v6.70.0007 - 2007-12-29 10:12

• ! Cut (Ctrl+X) refused to work when Tree was focused. Fixed.
• ! Find Files: if you had OR-combined patterns by ";" and at the same time blanks in the search term, you would not get the expected results. Fixed.
• ! Drop-down lists: Fixed some issues with the auto-complete list, including a crash under certain circumstances.

v6.70.0005 - 2007-12-22 20:36

• + List: added functionality to jump to the target of *.LNK files (aka Shortcuts). You find it in the context menu of List items (if the focused item is a shortcut). The target is displayed in the status bar when hovering the menu command. You also find a new command in CKS | Miscellaneous | Go To: Go to Shortcut Target.
• + Configuration | File Info Tips: added yet another extra field to the bottom of the list: "Target". Shows the target of *.LNK files (aka Shortcuts).
• + Catalog: now when expanding a Category node, the Catalog is auto-scrolled to a position where as many childs as possible of that Category are visible.
• ! Info Panel | Find Files | Excluded Folders: the Excluded Folders list was not fully displayed on startup under certain circumstances since a couple of weeks. Fixed.

v6.70.0003 - 2007-12-21 10:10

• +++ Now you can drag-drop items onto *.LNK files (aka Shortcuts) in List and Catalog. A drop is allowed if the LNK target is a folder or a file that accepts dropping (EXE, BAT, CMD, ZIP, etc.).

v6.70.0002 - 2007-12-20 10:26

• + Menu File | To Clipboard: added command "Item Base(s)". If focus is on List, it copies the base names (name without extension) of all selected items to clipboard. If focus is on Tree, it works identical to Copy Name(s).
• + Toolbar: added button "Go to Previous Location". Has a context menu.
• ! If you chose "Configure Thumbnails" from the context menu of the Views toolbar button, the configuration window opened with the wrong category - "File Info Tips" instead of "Thumbnails". Fixed.
• * Tree and List, item selection by keyboard: raised the max interval to interpret two consecutive keystrokes as belonging to one string from 750 to 1000 msec.
• * UDC | New: exchanged the term "Clone" with "Source".
• + UDC interface: now you can duplicate the current command by holding CTRL when pressing "New" or by pressing Ctrl+Ins. If the current command has a caption, then the new command's caption will have "(Copy)" suffixed.

v6.70.0001 - 2007-12-17 09:55

• * CKS | Miscellaneous | Select Info Panel Tab: now the 6 commands are toggles. If the respective tab is already visible then the commands will hide the Info Panel.
• + Toolbar: added button "Properties" (icon: "i" in blue circle). Toggles the Info Panel | Properties tab. Identical to CKS | Miscellaneous | Select Info Panel Tab | Properties (Ctrl+1).
• + Toolbar: added context menu to the following buttons:
    - Show Navigation Panel
    - Show Catalog
    - Show Info Panel
    - Wide Info Panel
    - Last Size/Minimize Info Panel
    - Maximize/Minimize Info Panel
• ! Image Preview: when previewing a PSD file without an embedded thumbnail, the wrong message was given. Now is says correctly: "No embedded thumbnail found."
• ! Catalog: Mousepointer was not reset after dropping on Catalog Items from other applications. Fixed.

v6.70.0000 - 2007-12-14 10:00

= NEW OFFICIAL RELEASE.
Main changes since last release:

• +++ User-Defined Commands (UDC): The new command category "New" gives you unprecedented one-click control over creating new files and folders (blank or cloned from existing ones). This includes the invaluable "Copy Here" functionality by which you can recreate duplicates of any existing file or folder in your current location.
• +++ Now all UDC submenu items have icons.
• +++ Added preview and thumbnails for DNG (Digital Negative) and NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) files.
• +++ Network: Finally, there's the logon dialog!
• +++ Network: Enhanced support for hidden shares.

v6.60.0060 - 2007-12-11 11:56

• + Catalog | Context Menu | Insert As New Category Here: added command "Clipboard Contents" by which you can add any files or folders on the clipboard to the Catalog as a new Category.
• + Catalog | Context Menu | Insert As New Item(s) Here: added command "Clipboard Contents" by which you can add any files or folders on the clipboard to the current Catalog Category.
• * Catalog | Context Menu: "Current Address Bar Contents" is now "Current Address Bar Text". No, I'm not pedantic.
• % Smoother painting on location changes, view changes, and tab switches. There was some superfluous action going on. I stripped it down to the essential.
• + CKS | Miscellaneous | 64-bit: Added command "Toggle Wow64 File System Redirection" which allows you to disable/re-enable Wow64 File Redirection on 64-bit Windows. The current state of the setting is reflected in the main window titlebar: if Redirection is disabled you'll see a "- [64]" appended to the window title. Note that, of course, the command is only effective on 64-bit platforms. Note further that this setting is NOT saved between sessions, since XY depends on the redirection to load correctly.
  Background: On a 64-bit platform, a 32bit app can't access the 64bit system directory Windows\System32 (sic!). Instead Windows redirects all file system calls to Windows\SysWow64. Consequently, XYplorer shows in fact the contents of Windows\SysWow64 when you browse to Windows\System32. If you want to see the "real" Windows\System32, you have to disable Wow64 Redirection.

v6.60.0054 - 2007-12-10 12:07

• + Added preview of *.nef files (Nikon Electronic Format). NEF is a RAW image format designed by Nikon, and is based on the TIFF/EP format. The preview (preview tab and thumbnails in file list) makes use of any embedded TIFF thumbnails in your NEF files.
• * UDC New: the following variables refer to the Clone source if there is one given, and not to the currently focused item:
    <curtitle>
    <curbase>
    <curext>
    <curver>
    <myyyymmdd>
  The variable name "cur..." might be confusing here, but the behavior is expected and the logic is clear. If you create a new file that's a clone of a certain other file, it would be total nonsense to name that new file based on the name, date, or version of the currently selected file! Of course, you would want to resolve these variables with reference to the cloned file!
  BTW, a neat little thing is now possible. The following setting will create a versioned copy (e.g. "XYplorer_6.60.0053.exe") of *this* instance of XYplorer in the current path:
    Name: <curbase>_<curver>.<curext>
    Clone: XYplorer.exe
  Because of the portability of the Clone field XYplorer.exe is always resolved to this instance of XYplorer. Back me up!
• % Faster startup time if you make use of the NewItems folder.
• + Configuration | Thumbnails: added option "Show file icon on thumbnail". Check it to show the small file icon in the top-left corner of the thumbnail.

v6.60.0053 - 2007-12-09 17:42

• +++ Added preview of *.dng files (Digital Negative). DNG is a RAW image format designed by Adobe Systems, and is based on the TIFF/EP format. The preview (preview tab and thumbnails in file list) makes use of any embedded TIFF thumbnails in your DNG files.
• + CKS | Miscellaneous | Go To: added new command "Open Folder in New Tab". Exact behavior depends on circumstances:
  - Focus on List folder: open that folder in new tab.
  - Focus on List file: open file's folder, then focus file.
  - Focus on List no item: open current folder in new tab.
  - Focus on Tree: open current folder in new tab.
  Note that the focused item must be selected, too. Works in Browse and Find mode (i.e. on Search Results).
• +++ UDC | New: added support for some very useful (and partly new!) variables in the Name field. Examples:
    - If the currently focused file is E:\Pics\ChristinaAguilera.jpg, dated 20070602:
  ==============================================================
  Name field:               New empty file created:
  --------------------------------------------------------------
  <curfolder>.txt           Pics.txt
  <curtitle>.txt            ChristinaAguilera.jpg.txt
  <curbase>.txt             ChristinaAguilera.txt
  <curbase>-<curext>.txt    ChristinaAguilera-jpg.txt
  <curbase>-<myyyymmdd>.txt ChristinaAguilera-20070602.txt
  <curbase>-<dyyyymmdd>.txt ChristinaAguilera-20071209.txt
  ==============================================================
     - The new variable will extract the version number of the current file (if it has one). If the currently focused file is E:\XYplorer.exe, v6.60.0053:
  --------------------------------------------------------------
  <curbase>_<curver>.txt    XYplorer_6.60.0053.txt
  --------------------------------------------------------------
     - If you set the Clone field to <curitem>, you can emulate the behavior of "Copy Here With Suffix Date Modified" (see below). You can also do something new now: "Copy Here With Suffix Version" -- very useful if you ask me!
  ==============================================================
  Name field:                    New clone created:
  --------------------------------------------------------------
  <curbase>_<myyyymmdd>.<curext> XYplorer_20071207.exe
  <curbase>_<curver>.<curext>    XYplorer_6.60.0045.exe
  ==============================================================
• + UDC | New: now the Clone source supports portability, i.e. it can be stated relative to app path and drive. See Portable File Associations for syntax.

v6.60.0052 - 2007-12-08 15:31

• * Catalog: reorganized the context menu of Categories and Items. Now, all commands concerning the real files and folders are located in the top section of the menu, and all commands concerning the Catalog and its pointers to those items are located in the bottom section.
  See http://www.xyplorer.com/images/catalog-context-menu.png
• ! List: evil dbl-click resonance crash. Fixed again.

v6.60.0051 - 2007-12-07 21:24

• +++ Menu User: now all the UDC submenus have icons. Note: not all menu items can be assigned an icon, for various and mostly obvious reasons depending on the nature of the UDC category and the format of the actual command.
• + Info Panel | Find Files: the "..." (Browse) button now has a tiny context menu with one command "Search All Tabs". Click it to enter the paths of all tabs in the Find Files Location field. Search Results tabs are excluded.
• ! Menu Tools Emtpy Recycle Bin...: Free-space display in statusbar was not refreshed after executing the command. Fixed.
• + Toolbar | Manage User-Defined Commands | Context Menu: now, when holding CTRL on "New...", the Clone field is preset to the currently selected item.
• ! List: app could crash after some repetitive alternate dbl-clicking on items and white space in a certain evil rhythmic pattern that resounded with the system dbl-click time and some other settings. Quite difficult to do. And now even more difficult since it's fixed.
• ! Network: did not always act as expected with shutdown servers. Fixed. Also improved speed.

v6.60.0044 - 2007-12-06 14:00

• +++ UDC: added new command category "New". XYplorer in a nutshell is: less clicks. And this new UDC category will spare you a bunch of clicks! It will inject unseen powers into the creation of new file and folder items. Welcome to the Uber-New! The rules are easy (see Tips button in UDC dialog) and the possibilities are many.
    - For example "Copy Here": A particularly interesting combination is to leave the Name field empty and define a Clone source. This will effectively result in a "Copy [item] Here" functionality, which can be very useful! E.g., as a web designer you always need a certain button graphics. You know where it is, but isn't it a pain to always browse there and get it. The "Copy Here" will simply fetch it for you at a single keystroke! It's like: Beam me down, Scotty!
    - Or state "<curitem>" (w/o quotes) as clone source. The currently selected List item will be duplicated in the current folder and named as you order.
• * Configuration | Interface Colors. Instead of the "Reset Colors" button, whose function was unclear to many users, you now have an "Reset Colors..." button, which pops up a little menu that gives more and clearer options:
    - Reset Colors to Currently Active Values
    - Reset Colors to Factory Defaults
• ! Drag'n'Drop from other app: mouse cursor was "Create Shortcut" rather than "Copy Here". Fixed.

v6.60.0042 - 2007-12-04 11:11

• + Toolbar | Manage User-Defined Commands: the button's right-click menu now enables you to directly create a new UDC with the argument preset to some current context value. How? Simply hold CTRL while clicking one of the menu items! The preset values adjust to the command category:
    "goto", "open", "openwith" -> current file (if any selected)
    "rename" -> "[pattern]"
    else -> current path

v6.60.0041 - 2007-12-02 15:38

• + Network: now you can browse UNC paths like "\\computer\share\path" successfully even when "\\computer" is password protected but not yet connected.
• ! Network: the logon dialog would always pop on the primary display regardless where XY is located. Might be fixed.

v6.60.0040 - 2007-12-02 10:34

• +++ If you browse to password protected but yet unconnected servers you now get the expected logon dialog. Credits go to Alex Zhuk for showing me the way!
• + Network: You may now add servers more easily through the Address Bar (Favorites, Catalog, Goto). More easily means: even if the servers currently are not accessible for whatever reason, they will be added to the Tree.
• + List: Hold CTRL while double-clicking an item to force opening the item with the OS associated application, i.e. to bypass XY's Portable File Associations.
• + Configuration | Thumbnails: added option "Pop up image in original size on mouse down (Mouse Down Blow Up)". Before, this was hard-coded to TRUE. Now you have an option to turn it off. If it's off, you can drag'n'drop thumbnails easier because you can use the whole thumbnail area for grabbing, not just the caption.
• % Configuration | Thumbnails | Super-fast thumbnail creation: now, also GIF images are created super-fast. The INI tweak "SuperFastThumbsGif" (v6.10.0075 - 2007-08-05 10:14) is hence obsolete and has been removed.

v6.60.0038 - 2007-11-30 19:14

• + Menu User: now, you can directly open the Manage User-Defined Commands dialog for a particular user command by holding CTRL while you click the menu item pointing to the command. The command will not be triggered then, of course.
• * Catalog: when you drag'n'drop an item onto the Catalog Category to add it to that Category, the caption of the new item is now by default set to the filename only, without the full path. I find this is more likely what most users want here.

v6.60.0036 - 2007-11-28 11:43

• +++ Added enhanced support for hidden shares. Up to now, only one type of hidden shares was supported, the so-called "administrative shares" or "admin shares". Admin shares are identified by a dollar sign ($) at the end of the share name. From now on, also hidden shares without the trailing dollar sign ($) are supported. Generally, hidden shares are not listed when browsing the network. However, you can enter a path on a hidden share in the Address Bar (or the "Go to" dialog, Catalog, Favorites), and it will be added to the tree node of respective server on the fly and be browsable.
• + New INI Tweak: now you can optionally show all hidden shares automatically in the folder tree (without having to enter them through the Address Bar). In the INI you'll find a new key:
    [Settings]
    ShowHiddenShares=0
  Set it to 1 to always show all hidden shares.

v6.60.0035 - 2007-11-27 13:05

• + Tips of the day: add button "All" to show a list of all tips.
• * Popup menus triggered by KS (e.g. Hotlist) are now popped on KeyUp, not KeyDown. This avoids mistaking the upped key with an accelerator (either triggering a menu command or an annoying beep-sound).
• ! Copy file to clipboard (Ctrl+C). Open any of XY's modal forms with a textbox (e.g. Ctrl+S on the selected file). Select text in textbox. Press Ctrl+C. Crash! Fixed.

v6.60.0033 - 2007-11-24 19:14

• + Menu View | Auto-Refresh: now has default KS Ctrl+Shift+R.
• * Allowing to delete, move, or rename certain items: before, there was a rigid (but not really clever) protection that made it impossible to move certain items, e.g. items with the SYSTEM attribute set, or the Desktop folder, or any items found within the Recycle Bin. Now, your workflow won't be interrupted anymore by this kind of patronizing security measurements. Along with the freedom you also get a little more responsibility, of course.
  You still get a warning message when you try to delete, move, or rename items from XYplorer's Raw Recycle Bin View. But now you have the choice to go on anyway.
• ! Fixed a bug partly related to the above: before, in such CanMove/CanCopy checks, the *focused* item was checked and taken to represent all selected items (even if it was not selected itself!). Now, the *first* (from top) of the selected items is taken to represent all other items.
• + Added INI tweak "PopupMenusAtTree": popup navigation menus at top-left tree corner.

v6.60.0032 - 2007-11-23 12:13

• ! On MyComputer, the stats in statusbar were wrong, always:
    total free: 0 bytes, capacity: 0 bytes
    all local disks: 0 bytes used, 0 bytes free (0%)
  Quite unlikely numbers, but still mildly shocking. Fixed.
• * CKS dialog: discovered a way to fully show the Category dropdown without scrollbar. It's the little things...
• *** Find Files: before, the Search Results list was disabled while the search was going on. So you could neither scroll the results nor preview a file during a search. This was to prevent trouble. Now, the Search Results list is left enabled while the search is running. Is it dangerous? I tried but could raise any trouble. But developers usually cannot be as mean to their apps as users for psychological reasons. Your turn...
  Nice addition: when you select/focus a file during search (e.g. to preview it) it will be kept at the same screen position after the search is done or stopped (by ESC).

v6.60.0020 - 2007-11-20 22:16

• + Menu Tools | Customize File Associations: now, environment variables (e.g. %windir% for the windows directory) are allowed within the application part of the definition. For example,
    txt;htm>%windir%\notepad.exe
  would open all TXT and HTM files with Notepad (typically located in C:\WINDOWS\notepad.exe). Another little portability jewel.

v6.60.0010 - 2007-11-20 13:00

• + Address Bar, Catalog, Favorites, Go to, UDC-Goto: Now the asterisk wildcard (*) is allowed within the location term. The location is automatically resolved to the first (in original file system sort order) matching file or folder item. Examples:
    C:\* = C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
    C:\Programs\XY* = C:\Programs\XYplorer\
    C:\Programs\XYplorer\XY* = C:\Programs\XYplorer\XYplorer.cnt
  You can use the wildcard also in the middle of the term and more than once:
    C:\Pr*m*\ = C:\Programs\
    C:\Programs\XYplorer\XY*.exe = C:\Programs\XYplorer\XYplorer.exe
    C:\Pro*\ACD*\*.exe = C:\Programs\ACDSee32\ACDSee32.exe
  But don't stress this little usability gimmick too much. This, for example, will not work as you might expect it to:
    C:\*\ACD*\*.exe != C:\Programs\ACDSee32\ACDSee32.exe
  Instead it will resolve to the first match and stop there:
    C:\*\ACD*\*.exe = C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
  In other words: wildcards are resolved from left to right, and since there is no C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT\ACD*, the process halts.
• + UDC | Open With: added two new variables, <item1> and <item2>. They are set to the first and second item of the currently selected list items. The following term will open UltraEdit with the first two of all selected items in the given order.
    "UEdit32" <item1> <item2>
  Any other selected items are ignored. If you select only one or no item, the call will very likely fail, of course. If you expect blanks in the items' names and if the called application supports quoted arguments, you should put quotes around the variables:
    "UEdit32" "<item1>" "<item2>"
  Note: The order of items is determined by the focus and the current sort order in the following way (which strictly follows the standards set by Windows Explorer): the focused item is always the first, the next items are the following items downwards until the bottom, then the sequence wraps to the top of the selected items until the cycle is completed. It sounds a bit confusing but is very simple and logical, as you see in these 3 examples:
  Example 1:
    - item #1 focused item
    - item #2
    - item #3
  Example 2:
    - item #3
    - item #1 focused item
    - item #2
  Example 3:
    - item #2
    - item #3
    - item #1 focused item
• ! UDC: when deleting a UDC with a KS assigned, the KS was not freed for later usage. Fixed.
• ! UDC Open, Open With: parameters were not passed when no variable was contained. Fixed.

v6.60.0000 - 2007-11-19 11:30

= NEW OFFICIAL RELEASE.
Main changes since last release:

• +++ User-Defined Commands now fully support command line parameters! Pimp up your single keystroke to sciencefictionesque kill power. Pack all selected files into a zipped archive with an automatic name depending on the current date? One keystroke! Print a DOS style directory listing of the current folder to a file or printer? One keystroke! Welcome to one-keystroke-paradise.
• +++ The Catalog Application Launch Panel now fully supports command line parameters. Here's one-click heaven for the mousy man!
• +++ User-Defined Commands now include all the important mass rename functions. For example, you can convert an item to another file type (extension), or clean all selected file names of certain characters, by a single keystroke/mouse click.
• +++ Added an alternative interface to assign custom keyboard shortcuts to native and user-defined commands in a fast and intuitive way.
• +++ Dropping messages from Outlook / Outlook Express is now up to a hundred (!) times faster than before!

v6.50.0021 - 2007-11-18 17:55

• * Find Files: Now you can search for the character "[" by escaping it with "\". Before, you had to enclose it in [ and ] (which still works). E.g., these standard patterns will both match the file "Info[23].txt":
    Info[[]##].txt
    Info\[##].txt
  Note that escaping "[" is only necessary when "]" is found further to the end of your search pattern. Why is escaping necessary at all? Because "[...]" is otherwise interpreted as a list of characters to be matched. For example, "[abc]*" or "[a-c]*" will match all items starting with a, b, or c.
• - Removed "Shift+Click closes tab" (added v5.80.0001 - 2007-03-08 09:00). Reason: It's non-standard, was never documented outside this change log, and even is contradictory to other gestures in XY: Shift+Click actually *opens* a new tab when done on a folder.

v6.50.0020 - 2007-11-16 12:38

• + UDC dialog: added button "Assign Keyboard Shortcut...". Gives you direct access to all currently free shortcuts. I kept things as simple as possible:
    - This new KS selection method will replace any existing KS with the new KS. It will not accumulate multiple KSs.
    - To remove any existing KS press OK without any selection in the Free KS list. Unselect a list item: Ctrl+Click or Ctrl+Space.
    - You do not have to press "Apply" to apply the new KS. Saves a click.
• + UDC dialog: replace the "Info" icon by an Tips button. Reason: have it keyboard accessible. Also changed the browse button from "..." to "Browse" to make it reachable by accelerator.
• + Menu Edit | Move/Copy/Backup To: now, environment variables (e.g. %TMP% for temp path) are allowed within the destination field.
• + UDC: now, environment variables are allowed within the argument field for Open, Open With, and Move/Copy/Backup To actions.
• + CKS dialog: added button "Free Shortcuts...". You thought you run out of free shortcuts? Here are some ideas. Scroll and dbl-click for a fast alternative way to assign a new shortcut to a function.
• * CKS dialog: reorganized various interface elements. I removed the lonesome "Options" menu /that was easily overlooked) and replaced it by a new "Options..." button which also now contains the "Remove..." and "Reset..." functions.
  Tip: Right-click the "Options..." button to pop the menu on button down and select any menu command by right-button up.
• + Configuration | Tabs: added two more options to "On dbl-click":
    - Go Home
    - Go Up

v6.50.0015 - 2007-11-15 11:42

• + CKS dialog: added 2 further options to the Copy Cheat Sheet menu, and chose another character represent the TAB char in the menu captions:
    Shortcut » Command
    Shortcut » Category / Command
    Shortcut » Category / Command » Description » Scope
    -
    Command » Shortcut(s)
    Category / Command » Shortcut(s)
    Category / Command » Shortcut(s) » Description » Scope
• + Configuration | Advanced: added option "Click on status bar toggles info panel". Note that this setting controls both left click (show/hide panel) and right click (last size/minimize panel) on the status bar. Backward compatibility code has been provided.
• ! Toolbar: some of the button context menus did not work alright when any of the containing commands had more than one keyboard shortcut. Fixed.

v6.50.0014 - 2007-11-14 12:38

• ! Forgot to adjust CKS mapping to the new List Management menu order. Done.

v6.50.0013 - 2007-11-14 10:42

• * Menu Tools | List Management: reorganized the menu.
• ! Menu Tools | List Management: items with environment variables were displayed without icons. Fixed.
• ! Menu Help | Find Files Help did not work anymore. Fixed.
• ! Backup from Catalog did not work as expected when list was in Find mode. Fixed.
• ! Find Files Tab: button Reset Filters had a bug that could lead to auto-checking of the Date Filter. Fixed.
• ! Drag'n'Drop context menu | Rich Move/Copy Here: did not work when the search was done over a special folder like "Desktop". Fixed.

v6.50.0012 - 2007-11-13 11:32

• + UDC dialog: added some usage tips to each of the actions.
• * UDC and Catalog: now, items passed to a single instance of the opening application are only stripped from their full path when the command line otherwise would be too long (i.e. > 2 KB).
• ! UDC | Open: opening apps with parameters did not work. Fixed.
• ! Could crash when OK-ing Category Properties (since one day). Fixed.

v6.50.0009 - 2007-11-12 12:48

• * UDC dialog: slightly changed order of fields to be more consistent with catalog item properties.
• * UDC dialog: now the "Options" label is set depending on the nature of the options.

v6.50.0008 - 2007-11-11 21:34

• + UDC | Open: now supports using short forms for registered apps (just as Open With does already), e.g. "winzip32", "uedit32". Find them in the registry in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications.
• + UDC | Open: now supports using parameters (incl. XY variables like <curpath> etc.). Just as in Open With, the app name must be quoted so that the parameters/variables are recognized as such.
• + Catalog: "Open" now supports short forms for registered apps, parameters, and variables. For example a catalog item
    "winzip32" -min
  will open WinZip in minimized state on any machine that has WinZip installed.

v6.50.0007 - 2007-11-11 15:46 - *** Cologne Carnival Edition ***

• + UDC | Rename: added Keep Particular Characters pattern mode.
• + UDC | Rename: added Set Extension pattern mode.
• + Catalog: now, when dragging files over items pointing to application, the form of cursor will tell you whether a single or multiple instances of the app will be opened. Further, holding CTRL will invert this property for this drop job.
• * Menu Tools: added item "Customize File Associations...". It's just an alternative way to the somewhat hidden Menu Tools | List Management | File Associations. XY's Portable File Associations constitute a very powerful functionality that deserves a more prominent place in the menus.
• * UDC statusbar message now is set *before* the action proper is triggered. So you now already what's happening before it is all over. A " ..." is attached to signal "it's in progress". The statusbar message is also updated *after* the action, now with any suffix. Note that this final message is also given when
  no operation actually happened (because the user canceled the process, or it was illegal for some reason). It just means the UDC has been triggered and it returned from the job.
• ! UDC statusbar message was hard-coded to "Rename". Fixed.

v6.50.0005 - 2007-11-10 13:05

• + Catalog: more power for you, more options in the Item Properties dialog.
  (1) Now you have one more "OnClick"-action, namely "Open Selected Item(s) With", including a new icon overlay (slightly different from the "Open" overlay).
  (2) If this currently edited catalog item is an application used to open multiple files with, you can now decide whether the application will be opened single or multiple instance. This, of course, only controls how the application is called by XYplorer. Whether it actually can and does open in single or multiple instance depends on the nature and configuration of the called application.
• + Catalog: better support for parameters in items pointing to applications. The following, for example, will work now as "Destination" of an item on Ctrl+Shift+Click and on Drag'n'drop:
    "winzip32" -a UDCmade-<dyyyymmdd-hhnnss>.zip <items>
  Note that the quotes are mandatory!
• + UDC | Rename: added Search and Replace pattern mode.
• + Find Files tab | Date | "between" & "and/add" fields: improved entering dates. When the fields are empty:
    key arrow up: set to today
    key arrow down: set to yesterday
  Else:
    key arrow up: scroll days up
    key arrow down: scroll days down
    key arrow up + SHIFT: scroll months up
    key arrow down + SHIFT: scroll months down

v6.50.0004 - 2007-11-09 14:14

• + Menu Tools | List Management | File Associations: now you can refer to the opening app by simply stating the basename of the EXE if you can assume it is a registered application.
    zip>winzip32
    zip>C:\Programme\WinZip\Winzip32.exe
  Both will work the same, but the first has a big advantage in portability: you don't need to know the path to Winzip32.exe on the host computer! The registry will find it for you.
  Tip: Double-check the basename of the EXE, some are named unexpectedly. This for example would open a *.zip with 7-zip:
    zip>7zFMn
• * Now icons for apps referred to by just their basename (see above) are correctly displayed in Catalog and File associations.
• + UDC: now the UDC categories have hard-coded scopes (the focus zones where they can be triggered by keyboard shortcuts).
    Go to: Global
    Open: Global
    Open With: List
    Move To: Tree, List
    Copy To: Tree, List, Catalog
    Backup To: Tree, List, Catalog
    Rename: List
• * UDC | Open With: now the command will work also if no items are selected. In that case the app will be started without any items in the command line, resp. with the variable set to "" (empty string).
• + UDC: after action you get a feedback in the statusbar "UDC performed: (action verb)". Hmmm... not sure if I like it...

v6.50.0003 - 2007-11-08 11:28

• + UDC | Open With: added the new variable <base> which is only meaningful when you call multiple instances. You can use it like this:
    "winzip32" -e <items> "<base>"
  This will extract all currently selected archives, each into a folder auto-named to the base-name of the respective archive. On the other hand, this method...
    "winzip32" -e <items> "<curbase>"
  ... would extract all currently selected archives to the same folder, auto-named to the base-name of the currently focused archive (the one displayed in the status bar).
• * UDC | Open With: to avoid a number of unsolvable ambiguities, and to avoid breaking old user code, from now on you *MUST* quote the application (even if it contains no spaces) if any parameters shall be processed!
  This will work:
    "winzip32" -a UDCmade.zip <items>
  This will NOT work:
    winzip32 -a UDCmade.zip <items>
  If no parameters are used, quoting is optional (even if spaces are contained). These will all work as expected:
    C:\Programs\WinZip\Winzip32.exe
    "C:\Programs\WinZip\Winzip32.exe"
    C:\Program Files\WinZip\Winzip32.exe
    "C:\Program Files\WinZip\Winzip32.exe"
• * UDC dialog | Open With: Browse button now returns items quoted.
• ! Fixed some glitches with the new UDC avec Parameters, including a crash with the Catalog.

v6.50.0001 - 2007-11-07 12:57

• +++ The natural next step in UDC: Parameters!
  One thing beforehand: Of course, it is the called application that controls (1) which parameters are recognized, (2) what they do, (3) what format they must have, and (4) in which order they are expected. So, to use this feature, you must know the command line syntax of the application you want to open files with.
  
  Examples
  ~~~~~~~~
  The possibilities arising from the support of parameters are absolutely astounding. For the following examples, I chose WinZip as the called application.
  - Example (1): Adding selected items to an archive. Open menu User | Manage Commands, and select category "Open With". Set the option to "Pass all the items to the same instance...". Then enter this line into the Application field in UDC Open With:
    winzip32 -a UDCmade.zip <items>
  <items> is a new XYplorer variable, that in this context is set to a blank-separated list of all currently selected list items. Triggering this UDC will create (if not already existing) the archive UDCmade.zip in the current path and pack all currently selected files into it. If want the *.zip in some other place than the current path, state it with the desired full path.
  - Example (2): You may as well use XY date variables, e.g.:
    winzip32 -a UDCmade-<dyyyymmdd>.zip <items>
  will create UDCmade-20071107.zip if today is 2007-11-07.
  - Example (3): Create a password protected archive and name it depending on the current folder:
    winzip32 -a -s"Secret password " <curfolder>-Secret.zip <items>
  Remember that the quoting of the blank-containing password is part of WinZip's command line syntax! XYplorer is just passing this on to WinZip.
  What XYplorer does, however, is resolving the new XYplorer variable : it is set to the name of the current folder (not the whole path).
  - Example (4): Extracting items from an archive to some folder:
    winzip32 -e <items>newfolder
  Will extract all items of the selected archive file into a newly created folder "newfolder" under the current path. Of course, you can as well give a full path for the target folder. Note that <items> here stands for the archive to extract! This example will only succeed when just *one* archive file is selected. This is a restriction of WinZip's command line syntax, not of XYplorer.
  - Example (5): Extracting items from an archive to some auto-named folder:
    winzip32 -e <items><curbase>
  The new XYplorer variable <curbase> will be set to the base (= name without extension) of the currently selected file (here: the archive to extract) -- it is always the file that is displayed in the statusbar. For the case that the base contains blanks, you should put it in quotes else WinZip will choke:
    winzip32 -e <items>"<curbase>"
  Of course, you can combine variable as you like:
    winzip32 -e <items>"<curbase>_<dyyyy-mm-dd>"
  If the archive is called "test.zip", this would create a subfolder named "test_2007-11-07" and unpack the archive into it.
  
  Notes
  ~~~~~
  - You will have noted the use of "winzip32" above. If the EXE to run is registered (known by the registry) it is not necessary to state the full path. Both ways will work the same:
    C:\Programs\WinZip\Winzip32.exe -a UDCmade.zip <items>
    winzip32 -a UDCmade.zip <items>
  Of course, the latter version is more portable, because it will call WinZip successfully on systems where it has a different installation path from your home system.
  - If you leave out the <items> variable, it is by default appended to the parameters. These two work identical:
    winzip32 -a UDCmade.zip
    winzip32 -a UDCmade.zip <items>
  - If the path to the EXE contains blanks it has to be wrapped in quotes, of course:
    "C:\Program Files\WinZip\Winzip32.exe" -a <curfolder>.zip <items>
  - BTW, a nice thing about this new parameters support: the UDC interface remains unchanged. XY just got more interpreting skills. And with them, an incredible power plus once again!
  
• +++ Catalog: Parameter support as well! Everything stated here above for UDC is from the Catalog just as well! Enter the command line into the "Destination" field of the Item's Properties. e.g.:
    "C:\Program Files\WinZip\Winzip32.exe" -a test.zip <items>
  or simply
    winzip32 -a test.zip <items>
  Then select "Open Selected List Items(s)" (Ctrl+Shift+Click) from the context menu to trigger action.
  Notes:
  - When you select "Open" on such an item the application will just be opened without any parameters. This is a feature.
  - There's no icon yet with the short form "winzip32". Also some things need polishing and will be done in the next days, along with a general pimp up of the Catalog...
• * Catalog: Open Selected List Items(s) (Ctrl+Shift+Click) now is hard-coded to pass the items to a single instance of the run application. Before, it called an instance for each item. Later, this will be made configurable.
• * UDC dialog: the properties frame is now marked as "dirty" by a little asterisk.
• % Rename Preview: exponentially faster for rename jobs using an increment pattern (e.g. <#0001>). When renaming more than 1,000 files this speed up will get quite notable.
• ! Menu View | Current Tab | Sort By | Sort Folders Apart: did lose Find mode when applied to search results. Fixed.
• %%% Dropping messages from Outlook / Outlook Express is now about 50 to 100 times faster than before! I always wondered why it is so slow. Then I found out... :)

v6.50.0000 - 2007-11-05 12:50

= NEW OFFICIAL RELEASE.
Main changes since last release:

• +++ User-Defined Commands (UDCs): Write your personal file management routines in the most user-friendly way. Go To, Open, Open With, Copy To, Move To, Rename ... wrap those tasks into UDCs, and have them magically appear in the new "User" menu. Give them catchy captions, and assign keyboard shortcuts to them. UDC means: Reduce your daily routines to simple keystrokes!
• +++ Backup from Catalog: The new capability to backup whole Catalog Categories provides nothing less than a one-click backup of distributed sources.
• +++ Serial Rename: when renaming, press Tab to apply the changes and immediately start renaming the next item.
• +++ String Search: Now you can find all files NOT containing the given text string.
• +++ Color Code the Tree. System, Compressed, Encrypted, Read-Only, Junction, etc ... you choose the colors.

v6.40.0040 - 2007-11-05 08:51

• ! Fixed various glitches with the new colorful List Management.

v6.40.0038 - 2007-11-04 11:14

• + Menu Tools | List Management: added "Color Filters...". You already have an interface to these settings in Configuration Color Filters, but here in the List Management interface (with its Editor Mode) it's a bit more comfortable for good typists.
  Also, it's nice to have all the lists together. Plus you can throw a KS at it.
• + Menu Tools | List Management: added color display to those lists with color settings. Gives you an immediate feedback about your skills in writing RRGGBB color codes.
• * UDC dialog: the previously called "Argument" field is now flexibly called according to what has to be filled in: Location, Item, Application, or Pattern. More user-friendly, ain't it?

v6.40.0037 - 2007-11-03 10:54

• * CKS | Miscellaneous | File Operations": New default KS:
    - Move Here to New Subfolder... (Ctrl+Shift+X)
  Reason: More consistent than the previous Ctrl+Shift+M.
• * Now, when you set or unset a Visual Filter via Address Bar or Catalog, the List receives a simple Refresh (not a Reset as before). Which means e.g. that selections and the Suspend Auto- Refresh state are retained. IOW, the behavior is now as if the VF was set via the "Set Visual Filter" dialog.
• * Message box after Backup routine: now, failure stats are only given if any failure actually happened.
• ! XP/Vista: Backup failed to copy NTFS encrypted files to FAT volumes (decrypting them on the way). Fixed. The files are now copied and decrypted. In a later version this will be made optional.
• ! CKS: entry "Tools / Recycle Bin Stats..." was doubled. Fixed.

v6.40.0035 - 2007-11-01 14:37

• + List: Now when in rename mode, pressing the Tab key will apply the changes and immediately open the rename box for the next item in List. Shift+Tab will do the same for the previous item in the List. The function wraps around the upper and lower ends of the list.
• * Toolbar: all left-click triggered popup menus now popup *below* the clicked button, which looks good and allows you to close them with a second click on the same spot. Before, they opened exactly at mouse cursor position.
• ! Lost registration data in XYplorer.ini when the LastIni key looked like this:
    [General]
    LastIni=xyplorer
  instead of
    LastIni=XYplorer
  And it's easy to make it look like this. Simply run:
    XYplorer.exe /ini=xyplorer
  Fixed: INI file name capitalization is now internally ignored.

v6.40.0033 - 2007-10-31 11:03

• + CKS: added new commands to "Miscellaneous File Operations":
    - Copy Here to New Subfolder... (Ctrl+Shift+C)
    - Move Here to New Subfolder... (Ctrl+Shift+M)
• * Added loads of air to general file system browsing. App is more responsive now when browsing huge folders or deeply nested branches.
• ! Crash when trying to browse via breadcrumb while a sticky MDBU preview is up (right-clicked thumbnail). Fixed.

v6.40.0032 - 2007-10-30 12:45

• * Added loads of air to the Backup operation. App should be more responsive now. Remember, however, that this process is not running in a background thread. If your backup job is huge then simply open another instance of XYplorer, instead of trying to get something done in the same instance that is backupping right now.
• ! Preview/Thumbnails of transparent PNGs (32-bit ARGB): Finally worked around the known, admitted, but never fixed GDI+ bug that forced me to show transparent PNGs on a black background instead of white, in order to avoid the blue tint that otherwise results from this bug. Took me two full days, yippee!!! And it's not even any slower than the buggy MS original! From the pure coding perspective this is the best code I've done since 256-level Boolean search!
• ! CKS: User functions (UDCs) were not ordered correctly within their categories. Fixed.

v6.40.0026 - 2007-10-29 12:48

The warnings about UDC from v6.40.0014-v6.40.0019 being in "play-around-state" are now discontinued and UDC is now considered stable.

• * The Configuration dialog now remembers its last screen position. The position is NOT remembered between sessions (reason: avoid to lose the window). The initial default position is always center of screen.
• ! These three XY only Environment Variables...
    %desktopreal%
    %personalreal%
    %winsysdir%
  ... returned paths with a trailing backslash. Fixed. Now they come unslashed.
• ! Crash when trying to open a modal dialog (e.g. "About") on top of a sticky MDBU preview (right-clicked thumbnail). Fixed.
• ! Display glitch when horizontally shrinking the main window with the Navigation Panel hidden. Fixed.

v6.40.0025 - 2007-10-28 14:30

• + Info Panel | Find Files | Contained Text: added checkbox "Invert". Check it to find all files NOT containing the given text string. Note that the Contained Text filter never returns folders (although they naturally do NOT contain any given text string).
• + Configuration | Startup & Exit: added "Permanent startup path". Here you can set a path that will always be the startup path, even if you closed the app on another path and saved this other path to the INI file. If "Permanent startup path" is empty then everything is as it has always been: XYplorer starts where it was closed last time (if "Save settings on exit" is enabled).
  Note: If XY was closed in Find mode, then the "Permanent startup path" will auto-set the mode to browse on next startup.
• + Configuration | Startup & Exit: added option "Startup minimized". Check it to always startup minimized. Useful when XYplorer is auto-launched upon boot.
• + New Tweak: now you can disallow a find operation on startup (which otherwise is triggered when you closed the app in Find mode). In the INI you'll find a new key:
    [Settings]
    NoFindOnStartup=0
  Set it to 1 to always startup in Browse mode.
• * Configuration | Color Filters: the typical pattern-based color coding (e.g. *.png;*.jpg;*.gif) is, of course, not meaningful for the Tree folders, so from now on, these patterns will only be applied to the list. In other words: the Tree color coding is constricted to attribute patterns, e.g. /s, /c, /e (= /system, /compressed, /encrypted), etc.
• ! Going Up and Breadcrumb did not work/look as expected when the current List was blocked/grey because the tab's path is not available anymore. Fixed.

v6.40.0022 - 2007-10-27 14:30

• + Configuration | Color Filters: I finally made up my mind about color coding the Tree. Now it can be done.
• + UDC: added new command category "Rename". It comes in four flavours:
    - It's a Batch Rename pattern. Show preview.
    - It's a Batch Rename pattern. No preview.
    - It's a Regular Expression. Show preview.
    - It's a Regular Expression. No preview.
  Might feel a bit unusual to append the binary choice "Show/No Preview" like this, but it keeps the interface lighter which otherwise would need a hideable checkbox which is not worth the pain for now. The rules for the patterns are, of course, identical to the ones in Rename Special | Batch Rename and Rename Special | RegExp Rename.
  This is the last UDC command category for now. Later, in v6.60 I will add a very powerful one called "Free Script" (or so) and which will finally add my vision of a very simple user-friendly scripting to XY!
• ! List: scrolling by keys (Home, End...) did not work as expected when the focused item was out of view. Fixed.
• ! List: Renaming via edit box failed when triggering the rename (and closing the box) by clicking the list. Fixed.
• ! Breadcrumb: "MyComputer" command was broken since 3 days. Fixed.

v6.40.0020 - 2007-10-26 13:16

• + Menu Edit | Backup To: Now the Catalog (Items and Categories) is supported as source for backup operations. To cope with distributed source items, the paths of the items are *fully* recreated in the target folder, including the drive letter (resp. server name). For example, if the selected Catalog Category contains these items...
    - C:\project\code\
    - D:\www\project\code\
    - \\cary\grant\hat\black.ico
    - \\cary\grant\suit\black.ico
  ... and you backup them today to E:\Backup\<dyyyy-mm-dd>, then the resulting copies will be:
    - E:\Backup\2007-10-26\C\project\code\
    - E:\Backup\2007-10-26\D\www\project\code\
    - E:\Backup\2007-10-26\cary\grant\hat\black.ico
    - E:\Backup\2007-10-26\cary\grant\suit\black.ico
  This is the only way to guarantee that no merging/overwriting of homonymous items happens. And by the way, it's also a nice way to tell you quickly and exactly where a backup came from. Of course, you have to take care with huge path names, else you will hit the 260 char limit sooner than you think. The Backup Report will state as source: "[multiple source locations, fully recreated in target]".
• * Backing up search results: now, if the search has been done over multiple locations (> 1 location in Location field) then the same method as described above (Backup from Catalog) is applied to avoid any collisions. This has not been handled before, so this point could also be filed under bug fixes.
• * Menu Edit | Move To is not allowed from Catalog anymore. It would render the Catalog useless.
• ! Fixed a glitch with the "Preview Now" button.

v6.40.0019 - 2007-10-25 13:00

This UDC thing is still just in the play-around-state! So do not put too much effort in it now. This new version will (again!) reset your udc.dat to nothing, because I had to change the internal structure a little..

• +++ Menu Edit | Move/Copy/Backup To now work from Catalog! Also the relevant KS are now active if the focus is on Catalog, i.e. the KS scope has been enlarged. The smart part: If a Catalog Item is selected the item is taken, if a Catalog Category is selected, *all* items (that are pointing to copyable file system units) inside the Category are taken.
  NOTE: !!! Try with care, it's still *very* fresh !!!
  Note that the combination Backup-To-from-Catalog does not work yet (you'll get a message box), because I don't know yet how to handle the completely distributed source locations that are possible within a Catalog Category. How much of the source path should I recreate in the destination...?
  Note further that the combination Move-To-from-Catalog is probably not very useful since after it the Catalog items will point into nothingness... I'll probably take that out... what do you think?
• * UDC | Open With. Now handling of items is done smarter so that more items can be passed to a single instance of the opening application before the 2KB limit for command lines is reached. This new way, however, works only in Browse mode, where it is guaranteed that all files reside in the same location (which then
  is passed as the default look up path.
• + Configuration: added new section called "Startup & Exit".
• + Configuration: added new option "Open new instance always" that lets you control whether the app always creates a new instance or re-uses an already running previous instance. The latter had been the hard-coded default up to now.
• * When renaming a file that's being previewed, the preview has to be closed before the rename can take place (else the file would be locked). Now, I allow 100 msec extra time for the closing of the preview. That should fix issues some users had with renaming previewed DOC and PDF files.
• * Before, I slashed (put a backslash to the end) environment paths.
    So, e.g.
    %programfiles%\XYplorer\
    was resolved to
    C:\Program Files\\XYplorer\
  The double slash, of course, creates a problem. Now, I changed this (no more slashing). So %programfiles%\XYplorer\ now will work in the address bar as expected.
• + Preview: added "Preview Now" button to the Preview tab, visible if "File type excluded from preview in configuration." Click it to immediately preview the focused file.
• * Preview: now, if "File type excluded from preview in configuration.", a single call of menu File Preview (Ctrl+Q) or a single press of the "Preview" TB button (although it is in pressed state!) will suffice to actually preview the focused file. Before you needed two calls/presses. Of course, you can as well press the new "Preview Now" button.
• ! List: Scrolling by wheel did 6 lines (dep on your mouse settings) even if only 3 lines were visible per page (view port), for example in a Thumbnails view. Now scrolling by wheel does maximally one page, so that no lines are skipped.

v6.40.0016 - 2007-10-24 12:41

This UDC thing is still just in the play-around-state! So do not put too much effort in it now. This new version will (again!) reset your udc.dat to nothing, because I had to change the internal structure a little..

• + UDC: added three more command categories:
  - Move To
  - Copy To
  - Backup To
  Note that relative paths and date variables are supported. For example, set the Argument of Copy To to "" to copy the selected files to a subfolder of the current path named according to the current date (today: "2007-10-24"), and auto-created if not yet existing. Quite handy...
• + UDC | Open With: added total portability to the Application argument. Now you can specify relative paths: they will be resolved relative to XYplorer's path. The same is true for Catalog | Open Selected List Item(s): also here the application can now be specified relative to XYplorer's path.
• + UDC dialog: added the capability to handle options/parameters modifying the Action. As a first example, the Open With commands now give you the following choice:
  - Pass all the items to the same instance of the application.
  - Pass each of the items to its own instance of the application.
  The first option (same instance) has never been before in XY, so this is also a new feature. Of course, the receiving application must be able to handle multiple arguments in the command string. Only you can find out.
  NOTE: to handle this new capability, the structure of udc.dat had to be changed once again, so your old UDC data will be lost after this upgrade!
• + UDC dialog: added path name auto-completion (aka "autosuggest list") to the Argument edit field.
• + UDC dialog: now the KS (if any) are displayed in the Commands list.
• + UDC dialog: press INS to add new command.
• * Toolbar: new icon for button "Manage Commands". I did not want to make XY look like an esoteric bookshop... ;)

v6.40.0014 - 2007-10-22 11:45

This UDC thing is still just in the play-around-state! So do not put too much effort in it now. This new version will reset your udc.dat to nothing, because I had to change the internal structure a little..

• + Toolbar: added button "Manage Commands". Opens the Manage UDC dialog, and has a context menu that allows you to directly jump to managing a particular command category (analog to the Configuration button's context menu). I chose an icon that suggests the Zen-ness of the feature ...:)
• % Because the way UDC are done now (namely not as "Scriptable Hotkeys"), I could reorganize the way KS are done (which had been designed with "Scriptable Hotkeys" already in mind). Effects: Faster processing, less memory usage, 75% smaller ks.dat file. Don't worry, I wrote backward code to keep your custom key assigments alive.
• ! Fixed various glitches with UDCs.

v6.40.0013 - 2007-10-21 17:50

• ! Manage UDCs dialog: Little display glitch with the Category list. Fixed.

v6.40.0012 - 2007-10-21 14:44

• + Toolbar: added button "Save Settings". Saves all settings (*.ini and *.dat files), and has a context menu that's identical to the menu File | Settings.
• + Forgot to mention: User | Manage Commands has a default KS:
  Ctrl+Alt+F9. As always with new KS, it has to be manually assigned: open CKS, go to the command in question, press "Default" and then "Assign".
• * Menu File: Reorganized and enlarged the "Configuration File" submenu. I decided that the term "Configuration (file)" from now on applies to the current *.ini file proper, whereas the term "Settings (files)" applies to all other configurable data, as are Catalog, UDC, KS, and Cached Servers -- (which are all saved in *.dat files). Accordingly I renamed the menu "Configuration File" to "Settings". Within the now called Settings menu, I added commands to individually save all types of settings to the respective *.dat files.
• * Changed main menu order: moved User to the left of Tools.
• ! Would lose any fresh Catalog/UDC/KS/Server settings, when loading a new configuration without manually saving the current settings before. Fixed. Now it's auto-saved *IF* "Save Settings on Exit" is true.
• ! KSs containing Ctrl+Alt-combinations did not trigger an assigned function when pressed inside Edit boxes. And for a reason: some Ctrl+Alt+[Key] yield a printable character, so I wanted to ensure that these characters get printed to the edit field. However, I did this too generously. Now, most such KS, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+C (Focus Catalog), *will* work (= trigger functions if assigned) in edit boxes, because (at least on my keyboard) they do not yield a printable character. Alles klar?
• ! If a non-empty previewed file was auto-raw-viewed, and the next to be previewed file was empty, the previous raw view would stick visible instead of showing the "File is empty" message. Fixed.
• ! Crash on startup minimized to tray with Raw View active and certain other circumstances. Fixed.

v6.40.0010 - 2007-10-20 21:57

• +++ Another milestone on the long and winding road to superior productivity and file management fun: User-Defined Commands (UDC)!
  
  Contrary to my original plans (then called "Scriptable Hotkeys") I did not implement them key-based but menu-based. It took me half a year to make up my mind about this, but it was worth every second of it. What you get now is 100% full control, plus total visual feedback, full mouse and key access, and the possibility to have user-defined commands *without* an assigned keyboard shortcut (which was one of the inherent drawbacks of the key-based approach). Of course, the real power of UDCs start when you *do* assign KSs to them... :)
  
  You find a new top menu called "User", containing a link to the interface where you manage your commands, and three command categories (I'll soon add more, don't worry...). I attempted to make it as intuitive as possible. Step by step:
    - Open the Manage Commands interface
    - Select a Category
    - Press "New"
    - Enter the "Argument": that's the critical piece of data. It's where you specify the object of the Action. Usually it will be a file or folder, so there's a Browse button to the right of the edit field.
    - Optionally enter the Caption (for the menu item). If left empty, the Argument will be used for the caption.
    - Press Apply to add your edited command to the Commands list.
    - Repeat for all UDCs you need.
    - Finally press OK to apply your changes to the current session of XYplorer. The new menus will be generated in a blink. Open the User menu and see yourself...
    - Now you can open CKS and assign KSs to your new UDCs.
    - Of course, as always in XY, the UDCs will be saved to file on exit unless otherwise wanted. This file is called udc.dat.
  
  Further remarks:
  - There's virtually no limit to the number of commands, although, being menu-based and having a finite number of keys on your board you will hit a usability wall at some point.
  - The files udc.dat and ks.dat are independent from each other which has obvious advantages: e.g., you can easily switch and share data sets between parallel XY instances or XY users.
  Just keep in mind one thing: the keyboard shortcuts in ks.dat identify functions by numbers and will trigger them without asking questions. So, if you throw a udc.dat together with a ks.dat that origin from different XY instances, the UDC-referring keyboard shortcuts will, of course, trigger whatever they find in that udc.dat. So, when loading a new udc.dat or a new ks.dat, quickly have a look at your "User" menu and see how the KS<->UDC situation has changed.
  - I took the chance to open the door to one of the next big XY features: scriptability! Internally the UDCs are already processed as scripts.
  
• % Number formatting faster. You won't note it with today's hardware speed but believe me, it is faster. :)
• + Added accelerators to menus that are listing tabs. Here's an example ("&" marks next char as accelerators; "&&" stands for "&" char that's not marking an accelerator):
    0&1 - Desktop
    0&2 - Desktop\getclipboard && files
    0&3 - C:\
    0&4 - D:\Download

v6.40.0004 - 2007-10-16 13:13

• + Started implementing user-defined commands (UDCs). They have their own top menu named "User". As an appetizer I hard-coded one UDC of the type "Go To". You may already assign a KS to it (and only then you'll see the menu caption -- work in progress). There will be about a dozen other types soon... plus, of course, the interface to manage them yourself.
• + Configuration | Tabs: added two more options to "On dbl-click":
    - Open New Tab
    - Rename Tab
• * Configuration: had to rephrase some labels to make them shorter. This was necessary to support somewhat larger fonts settings as are typical for larger monitors.
  Advanced:
    - Suspend refresh during file operations
    > No refresh during file operations
    - Natural numeric sort order (XP/Vista only)
    > Natural numeric sort order (XP/Vista)
  Preview:
    - Zoom smaller originals to fit Image/Video preview area
    > Zoom smaller originals to fit preview area
• ! Tip of the Day: internal links to other tips did not work in all systems. Changed something that might fix it. #3.

v6.40.0003 - 2007-10-15 11:32

• + Configuration | Tabs: what happens when dbl-clicking a tab header is now configurable. Find a new dropdown list with 3 options:
    - Nothing
    - Toggle Locked State
    - Close Tab
• - Configuration | General: removed "Show tips on startup". It's enough to have this on the "Tip of the Day" dialog.
• % Find Files: Fuzzy matching much faster due to improved algorithm. Credits go to Mike Williams.
• ! Tip of the Day: internal links to other tips did not work in all systems. Changed something that might fix it. #2.
• ! There were a number of display glitches with certain user-defined ppi (pixel per inch) display settings. Very hard to fix, but: Fixed!

XYplorer is "Pick of the week" on Leo Laporte's Windows Weekly podcast!

This is the first non-"release" post here, and there won't be many of these as primary intent of this blog is to keep users updated on release notes, but felt this was special enough that it deserved a mention.

XYplorer was picked by well-known media personality Leo Laporte in his podcast "Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott: 37" as Software Pick of the week, plus this blog was linked to and mentioned also, as was myself as the submitter.

If you don't listen to the whole show, and you should weekly, XY appears at about the 1:06:00 mark for about 4:40 minutes. You can download the MP3 version from this page, if you don't subscribe via iTunes: http://www.twit.tv/ww37.

v6.40.0001 - 2007-10-13 14:00

• + List: Now you can paste-file-into-file via the target file's shell context menu. For example, copy some file to clipboard, then right-click a ZIP-archive. You should see an item "Paste" in the context menu if the associated archiver can handle this. Select this "Paste" and the file in the clipboard will be added to the ZIP archive. Most EXE files will support this as well. What happens on paste is basically the same that would happen on a drop onto these files.
• * Catalog context menu: now the "Paste" command is disabled when the current item is not a folder.
• - Removed: Close tab on double click.
  (It had been added v4.20.0060 - 2005-11-23 12:01)
• + Now double click on tab header toggles its Locked state.
• + Report: Now there's the Choose Printer dialog. However, printing directly from XYplorer is not recommended when you expect more than 1 pages output. In that case you better send the report to the clipboard and paste it into some text editor that offers you a much more controlled printing experience.
• * Toolbar: button "Views" now has a right-click menu (the same that is popped by left-clicking the button).
• * Toolbar: button "List Management" now has a right-click menu (the same that is popped by left-clicking the button).
• + Toolbar: when opening the Customize Toolbar dialog via a toolbar button right-click menu, now the clicked button is preselected in the "Actual buttons" list.
• + Tree highlighting and Favorites: XY got smart. Now when a folder is renamed or moved, it's Highlight, Boxed Branch, or Favorites state is preserved/taken with it.
• ! Tip of the Day: internal links to other tips did not work in all systems. Changed something that might fix it.
• ! Tip of the Day: did not handle ":" (colons) in term text correctly. Fixed.
• + Tip of the Day: now terms with tooltips can have captions that are different from the target by using the {:caption|target} syntax.
  For example {:mode|list modes} will print "mode" but show the tooltip of term ":List Modes:".
• ! Little painting quirk in tree lead to darker icon shadows (huh!) shortly after the vertical scrollbar appeared or disappeared. Reason: the icons were drawn twice. Fixed.

v6.40.0000 - 2007-10-10 11:11

= NEW OFFICIAL RELEASE.
Main changes since last release:

• +++ New GUI. Ux theme visual styles are now (optionally) applied to all interface elements.
• +++ Major re-design of the configuration dialog.
• +++ Added a new license type, the "Standard License", which costs only half of the big "Lifetime License".
• +++ Now you can drag-drop item onto *.BAT and *.CMD files. Of course, this works also with Catalog items as drop targets.
• +++ Finally complete support for dropping from archives of all types.
• +++ Now you have "Tips of the day" at your finger tips (Shift+F1). And more: you can easily add and manage your own tips (in your own language if you want)!
• +++ Support for NTFS junctions, including configurable color coding to make them visually stand out.
• +++ The Backup file operation now preserves all three dates (modified, created, accessed) in copied files and folders.
• +++ The New Items interface now supports date variables, just another revolutionary time-saver.
• +++ Enhanced compatibility with Kontrast#1 (etc.) color schemes for visually impaired.
• +++ File Info Tips now display "Version Information" for all files that have one.
• +++ Media Preview: added support for the file extension DIVX (DivX Movie).

v6.30.0057 - 2007-10-09 13:06

• ! Lost the ability to drop attachments from Outlook. Fixed.

v6.30.0056 - 2007-10-08 13:17

• +++ Added new license "Standard License". Contrary to the "Lifetime License" this new license is limited to "one full major version cycle". For example: When you purchase a "Standard License" for version 6.40 it will be valid for all versions below version 7.40.
  It will not be valid anymore for version 7.40 and higher. Based on the stats of the last years, this means you get roughly one year of updates, which includes about 5-10 official releases and 200 BETA releases. This license will be available from 2007-10-10 onwards.
• + Extended improved support for dropping from archives to Tree and Catalog as drop targets.
• + Menu Tools | Customize Toolbar: added Ctrl+Shift+F9 as default KS.
• * Now, the last used INI-file (LastIni key in XYplorer.ini) is only used on startup when it exists, else the default INI-file (XYplorer.ini) is used.
• ! List: when resizing an X-scrolled list in view "List" from state maximized to normal, parts of the display were not updated depending on the X-scroll position. Fixed.
• ! A user somehow managed to lose the ESC key as shortcut for "Stop". No idea how he did it (unless he manually fooled around with ks.dat...), but from now on the app ensures on startup that the ESC key is where it should be.
• ! Hotlist could get confused by non-existing folders in history. Fixed.

v6.30.0055 - 2007-10-06 11:31

• + Improved support for dropping from archives. Now it works with IZArc, and hopefully a bunch of similar apps. Again.
• + Menu Go: added command "Go to Previous Item in List". Jumps to the previously focused and selected item in the current file list.
  Default KS: Shift+Alt+F7.
  Note: if no previous item exists, then the current item is re-selected, and if necessary moved in into view.
• ! Crash when dropping files between tabs in Windows Classic Design. Sounds weird, but of course this was just a side-effect of the recent GUI re-designs. Stupid copy-paste error while coding...
  anyway: Fixed.

v6.30.0054 - 2007-10-05 18:48

• + Improved support for dropping from archives. Now it works with IZArc, and hopefully a bunch of similar apps.

v6.30.0053 - 2007-10-05 13:01

• + Improved support for dropping from archives.
• ! Corrupt TGA files could generate a crash. Fixed.

v6.30.0052 - 2007-10-04 18:49

• ! Tabs hover effect needed a little refinement. Given.
• + Added some backward compatibility code for recent changes of default settings. Now old users won't suffer a feature shock.

v6.30.0051 - 2007-10-04 14:51

• + Configuration | Previewed Formats: added option "Automatically show non-previewed file types in ASCII/Hex mode (Raw View)". The checked state has been the hard-coded default behavior since years. Now you can choose.
• % Raw View: the raw view text area heavily flickered on resizing the panel. I wanted to fix this since about 7 years and finally found the time to do it.
• * Preview tab: status message now with icon.
• * Preview tab: empty files are now immediately rejected as empty.
• * The Tabs now have the ux theme hover effect. The same effect is now also applied to drag-hovering the tabs. Before (and still when not using Windows Themes) this was marked by coloring the hovered caption blue.

v6.30.0044 - 2007-10-03 14:58

• + Now you can tweak whether servers (computers) are checked for existence before browsing to a network location. The default is YES, check them. But in some rare configurations the checks are not reliable (servers that do exist are not seen), so if YOU know the servers do exist, you don't need the check and can turn it off.
  In the INI you'll find a new key:
    [Settings]
    iAssumeServersExist=0
  Set it to 1 to skip the checking.
• + Configuration Advanced: added option "Find Files commands in List context menu". Check to have the Find Files section from menu Edit in the List's context menu.
• ! Drag'n'drop moving a folder between tree locations on different drives could lead to a crash under certain conditions. Fixed.
• ! Thumbnails: black thumbnails could emerge after inserting new images into a cached thumbnails listing. Fixed #2.

v6.30.0039 - 2007-10-02 12:59

• + Configuration Advanced: added option "Navigation commands in List context menu". Check to have the items Up, Back, and Forward in the List's context menu.
• * Slightly redesigned the new ux style tabs. Looking cleaner now.
• ! Thumbnails: black thumbnails could emerge after inserting new images into a cached thumbnails listing. Fixed.
• ! Menu View | Caches | Refresh Thumbs Cache: did not always do what it says it would do. Fixed.
• ! List: fixed various display glitches related to the new ux theme support.

v6.30.0036 - 2007-10-01 10:44

• *** Ux theme visual styles are now applied to the tabs. If you don't like the new look you can return to the "XYplorer Classic" look by setting the new option "Visual Style" in Configuration Tabs. Note that the new style is applied to the main browsing tabs only -- it doesn't look good at the Info Panel and other tabs. Of course, the Windows Themes style is only available in XP and higher and only when you run the OS in themed mode (not in "Classic Design" mode).
  If you choose the Windows Themes style, you cannot configure the background colors of the tab headers. Later, I will add an even better third visual style, which will be totally independent from the Windows version/mode and have fully configurable colors.
• + Now you can drag-drop item onto *.BAT and *.CMD files. Of course, this works also with Catalog items as drop targets.
• + Tip of the day: added option to have it "Always on top". Unfortunately it does not work well together with modal dialogs like Configuration: it's not selectable or movable when a modal window is opened.
• * Fonts: Interface Font is now only used for the main window interface, so from now on these windows use the Dialog Font:
  - Configuration
  - Customize Keyboard Shortcuts
  - Customize Toolbar
  - Tip of the day
• ! Preview of Office files: you could not switch directly from Raw View to Preview because the file was locked by the Raw View. Fixed.
• ! A sticky MouseDownBlowUp would stay visible on tab change. Fixed.
• ! Browse for Network Server: did not work as expected when selecting the top node (My Network Places). Fixed.

v6.30.0034 - 2007-09-29 14:55

• *** Ux theme borders are now applied to the biggies: Tree, List, and Catalog. At least by default. If you don't like it you can turn it off. There's a new option in Configuration Interface Colors called "Beveled border". Check it to return to the classic 3D-bevel effect.
• ! An empty list could not be scrolled horizontally. Fixed.
• ! Rename Special: extensions of folders were treated like extensions of files (i.e. they were preserved). Fixed: folders do not have extensions, of course.
• * List: Now, when CTRL is held, the focus is set *immediately* to the clicked item on MouseDown. As before, on releasing the mouse button (MouseUp), the selection state is toggled. Note that this works also if the List itself receives the focus through this click.

v6.30.0033 - 2007-09-26 20:05

• ! Little display glitches due to recent changes. Fixed.

v6.30.0032 - 2007-09-26 15:00

• + Configuration | Colors | Color Filters: added color coding by file attribute FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT (= NTFS junction). Use this pattern: /junction (or /j)
  matches all items with FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT set
• + Added "junction" to the attributes on the Properties tab and on the Attributes tab (Find Files), and to the Attributes column (as "J") in the list.
• ! Calculate Folder Sizes: did follow NTFS junctions, which it should not. Fixed.
• ! Using "." (dot; note that on some system the dot must be quoted else Windows does not pass it on) as command line start path to open the app (resp. a new tab) at the current directory did not work as expected. Fixed.
• ! List Management: crashed when Editor Font was not existing. Fixed.
• + Toolbar: added buttons for "Show Hidden Items" and "Show System Items".
• % Lots of display code rewritten. GUI rendering should be even smoother now.

v6.30.0028 - 2007-09-24 14:06

• + Menu Tools | List Management: added "Highlighted Folders..." and "Boxed Branches...". Up to now there was no way to manage these lists so you'll likely find some orphaned entries in them. You now can edit the color values directly in the List Management interface - it is a little hardcore since you have to know Hex color coding (as in HTML: RRGGBB). Some day I might add a more luxury interface.
  NOTE: 000000 means "default color" (and NOT color "black"). So you cannot use black as a highlight color. While doing this I also rewrote the storage format for these two lists. I took care for backward compatibility, so everything should look and work as before. Nice side-effect: more speed, less memory. But you'll will not note any difference -- it's just a couple of micro-seconds and a handful of bytes.
• ! Floppy drive type was displayed as "FloInch Floppy Drive" in list view. Also other drives' type labels did not match exactly what Explorer would show. Fixed: now you even get the drive types in the local system language.
• ! Opening a command line start path in a new tab did not work anymore if an instance of XYplorer was already running. Fixed.
• ! The Configuration dialog's new GUI did not work in 120 DPI. Fixed.
• ! Tree and List: Didn't set the new focus correctly when leaving rename mode by clicking another item. Fixed.
• + Tip of the Day: added Random button.
• * Tip of the Day: If shown on startup then only if startup is not minimized.

v6.30.0021 - 2007-09-20 08:21

• ! Backup file operation: did not preserve Created and Accessed dates for files. Fixed.
• ! Tip of the Day: If shown on startup the tip window was still modal. Fixed.

v6.30.0020 - 2007-09-19 12:17

• *** Ux theme borders are now applied to all list controls. Still missing are the biggies: Tree, List, and Catalog.
• *** The Backup file operation now preserves all three dates (modified, created, accessed) in copied files and folders.
• + Search Templates: added option "Load excluded folders". Check to overwrite the current excluded folders listing by the one stored in the template. The default is unchecked because it is assumed that the excluded folders are usually a global affair.
  Nice side effect: you can now (ab)use Search Templates to store and load new sets of excluded folders (without actually doing a search).
• * Search Templates: changed the "Search stored location" option group (aka "radio buttons") into one checkbox named "Load search location" to keep some style consistency.
• * List: vertically re-shrinked the column headers by 1 pixel. See v6.30.0002 - 2007-09-06 12:16, where I had added 1 pixel.

v6.30.0019 - 2007-09-18 13:05

• + In a near idiotic effort I finally managed what I wanted to do since a long time: paint my custom control borders the way it's done since Windows XP -- flat and blue (depending on your color theme). You can see my results in 2 lists where I turned the new look on as an example: the Configuration navigation list, and the first list on Configuration | Previewed Formats.
  Note: You won't see anything if you use "classic design" or an OS < XP.
• Two questions: - Does it work? - Is it good?
• ! Window did not restore to maximized after closed minimized. Fixed.
• ! Find Files: Excluded Folders where not remembered -- neither tab- wise, nor with Search Templates. Fixed.
• ! TitlebarTemplate: did lose leading and trailing spaces between sessions. Fixed.
• * TitlebarTemplate: now it is allowed to being and/or end the template with <app>, without attaching an additional space.

v6.30.0018 - 2007-09-17 14:12

• + Menu Edit | New Items: Now, date variables are supported.
  For example:
  1. Create a file named "Log {yyyy-mm-dd}.txt" in the NewItems folder in app path.
  2. Go to some other folder.
  3. Open menu Edit New Items and select the new item (which has been auto-added here magically)
  4. A file called "Log 2007-09-17.txt" will be created! (If today is 2007-09-17.)
• + Configuration | General: added option "Show tips on startup" to
  this interface as well.
• + Tip of the Day: some additional keyboard tricks. Overview:
  PageDown: next tip.
  PageUp: previous tip.
  Home: first tip.
  End: last tip.
  R: random tip.
• + Configuration | Report: Now displays the current memory usage at the bottom. To update the value close and re-open Configuration. The values are identical to those shown in Task Manager.
• + Configuration | Interface Colors: now you can control "Highlight focused item" also from here.
• * TitlebarTemplate: in concordance with usage elsewhere in XY, I changed the brackets:
  Old: {path} - {app} @ {ini} - {ver}
  New: <path> - <app> @ <ini> - <ver>
  Forgot to mention what they mean:
  <path> = current path
  <app> = application's exe name
  <ini> = current INI file
  <ver> = exe version
• ! RegExp Rename: RegExp inline comments containing the character ">" would not work. Fixed.
• ! RegExp Rename: The preview button would disappear after a RegExp error message. Fixed.
• ! Optimize Tree: did not refresh the tree display reliably. Fixed.

v6.30.0012 - 2007-09-15 12:00

• *** Configuration: Redesigned the interface. Instead of tabs (that typically run into out-of-space problems) the category selection now is done via a (scrollable, if longer) list.
  Tip: You can nonstop-cycle the list by up/down arrows.
  As you see, I'm still not done/happy with creating some icons.
  And, more importantly, the mountain of configuration options has still to be reorganized into subchapters. Which, sadly, will make rewriting of some parts of the documenation necessary.
  I also plan to add a "find-the-setting"-tool in form of a find-as-you-type technology.
• * Configuration | Preview: renamed "Audio preview with panel down" to "Play with panel down" (just to save space).
• + Configuration | Tabs: The delay before a dragged over tab is automatically selected is now configurable. You find this new option on the new Tabs tab. It is called: "Delay before a dragged over tab is auto-selected (in milliseconds)" Allowed values are from 0 to 9999.
  *** NOTE ***: I did not write backward-compatibility code, so this Value will be initialized to 0 (zero) on a non-fresh installation. If you want to have it as it was before then go to Configuration Tabs and set the value to 1000 (= 1 second)!
• + The main window's titlebar now displays the app version.
  The form is: {path} - {app} @ {ini} - {ver}
  But read on...
• + ... now you can tweak what's displayed in the titlebar.
  In the INI you'll find a new key:
    [General]
    TitlebarTemplate=...
  A full-blown example (and the new default!) would be:
    TitlebarTemplate={path} - {app} @ {ini} - {ver}
  There are two rules:
    - The presence of the field {app} is obligatory, AND it must be surrounded by spaces. This is necessary to correctly identify previous instances of the app with a good chance.
    - This feature is only available in a licensed copy. Else the default is used and "### 30-day Trial Version ###" is inserted into {ver}.
• + From now on, fresh installations will come with some Default Color Filters. Works as a visual appetizer and as a practical example for how to do it. These are the pre-installed filters:
    [ColorFilter]
    Count=9
    1=+/s>FF0000
    2=+/d>5E738C
    3=+*.png;*.jpg;*.gif>933968
    4=+*.exe;*.bat>D24257
    5=+*.htm*;*.mht;*.php>4287D2
    6=+*.txt;*.ini>38A050
    7=+*.zip;*.rar>CC6600
    8=+*.dll;*.ocx>7800F0
    9=+*.mp3>FF8000
  They do not come activated though. I'm still unsure whether that might be a shock for newbies... ;)
• + Highlight Focused Row now happens not only in Details view but in all other views as well. It actually should be called "Highlight Focused Item" because it's not only rows anymore. So:
   Renamed: "Highlight Focused Row" to "Highlight Focused Item"
  I recommend using this Highlighting because it tells you which item is focused even if the List is not the focused control (and hence has no focus rect).
• + Added "Fully Collapse Drive" (Ctrl+Numpad Divide) to the Tree folders' context menu, inside the new submenu "Expansion". Also moved "Fully Expand" to the top position.
• ! The tip for file Info did not appear if one of the 9 first fields (from "Name" to "Owner") was not checked. Fixed.
• + Enhanced compatibility with Kontrast#1 (etc.) color schemes for visually impaired.
• * Subtle changes in focus rect coloring...
• ! Leading and trailing spaces were lost between sessions in Search & Replace (and a lot of other lists) because they were not passed quoted to INI file. Fixed.