Binary Fortress Software

iTunes COM Fix 1.0 Released!

Jon Tackabury — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:41:18 +0000

After updating to a new version of iTunes, sometimes programs that interface with iTunes (like iTunes Sync) will stop working. This is caused by iTunes failing to register itself correctly as a COM object. This problem can show itself in different ways, but in iTunes Sync you will usually see an error like this:

System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast COM object of type ‘iTunesLib.iTunesAppClass’ to interface type ‘iTunesLib.IiTunes’.

Just download and run iTunes COM Fix to take care of this issue. It will attempt to register the new iTunes executable as a COM object so that any programs that rely on the iTunes API will start working again, without having to re-install anything. iTunes COM Fix is just a simple executable, with nothing to install, so it’s quick and easy to use.

Celebrate Windows 7 with 50% off DisplayFusion!

Jon Tackabury — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:16:24 +0000

Join me in celebrating the Windows 7 release with some serious DisplayFusion discounts! Did you know that DisplayFusion is fully compatible with Windows 7? Did you know that DisplayFusion fully supports new Windows 7 features like desktop wallpaper transitions and the new Windows 7 taskbar? To help celebrate the release of Windows 7, DisplayFusion is now 50% off! That means you can trick out your new Windows 7 PC with all the latest DisplayFusion features, and save a pile of money at the same time! For a limited time, a single DisplayFusion is now just $12.50! you can also apply these savings to multiple license orders as well:

2 Licenses: $10.00 each
3 or more Licenses: $8.75 each
5 or more Licenses: $7.50 each

If you have been waiting for a good time to pickup some DisplayFusion licenses for your computers, now is your chance! You can buy 5 licenses at just $7.50 each, for a total of $37.50. That’s under $40 for 5 licenses! This sale won’t last forever though, so join the Windows 7 DisplayFusion party today!

Update: The sale is now over. Thank you everyone for your support!

DisplayFusion 3.1.5 Released!

Jon Tackabury — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:55:08 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of DisplayFusion 3.1.5! This new version is jam-packed with changes, including some overdue cosmetic improvements and important bug fixes. After 1 month of development and endless testing by myself and the DisplayFusion community, it is finally ready for everyone to enjoy. Quite a bit has changed, but here are some of the highlights in this release:

Added a “Middle-clicking a taskbar item opens a new application instance” setting for the multi-monitor taskbars (same feature as in Windows 7)
Taskbar thumbnail previews now use the Windows 7 style slide/morph effect, instead of fading in/out (affects all versions of Windows)
Taskbar now supports Aero rendering in Windows Vista
Taskbars are no longer hidden by the “Aero Peek” feature in Windows 7
Taskbar thumbnail previews now look correct when Windows font scaling is used
Taskbar compatibility improvements: Visual Basic 6, ImgBurn, NewsLeecher, LexisNexis NoteMap, NuSphere PhpED, WinSCP
TitleBar Button compatibility improvements: Skype, iTunes, Google Chrome, VMware Player, Console windows, PuTTY
Mouse Hook compatibility improvements: SRWare Iron
HotKeys and TitleBar Buttons can now position console-style windows correctly (command prompt, Putty… etc)
The TitleBar Buttons feature now correctly detects the background/foreground images in Windows 7 and Windows Vista “classic/standard” mode
Taskbar thumbnail preview tooltip no longer covers the first taskbar items when the taskbar is vertical
Failed wallpaper updates don’t show duplicate tray notifications anymore (results in less duplicate tray notifications)

This is just a taste of all the things that have been added and improved in this release. If you are interested in checking out everything that has changed, I invite you to look at the full DisplayFusion Change Log. If you haven’t updated to this new version yet, I would encourage you to update today to take advantage of all the improvements.

DisplayFusion 3.1.3 Released!

Jon Tackabury — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:26:12 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of DisplayFusion 3.1.3! This new version takes care of a number of small bugs, as well as some long-standing issues. I would like to thank everyone who submitted bug reports through the Support Forum, the support email address and even Twitter. Without everyone’s feedback it would have taken much longer to troubleshoot and fix these issues. Here are some of the highlights for this release:

Added a “Use transitions when changing wallpaper (Windows 7 only)” setting
Taskbar now works correctly in Windows 2000 in all situations
Windows no longer redraw incorrectly after being moved with the middle-click mouse move in rare situations (Chrome 4 dev, for example)
Taskbar shouldn’t show twice on each monitor in rare situations anymore
Taskbar Buttons now correctly scale when font-scaling is used
TitleBar Buttons now correctly scale when font-scaling is used
Wallpaper changes no longer cause the desktop/applications to flicker/redraw
Fixed an issue that caused the hooks to not be reloaded in certain situations after a full-screen application closed
TitleBar Buttons no longer appear over-top of dialog windows in some situations

If you would like to see all of the issues that have been fixed in this release, please check out the complete DisplayFusion Change Log. I would encourage all DisplayFusion supporters to update to this new version today to take advantage of all fixes and new features!

ASP.NET ViewState Helper 1.4 Released!

Jon Tackabury — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:37:39 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of ASP.NET ViewState Helper 1.4! The 2 main changes in this release are Internet Explorer x64 compatibility and Firefox compatibility. ASP.NET ViewState Helper will now show an Internet Explorer or Firefox icon beside each item, depending on which browser the page is loaded in. Both browsers support all the features of previous ASP.NET ViewState Helper versions (like chunked ViewState, frames, iframes… etc). If you would like to see a complete list of changes, you can view them in the ASP.NET ViewState Helper Change Log. You can download the new version on ASP.NET ViewState Helper download page.

DisplayFusion 3.1 Released!

Jon Tackabury — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:16:05 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of DisplayFusion 3.1! This release brings a bucket-full of bug fixes, as well as some exciting new features. The most exciting new feature is the addition of optional TitleBar Buttons for all Free and Pro users. These TitleBar Buttons can be used to perform the same action as the built-in or customized HotKeys. This way, you can perform the HotKey’s actions with just a click of the mouse. The TitleBar Buttons look just like native Window’s buttons. Here is an example of what they look like in Windows 7:

Window TitleBar Buttons

Here are some of the other highlights in this release:

Added a “Show images in alphabetical order” option for the local random image changer
Wallpaper changes now fade from image to image in Windows 7
Added a “Taskbar Position” menu item to the right-click Taskbar context menu for manually setting the position
Improved fullscreen app/game detection
Faster taskbar button & text updating
Taskbar is much less CPU/memory intensive when updating buttons
Taskbar corruption issues have been reduced/eliminated
MDI child windows now snap correctly in their parent’s frame (ex: Excel 2003/2007)
Error with FIPS no longer occurs: “This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms.”

If you would like to see all of the changes in this release, just check out the complete DisplayFusion Change Log. I would like to send out a special Thank You to everyone who helped test this release! It was a long beta test, with 15 betas tested over 2 months, but everyone stuck with it and helped to shape DisplayFusion into what you see today. I would encourage everyone to update to this new version as soon as possible to take advantage of all the new features and fixes. Thanks everyone!

Web Browser Market Share Followup

Jon Tackabury — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:38:01 +0000

Last year, I posted about the web browser market share that I see on my web site. I thought it would be interesting to post a followup, 1 year later. As you can see from the chart below, Firefox has gained 2% while Internet Explorer has lost 2%. For some reason, Google Chrome doesn’t even appear above 1%. I guess it’s still too new. Opera lost 0.5% while Safari gained 0.5%. The “other” browsers still makeup the remaining 1%. As always, take these stats with a grain of salt – they only represent the traffic on my website, not the internet in general.

FileSeek 1.8.3 Released

Jon Tackabury — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:56:28 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of FileSeek 1.8.3! This new release adds the ability to filter search results by the Last Modified Date, as well as including a number of important bug fixes. One other important change is the default action when double-clicking a search result item. It now performs the default Windows “Open” command, not the “Open with Other Application” command. Here are some highlights from this release:

Added an option to filter results by the last modified date
Filename matches now have a different icon than the file content matches
Double-clicking a result will now perform the default “Open”, not “Open with Other Application”
Sorting by the “Date Modified” column now works correctly
Sorting by the “Line Number” column is now much faster
Folder name matches now use the “Include” search pattern, as well as the “Query” text

You can see the full list of changes in the FileSeek Change Log. I would encourage everyone using FileSeek to update today. If you have auto-update enabled in FileSeek you will be prompted to update automatically. For everyone else, just visit the FileSeek download page and get up-to-date today!

Welcome to the Team, Andrew McTeer!

Jon Tackabury — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:39 +0000

I’d like to take a minute to welcome Andrew McTeer to the Binary Fortress Software team. Andrew has signed on to provide part-time help in the forums and support email. The surprising popularity of DisplayFusion, iTunes Sync (and many other applications) has caused a bit of a backlog in the Support Forum. With Andrew’s help, he should be able to clear out the backlog, and keep it up-to-date. I’ve known Andrew for many years, and have worked with him in the past. He’s an excellent developer, and has a wealth of technical knowledge. So, if you see Andrew snooping around in the forum, don’t be afraid to say hello!

FileSeek 1.8.1 Released

Jon Tackabury — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:34:02 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of FileSeek 1.8.1! A few issues made it into the 1.8 release, so this release is a minor release to take care of those things. These issues have been around since version 1.5, when the filename matching was added. Here are the things that are fixed/changed in this release:

Folder name matches are now displayed similar to filename matches (matched folder name in the “File” column, with the base path in the “Path” column
Folder name matches will only occur in the last part of the path, not the complete path (reduces false-positives)
Folder names aren’t incorrectly matched when the Query box is left blank
File and Folder name matches both now use the “Regular expression query” setting

As always, you can view the complete change log if you would like all the details. If you have auto-update enabled you will be notified the next time you start FileSeek, otherwise just head over to the FileSeek page and download it today!

FileSeek 1.8 Released

Jon Tackabury — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:05:47 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of FileSeek 1.8! This new version contains a pile of new features and enhancements, as well as the usual bug fixes. I received some excellent feedback in the FileSeek forum over the last couple of months, and that has helped to shape this release. Here is a quick rundown on some of the larger changes:

Added a “Date Modified” column to the results list
Added custom command line parameters for “open with other application” (to specify line numbers, etc)
Double-clicking a result now opens the file in the user-configured editor, not the Windows default one
Added an option to show folder name matches

As always, you can view the complete change log if you would like all the details. I would encourage everyone to update to the new version to take advantage of the new features. If you have auto-update enabled you will be notified the next time you start FileSeek, otherwise just head over to the FileSeek page and download it today!

TrayStatus 1.0 Released

Jon Tackabury — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:40:48 +0000

Do you have a notebook or keyboard without a NumLock or CapsLock indicator light? Do you have a computer without a hard drive activity light? If so, then TrayStatus is for you. I recently purchased a notebook that had no indicator lights at all, and after a couple of weeks I got frustrated and created TrayStatus. TrayStatus can show you the following information in your taskbar’s notification area (system tray):

Num Lock status
Caps Lock status
Scroll Lock status
Hard Drive activity (read or write) with current speed in a tooltip

If you need to show this information in your taskbar, download TrayStatus today!

DisplayFusion 3.0.6 Released

Jon Tackabury — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:29:40 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of DisplayFusion 3.0.6! Actually, it was released last weekend and I forgot to announce the release. Oops! Well, never mind that, the new version is out there and it’s better than ever. The observant among you may have noticed that there was no version 3.0.5 announcement. Unfortunately version 3.0.5 was released then followed up 3 days later by version 3.0.6. Version 3.0.5 represented a significant change in the way DisplayFusion handled the taskbars, so I was expecting a few bugs to slip through. And a few did slip through, but no worries, version 3.0.6 was released quickly to take care of any loose ends. These new versions have a number of changes:

Added the “All taskbars show relevant windows” in Windows 7
Taskbars now use Aero rendering in Windows 7
Better Winamp compatibility
Taskbar buttons with & in the text would show up incorrectly
Added an “Open Task Manager” to the DisplayFusion context menu
Changed: Added a bunch of new advanced settings
Taskbar window thumbnail previews now use the windows themes and look more native
Taskbar items now blink/flash when they need attention (ex: instant messaging windows)
Performance improvements (reduced CPU usage, reduced response time… etc)

As always, this represents only a fraction of the actual changes in this release, and only highlights the major advances. For a complete run-down head over to the official change log. If you haven’t been prompted to upgrade already, I would encourage you to head over to the DisplayFusion page and download the new version today!

DisplayFusion 3.0.4 Released

Jon Tackabury — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:26:52 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of DisplayFusion 3.0.4! This new version has some important bug fixes, along with some exciting new features. Some of the biggest new features are the addition of taskbar thumbnail window previews and the ability to drag/drop files onto the DisplayFusion taskbar items, just like the Windows ones. Here are some more of the new features and fixes:

Added taskbar thumbnail window previews (hover over taskbar items for a thumbnail window preview)
Added drag/drop taskbar button sorting (on DisplayFusion taskbars only)
Taskbars are no longer removed/re-added when closing the Settings window
Dragging over a DisplayFusion taskbar item now restores that window so you can drag/drop in it
Added an option to disable the “Do you wish to apply these settings?” wallpaper prompt
Full Microsoft Excel 2002/2003/2007 taskbar compatibility in all operating systems
Fixed an issue that caused the taskbar icons to be lower quality in certain situations
Fixed clicking on a focused taskbar item didn’t always minimize it in Windows 7
Fixed monitor order was sometimes different than Windows and affected window movement hotkeys
Fixed an issue that caused the wallpaper to be tiled incorrectly when high DPI settings are in use in Vista/Win7

Taskbar thumbnail window previews

As you can see, there are a number of important changes. You can see the complete list of changes in the DisplayFusion Change Log. There is also a new Portuguese (Portugal) translation available on the DisplayFusion Languages page – thanks Rui Pedro da Silva Gomes da Costa!

I would encourage everyone to update as soon as you can to take advantage of the new functionality.

DisplayFusion Reaches 500,000 Downloads!

Jon Tackabury — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:42:25 +0000

Raise a glass with me as I celebrate DisplayFusion’s 500,000th download! Since being released in August 2007, DisplayFusion has racked up more than a half a million downloads. Unfortunately, I only started tracking downloads in January 2008. Starting from January 2008, DisplayFusion reached 500,000 this afternoon! If I’m not mistaken, I believe a celebration is in order. To commemorate this special event I will be raising DisplayFusion’s price to $500,000 per license. Oh wait, that doesn’t sound right. How about 50% off instead? Starting right now, until Wednesday at midnight (GMT-5), DisplayFusion will be on sale for only $10 per license! Volume discounts still apply as well. That means you can pickup 2 licenses for only $16, or 5 licenses for just $30 (Canadian Dollars). This sale is only on for 24 hours, so if you’ve been waiting to pickup DisplayFusion Pro now is your chance!

DisplayFusion 3.0.3 Released

Jon Tackabury — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:55:15 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of DisplayFusion 3.0.3! This new release fixes over 20 issues, and adds full Windows compatibility. Here are a few of the important changes in this release:

Significantly better Windows 7 and Windows 2000 support
Applying the wallpaper settings manually (in the Wallpaper window) now turns off the image freezing
New HotKey: “Move window to previous monitor” (Ctrl + Win + W)
New HotKey: “Move window to previous monitor and size proportionally” (Ctrl + Win + E)
New HotKey: “Move window to previous monitor and maximize” (Ctrl + Win + D)
Fixed an issue that caused the HotKeys to get reset on reboot with Windows Vista/Windows 7 in certain situations
Fixed the “Arial does not support style ‘regular’” error in the Wallpaper and Settings windows
Better application compatibility with Outlook 2007, MySQL GUI Tools, Google Chrome, Apple Safari 4 and Delphi applications (TOAD for Oracle, PSpad, FlashFXP… etc)

To see the complete list of changes, just visit the DisplayFusion Change Log. I would encourage everyone to update to this new version as soon as possible to take advantage of all the fixes and added functionality. If you have the auto-update feature enabled in DisplayFusion you will be prompted to upgrade the next time you start-up. Otherwise, just head over to the DisplayFusion page to download this version right now.

HashTools 1.3 Released

Jon Tackabury — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:17:53 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of HashTools 1.3. This release adds support for CRC32 checksum generation. I also added support for AutoCRC, something Microsoft uses when generating CRC32 checksums for their ISO images. When an AutoCRC value is present in an ISO, the CRC32 checksum will always return 0xffffffff. HashTools will let you know when the AutoCRC value is present so that you know it’s a good checksum value, and not an error in the file. I would encourage everyone to update to this new version today to take advantage of the new functionality.

DisplayFusion 3.0.2 Released

Jon Tackabury — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:30:11 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of DisplayFusion 3.0.2. Actually, I released this new version last weekend and forgot to post about it. Sorry everyone! This release is a substantial update to DisplayFusion and includes a number of often-requested features, like Taskbar auto-hiding. So, without further ado lets take a look at what has changed in this version:

Taskbars now support auto-hiding
Added a “Taskbar Opacity” option, to make the DisplayFusion Taskbar translucent
Wallpaper checker/changer is now delayed 30 seconds from application startup, to allow the system to fully start before trying to change anything
Huge improvement in response time for taskbar item updating (new windows, closed windows, focused windows… etc)
Better window management compatibility with Google Chrome and Apple Safari 4 (doesn’t move browser to the next monitor when middle-clicking a tab at the top of the window)
Silent installations now work correctly
Installer would sometimes use English, even if another language was selected

As always, you can see the complete list of changes in the DisplayFusion Change Log. I would expect that everyone that has the auto-update notification enabled has already updated, but for everyone else, I would encourage you to update today!

ASP.NET ViewState Helper 1.3 Released

Jon Tackabury — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:32:15 +0000

I have released a small update to ASP.NET ViewState Helper today. This update fixes the button tooltips and fixes the ViewState decoder window’s resizing issues. I have added an automatic update checker into ASP.NET ViewState Helper as well, so that you will be notified of any future updates. If you don’t want to take advantage of this new feature you can easily disable it in the settings menu. ASP.NET ViewState Helper is now fully compatible with x64 versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. I would encourage everyone to update to the new version of ASP.NET ViewState Helper today to take advantage of these improvements.

FileSeek 1.7 Released

Jon Tackabury — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:32:45 +0000

Have you ever needed to find a file buried somewhere in your computer? Have you ever needed to find a specific string of text inside a file? FileSeek can do that, and more. FileSeek is lightning fast, small and super easy to use. It can even be integrated right into the Windows Explorer right-click menu to provide quick and easy access. FileSeek doesn’t use background indexing, so when FileSeek is closed your computer’s performance won’t be affected. This new release of FileSeek adds some significant new features, and fixes a number of long-standing issues. Here is a quick rundown on some of the major changes:

Full Windows 7 support
Added a “Windows Context Menu” option to the file result context menu
Double-clicking a search result item will open the file with the default file handler
Shows the current search path in the window caption bar
The 4 search criteria boxes now store a history of 10 items
The path box now auto-completes using a combination of the history and file system

This is only a sample of the improvements in this new version. You can view the full change log here. I would encourage everyone to update to the latest version today to take advantage of all these enhancements. If you haven’t tried FileSeek before, what are you waiting for? Start searching your files right now!

Binary Fortress Software Logo Design Contest

Jon Tackabury — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:37:21 +0000

I have decided that I want to replace my smelly old logo (seen above) with something a bit snazzier. I want something that will look good on my wife’s CafePress fitted T or on the side of a coffee mug, and my poor attempt at logo design just won’t cut it. So, if you think you’ve got what it takes just head over to my logo design contest on ‘99 designs’ and submit your work. There is $175 (USD) up for grabs for the winner, and there are still 5 days left in the contest. I have never contracted out design work before, and I wasn’t sure where to start. So I thought this contest would be an interesting way to see what people can come up with. I am looking forward to seeing what you can create!

New DisplayFusion Language: Russian

Jon Tackabury — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:53:17 +0000

I would like to send out a huge thanks to Igor Dymov for translating DisplayFusion 3.0.1 into Russian. If you are interested in using DisplayFusion with a Russian interface just head over to the DisplayFusion Languages page and download the Russian language file. For more information on how to install the language file, just look at the “How do I use these language files” section on DisplayFusion Languages page.

HashTools 1.2 Released

Jon Tackabury — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:52:28 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of HashTools 1.2. HashTools is a small utility that I use for generating hashes of files before and after I transfer them, to verify the integrity of the file. It can calculate MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA384 and SHA512 hashes. This updated released contains a few small fixes, and a change in the way it deals with hash files. Previously, you could create a file called “filename.sha1″ (for example) that contained the SHA1 hash for your file (filename.ext) and HashTools would automatically load and compare the generated hash. Now, it will attempt to load a hash file with the name “filename.ext.sha1″. I had to make this change to allow hash files to be created for files with the same filename but different extensions. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments. I would encourage everyone to update to this new version to take advantage of the many fixes and enhancements.

New DisplayFusion Language: Czech

Jon Tackabury — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:28:27 +0000

I would like to welcome our latest addition to the DisplayFusion translation family: Czech. I would like to send out a big thanks to “dEf” for providing this translation, and all the hard work that went into it. You can download this new translation from the DisplayFusion Languages page. With the addition of Czech there are now a total of 11 translations. Here are the languages that are available for DisplayFusion right now:

Chinese (Simplified)
Czech
Dutch (Belgium)
English (included with DisplayFusion)
French (included with DisplayFusion)
German (included with DisplayFusion)
Italian
Norwegian
Portuguese (Brazil)
Spanish (included with DisplayFusion)
Swedish

Head over to the DisplayFusion Languages page right now to download any of these excellent translations.

DisplayFusion 3.0.1 Released

Jon Tackabury — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:11:40 +0000

I am very happy to announce the release of DisplayFusion 3.0.1. This version fixes a bunch of important bugs, and adds a few small features. I’d like to thank everyone that has reported issues so far in the DisplayFusion Support Forum. I never would have been able to squash all of these bugs without your help. Here is a summary of some of the bigger changes in this release:

Added an option: “Rotate wallpaper images automatically using JPEG EXIF information”
Added a registry key to force a specific taskbar height (see support forum)
Fixed application compatibility with a bunch of applications (AQT Query Tool, Microsoft Excel, TOAD, Paint.NET… etc)
Fixed an issue that caused a restored window to be too size for the monitor and the caption bar would be pushed off the top
Fixed an issue that would cause the DisplayFusion taskbar to appear half-way up the screen when changing resolutions
Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause a grey bar to appear on the top and left of scaled wallpaper images

If you would like to see the full list of changes you can visit the DisplayFusion Change Log. You may be required to reboot when installing this update, because of the new DisplayFusion hook DLL. Not everyone will need to reboot, but if you are prompted to reboot DisplayFusion won’t work properly until you do. I would advise everyone to update to this new version as soon as possible, as there are a number of important fixes in this release.

Thanks everyone, and happy downloading!