13.11.2008 - News of jv16 PowerTools 2009

The first screenshots of the upcoming jv16 PowerTools 2009 have been released, you can see them here: http://www.macecraft.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3455.

The ChangeLog looks like this at the moment:

• Show starting system test messages less often (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3396)
• Improved the speed of File Tool's Copy and Move file operations, especially under Windows Vista.
• Added ability to suppress error messages.
• Improved product's ability to handle a flood of error messages.
• Added ability to search for files based on their attributes with the File Finder. This allows you to list for example all hidden files.
• Fixed one problem that could cause error messages to flood to the screen. If an item cannot be removed, the program attempt to do it again. While PowerTools 2008 gave an error message on each attempt, PowerTools 2009 does it only once.
• Added more security checks to the product, if you attempt to delete or modify any system file or registry key, the program shows you a warning message and asks if you really know what you are doing. In PowerTools 2008 this was done only by the most common features of the product, with PowerTools 2009 the support for this additional safety mechanism is greatly improved to cover more tools.
• Fixed a problem from the Registry Information tool, if the analyzis was aborted, some of the given results were not correctly printed to screen (e.g. sums and averages).
• Changed the Window caption bars from custom non-standard to standard Windows caption bars for all windows of the product.
• Added ability to the File Tool to move items up and down in the results list, this feature becomes handy for example with the Merge feature which combines the files in the order as they appear in the list.
• Reduced the number of automatic column width adjustments. With PowerTools 2008 if you ran for example the File Finder and adjusted the columns of the result list they were usually reset many times during the scan undoing your adjustments. This annoyance has now fixed PT 2009.
• Changed the Tree View result list format of the Registry Cleaner to a grouped List View.
• Improved the speed of the Registry Cleaner, the speed gain is most visible with older computers.
• Improved the detection of system files and registry entries, if user attempts to remove or modify these items PowerTools asks for a confirmation to make sure the user knows what he/she is doing.
• Added a generic anti-flood feature to the product's messages, the feature will disable the product from showing you the same message (such as a warning) many times in a row for example during a big file operation with the File Tool.
• Improved the registry key abbreviation to support long HKEY_USER keys as well. PowerTools 2008 would abbreviate such key, for example, HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-377502413-1295073897-1907628226-1003\software\ as HKUS\S-1-5-21-377502413-1295073897-1907628226-1003\software\ while PowerTools 2009 now makes it much more neat: HKUS\S-1-5...1003\software\
• Improved the way the Data Stored in Registry gauge is drawn in Registry Information tool.
• Improved the Message Windows messaging system. With PowerTools 2008 every addition of new text (e.g. an error message or "Done!" message) caused the message window to become active and steal the focus from the main tool window, with PowerTools 2009 this annoyance no longer occurs. The message windows also now use standard Windows caption bars.
• Added ability to add the files of given directories to the File Tool, with or without including the files of the sub-directories.
• Improved the way large amounts of files are added to the File Tool, the addition now contains a progress bar and option to Abort.
• Added ability to search for files using the File Finder based on the contents of the files.
• Added ability to search for files using the File Finder based on the owner of the files. It's also possible to find orphaned files that do not have any valid owner information attached. (Only available under Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista)
• Added a new tool called Service Manager. The tool can do same things as Windows' own service manager tool but PowerTools' Service Manager can also delete unneeded services. The Service Manager also contain a handy Optimize feature that analyzes your computer and gives you a selection of services that should be safe to disable in order to make your computer start and work faster.
• Added ability to search for registry keys using the Registry Finder based on the owner of the data. It's also possible to find orphaned registry data that do not have any valid owner information attached. (Only available under Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista)
• Added ability to add a comment (when commenting is enabled) to all selected items of the list, and not only one item at the time.
• Added Deep Analyzis option to the Registry Cleaner. The Deep Analyzis is an additional pass of analyzing the scanned registry data, the final pass allows the engine improve both the quality and quantity of the found registry errors. However, the additional work also needs additional time and using the Deep Analyzis makes the registry scan a lot slower.
• Added ability to un-hide items you have once selected not to be shown again e.g. with the File Tool.

jv16 PowerTools 2009 will be released in December 2008 / January 2009, and it will be a free update to all users who have bought jv16 PowerTools 2008 after or on September 2008. In other words, if you now buy PowerTools 2008 you can update to PowerTools 2009 without any additional charge or fee. For other users there will be a small upgrade fee, which will be published later.