If a user is that fast, they’ll be smart enough to understand they just need to try again. As I get older, I tend to become more and more cautious, so now the behavior is slightly different: you won't see a network unit until it's confirmed as ready. So, if you’re quick enough, you might actually see a mapped unit appear in 'My Computer' right before your eyes. I’m quite confident the problem is now solved, but I’m looking forward to your feedback. A word for Maaspuck: Without your help, I couldn't have solved this. You have been great, fast, and precise in your reporting. If all users were like you, SyMenu would have been bug-free for years! The new beta is here: https://www.ugmfree.it/public/SyMenuBeta/SyMenu.8.12.9564.beta.zip
2 days ago Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378	Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378 Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Ok then my workaround works and this is the good news, but probably I have to apply it in another place too. So stay tuned!
2 days ago Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Maaspuck Posts: 5	Maaspuck Posts: 5 Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Hi, you will find some logfiles in PN. I always started symenu.exe -logger from the command line as stated above. With network drive letters available, but not accessible, the start is still slower. I did not use a stop watch, but I had the feeling that it was a bit more reliable though slow. A big improvement is, that though drive letters are available, the menu in "My computer" did not show them and SyMenu did not try to access them making this menu fast again independently from network drive letter existance. After "deleting" the network drive letters using "net use X: /delete", SyMenu started within a second as expected with no programs installed. With accessible network drives SyMenu started fluent au usual including fast "My Computer" Menu. So overall, I would state, that the "My Computer" Menu is fast again, even with unaccessible network drives but start of SyMenu is still slower with unaccessible network drives than without.
2 days ago Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378	Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378 Topic: slow down startup and random freezes I need your help to check the workaround I created. I’ve built a new beta version, identical to the current one, but with a new system designed to prevent Windows from 'hanging' while trying to access inactive or unavailable network drives. This was indeed the root cause of the freezes you experienced in SyMenu. You can download the beta and use it to overwrite your current installation, or simply run it in parallel only to test the fix. One important note: since this is a manual download, Windows might trigger its security protection. To avoid any issues, please remember to unblock the ZIP file after downloading it, as explained here for plugins: https://www.ugmfree.it/manual#SyMenuPluginBlocked. The beta URL is available here: https://www.ugmfree.it/public/SyMenuBeta/SyMenu.8.12.9563.beta.zip Please let me know if this resolves the issue.
2 days ago Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Maaspuck Posts: 5	Maaspuck Posts: 5 Topic: slow down startup and random freezes yes, I know it sounds very strange.... I tried with a complete new download of symenu without any program....and its slow again if network drives are not available. Of course, when I hover the mouse over "my computer", syMenu starts to scan again and it takes its time then again.
2 days ago Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378	Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378 Topic: slow down startup and random freezes I don't understad... you have no SyMenu items (folders or programs) pointing to one of the NAS but if the NAS is offline, SyMenu suffers the same. Is it possible? The only scenarios in which this is possible is: - when you navigate through folders with SyMenu but, again, SyMenu loads every folder content only if you want to open it. - if you mapped some NAS resources in your Start Menu. SyMenu scans your start menu to link whatever it finds inside. In this case any broken link is ignored. But, if the OS needs a long timeout to tell SyMenu that one resource is broken... well you got your delay.
2 days ago Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Maaspuck Posts: 5	Maaspuck Posts: 5 Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Hi, i will come back with a log soon Meanwhile, I created a skript connecting network drive letters only a start of NAS and deleting them during shutdown to be sure no network drive letters of non existing connections exist. Concerning programs that point to the network drives.....there is none as far as I know (unless I haven't make any mistake, I must check this). I habe one complete symenu folder on my local ssd and did not add any "external" program so far.
3 days ago Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378	Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1378 Topic: slow down startup and random freezes Finally, this is something really interesting. To recap: it seems that when a network drive is mapped but the device is offline, SyMenu asks Windows to enumerate the folders to begin its scan. Instead of returning an immediate error (like 'not found' or 'unavailable'), the OS keeps trying to access the drive until a very long timeout is reached. Dear Windows, old boy... anyway, let's try to work around it as we usually do. I need a log from SyMenu. To enable logging, you need to start the application from the command line with a special argument: SyMenu.exe -logger If the lag occurs, please close SyMenu and send me the log file privately. You will find it in the SyMenu root folder, named something like LogFile.20260308.txt. Also, if possible, I’d like you to try this test: Move all your items (programs, folders, etc.) that point to the mapped drive into a SyMenu subfolder. For example, if you have an item like Z:\myprogram.exe directly in the SyMenu root, create a new container/folder and move it inside. Then, restart SyMenu and let’s see if the startup delay disappears.

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