Cannot get rid of Find blacklist

[kev]

Hi folks, I seem to be having some trouble getting rid of the Find blacklist. It seems no matter what I do, it keeps coming back. Maybe I'm doing something stupid, so apologies if so, but I have tried many things and searched for similar posts to no avail...

Now it is not directly relevant to this post that the 'Find blacklist' defaults are probably the 'feature' I hate the most about xplorer2. I will try not to rant too much but blacklisting the AppData folder of a user by default with no obvious warning seems ridiculous to me as it has caught me out many a time when I have sought to find files in this most common of search locations. I was just searching for an xml file in my Firefox profile and of course it could not be found because of the blacklist. Thank god I knew to recognise why this failure was occurring without writing off xplorer2 as I'm sure many newer users might... But anyway that is a bit of a rant. Back to the main subject - removing the blacklist!

I am trying out the Ultimate version 2.1.0.2. I have opened the registry in HKCU\Software\ZabaraKatranemia Plc\xplorer2_UC.global\Find Blacklist. I have rinsed the afore-mentioned abominable inclusion of the AppData folder from here, and for good measure I have opened up x2settings.ini and x2settings.reg in the installation folder. I have rinsed any mention of my beloved search location AppData from these files too. In each place I leave a blank '00' entry. I fire up x2, making sure that in Tools, Options, 'Save program state on exit' is not ticked. I have saved settings now to ensure this persists. It's definitely off. But yet, every time I kill x2, the x2settings.ini file is written to. Not only this, but it writes back the infernal AppData find blacklist. And upon testing the find in this location, of course it misses files I know are there.

Please help me banish this AppData blacklisting once and for good, it's driving me to distraction!

Thanks for any help

Kev

[Kilmatead]

The more orthodox approach is to manage these entries via the (external) Tools -> Advanced Options -> (Global) Find Blacklist menu.  Simply unchecking any entry there will erase it, and (humorously) if you choose to uncheck all entries the default one becomes "thisFolderDoesnotExist".

This doesn't work for you?

[kev]

Thanks for your reply Kilmatead. Doing it this way does work, I am beginning to think the appearance of 'thisFolderDoesnotExist' in the ini file (or any other text for that matter) is what prevents x2 replacing with the defaults.

So if I had just put 00=blah before it would have worked. Leaving it as 00= causes them to be rewritten. Also completely removing the entries under the Find blacklist causes the defaults to be rewritten. Not sure if this is intentional but it's certainly not that logical...

It's interesting to note that x2 still appends another blank line to the Find blacklist. After blanking them in advanced options (or manually setting 00=blah in the ini file) x2 adds another line saying 01=.

And isn't it odd that x2 is still saving settings to the ini file on exit no matter what the save settings are...

[jlrjlr]

Hi kev

a hint, Next time search does not find what you think it should give a try to the srap menu tool/search status.. It tells you many things on where the search was done and and not done.

[Kilmatead]

completely removing the entries under the Find blacklist causes the defaults to be rewritten. Not sure if this is intentional but it's certainly not that logical...

Nikos' approach to the registry has always depended upon an entry actually existing - even if it's merely blank, existence itself seems to give it meaning.  While peculiar, it's at least consistent.  One will also note that many of the settings in the INI file are simply ported binary data, suggesting that the INI is not meant to be edited by hand, it's merely there for when people's overactive firewalls block registry access, and/or for portable implementation as desired.

It's interesting to note that x2 still appends another blank line to the Find blacklist.

It does this for all of the "History" settings (Folder/Command/Filter histories, etc).  I suspect this is due to how he configured the queue flushing mechanic - basically using the blank as the delimiting factor defining pertinent data (sort of a "bookend", hearkening back to why an entry is expected to exist, above).  A quirk of programming - and, again, consistent.

And isn't it odd that x2 is still saving settings to the ini file on exit no matter what the save settings are...

No it doesn't - the files (in either location) are only rewritten when the registry is not selected.  If you have more than one instance of x2 running (or have been weird enough to select the "replace explorer" nonsense upon installation), that can lead to its own free-for-all when it comes to what is overwritten and when.  Background processes are sneaky that way.

Next time search does not find what you think it should, give a try to the Scrap window Tools -> Search Status command

It should be noted that this is dependant upon the settings in the (aforementioned) Tools -> Advanced Options -> (Global) Logging Control options.  If, for whatever reason, the user has unchecked these settings, the Search Status will return nothing.

[kev]

using the blank as the delimiting factor defining pertinent data

I guess I had thought that one blank entry (00=) would correctly delimit the pertinent data being nothing. I guess this doesn't work, but thanks to you chaps for helping me rid myself of the ever-present blacklist!