Settings Editor & X2 Ult [ANSI] Portable

[spiffy]

The Senario
Usb stick with X2 Ultimate [ANSI] Portable installed and x2settings.ini set to used from the install folder in X2 options
(I believe that X2 Ultimate [ANSI] Portable is the only portable version that runs on all Windows)

If Tools > Advanced options is invoked from X2 (Portable) & the program closed as requested the Settings Editor runs as expected and any setting changes are saved in x2Settings.ini when the Editor exits.
However if the same Settings Editor is run directly (i.e. NOT through X2) any setting changes are NOT saved in x2Settings.ini when the Editor exits
Indeed x2Settings.ini isn't modified at all.
The reasons become obvious when you look closely at the Settings Editor in both cases (see screen-shots below).





As you can see, in the second case the Editor is running in UNICODE mode.
So I then wondered where the settings were ending up.
The host machine in this case is running Windows 98SE and also has X2 [ANSI] installed on it.
Checking the registry revealed all:


The spurious X2_UC Reg keys created in this case have no effect on the installed version, however what if the host machine is running say XP(x86) with X2 [UNICODE] installed?
Unfortunately my XP system is presently out of commission, so perhaps someone else could try this?

Hmmm...
Running the X2[ANSI] installed (NOT portable) Settings Editor directly also creates these spurious reg keys.

Another thought occurs, what about X2 Lite on a usb stick, will this overwrite the X2 [ANSI] installed reg keys, as I don't believe X2 Lite has it own unique reg keys?

The X2 [ANSI] settings editor is different to the X2 [UNICODE] settings editor so why would it EVER run in UNICODE mode?

Maybe I'll try some more combinations later as for now my brain is frazzled.

[nikos]

you are not supposed to run the settings editor stand-alone; xplorer2 must let it know what settings file to use, if it is ansi/unicode etc

[spiffy]

you are not supposed to run the settings editor stand-alone; xplorer2 must let it know what settings file to use, if it is ansi/unicode etc

Observations /Questions /Mad Ravings ect

1 If you are not supposed to run the settings editor stand-alone why is situation not 'trapped' with a suitable message followed by a graceful exit?
Otherwise idiots like me are bound at some point to run it stand-alone leading to some potentially nasty surprises.
Presumably the settings editor 'expects' certain parameters/switches and can detect when these aren’t present.

2 Why doesn’t the settings editor use the same techniques that X2 uses to determine the parameters sent to the settings editor thus allowing it to run stand-alone.
They are always together in the same folder after all.

3 If the parameters passed to the settings editor were made available would it be possible to craft a command/script to achieve the same result.

4 Why cant the settings editor be combined into X2 with the same write on exit result or perhaps a set of pending reg/ini entry’s used to update the main X2 reg/ini settings when X2 restarts. (Can you tell I don’t know what I'm talking about?).

5 Wouldn’t it be nice if (Oh how programmers just LOVE this phrase! ) there was one universal x2settings file for ALL portable versions such that you could load up a usb stick with the three versions of X2 Ult & automatically run the appropriate one dependant on the host operating system.



The Settings Editor was I believe was originally created as a simple utility to tweak a few rarely used (obscure?) settings without needing to resort to the registry editor.
The growing number & importance of these settings means it is looking increasingly like some poor overworked orphan in need of some TLC.

At least having to start then exit a program in order to run another program then exit this program to restart the original program is quite in keeping with the MS Windows Restart Shuffle.

Enough of my witterings

[nikos]

if you want to call the settings editor manually you need to know of its command line arguments

<program> "c:\path\ini.file" /A

/A means that ansi settings are in effect else unicode (most typical)

ps do you really run x2 on win98? any problems?

[spiffy]

if you want to call the settings editor manually you need to know of its command line arguments

<program> "c:\path\ini.file" /A

/A means that ansi settings are in effect else unicode (most typical)

That works a treat!
But only of course for a 'fixed' path, I need to find a way of determining the path when X2 isn't running.

Unfortunately this has shown up a major problem!
The x2settings.ini file is NEVER getting updated when the settings editor is run via X2 portable ANSI.
All the settings editor changes a written back to the X2 Fixed ANSI reg keys.
I've checked all the settings and run 'Process Viewer' just to make sure X2 & the settings editor are running from the USB drive.
All standard X2 Program Options ect are written back OK

[spiffy]

ps do you really run x2 on win98? any problems?

OK some feedback on running X2 [ANSI] v2.5.0.0 on 98SE

I see X2 runs at startup as a background process in the 'replace windows explorer' install option.
This process may not be resident for a number of reasons:

1. StartUp Disabled in registry
2. X2 opened & closed with the 'don't stay resident' box ticked in the settings editor
3. Settings editor run from X2
4. X2 Closed using 'Exit (Alt+X)'
5. Closed by Task Manager.

Single window mode = 'Always open new tabs in single window' is set
'Don't browse control panel folders (open with windows explorer)' is selected.

Running X2 in the following ways, with the background process NOT resident:

1 Running X2 results in a single window (with all tabs as at last close) as expected.
2 Opening a desktop folder results in a single window with all tabs as at last close except the last active tab which is the opened folder. Using Back button takes this tab back to the last close state, as expected
3 Opening Control Panel, Recycle bin, My Computer, Network Neighbourhood, Printers, Scanners & Cameras or Fonts results
in X2 opening TWO windows, the first in last close state.
Opening two 'tab heavy' windows on 98SE is inadvisable due to System Resource limitations.

In all the above cases the Floppy Drive is also accessed (Very Noisily!!)
This doesn’t happen if the background process is resident but can also be stopped by setting 'Disable custom drive icon extraction'
The exception to this My Computer which ALWAYS accesses the floppy drive in X2 but NOT in Explorer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Running X2 via a Folder Shortcut, Special Folder or CP Items always opens these in the last active tab but with the Back button greyed out so that its NOT possible to return the tab to the last close state.
This behaviour is not seen on Windows 7 (98SE limitation?).

There are a few other niggles/problems I might flag up later.

I hope this is of some help.

[nikos]

those double windows when you first start xplorer2 is the reason why xplorer2 needs to be running all the time. If it does, then no double windows. If it is stopped for any of the reasons you mentioned, and you choose to open a "special" folder first thing, you get 2 windows. Not the end of the world. This cannot be helped for pre-vista windows