Aug
20
Dial-a-fix v1.0 teaser!
Filed Under Dial-a-fix
So, you've been wondering what I've been doing for the past month and-a-half. Well, I've been redesigning Dial-a-fix. I have started it completely over, and began re-coding it from the ground up.
Here's some preview teaser shots of what it's going to be like, and what's complete so far. I have also listed percentages of completion for each section.
Overall new features
- Resizable, maximizable dialog
- Single-form design
- Nicer graphics everywhere
Startup – 80% complete
Immediately upon startup of Dial-a-fix, it begins checking your system for common/immediate problems. The following checks are performed, in this order:
- A log of your system info is created, initializing the log pane – 100% complete
- Your %TEMP% environment variable is checked against several critical folders around your system, to ensure that you don't empty a valuable directory by mistake – 0% (not coded yet but won't take long)
- Services important to Dial-a-fix, including their dependencies, are queried (to make sure they exist) and changed accordingly/automatically (i.e., if your BITS service is set to Disabled, DAF sets it to Automatic). If a critical service doesn't exist, Dial-a-fix disables the part of itself that deals with starting/stopping that service. – 80% complete
- Important utilities are checked for existence (regedit.exe, net.exe, net1.exe, msiexec.exe, etc) – %0 (not coded yet)
- The OLE32 registration section of your registry is checked for consistency (applicable platforms only). – %0 (not coded yet)
- Then, your registry is scanned for restrictive policies. If there are any, then the status bar will list how many were found, and the Policies tab will begin blinking to remind you to click the Policies tab (a feature for non-technical users who have never used DAF). – 100% complete
Main tab – 20% complete
New features:
- Actions area, with quick access to frequently used system utilities (Event Viewer, Regedit, Services, etc). Certain buttons (such as Services) will not show in Win98/Me, obviously.
- "Invert states" button in Registration center
- Nice section icons
- Much smarter code
Tools tab – 0% (not coded yet)
No screenshot yet as it is blank. Besides the DLL registration function used throughout DAF, this tab will take the longest to complete.
- Scriptable! Use real Object Pascal language/syntax to create your own tools and load them into Dial-a-fix
Policies tab – 100% complete
(click it to see it unscaled)
- Actions area, with new dialog expansion button (expand/contract dialog by 2x for easy policy viewing)
- Nicer icons
Log pane – 80% complete
(click it to see it unscaled)
- Pseudo HTML-enabled log pane allows for graphics, colored text, formatting
- Saves plaintext to .txt file or copy plaintext to clipboard – 0% (not coded yet)
- Quick macros for Tool writers to format their log pane messages in a standard way
- "Undock" the log pane from its tab and move it around in its own window – 0% (not coded yet)
Help and About tabs – 0%
Nothing here yet either, but I hope to have a nice help system soon. It'll be the last part I do before I release it into the wild.
It will probably take about 2 more months for me to completely finish this. Obviously, a lot of the design in these screenshots is subject to change.
Tags: AlphaComments
8 Responses to “Dial-a-fix v1.0 teaser!”
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Great Work, djlizard, you've helped me get a computer fixed with this on more than one occasion
I've been wondering where the DAF beta's went off to. Now I see that it's a total re-write, I'm amazed. I'll be awaiting this release in high hopes.
Also, be sure to check out the new BHT website, linked above. ;)
lookin good!
btw, for the current dial a fix beta, in win9x, it will complain that msiexec.exe isnt in \windows, thats because it is in \windows\system
Hi DAF,
With regards to:
"4. Important utilities are checked for existence (regedit.exe, net.exe, net1.exe, msiexec.exe, etc) – %0 (not coded yet)"
Will this feature offer the ability to locate a local folder or CD containting the OS installation files and then offer to re-install the missing files?
Kind Regards
Simon
I hope to have it check the most common locations for these files (C:\i386 (or other i386 locations), C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386, System32\Dllcache, and whatnot) and if they don't exist there, you can have DAF extract them from the i386 folder of your Windows installation CD.
Actually, adding an extract util for all the windows files on the CD would be fantastic!
Finding specific ones is a real pain!
Keep up the fantastic work DJL – you rock!!!
Whoa, looking good! Just wanted to stop by and give my thanks and appreciation for the work and effort you've put into this.
All I can say is that it works great. I've been lucky enough to use it and it has resolved countless problems.
Thanks for the great work! Will there be a button to uncheck blue screens?