Eraser 5.86 RC 1

[wraithdu]

Ok, I'll stick with 5.84 for the time being.

I appreciate the effort to release a portable friendly version. Really all I need is a recompiled version of Eraserl.exe and Eraser.dll. I don't need the whole package for anything.

Thanks again for all the hard work!

 

[Thiggy]

Uninstalled 5.7, rebooted and installed 5.86. All is well. No problem, so far.
I didn't try to install any version between 5.7 and 5.86.

 

[Overwriter]

Hi Thiggy

Thank you for your report.

Could you tell us what OS you are using please ?

Are you not experiencing the following bug reported by wraithdu ?

There is some sillyness going on in the erasing options menu though. If you click up and down the erasing options of the Files tab, the 'Cluster Tips Area' option randomly becomes enabled and disabled again, back and forth.

In the 'Unused Disk Space' tab it is the 'Directory Entries' option that changes.

I didn't try to install any version between 5.7 and 5.86.

I’m confused after reading this.


Are you installing to another computer ?

 

[Thiggy]

Hi Thiggy

Thank you for your report.

Could you tell us what OS you are using please ?

Are you not experiencing the following bug reported by wraithdu ?

There is some sillyness going on in the erasing options menu though. If you click up and down the erasing options of the Files tab, the 'Cluster Tips Area' option randomly becomes enabled and disabled again, back and forth.

In the 'Unused Disk Space' tab it is the 'Directory Entries' option that changes.

I was able to duplicate this issue. Open Windows Explorer and right-click a file to erase then select Options on the Eraser window. Click up and down on the Erase With methods and you'll find the Cluster Tip Area being checked and unchecked and if you randomly select methods in the list the Cluster Tip Area may or may not be checked for any erase method.

I didn't try to install any version between 5.7 and 5.86.

I’m confused after reading this.


Are you installing to another computer ?

When I previously had problems with the install, unstall or run. I had gone from 5.7 to 5.84 to 5.86. I unstalled 5.86 which wouldn't run and reinstalled 5.7. Uninstalled 5.7 yesterday and cleaned all folders for Eraser, etc. before installing 5.86 without a hitch. Operating system is XP Pro SP2 up-to-date; same machine.

 

[Overwriter]

Thank you for testing that little bug and explaining which version you installed / uninstalled.

I hope you will continue to help Beta test. :wink:

 

[Joel]

That error seriously makes no sense... I'll try to debug though.

Joel

 

[Joel]

No. The error makes no sense, it is memory corruption but the Eraser code is so convoluted it is getting more complex and irrational the more I think of it... I'll have to pass that...

Joel

 

[Overwriter]

the Eraser code is so convoluted it is getting more complex and irrational

Joel, I have followed your progress with Eraser over the last couple of months or so and it would seem to me that Eraser 5x must have been an absolute mess before you started work. I notice that most of the initial commits on source forge were general tidying up of code.

Just out of interest how bad was Eraser 5x when you started ?

If Eraser 5x is abandoned I understand that Vista users will be vulnerable for a while until V6 is released but this constant trying to fix bad code means time is wasted trying to make 5x do something it simply wasn’t designed to do. I don’t believe Eraser 5x will ever be quite right on Vista, but at least it works ok for XP, win98 etc.

I myself was all for making certain Eraser 5x was completely bug free before starting work on V6 but there comes a time when you have to step back and accept the situation. There are commercially available free space wipers that work ok on Vista so if anyone is in desperate need to wipe their Vista drives then they at least have an option. I agree that security software should be free and V6 will be, but Eraser 5x needs to be put out of its misery. Eraser 5.86 needs to have the first and last 2KB option removed from the scheduler and also the final DLL pass should be removed then 5.86 can be finalised.

Furthermore all previous versions of Eraser need to be removed from download section as we are all aware now of the serious bug (2KB) in the scheduler.

Joel this must be driving you crazy, give yourself a break and let Eraser 5x rest. Your valuable time would be better spent on V6. :wink:

 

[agent009]

ShellEx bug

There appears to be a minor bug with 5.86 Shell Extension on XP SP2 - the Eraser item on drive context menu is blank.

A side note: can't the Recycle Bin context menu be implemented through shell extensions (using eraser's current preferences) instead of creating all those items calling eraserl.exe with different parameters? Or for that matter, why can't eraserl.exe use eraser's current preferences if no explicit parameters (-method, -results etc.) specified?

Regards

agent009

 

[Joel]

Re: ShellEx bug

There appears to be a minor bug with 5.86 Shell Extension on XP SP2 - the Eraser item on drive context menu is blank.

Thanks! didn't spot that. But I'm darned certain I didn't change any of that code... Hmmph.

A side note: can't the Recycle Bin context menu be implemented through shell extensions (using eraser's current preferences) instead of creating all those items calling eraserl.exe with different parameters? Or for that matter, why can't eraserl.exe use eraser's current preferences if no explicit parameters (-method, -results etc.) specified?

No, because of the poor design and ageing code... they are separate programs (exe files) so to get them working in sync would be copying and pasting code jobs... which is bad practice in that you'll leave your code really susceptible to inconsistency.

Joel

 

[Overwriter]

because of the poor design and ageing code

This was the point in my previous post.