This command line app fits the bill perfectly.  You might have to direct the shortcut to your desktop (“C:\\Users\\<linux user name>\\Desktop\\shortcutname.lnk”), not sure if Wine will create the .desktop file otherwise.  When it’s done you’ll have to delete the .lnk but your .desktop file, icon-ready, will be there!

I’ve been working on other stuff too, really!  Just trying to get the bugs that people report to me out of the way…

Biggest change is the Portable Passwords feature.  It’s opt-in so you’ll need to use the INI to enable it since it creates a bit of a hassle (you need to enter a master password on startup, to keep your passwords safe).

More details in help.html.

• Stable (3.0.195.33)
• Beta (4.0.223.16)
• Dev (4.0.249.11)

Downloads: Stable/Beta | Dev

Fixed a particularly nasty bug where RunLocally and CacheInTemp were always forced on.  Also themes now work properly between sessions.

[Edit: Updated Dev download with the latest Chrome Dev build released today.]

[Edit: Update downloads to remove nsexec which some av products falsely label as malware.]

[Edit: Updated Dev build to *.223.11 which fixes a crash bug with RSS feed extensions.]

These changes are of particular note:

• Added Capture Monitor and Color Picker modes.
• Added PrintScreen simulation option for capturing transparent windows.
• Many changes and bug fixes to clipboard code.
• Tweaks to the overlay, especially to the overlay text.
• Misc bug fixes.

[Edit: Updated to 1.7.1: Potentially fixed a bug where crashes could occur when opening the Options dialog or using the Capture Monitor menu item.  The person who reported the bug to me hasn't been available to test the fix but I'm confident I fixed the right thing.]

Downloads: Stable, Beta, Dev.

• Verify the mic does indeed seem to be not working, and that the person who notified you isn’t deaf.  Usually I also check the app’s own volume settings for the mic here.
• Check that the mic mute switch that I never use or need on the volume control didn’t flick itself to off.
• Open Volume  Control’s Recording view and make sure some random app didn’t change the mic volume or the input device.
• Make sure the “convenient detatchable mic” didn’t inconceniently partially detatch itself from the headset.
• Only then do I crawl behind my computer to check the mic plug.
• If it still doesn’t work, another stupid headset broke, buy a new one that is slightly more expensive than the previous one and hope it works better.

All of these have happened to me at some pont or another, except for the first one.  The easiest solution is NEVER the answer.  Fortunately my newest headset’s cord is short enough that my chair doesn’t accidentally roll over it and yank the headset off of my head… and connections loose, as has happened with all my previous ones.  So I seem to be safe from the last solution too for the time being.

First let’s start with the updated programs:

EasyScreenshot.NET has been updated to 1.6.

Changes since 1.5:

• EasyScreenshot.NET can now only have one instance running at once.
• EasyScreenshot.NET now properly loads/saves options and screenshots regardless of the wrong working directory it is run from.
• “Capture Clipboard After Timer” is a bit pointless and so was removed.
• “Capture Clipboard Now” will be unavailable if there is no image data on the clipboard that ES.NET understands.
• When uploading an image, the image and url is available on the clipboard immediately for pasting before the upload completes.
• Hotkeys work now.
• If an upload fails it will be reattempted up to 3 times.
• Overlay has been replaced with a much simpler, static overlay.  This should fix most problems people have with it.  The new overlay has a new option: by default, when you select an area or window, that area will be cut from the static overlay as-is.  If you want to capture the area/window at the moment of time when you click it (old behavior), there’s a new toggle in the options dialog.
• Notification boxes are now clickable.  URLs now show up as clickable links.
• You can now cancel uploads by clicking a Cancel button in the notification box or closing the balloon tip.

AppCompactor has been updated to version 1.1:

Changes since 1.0:

• Tweaks to the interface for adding/removing files and folders.
• More silk icon goodness!
• Workaround for .NET semi-bug which could occur if you use search indexing or real-time malware monitoring software and it tries to access temporary files as AppCompactor is trying to delete them.
• Fixed temporary directory not being completely cleaned up when it could be.

Google Chrome Portable has been updated to use PortableApps.com Format.  In accordance with PortableApps.com guidelines I am making “Development Test” versions available for testing prior to a final release of this version.  Previews of releases 2.0.172.33 and 3.0.190.4 are available.

Changelog for this release as well as release notes etc is available here.  One important note is that the installer will delete plugins and dictionaries, so if you want to keep them back them up first.

Now a new release!

(Click any images for unsquished versions.)

Main SVN Explorer window

SVN Explorer is a program I made for browsing SVN repositories that do not have a web-based interface for browsing.  Or even those that do.  This program uses Cygwin svn.exe (or compatible) as a helper process to actually do all the dirty work that I don’t know how to do.  I could have used a library or something but I really wanted to hone my skills with using helper processes like this.

SVN Explorer only implements read-only operations, and only operations that don’t don’t involve mass-downloading (no checkout or update, sorry).  What you CAN do is browse the tree at any revision number/date, download individual files, view files in an internal or external viewer, view properties for any file or folder including revision log info, repository information, file data, and misc properties on a file or folder.

Note that this program is probably a bit rougher around the edges than most of my programs.  This was sorta intended to be a proof-of-concept thing and sorta ballooned.

You must have svn.exe in your system path or in the working directory of this program in order to use it.  The version of svn.exe I used can be installed with Cygwin, and there are also probably compatible native ports too.

Now for the sneak previews of programs that are almost done.

Main WiimoteScript window

WiimoteScript with helper panes open

A few of my programs have been attempts to copy programs that are good ideas but that are broken, buggy, or just no longer updated.  GlovePIE sadly feel into this category… it seems very picky about which bluetooth stacks it works with, and when I reinstalled XP once it stopped working entirely.  I felt the need to make a replacement program that would be more compatible.  When I found WiiDeviceLibrary, a .NET library that boasted compatibility with the Microsoft bluetooth stack, I knew I had my opportunity.

WiimoteScript is my attempt to create a GlovePIE clone that focuses on Wii devices while building on the base of WiiDeviceLibrary.  Leveraging the .NET framework’s built-in compilers, I was able to implement a scripting language.  You can read and simulate input on the Mouse and Keyboard, as well as simulate input on PPJoy joysticks.  But mostly you will want to read data from Wii devices connected to your system and then simulate input on those other devices, which games and other programs can read as real input.

I tried to keep things simple whenever possible.  Any time while the program is running, you can pair your Wiimote (press 1+2) or other Wii device and it will automatically be detected and connected.  You then load a script and run it.  If you make your own scripts, there is a quick reference feature to get you started, although knowledge about the .NET framework, at least language syntax, is considered a prerequesite.

Note that I also support C# in addition to VB.NET, don’t worry.

I also included a thorough Wii device testing tool that you can use to verify if there’s a bug in your script, my code, WiiDeviceLibrary, or if your Wii device is just acting wonky.

All I have left to do is really get a good collection of simple scripts together to make it easy to use (just load a script and go) as well as provide samples for the basis of user-made scripts.

Although I won’t do it for this release, I could use some help making the code completion not suck (you can turn it off if you find it sucks bad enough, press Ctrl+E and click on the button enough).  Anyone who has any experience with SharpDevelop’s source code, especially the editor and code completion portions, please drop me an e-mail (resume has my address) or tweet (@mzzt) and let me know.

Taskbar and Start Menu, browsing a place.

Taskbar with All Programs. No Icons because I'm not testing from my portable drive.

Options menu

Portable Taskbar was the result of my looking at PortableApps.com Menu and realizing it would be so much more awesome with some more customization ability and a taskbar.  Unfortunately it seemed noone made anything like that, so again, I stepped in!

First, I based the concepts all around the built-in Vista/7 Start Menu.  We have built-in searching of programs, and it can even show folder contents if you give it an absolute path.  Places on the right can be used to navigate common folders and it defaults to PortableApps.com’s own directory structure on your drive.  Internet and E-mail can optionally be pinned to the Start Menu (no others, sorry…) and recent programs appear too (not shown).  Then we have integration with USB Disk Ejector to power the eject button.

In All Programs, you can quickly add a bunch of programs at once, rename them, change their icons and paths, add parameters, reorder them, whatever!

Any program windows run from your portable drive appear in your portable taskbar, so it is the central hub for your portable drive.  If you don’t like the taskbar you can turn it off and be left with a tray icon, a la PortableApps.com Menu.  The taskbar also allows programs to be pinned to it, and has a nice “always on top” orb.

I’m hoping to get some “Windows 7″-like taskbar effects in, such as mixing quick launch and process buttons, task grouping, large icons…  However these are not implemented yet.

Lastly I implemented some flexible themeing.  Themes are defined via XML files and image files and I tried to make images work closely to how I know Windows themeing works.  Unfortunately I could not get native themeing in thanks to the fact that applications can’t use taskbar themeing in XP, just Vista and above.

The obvious choice for a default theme was my inspiration, PortableApps.com.  I still have to get permission though before I release I suppose… >_>

Bonus for reading all of this:

Once I saw this a friend of mine commented that it should be the intro movie to TF2.  I made that a reality.  Go here and download both files (they are different files, stupid thing just hides the extensions) and extract the larger one to get both files out of it.  Put them in Steam\SteamApps\<username>\Team Fortress 2\tf\media and you’re good to go.

Had to transcode it TWICE because RADTools and possibly DirectShow hate me so I had to transcode it to XViD and then use RADTools to make a usable BNK file but the quality is OK except in a couple of frames where the names appear on the screen but I blame the Bink codec for that.

It was worse than I had feared.

First of all the install process has a progress bar that doesn’t actually measure anything meaninful since it just resets once it gets to the end and you have no clue how many times it has to fill before it’s done.  I hate installers that do that.  But I can’t fault Apple for this since it’s a universal sort of flaw you see everywhere.

The installer was actually sort of pleasent, well except that it steals all your file associations by default but if you’re the sort of person who reads all the checkboxes instead of just clicking Next until the installer is done it’s not a big problem.  Again this is a universal thing that happens in many installers, even Firefox.

Of course it installs no less than 3 different services in order to work properly.  I didn’t even check application drivers!  At most only one service should be needed for User mode compatibility… and even then I hate when apps need to install services that run all the time even when the app isn’t running.

Let’s see what we have here:

1. “Apple Mobile Device: Provides the interface to Apple mobile devices.” I don’t even HAVE an iPod!
2. “Bonjour Service: Bonjour allows applications like iTunes and Safari to advertise and discover services on the local network.”  I’m not big on Mac stuff but I guess this is the Mac equivilent of an SMB client.  This really isn’t needed as a service, user mode apps SHOULD be able to use networking just fine without it, and it’s not like you can do much with these services without an Apple User mode app runnning, right?
3. “iPod Service: iPod hardware management services” Wait, didn’t we already get this in #1?  I’m confused.
4. Oh yeah, Apple’s Update thing goes into Scheduled Tasks if you don’t uncheck the box for it.  Not a service but still annoying.  I don’t really need to update your apps if I’m not running them, just check on app startup!

Ok now the install is finished.  I get an error message indicating some Windows system components I need are missing.  Not a big surprise since I’m running a stripped-down XP VM… oh wait these components are only needed for iPod/iPhone communications.  But if we can’t do it anyway, why are the two services still running?  Oh well.

EULA, agree…

Welcome to iTunes wizard, next, uncheck scan my music folder, next, keep my iTunes music organized, next, it tells me about album artwork for some reason, finish.

The interface is actually quite nice, but this is where everything gets SLOW so it’s not really worth it to me.  The integrated IE browser is missing vital things like text selection, context menu, and address bar (it can only navigate iTunes store, which is OK I guess).  In place of an address bar you get a nifty breadcrumb bar that shows you where in the Apple Store heiarchy you are.

So I go to redeem my free songs first… oh wait I need an account.  So I use my AIM account to log in.  Oh wait, I need to set up an Apple account first… this was NOT on the 1 2 3 4 easy steps on the gift card!

So I set it up and eventually reach the credit card page.  This doesn’t qualify as “free” for me, but fortunately there is a convenient “No credit card” option that I select.  It still wants my address though.  Yeah, no.

When I try to skip that, it complains and sends me back to the page.  I go to fill it out… but the “No credit card” option is gone.  So now I HAVE to give them a credit card number which they will keep indefinitely and automatically charge me if any music is bought on my account.  Yeah, that’s not free, and definitely also not risky.

I try to restart the sign up process, but the “No credit card” option does not appear.  I almost give up and wipe iTunes right there, but then I figure out what Apple is up to here… so I decide to try my redeem code again.  I am told again I need to sign up, and I go to the sign up page… and the “No credit card” option is back.  Sneaky of them.

I do not appreciate trying to be railroaded into giving up my credit card information just because I make one little mistake.  The “No credit card” option is also intentionally hidden from new users who haven’t specifically tried to redeem free content.  That’s shady if you ask me.

So I put my address down as 555 5th Street and continue on.  Hooray, it’s redeemed my songs for me now!

So the download starts.  It seems nice, everything is happening automatically.

Then it finishes the first three songs and begins “processing file” on all of them.  What’s there to process?  DRM?  Just give me my music, you finished downloading it!  I’ve never seen a file downloader take so long to do… well… nothing I care about.  This is where the UI becomes so slow that it’s completely unresponsive while it downloads your music.  There’s really no point to the pause buttons on the music since they don’t respond to clicks.

Eventually I’m convinced iTunes has hung since the UI is unresponsive and nothing seems to happen for a period of time.  I kill it.  A reasonable thing to do and a regular Windows  practice.

Start it back up annnd… where did my music go?  I have 19 tracks queued for download, but the other three I downloaded are gone!  This doesn’t happen in Songbird, or any other program that downloads files, and is completely unintuitive and definitely undesired application behavior.

Next three downloaded, and it hangs again.  I have to restart it again and I’m down to 16 free songs from the original 22.

This time I decide to wait it out, maybe it wasn’t really hung.  Maybe it’s just slow from bring in a VM (but the rest of the VM’s apps are quite responsive). This time it finishes all the songs (eventually) and I look in the Library for the other 6.  They are gone.

I check the iTunes Library folder and find them in a temporary directory with temporary file names.  After some searching on Apple Support I direct iTunes to import music to the Library FROM the iTunes Library.  It imports the music!

… Except all the tracks are called “download” and are untagged.  Are you kidding me?!?!  All the other tracks were tagged, why does it wait until AFTER all the songs are downloaded to tag them?!?!

Of course there must be an easy way to get iTunes to redownload music you purchased (or redeemed) that failed to download, right?  Wrong.

My Purchased list in iTunes only shows the 16 songs, which is utterly rediculous, it should have a record of my proper purchases (redeems)!

I find an in-browser list of my purchases and it properly shows the 22 tracks.  Why then does iTunes only show 16?

I am then forced to write down every track in the list of 22, compare it to the 16 list by hand (I can’t have them both on the screen at once!), and then manually write down the names of the tracks that are untagged.  Then I have to listen to each track to figure out which is which (thankfully they were imported in alphabetical order) and tag them BY HAND, using Wikipedia and Google to fill in the blanks in the tags that iTunes didn’t list on the purchase order like Album, Track Number, etc.

Now I’m ready to give up iTunes and just enjoy my new music in Winamp, but I’m afraid I might have to battle with stripping off the DRM first.  Thankfully Apple did remove DRM from their music a while ago so when I exported my music to the host OS, it played just fine in Winamp to my delight.  Well except that my manually tagged music had on album art.  I was able to use Winamp to automatically get the album art for 4 of the 6 tracks easily enough.  But two were still missing, and I wanted proper tags for all 6.

So I decided to see if Apple Support would help.  Considering how much iTunes sucks they must be good at helping users by now.

When I indicated my problems in an e-mail, the tech that responded completely misunderstood my problem.  I thought I had made it quite clear but apparently he thought iTunes couldn’t read any music tags, when I had indicated that it could on all but 6 songs that lacked tags.  So I once again iterated that I had imported those 6 songs manually but they weren’t being tagged, so I wished to download them again.  I attached two screenshots of the 22-song purchase history and the 16-song iTunes purchases lists to indicate my problem more clearly.

Solution: Try it again!  Well to be fair he indicated I should clear my profile first and reinstall iTunes, and though he didn’t explain this point to me at the time he also reenabled the file downloads on my account.  Guess Apple doesn’t trust users to be able to download their files multiple time.  Bbut they can copy them as many times as they want, thanks to the lack of DRM!  Double standards are fun!

To ease the process of cleaning up iTunes I roll back the virtual machine and install it again.  Hangs after downloading 6 songs.  I wait a long time but it has definitely died.

I try to roll back and install again and here is where I discover that a tech support person has to manually authorize a redownload of songs.  I’m still trying to figure out how you authorize multiple computers to play your DRM’d songs when you can only download them once… it doesn’t make sense, it’s like users HAVE to figure out how to copy and distribute music to others in order to get their own music to play on their other computers…

So I e-mail the tech again and explain my problem.  All he can suggest is to try it yet again, which is where I am now.

Up to 6 songs again and I’m not very optimistic.  I guess I can settle for my 6 partially tagged songs.  But I’m not even going to TRY using that $15 gift card, as far as I’m concerned it’s worth far less than the plastic it’s printed on.

[Edit: It finished!  Only took 4 hours to download 1.4 hours of music, that's progress for you!]

Windows 7 introduces a new feature which allows you to add search engines right to Windows Explorer.  It’s not as convenient as in a web browser (the search engine is represented by a file somewhere on your computer that you download) but it works.

It uses the standard OpenSearch spec (with their own Microsoft twist, of course!) to query search engines which already conform to this standard.  Basically you can pass a script your search terms and get them back in an RSS or Atom feed which Explorer or any OpenSearch compatible client can parse and display how they like.

Google doesn’t offer any such feed.  So I made a PHP script to parse the HTML output Google feeds web browsers (using this library) and spit out an OpenSearch RSS feed.  Works pretty good.

Had a few annoying problems along the way… a big one was I couldn’t always get Explorer to parse it and it doesn’t tell you why.  For some reason I didn’t think to try to view the feed in Internet Explorer to get a more detailed error report.  Turns out Google pages use a different encoding than what I was marking the XML file with, and that was causing feeds with smart quotes to annoy Explorer.

Anyways it’s working now.  You can try it out with this.  Download and double click to have Explorer open a search window.  This DOES proxy the results through my server so don’t use that if you plan on using it regularly… here’s the source code.  Go put it on your own server.  Just remember to change the urls in all the files to point to your server instead of mine.

There’s an extra file, opendescription.xml.  AFAIK it’s not NEEDED for Explorer but it’s part of the OpenSearch spec so there it is.  This should be compliant with the spec, so not just Explorer can use it.

Ctrl+Shift+Click to launch a new instance as administrator.  Great for Command Prompt or a Task Manager replacement.

That is all.