Development History - (versions 1.00 - 1.26)

Version 1.26 - 18. September 1998

• Probably the last release before the first 2.0 beta version. Version 1.26 should be and remain the most stable release for quite some time, at least until 2.0 is fully completed and tested.
• Fixed a number of small or rare problems reported or found during the last month, including problems during disk scanning, searching being interrupted, sorting large disks by size etc.

Version 1.25 - 16. August 1998

• Implemented some minor changes how menus are painted, and improved some details about launching files with associated programs.
• Included support for importing file info about *.CPL files.
• Fixed some language-related problems when using a language other than English, especially in Search dialog.
• Fixed a problem occurring with some removable drives when program tries to assign a new serial number to media.

Version 1.24 - 19. July 1998

• Added UNC filename support for saving and loading catalog files in network environments. Full UNC support is scheduled for version 2.0.
• Improved some minor details about properly importing 4DOS description files.
• Included some minor details for better support of Windows 98.
• When using "Copy To..." or "Extract To..." commands, directory tree to select the destination sometimes appeared empty, and manual refresh was required. Fixed.
• Fixed problem with Report Generator when running on Windows NT, after changing printer settings. This has been fixed before, but the buggy code has crept back in when I updated my development environment a few weeks ago.
• A number of fixes and safeguards have been implemented in disk scanning procedure, to prevent some rare problems occuring during the disk scan.
• Fixed a number of small problems or issues, either reported or discovered during development of new 2.0 version. Some portions of code from upcoming 2.0 release are also included in this release, to add small improvements in both functionality and speed.

Version 1.23 - 4. June 1998

• Major service release.
• Enabled option to allow case sensitive searching by file mask, both for normal searching and searching for duplicates.
• Fixed and improved algorithm for searching for duplicate items. Previous versions had problems returning correct results if both name and size were not checked as duplicates criteria.
• Fixed and improved importing existing descriptions on disk update. Program will now allow files that have changed, but remained on the same location to keep their current descriptions on update. This also includes better file recognition support, if more files with the same name but different descriptions exist in catalog.
• Alt-F4 shortcut will now always close currently active window or dialog, not necessarily the application.
• Improved importing information from WAV files. Some types of WAV files were not recognized properly in previous releases.
• Adjusted a few minor problems with browsing data in the main window. In some rare specific cases, sorting in just displayed window was not set correctly, or sort arrow was missing in column header.
• Fixed problem in report generator - exporting some very specific types of reports to ASCII file or to Excel could end with internal error message.
• A few other minor enhancements were included, mostly user suggestions.

Version 1.22 - 28. May 1998

• Service release. One bug was found after all in new searching routines, related to searching files in deep nested folders by descriptions. Sometimes program failed to find some of those files.
• A few more changes were implemented to ensure support for new version 2.0, when it will be released. Version 2.0 will introduce new catalog file format to support some of new features, and new catalogs created by 2.0 version will not be readable by this release. Changes included here will recognize new catalog file format and act accordingly. Of course, your current catalogs will be supported by 2.0 version, and automatically converted to new format when saved for a first time.

Version 1.21 - 25. May 1998

• Installation program has been improved and equipped with some special, custom made add-ons to provide additional functionality. Installation program is now able to detect location of previous installation and offer it as default, and it will now clear old program entries in "Add/Remove programs" list when re-installing or upgrading. Partial install is also supported, and a new sample catalog was added to present some of program's capabilities to new users.
• Assigned Ctrl-Enter shortcut to act as a click on the OK button when editing a description (it now works in Description Assistant as well in item's properties dialog).
• Improved changing serial numbers to handle 0000-0000 numbers on Windows 95, too. In previous versions, zeroed serial number could not be changed when running on Windows 95/98 (Windows NT users did not have this problem).
• Improved media type detection. Now program will try to detect type of media inserted, not just type of drive. This could be useful in cases such as DD media in HD drive, or regular 3.5" floppy disk in LS-120 drive.
• Added new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file to WhereIsIt package.
• Fixed sorting in Search Results list and User List. Clicking on column sometimes did not sort items as it should.
• Fixed and improved importing database from Floppy Master.

Version 1.20 - 18. May 1998

• Right-clicking on drive button in Add Disk/Update Disk dialog will now show system context menu for that drive (the same one as if right-clicking drive icon in Explorer). The same context menus are also available when selecting a folder for some operation.
• Added catalog file size information to catalog properties.
• Changed a bit how sorting by disk numbers is handled for files and folders.
• Auto-save interval in program settings was not preserved correctly. Fixed.
• Importing descriptions from Files.bbs and similar was adjusted a bit, some descriptions could be skipped in previous versions.
• A number of other small changes and adjustments.

Version 1.20 beta 1 - 7. May 1998

• Almost completely rewritten search procedure and internal catalog handling, resulting in much faster searching, and shorter shut-down times. Searching is now in average about 3-4 times faster, and in some special cases even up to 10 or 20 times. Actual improvements will largely depend on number of hits (fewer the better), and a bit on catalog data structure.
• Added sort indicators to column headers. Headers are now by default a little wider than in previous versions, since some space is reserved for the arrow.
• Added IntelliMouse support in Windows 95 (scrolling active window with mouse wheel).
• Program will now remember last set "Copy to" folder.
• Modified a bit how media is detected, to address problem with using catalog file on both Windows 95 or 98, and Windows NT. Problem occurs because each system reports slightly different details about media - result is that media added to catalog in Windows 95/98 is not recognized on Windows NT, and vice versa. Program now tries to tolerate those differences, especially when working with CD-ROMs.
• Saved catalog files will now preserve their attributes, including the compression attribute on NTFS disks.
• Fixed a few problems related to saving Search dialog's settings.
• Fixed searching by file type, and searching for duplicates with file name filter turned on. Some new additions in previous versions broke this.
• Fixed some problems in report generator, like always printing from default paper source.
• When closing multiple catalogs with "Close All" command, there was some unnecessary flickering and redrawing. Closing is now faster and smoother.
• Disk size for virtual disks was always reported as 0. Virtual disk size is now presented as used space by all files on virtual disk.
• Fixed anomaly when scanning some specific CAB archives, and fixed extracting from archives with spaces in internal folders.

Version 1.11 - 5. April 1998

• Some internal optimization was done in this release, resulting in notice- able speed improvements, like faster list updates when scrolling. A few other speed optimizations are also prepared, but not yet included in this release, since some further testing is necessary first.
• "Show context menu" button on Win95 keyboards now works in WhereIsIt, too.
• Item lists will now show selected items even after window looses focus.
• Added recognition support for Fujitsu M2531A MO drives.
• When saving catalog failed for some reason (full disk, etc.), program could start incorrectly reporting catalog errors, or just crash in certain conditions. This has been fixed, and program is generally better protected against saving related problems.
• Fixed extracting files from RAR archives when files were stored in sub- folders inside RAR.
• When moving with PgUp/PgDn keys (in large steps) through tree view in main window, the right pane sometimes didn't update itself properly. Fixed.
• Adjusted detection routine for detecting removable drives. On Win95/98, some removable drives could be sometimes detected as hard drives.
• (De)selecting files via +, *, - buttons was very slow in 1.10 release.
• Fixed anomaly when drawing popup menus (menu item's text was sometimes displayed too low).
• Added a few other minor adjustments.

Version 1.10 - 20. March 1998

• Improved search capabilities when searching by name or description. Now you can specify more than one condition to search for, separated by commas. For example, to find all text and zip files, you can do this in single search by specifying '*.txt, *.zip' as a file mask. The same goes for text in descriptions. Program will search for items that match by at least one of specified condition.
• Adjusted a bit how menu items are painted, text should be better aligned now for most systems.
• When scanning disk with importing hidden files turned off, such files were also not checked for importing description. This has changed, descriptions will get imported from hidden files even if they are set to be skipped and are not appearing in the catalog.
• Program will now remember and next time set maximized window state. Previous versions only remembered window size, but not state.
• Fixed a bug with moving disks between catalogs (registered version only). Error messages could start poping up after or during disk is being moved.
• Fixed a problem with normal search / duplicates search setting.
• Fixed blank entries appearing in the most-recently-used catalog list.
• Fixed a problem occurring with multiple printers installed on Windows NT.

Version 1.10 beta 4 - 10. March 1998

• Installation program now supports German language, too.
• Added a new button to put program in the background during disk scanning, minimizing application and allowing to use other programs at that time. Program will pop up again when disk scan is finished.
• Search dialog will now remember not only window size, but also last used search settings and search type. This way, if your last search was by file name, the next time you press Ctrl+F search dialog will be already set to search by file name.
• Added support for some file operations to Compare / New items list.
• Added support for Java ARchives (*.JAR), quickly gaining popularity on Internet for Java packaging. They are handled as regular *.zip archives.
• Added importing information for wave (*.WAV) and MPEG (*.MPx) audio files. ID3 tags are supported, too.
• Changed "last opened catalogs" list size from 4 to 8 (this will be made user adjustable in the next major release), and modified a bit the logic how catalogs are added or displayed on this list.
• Improved Windows 98 compatibility.
• Added option to disable startup and shutdown logo (registered users only).
• Add/Update disk dialog will now remember "Advanced >>" button state between sessions.
• Added 'Add to User List' action to file double-click actions list.
• Added recognition for "Deltis MOS320" and "Olympus MOS332" MO drives.
• When updating disk image, old disk description was sometimes not preserved. Fixed.
• Fixed searching by file mask for files, compressed inside archive files and with subfolder(s) appended to file name in the catalog.
• Setting to browse inside archive files had some problems with its default setting in Add/Update dialog. Fixed.
• Fixed error occurring when trying to use "Copy To" command on '..' folder.
• Fixed a bunch of spelling errors in English language file.

Version 1.10 beta 3 - 27. February 1998

• Added optional disk numbers to catalog, due to popular requests. Each disk can now have its own number, used mostly for reference purposes. Appropriate columns will appear when listing disks, files and folders, and relevant dialogs were updated to support this new feature. Catalogs remain compatible with previous versions, regardless of this new addition.
• Added 'Save All Catalogs' command to main menu.
• Added a new command line parameter, '/English', for forcing the program to start in English language, disregarding current language setting. You can use this to bail back to default language if you have mistakenly set a language you can't see or understand.
• Added ability to rename disks and catalogs from their Properties dialog.
• Added support for importing 00index.txt (and similar) files.
• Improved on handling of Files.bbs files. Some additional new formats are now supported, and program is more robust to other, perhaps yet unknown formats.
• Improved File_id.diz importing from compressed files. Program can now import File_id.diz files even if they are not in "root" of compressed file, and includes some logic what to do if multiple File_id.diz files are found inside single compressed file.
• Added 'Item Time' column to User List and Compare Results List. Please note that for compatibility reasons, users of previous versions will find new columns at the right end of listview window; you can use the 'Customize Columns' option to reorder columns.
• Added some special support for Seagate's Direct Tape virtual drives, to overcome problems caused by Direct Tape's not-exactly-perfect removable drive simulation.
• Improved removable drive detection, and added support for detecting new "iomega Zip 100 Plus" drives. E-mail me for details if you have a removable drive and would like to have it detected under real name instead of generic "removable drive" label (functional in Win95 only at the moment).
• Added support for detecting and recognizing LS-120 drives.
• Added context sensitive help to Properties dialog, User List, and Compare Results List window. I think that about covers it now.
• Made some additional changes to user interface, to accommodate new multi- language support.
• Updated column auto-resizing behavior. You should no longer experience columns changing sizes by themselves to default value when manually resizing some other column, and there should be less flickering.
• Finally fixed support for Novell NetWare network drives larger than 2GB.
• When program is searching for media to match catalogued disk, it will now correctly handle situation where more than one drive is found to have the same properties as needed media.
• Operations like View and Launch did not work correctly with files stored in internal subfolders inside RAR file. Fixed.
• Fixed exporting reports to ASCII files, sometimes exported report was empty.
• When changing active language, hidden columns and columns order settings were lost. Fixed.
• On language change, order of items in Disk Image Setting / "Import description from the following sources" list appeared to be reset to default order. Fixed.
• Removing temporary extracted files at program exit did not work correctly in 1.10 beta 1 and 2 if "Ask before delete" mode was selected. Fixed.
• Fixed "List index out of bounds" error in Compare Results list, occasionally showing when switching lists.
• Importing descriptions from Files.bbs and 00index.txt files could be slow in folders with a lot of subfolders, or archive files. This is much faster now.
• Improved on general program's stability, compromised by introducing multi- language support a while ago. Especially the Report Generator had a tendency to force an error when being used for a while, and this should be fixed now.

Version 1.10 beta 2 - 11. February 1998

• Added support for customizing font used in dialog boxes all over the program. This setting is now a part of language definition file, and includes font face, international character set to use, and font size. With this settings you can assign special font setting to each language supported in program. For example, to get Office 97 look & feel, select font 'Tahoma' instead of default 'MS Sans Serif'.
• Language Editor has been updated to comply with new font settings, and will now show source text and your translation in appropriate fonts, as set in language files.
• Fixed problem with no language being selected (English should always be default, but...) This bug showed as missing text in dialogs, column headers etc. Once you have selected the appropriate language yourself, everything has returned to normal.
• Fixed importing File_id.diz files from compressed files, when "Browse only for descriptions" option was enabled.
• Added some safeties to the new Language Editor, to prevent loosing most of your translations in case some critical error would occur.
• Fixed a few other minor user-interface related bugs, and made some changes for better multi-language support.

Version 1.10 beta 1 - 6. February 1998

• NEW! Complete multi-language support, with run-time language switching and built-in Language Editor for translating the program to your own language. English and Slovenian language files are included with this release, and there are many more under construction at this moment.
• NEW! Support for exporting reports directly to Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program. Program uses DDE to communicate with Excel, and builds a new table with your report contents. From there you can save generated spread- sheet to .XLS or any other format supported by Excel.
• Added support for extracting from self-extract (.exe) files.
• When extracting archive files, type of compression is no longer assumed by file extension, but is recognized from the file itself.
• Rewritten importing descriptions logic, preparing it for future upgrades.
• Added optional version info importing from 32-bit Windows files (exe, dll, vxd, ocx...) during disk scan. Program is now able to import file description and version from manufacturer's signature.
• Added simple description importing for Audio CD disks. Each track will be commented with track number and length, and if CD-ROM or track is already in Windows' CD Player's database, track or disk name will be imported from there.
• Added 'Remove from User List' button and menu option to most windows, acting as a counterpart to old 'Add to User List' command. This new function will enable you some more detailed user list handling, like using search for finding items to remove from user list. All this is mostly preparation for the next major version which will allow you to save User List contents, giving a whole new dimension to your catalogs.
• Changed some details about editing disk name in Add/Update dialog. Now you can enter disk name before clicking on the drive button (it won't get overwritten with default disk label any more if you typed it there).
• Right clicking column headers now shows a menu, where you can either force columns to auto-adjust their width to currently visible data, or show a Columns Setup dialog as in previous versions.
• After editing description or renaming an item is finished, columns will now auto-adjust their width to accommodate new data.
• Added *,-,
• keys on numerical keyboard for list selection. '+' ('-') will select (deselect) items on list by file mask, while '*' will invert current selection. All three are acting the same way as in ever popular Norton Commander.
• 'Export Descriptions' dialog will now keep settings inside current session.
• 'Compare Files to Catalog' will now store last used settings to registry, keeping them even between sessions.
• Replaced color selection combo in Report Settings with more powerful color button.
• Fixed some problems with importing and exporting Files.bbs descriptions, mostly where long file names were included.
• Improved file error handling in 'Copy To...' command.
• When trying to change serial number on write-protected disk under Windows NT, disk scan would be aborted with error message. Fixed to ignore the error, leave the serial number alone, and continue with scanning.

Version 1.02 - 21. January 1998

• Fixed a problem with detecting drives (partitions) in size over 2GB.
• Made changes to avoid reported problems with some network drives.
• Fixed problem with band size when changing fonts in report generator.
• A few problems reported with 1.01 were addressed and fixed in this release.

Version 1.01 - 9. January 1998

• This version fixes a few more or less rare problems that were reported regarding the final release, and adds some very minor enhancements.
• Installation script was updated to ask for confirmation before executing Microsoft's Comctl32.dll upgrade installation program.
• Browse for folder dialog now has a Refresh button, to allow updating the folder tree in case something changed (new drives available, etc.)
• Context sensitive help was added in Search dialog, too.
• Fixed problem in Description Assistant where program would sometimes report an error when accessing description files larger than 32kB.
• Fixed problem in searching for duplicates, the "Don't search for files inside archive files" option did not work as it should.
• Fixed searching by categories if more than one catalog with categories set was included in searching (returned results may have been incorrect).
• Fixed updating disks where categories set were sometimes not correctly preserved for some items without description.
• Fixed a "List index out of bounds" message that may show sometimes when disabling 'Show ".." folders' option in program's settings.
• The "Autohide After..." checkbox in User Interface settings did not save its state correctly between sessions (it was just reverted).
• Updated "View / Sort items..." menu to include some missing options.
• If more than one folder was selected, "Copy To..." only copied the first one and skipped all others. Fixed.

Version 1.00 Final - 31. December 1997

• Updated installation script to include the latest COMCTL32.DLL files for both Win95 and NT, and made possible for install program to update these files by itself, if necessary.
• Finally added custom reports to report generator. You can visually select items to include in a catalog tree display - what is visible in tree, this will be printed. There are also a few macro commands to make selection easier, and you can save prepared report layout to file.
• Added a new option to exclude items compressed inside archive files from searching.
• Added new shortcut Shift-F10 to bring up item's context popup menu.
• Finally located and fixed the problem where some descriptions in catalog were not preserved after updating disk data.
• Fixed a nasty problem with new categories display from the previous release. For some catalogs, categories displayed in columns were not the right ones.
• Fixed searching by Created and Last Accessed dates, which had sometimes incorrectly returned all compressed files.
• Fixed a few problems on Windows NT, especially for those users running new Internet Explorer 4.0 with active desktop installed.
• Fixed handling of Audio CDs on Windows NT. It seems that CD-ROM driver in Windows NT handles Audio CDs a bit strangely compared to Windows 95, and program is now adjusted to that behavior.
• Fixed numerous small bugs I managed to find in the last week, mostly user-interface related that might show under certain conditions. Hopefully, program is more or less clean now.
• Note to previous users of WhereIsIt: this final release will "upgrade" your existing catalogs, the first time they are loaded in the program. Each catalog will be marked as modified after loading, and rebuilt from scratch when saved. This is done to enable all of us a fresh start, filtering out all possible problems inside catalogs that could be left over from beta versions.

Version 1.00 RC4 - 20. December 1997

• Added a new command: "Copy To..." With this one, you can copy one or more selected files and folders from the catalog to some other folder of your choice. Selected items don't have to have the same origin; you can select to copy items originating from different disks with one single command, and program will prompt you to insert appropriate disks during copying. Ideal if you have grouped items of interest in Search Results list or in the User List, and want to copy them somewhere else.
• Added categories to be displayed as columns in most item lists.
• Added option to disable auto-hiding descriptions shown as tool-tips. Until now, you could only set how long will it stay on screen, up to 15s.
• Search window will now remember last expanded size, and will set it the same next time.
• Report generator is faster and a bit smarter when generating reports. Sorting items by source is MUCH faster now, and is done only the first time when printing or previewing the report, not every time.
• Provided are ways to cancel report generation, printing, or exporting it at any given moment, and added some additional progress indicators.
• Made some small changes to how categories are handled, and improved a bit on associated dialogs.
• Added ability to search for items without assigned category.
• Fixed a few problems regarding printer settings in report generator. There were problems with printing to non-default printer, to printer with default paper orientation set to landscape, and printers set in Report Setup and Printer Setup dialog sometimes did not match. Also added more available paper sizes for your reports.
• When printing reports, number of copies and collate printing now works correctly.
• Fixed a problem with DiskInfo button in Add Disk dialog.
• Fixed support for some disks (partitions) over 2.1 GB.

Version 1.00 RC3 - 8. December 1997

• Reports had some major improvements in this release. Items in report can now be grouped by their origin (catalog, disk, folder), and printed with appropriate headings. Icons can be optionally included in report, adding some graphics to the printout. Report sections can now have customizable background color, allowing you to make color bands for titles etc, and some new sections were included (headings for grouped items).
• Added possibility to use some external shell program instead of Windows Explorer with "Open in Explorer" command.
• Added "Open Description Assistant" to available file double-click actions.
• In full-screen print preview mode, status line is no longer displayed, in order to maximize visible page area.
• Fixed repainting buttons in report preview toolbar after changing page.

Version 1.00 RC2 - 26. November 1997

• Fixed loading position for dialogs like Search and User List that did not work correctly for some users of RC1 version. The RC2 will fix this problem, as well as prevent any problems resulting from this misbehavior in RC1.
• Made some changes trying to prevent problems with saving files, as reported by one user. Saving should be more fail-safe now, and should at least report a problem if there is one.
• Improved saving procedure when operating in low disk space condition, like when saving catalog to floppy disk, or a very full hard drive. The new procedure is much more robust, and will sometimes manage to get job done where older versions couldn't.
• Fixed a problem with toolbar positioning when it is floating on program startup.
• Fixed some broken links in the help file.

Version 1.00 RC1 - 14. November 1997

• Closing catalogs is now about twice faster as it was before. This also affects the total shutdown time, cutting it to half.
• Improved a bit on start-up time, and reduced program's memory consumption.
• Exporting reports to ASCII files is done properly now, and few new options are now available when exporting (normal, tab-delimited or comma-separated columns to choose from)
• Added a new option to display settings, to disable smooth scrolling while expanding or collapsing tree nodes in main window. Smooth scrolling is automatically active in entire Windows system if using a newer Comctl32.dll library, included with Internet Explorer 4.0, for example.
• Added zoom cursor to report preview; left click on report area will perform zoom in, and right click will zoom out.
• Removed some flickering in report preview when changing pages.
• Description Assistant window will now save its size and position.
• Prevented the '..' folder from appearing in reports.
• Searching for duplicates did not find all duplicate files in some special cases. Fixed.
• Fixed support for disks (partitions) larger than 2.1 GB.
• Fixed a problem that may occur when printing report. If print job was canceled from Windows while program was still busy printing, WhereIsIt? had some major problems handling this situation in 0.99 version.
• Fixed some problems with updating main window while moving or copying disks with Catalog Manager.
• Custom reports will probably have to wait until the 1.1 release, there is just too much to do about them if I want to do it right.