Bits from Bill

Technology thoughts leaking from the brain of "Bill Pytlovany"

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

WinPatrol Integration with Windows Explorer

I'm happy to report the release of WinPatrol 15.9. I’ve made a few improvements but also made a great bug find thanks to support and screen shots from WinPatrol friends.  Our PLUS database now exceeds over 19,000 easy to understand program descriptions that can now be accessed directly from Windows Explorer.

The following information along with a download link is available at http://www.winpatrol.com/upgrade.html.


  • Explorer Integration of PLUS Info...


    One of the main features of WinPatrol PLUS is the ability to look up information for strange filenames. We now have over 19,000 descriptions available in a form that mere humans can understand. Our new WinPatrol now adds the ability to research programs to any executable on your system directly from Windows Explorer.

  • Quicker Access to PLUS Info

    In previous versions of WinPatrol we shipped PLUS descriptions of some of the most popular file requests. As our database grew and things changed it became obvious that we would never be installing our entire database on local machines. Our new version removes the check for local PLUS data saving you from unnecessary access to your hard drive and speeds up access to our online database

  • Bug Fix: Firefox 3 Cookies

    At this time WinPatrol hasn't been updated to manage cookies in Firefox 3. Cookies in Firefox 3 use a database method called SQlite which is completely different then its old plain cookies.txt file. We've removed the option if Firefox 3 or greater is detected so there is no confusion.

  • Bug Fix: AppInit_DLL

    One non-traditional startup location frequently used by malware is a registry key AppInit_DLL found at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows. This key is now also used by security programs as way to hide from users and malware. WinPatrol has always monitored this location successfully but recently the over use of this location helped us find a bug in the way we parsed this key. Users of Kaspersky Internet Security were the first to discover this problem because KIS 2009 actually stores four separate DLL's in this location.
    In previous versions of WinPatrol Scotty would incorrectly report filenames when there were three files or more located in this key.

Non-English version users with current language packs installed can just download our new default setup. No new text strings were added so all your text will still be localized.  New non-English setups will be available soon for new WinPatrol users.

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10 Comments:

Blogger Corrine said...

Wow! Getting PLUS Info really is really fast with the new feature.

In Windows Explorer, right-click, w = PLUS Info opening in default browser. Remember the w for WinPatrol!

I love that you included the keyboard shortcut since I try to reduce mouse usage when possible.

Thank you for a great product and another helpful feature.

6:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

any way to disable the additional context menu? I like my menus clean :)

4:34 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

At this time the Explorer Integration is not an option but if you're familiar and comfortable with regedit there is a simple way to remove it from your context menu.

Just remove the following key folder.
HKCR\exefile\shell\WinPatrol PLUS

6:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi Bill. I have deleted the key in the registry, but it seems that WinPatrol recreates this menu item on every launch.

Thanks for a great tool!

11:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Please please please have an option to not have Explorer Shell Integration.

I am not kidding when I say it is seriously making me think about stop using WinPatrol.

12:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous #1 here.

I feel it is up to you if you want to remove the context menu. I will still use Winpatrol regardless :)

9:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, I just emailed Bill Pytlovany about this very matter. Didn't find this blog until afterwards.

Every time you load WinPatrol from the tray..or anywhere, the context menu entry for .exe files is added back to the registry.

I created a reg file with this:

//
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\WinPatrol PLUS]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\WinPatrol PLUS]

//

..and I click it every time I use WP, but it is very, very annoying when it keeps returning. Please disable automatic context menu support. I spend far too much time in Winders faffing about removing unwanted entries from the beloved right-click menu.

Sorry to say this, it feels a bit like nagware, and I say this as someone who appreciates your great efforts and has used WP since the very beginning...well since I found it yonks back.

Anyway, all the best,

Simon

9:55 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Watch for a new version tomorrow where the Explorer Integration will be optional.

Thanks,
Bill

11:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello Bill

Thankyou very much for the latest update. Update duly installed and explorer shell integration now disabled. Brilliant. Back to normal for us non·plus (non plus is quite appropriate in this case) users. That's a relief :-)

Thanks for your hard work, very much appreciated, and all the best,

Simon

12:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sweet! Thanks a lot for the update.

3:58 AM  

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