File Meta 1.6.0.4

Version 1.6.0.4 is a debugging release for people who have been experiencing mysterious crashes in Explorer when the File Meta property handler is configured for one or more extensions, especially .pdf

The only difference to Version 1.6 is the inclusion of an instrumented property handler. This logs all activity, including crashes, to log files. Install it by uninstalling version 1.6, and then installing the attached version 1.6.0.4 package. To remove it, uninstall it, and then install version 1.6. All configuration will be preserved throughout.

Version 1.6.0.4 makes only a three line change to the property handler in 1.6.0.3. This change is the result of testing with TestPropCollide, a new stress test designed to explore possible conflicts between the use of the property handler by Explorer and its use by the Indexing Server. This tool is now available in both the main branch and the instrumented branch. The change reduces the number of property collisions by more than half.

The sources for version 1.6.0.4 are available in the Instrumented branch.

The log files will be created in the directory C:\FilemetaLogs. A new log file is started for each day, with a name of the form log_2020-05-03.log

All activities from all programs are logged into the same file. This will often include entries generated by the Indexing Server.

You can open the log file using notepad. The only precaution you need to take is to make sure that File Meta does not supply a property handler for the .log extension!

If a crash is caught an exception entry is written to the log. At this stage, unfortunately, the nature of the exception will not be known: it is an unfortunate characteristic of the C++ runtime that the more general the catch is, the less information you get about what you have caught. But at least we will get an indication of what activity was going on at the time, which will be a big step forward.

Please report anything interesting by copying sections of the log into the relevant Issue.

Dijji

File Meta 1.6

This is version 1.6 of File Meta.

To migrate from a previous version, uninstall File Metadata, and install Release 1.6. All file association settings and all previously entered metadata will be preserved.

The changes from version 1.5 are fixes and feature enhancements as follows:

• Fix Association Manager crash when adding handlers to certain extensions (issue #69, issue #78)
• In Association Manager, add the display of property display names and the ability to search property names to the Custom Profiles page (issue #70)
• Introduce 'Profile Only' support for cases where Windows will not allow one of its built-in property handlers to be extended (issue #72, issue #56, issue #36, issue #25). The Association Manager detects affected extensions automatically and applies the selected profile while leaving the Windows handler intact. The extension is then marked as Profile + <Windows handler>, and Remove Handler removes only the applied profile. Typically, using Explorer to edit properties added in the profile then succeeds (although this depends on the support provided by the Windows property handler for saving arbitrary properties), but the property values are saved in the file itself, and not the alternate stream used by the File Meta property handler. The Windows Explorer context menu to export metadata therefore exports properties from the file in these cases. Import and delete context menu commands are removed to avoid affecting properties not owned by File Metadata. Command line support for association management as also been updated appropriately. For a discussion of the affected extensions, and restrictions on which properties can be saved, see here.

Feature preview patch to v1.5 for issue #70

This release contains an updated version of the version 1.5 Association Manager previewing the functionality requested by issue #70.

The preview enhances the display of System properties in the Custom Profiles window:

1. Removes the limit of 3 levels on the property . Previously, names had to be either, say, System. Name or System.Name.Other. Check the properties under Devices, which have up to 7 levels.
2. Display the property name as shown in Explorer in brackets after their official name, if defined.
3. Support searching of properties using any part of either their system or display name or both.

To apply the preview, copy the 2 files from the attached zip file to \Program Files\File Metadata

This preview will be rolled up into the next version of File Metadata.

Patch to v1.5 for issue #69

This release contains updated versions of the version 1.5 Association Manager and its command line equivalent to fix issue #69.

Note that this problem only affects 64-bit machines.

To apply the fix, copy the 4 files from the attached zip file to \Program Files\File Metadata

This fix will be rolled up into the next version of File Metadata.

File Meta 1.5

This is version 1.5 of File Meta.

To migrate from a previous version, uninstall File Metadata, and install Release 1.5. All file association settings and all previously entered metadata will be preserved.

Version 1.5 replaces version 1.4, which will not progress from its beta release. The version number change reflects the addition of two late-breaking features.

The changes from version 1.3 are:

• Allow the use of File Meta when there is already a property handler installed. The existing property handler is used to read existing metadata, but all new or updated metadata property values are written to the alternate stream store used by File Meta. The existing Preview Panel and Details properties are used as a starting point to which any other properties desired can be added.

• Support the configuration of the properties shown in the Info Tip displayed when the mouse hovers over a file in Explorer.

• Fix a bug when using the context menu to export metadata to XML files with long pathnames.
  The changes from version 1.4 are:

• Provide command line support for the capabilities of the File Meta Association Manager.

• Support 32-bit application access to File Meta property values on 64-bit systems. The application most commonly affected is Office. Enabling this for extensions that you set up in previous versions requires a one-time update of registry settings, done by clicking the Update Registry button in the File Meta Association Manager after you have installed version 1.5.