Version 6.06 and problems

BloodySword

BloodySword

New Member
Hello.

I don't like the new version. First of all, it looks like a "dumb user"-program... But that is not so frustrating like these things:

- I installed the "stable" version and wanted to change the default erasing command to "First/last 16k". After that I wanted to create my own ones by clicking on the plugin's settings. But Eraser disappeared suddendly without any error message. Since then I could not start Eraser anymore. It said, That there is no default erasing algo selected for the first/last 16k option. I should change it in the plugin's settings. But Eraser isn't starting...

- I installed then one of the nightly builds, but erasing didn't work at all. It said there were errors. In the log, there was "1007 is not a valid number" WTF?

- I installed an older nightly built, which worked. But it uses the sheduler, which I don't need. I whant eraser to erase the files IMMEDATELY from the explorer contextmenu.

- There is no way to choose from the algorythm which will be used for erasing for files, folders and the recycle bin. I can't see any progress and after completion, explorer is not refreshed. I have to press F5 for the files to disappear.

I'm using Windows Vista SP2 Up to date!

My suggestion: The context menu is not configuable. Make it configuable so that the user can decide which menu entries he wants and in wich objects the menu should appear. Even the position in the menu should be configuable. And there MUST be a list with all available erasing methods to choose from. So if the user has choosed one, a window with the progress should be shown. And it should be shown wich file is processed at this time, like it was in the old version 5.88.

An additional suggestion is to add a new custom method additionaly to "Random numbers": Writing the complement of the byte. First erasing with the complement of the read byte, then with zeros is a fast and good erase method for personal use. Let's say you would like to sell your old HDD to some stranger. Deleting the whole drive whith this method is safe enough and FAST.

I will use version 5.88 till these problems are not solved.
 
BloodySword said:
- I installed the "stable" version and wanted to change the default erasing command to "First/last 16k". After that I wanted to create my own ones by clicking on the plugin's settings. But Eraser disappeared suddendly without any error message. Since then I could not start Eraser anymore. It said, That there is no default erasing algo selected for the first/last 16k option. I should change it in the plugin's settings. But Eraser isn't starting...
Click to expand...
Yes that's a recognized bug, I've fixed it last week IIRC.

BloodySword said:
- I installed then one of the nightly builds, but erasing didn't work at all. It said there were errors. In the log, there was "1007 is not a valid number" WTF?
Click to expand...
Hmm, is that the exact error? Anything else in the error log?

BloodySword said:
- I installed an older nightly built, which worked. But it uses the sheduler, which I don't need. I whant eraser to erase the files IMMEDATELY from the explorer contextmenu.
Click to expand...
If you use the context menu files which are added to the scheduler run immediately. Eraser doesn't have the UI to allow users to select the erasure method to use as of now because .NET code cannot be added to shell extensions. I'll find a way to work around this in 6.2, but in the meantime I guess it'll be an inconvenience.

BloodySword said:
- There is no way to choose from the algorythm which will be used for erasing for files, folders and the recycle bin. I can't see any progress and after completion, explorer is not refreshed. I have to press F5 for the files to disappear.
Click to expand...
My suggestion is that users pick reasonable defaults in Eraser Settings such that they won't need to set the erasure method on every erase. That's what I believe "defaults" are meant for (feel free to debunk my belief -- I'm open to discussion)

BloodySword said:
My suggestion: The context menu is not configuable. Make it configuable so that the user can decide which menu entries he wants and in wich objects the menu should appear. Even the position in the menu should be configuable. So if the user has choosed one, a window with the progress should be shown. And it should be shown wich file is processed at this time, like it was in the old version 5.88.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure about making the context menu configurable -- this adds complexity to the settings interface. One example of a program doing this is TortoiseSVN, but in their case their submenu is really excessively large. Position however isn't too configurable -- Windows Explorer decides which position Eraser's entries come in, so order is at most within Eraser's menu items.

BloodySword said:
An additional suggestion is to add a new custom method additionaly to "Random numbers": Writing the complement of the byte. First erasing with the complement of the read byte, then with zeros is a fast and good erase method for personal use. Let's say you would like to sell your old HDD to some stranger. Deleting the whole drive whith this method is safe enough and FAST.
Click to expand...
Well, I'm sure that if the custom method editor worked for you you'll have done that in it.

Summary of fixes:
- Crash using FL16KB: fixed in trunk (use nightly build)
- Custom method editor: fixed in trunk (use nightly build)
- Crash on using nightly builds: the current fix is to delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\Eraser 6\Task List.ersx, but there's a patch which is supposed to fix this. It'll only be applied on the 6.2 branch, however
- Selection of erasure method when erasing from context menu: targeted for fix in 6.2

Thanks!
 
Thank you for your answers.

I think there is nothing bad about a button in the settings wich will let the user configure the menu. Let the user decide what the user wants to see and what not. You could offer presets:

- Simple (Only Erase, a window will appear asking for "del on restart" if a file fails, uncascaded, only ONE menu item)
- Normal (Popular methods in the cascaded context menu)
- Medium (All plugin methods in the cascaded context menu)
- Extended (All methods and all custom methods in the cascaded context menu. The custom menu items should have another icon than the plugin ones.)
- Custom (The user can decide what the menu looks like using checkbox lists:

Code: 
<!-- human xml schema -->
<checkbox text="Make the context menu cascaded" name="chkCascade">
<listbox type="checklist" items="DATASOURCE->plugin.methods" name="lstPluginMethods">
<listbox type="checklist" items="DATASOURCE->custom.methods" name="lstCustomMethods">
)

It is easily posspible to write such code even in .NET. .NET program changes settings, C++ DLL (The shellex.) will interpret this settings and shows the menu entries.
A klick on one entry will run eraser.exe with a given temporary jobfile, wich is deleted (secure too, with default setting) after completition.

I feared that Windows Explorer sorts the extensions. :/ I HATE that. In Windows 7, there is a new method to add context menu items, even with lower user privilleges (then for the current user only). I don't know how it exactly works but you could inform you on the msdn network site.

You missed the problem that the explorer won't remove the deleted files from the file list view till I press F5.
What I miss is a window with a progress indicator, like the one of version 5.88. I hope it is possible to do something with .NET.

The "1007 is not a valid number"-Error: No there was nothing more. I was so confused, that I uninstalled eraser, runned regcleaner and installed another nightly built. :/

regards,
BloodySword
 
Oh, if you really need a progress indicator (as is the case with long erasures) you can go to the main program scheduler and check it there. The scheduler is supposed to allow users to queue multiple erasures at once and see the status from there. So you can queue say, 10 folders and leave it to run in the background without blocking Explorer. as for refreshing the folder after the erase, I think it's possible but I cant remember the API offhand.

There isn't a new method to add context menu items, as far as I know, it's always been the IContextMenu interface since... a very long time ago. ePrhaps you can explain what you mean by "new method"?
 
I hope you noted some of my suggestions and I hope we will find some in the future versions :).

The "new method" is there I guess. Do you know the powerful freeware editor "PSPad"? The actual version offers an option to use the Windows 7 menu items instead of a shell extension. I don't know how it works and how this method is called, but I think you will find it in MSDN. I think it is a new method to generate menu items in Windows 7 especially for .NET applications, since it is not a good idea to write a shell extension in .NET (it is possible) because the whole .NET runtime stubs would loaded into the poor Windows Explorer... And we all know what this means: Huge memory usage and slow respondings of Explorer...

For the progress bar indication window I hope that you will make an option that the window will be displayed automallicy while erasing from the context menu. It could be a compact one or the main window is popped up.

Edit:
What do you think of my idea with the shell extension setting presets?
 
Oh, Jumplists. Those are also context menu extensions, albeit of a different interface.

The progress dialog will be adopted in 6.2 It's not possible in 6.0 because, like I said, we can't load the entire runtime into Explorer. It'll be a dialog like the standard Windows delete/copy/move dialogs. But 6.2 is not due for almost a year...
 
What do you think of THIS:

choose.png


I think this solution will keep your settings dialog cleaned and the advanced user is able to customize eraser for his needs :).

So I hope we will see a progress window in next release.

Jumplists. Are they suitable for eraser? Sinse we should offer context menus even for users of XP and Vista, I think it wouldn't be a good idea to use them, since you have to write a suitable shell extension for eraser anyways.
 
I'll have to review jumplists. Please ticket that on Trac. As for the context menu... I think it's a little premature at this moment to implement this, especially since I don't know how the 6.2 context menu extension will interface with Explorer, Eraser and the user at the same time. But sure, go ahead and create a Trac ticket as well. I'll look into it when the time comes.
 
Where can I find the Trac area to post a ticket?
I will do it tomorrow (after I got sleep xD), in germany we have 1:43 am. ^^

regards
 
Trac. Thanks once more!
 
I find the new 6 eraser bothersome. I am running windows 7. There is no secure move on the drop down menu. I have to reset the default algorithm in order to change. See, there are some files I am happy to delete with one pass and others that I feel require 35 passes. The drop down menu should be as it was in 5.8. Also, there is no way to stop eraser from starting at windows start-up. The latest version has taken away many of our choices and so, I re-installed the 5.8 version. Why change something that was good? I find this in so many software upgrades. In trying to be wonderfully new and innovative, the upgrade turns out to be a downgrade. Thanks for your time and work on the product but let's go back to the 5.8 mentality.......Thank You.
 
I have tried the latest and Greatest and I am used to the good one working well for erasing the free space which has been deleted, but I have less room since I need to delete all of the files which were created by the program at this time so I will need to run it again to get my space again. I removed my Version 6.06, I hope this company gets a clue and gets a good version of it or lets us use the one which works, but maybe not. I hope to get this place on the ball and having a program which works since why have something which don't work right, but its worth free. I read somewhere else that I should delete the file which was on the C: drive which is a strange looking file which I removed and that didn't solve the problem. I use Windows XP Pro Update 3
 
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