Major Oops

I forgot to document that macro keystrokes now have a "Repeat" option. Instead of using [LEFT][LEFT][LEFT], the command can be reduced to [LEFT=3]. I don't ever remember which version this was change was made.

I'll be updating the Keystrokes to make this change much more intuitive and discoverable. Something like [KEYNAME REPEAT=1] would be work better.

Known Issues - ArsClip v5

When UAC is disabled, ArsClip cannot run from the Program Files folder.

There is an issue loading SQLite3.dll on some systems (Fixed in the current beta).

Known Issues - ArsClip Test

Known issues in Test 21:
- AC fails to create the database on a new installation
- Edit Custom Menu creates two instances of the edit window
- Edit Custom Menu has show a blank clip

ArsClip and the VirtualStore

ArsClip doesn't work well with the VirtualStore, since it's designed to be portable. It writes all of its data to the same folder. so it can be copied or moved without any issue. The Program Files folder is protected by Windows, so it redirects writes elsewhere. Normally, this works the majority on almost all systems. It seems this is becoming more of an issue on Windows 10 systems.

One of the issues is that if AC is run as Admin (and it really should not be), it will actually write to the Program Files location. When run normally, Windows will read these existing files from the Program Files and writes will be redirected to the VirtualStore. This creates a condition where all writes are basically undone on the next run.

To help protect itself, ArsClip will now detect when it is running from the Program Files location and automatically store its data in the current profile. This only works for a new install. Another protection feature being researched is the ability to prevent AC from running as admin. This should prevent the file-limbo issue from occurring but won't help installs that already have this issue.

As per my design philosophy, automatic intelligent choices are better than adding just another feature or option. AC needs to be able to copy all of it's data from the VirtualStore to the current profile. This will fix users that are currently having file-limbo issues and prevent the issue in the future.

WinColor - Known Issues

Issues:

- "Program Title Bar" color doesn't work yet. This will require installing a theme.

- "Preview Background" color is replaced by a blue color by Windows if it doesn't like the color chosen. There is no known workaround for this.

- "Start Menu Background" doesn't change on the system after a Refresh. It still requires a Sign Out to refresh the desktop.

WinColor - A New Beta

The color selection in Win10 stinks. This new utility can change the hidden settings for most of the colors used. This includes the running indicator on the taskbar, the foreground program indicator, the thumbnail preview background, and more.

It's only been tested on Win10, so I've no idea how it will work on Win8. The Titlebar color may not work on certain themes, this also is untested.

Notes on ArsClip and SQLite

The AC executable contains the "sqlite3.dll" file that it must extract and bind to when run. AC will first look for an existing DLL in the current folder. Then, AC will try to extract the DLL. Lastly, AC will extract the DLL into the Windows Temp folder if all else fails, and it will delete this temporary file when closed. This means the DLL can be downloaded from www.sqlite.org to override the extracted version.

Since AC is designed to be portable, the program automatically handles creating the DLL and will do clean-up if the DLL must be created outside the current folder. This is the first time an outside library is being used in ArsClip. My philosophy is to create everything in-house to keep control of it and to ensure it is update-able. Since SQLite's source is public domain and included by many famous products, I fell confident in relying on its use.

Android and Windows Clipboard Sharing

This week has been focused on the first steps for Android and Windows data sharing using a shared folder. A Beta version isn't quite ready for either program, since there are still some fine tunings to be done.

ArsClip has some small updates for compatibility. Android's clipboard is very limited, so RichText and HTML clips will also include a plain text version. An issue was discovered using AC in a symbolic linked folder that was also fixed for the folder monitoring features. AC also detects file changes too fast and may try to read a data file before data is written to it. This is also being addressed.

ArsClip Mini has a Connect to Windows settings page. The purpose of this page is to enable clipboard sharing and to define the settings to use for connecting to a Windows network share. AC Mini will automatically test permissions to make sure it can create files in the "clipdatabase/global" folder.

Android doesn't have an automated way to receive folder change notifications over a Windows share. This means that is must use constant polling to check for updates. Since the files used to report new clips are very tiny, less than 40 bytes, constant polling isn't a bandwidth issue.

This does mean that quickly copied items may be missed by AC Mini. The polling time will be editable in the Expert Settings page. Polling also will slow down when an error occurs. So, when the Android device isn't connected to the local network, it will do less work.