The current version, 5, lists over 700 file properties and outputs to all sorts of formats, including directly into Microsoft Excel and Word. A single user license only costs $24 US, which must be good value compared with version 1!

For the technically inclined, versions 1 to (about) 3 were written in Borland C++ Builder, version 4 was written in Dolphin Smalltalk, and version 5 is written in C#.

If you’ve always wanted to buy a license, but couldn’t afford it, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first release, we are offering a 75% reduction in the price of any version 4 of 5 license from today, 25th April 2013, until 5th May 2013, using the code

DDFC 75 PC DISCOUNT

To use the code, visit our site, click the “buy now!” button, and enter the code on the first page of the shopping cart.

I say “again” because it was back in 2010 when those features were last available – for version 3. We changed the functionality for version 4, in November 2010, because the Excel and Word add-in files that version 3 used, could no longer save the a list of the file properties in the file lists in the Custom Document Properties. For security reasons, the default setting for allowing it was changed to false.

Well add-ins were a bit of a nuisance anyway, because sometimes they didn’t install or uninstall properly, and ours were written in a language we don’t like, called Visual Basic.

The method used in DDFileCatcher version 5 doesn’t use add-ins, which are extra files that are loaded into Word or Excel, and perform actions on the content of the document or workbook;  instead DDFileCatcher 5 communicates directly with Word or Excel. Doing it this way should be more future-proof than finding other “clever” ways to do it.

DDFileCatcher also saves new Excel and Word documents containing file lists, as before.

List of filepaths in Microsoft Word

So, to add new files to this file list, all you would need to do is put the text cursor in the table, launch DDFileCatcher and add files to it, and use the “Word table (in running Word)” format.

File list added to open Excel spreadsheet

We’ve added a new way to save  tables. Now a file list table can be added to Excel while it is running to any Worksheet and at any cell, not just at A1. The new output format is called “Excel table (in running Excel)”.

We’ve kept the existing “Microsoft Excel XLSX Workbook” format, that saves the list in a new Workbook, but now, that format also saves the file list as a table.

Using tables has these advantages:

• Tables can be put anywhere, the top left of the table will be at the selected cell.
• Tables can be added to later. DDFileCatcher will recognize the file properties in the table, and append new records with the same properties to it.
• Tables can be replaced with a new file list using the same properties. This is useful if you have functions built into the Worksheet, that use information from the table, and you need to replace the list with new files.
• The table has sort and filter controls for each column.
• Tables can be exported from Excel as XML files. Right click the table and choose “XML | Export…”. This means that you can work on the file list in Excel and then export it easily.
• Tables can be converted easily into Excel ranges, like DDFileCatcher used to make, by right clicking the table and choosing “Table | Convert to Range”.

We’ve put a new section in the help file, called “Saving a file list to Microsoft Excel”, describing how to use the new feature.

At least, the problem was also happening on my computer, which made it easier to solve. I restored the computer to a restore point made a few days before the problem started, and the program worked again. I checked which Windows updates had been released between then and now, giving me a list of about 10 updates.

I restored the computer to the present day state again, and using Start button, Control Panel, Windows Update, Update History, link: “To remove an update…”, I uninstalled the 10 updates. The program ran again. Then, I added them back one at a time until the program didn’t run. This was the culprit:

Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1 on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 for x64-based Systems (KB2742599)

I couldn’t find any information on the web about how this update effected programs, or how to fix it, so I posted a webpage on how to remove the update until the program was fixed.

Microsoft weren’t going to change their update, so I had to change DDFileCatcher. What part of the program was causing the problem? I found that it ran properly when started from the exe file made by the compiler, but not the one that is installed from the installation file. That meant that the licensing and protection system was the cause of the problem. I tried all settings in it, removing them until nothing was set. I then used it to protect a simple exe, like Notepad, but it still wouldn’t run. Unfortunately, the company that sell the protection system are notorious for not responding to support requests (according to numerous posts on forums), and they didn’t reply to mine either.

So, I bought at new protection system, changed the program code to run with it, and released the new version on January 26th. Old version 5 licenses won’t work with the new program version, so I wrote a small program to email new keys to all version 5 license holders, which I sent out today (January 29th).

At last, I can get back to improving DDFileCatcher!

The virus report is a false-positive. The same thing happened in November last year, and it took more than a week to get added to Symantec’s White-List of trusted programs. Very little has changed to the program since then, but it has been put back on the list for some reason, and I’ll have to wait again. To get round this, turn off Norton virus checking whilst downloading the installation file. (Good news on Norton Antivirus front – Symantec replied the next day and removed DDFileCatcher from its detection list. Well done Symantec for acting so  efficiently.)

On January 8th, Microsoft issued a Windows update, and DDFileCatcher would no longer launch on 64 bit machines. I managed to track the offending update down to either update KB2742599 (with service pack 1) or KB2742598 (without service pack 1). The only way to get round this until I find a solution or Microsoft bring out an update that fixes the problem, is to uninstall the update. To do this, use Control Panel | Windows Update | View update history (link on left)| Installed Updates (at the top), then search down the list to the section “Microsoft Windows”, find the Security Update KB2742599 or KB2742598, right click it and click “Uninstall”. You will then need to restart your computer (or would if you were actually following the instructions).

This is only a temporary fix, because every time the computer is started, Windows Update will ask you if you want to install updates, and bad one (that we don’t like) will be in the list to install, and should be unchecked.

The thing is that if an antivirus program tells someone a program isn’t safe, they won’t download it by turning their antivirus off. Anyone who downloads a program for the first time and the program won’t start, will just uninstall the program.

I’m hoping to solve these two problems soon or that someone else does who is responsible for them, but in the mean time, less people are downloading the program, and for those that can it won’t run, and it won’t run for existing customers.

Is it a good idea to try to make a living writing software for Microsoft Windows?

How much time and money is wasted dealing with anti-virus programs, bad updates, new Windows versions?

I looked up Tags to find out what they were, and then I looked to see how I could add them to DDFileCatcher. The answer turned out to be “with great difficulty”. This was because tags are a .NET property, and DDFileCatcher 4 wasn’t a .NET program. To cut a long story short, I decided to rewrite DDFileCatcher in a .NET language, C#. Then it would always be possible to keep up with the latest developments in Windows.

It turned out that the C# version could not read file properties on Windows XP systems. So the new version would be for Windows Vista, 7 and 8, and version 4 would be for XP, although it also works on Windows Vista and later.

Something else I found was that the licensing system used on version 4 won’t work on .NET programs, so a version 4 license can’t be used on DDFileCatcher version 5.

Information about an application is distributed using an XML file, called a PAD file (Portable Application Description). Previously, when I released a new major version, such as version 4, I just changed the version in the PAD file, and all the download sites picked this up. That was fine when there is only one version I wanted to sell, but how would anyone who only had XP find out about version 4 if I changed the version in the one and only one PAD file? Well, I did change the version in the PAD file to 5 anyway.

Now I’m thinking “what about version 4″? How do I let people with Windows XP know about it? I did some minor tinkering with the website, like putting a link on the left side about version for for Windows XP, and also some PHP code to tell visitors to the site using XP about version 4. I’ve also decided to upload a new PAD file just for version 4.

I’m going to get the website redesigned by a professional webdesigner, and it will be much clearer that the two versions exists. In fact, everything should be much clearer.

For licensing – everyone with a version 4 license can upgrade to version 5 with a discount, and now I’m thinking of how to bundle the two version together.

I suppose the point of this post is that when you start a new project, you can’t know all of the implications of it. You have to adapt as you go along, finish the project and make everything tidy again afterwards.

File properties are pieces of information about a file. An important one is “Name”. The name itself often decribes the file, such as “DDFC5Help.chm”. When you save a document from, say Microsoft Word, you would save it as something you can recognize later. So, the file name property is good for knowing what is in a file without having to open the file.

Every file has some simple file properties, such as size – how big the file is. It has date – date created, date modified, date accessed. You can see these properties if you right mouse click the file in Windows Explorer or the Desktop and click the “Properties” menu item.

You can use file name and date modified for searching for files in Windows Explorer.

Microsoft Office document files, such as Excel, Word and Powerpoint, have document properties such as “authors”, “last saved by”, “word count” and “total editing time”. Right click on document in Windows Explorer and click the details tab to see these properties.

Different types of files have extra file properties. For example music files, like .mp3 files, have properties such as “album”, “bit rate”, “genre” etc. Some of these, such as “album” and “track number” might be shown on you mp3 player or music playing software, such as Real Player or Windows Media Player.

So, file properties are pieces of information about files that can be used for identifying and searching for files. Each file has its own properties, which tell almost everything that anyone could want to know about that type of file. The average computer user probably doesn’t need to use more than the file name property, but the properties are available if needed.

The latest version of DDFileCatcher, version 5, can list over 700 file properties, up from 320 for version 4, but not every file has this many available.

Why? Since 2003, DDFileCatcher’s main way of getting files to list was to use drag and drop from Windows Explorer (DD stands for “drag drop”). The form used for drag and drop was the main user interface, which was resized to a small size and kept on top of Windows Explorer to allow drag and drop to it. All dialogs, such as to choose file properties, opened on top of the main window, but needed to be closed with accept or cancel to go back to the main window or open another one.

Version 5 uses a new main window, which can be maximized to fill the screen. The drag drop form is now just one of the ways to collect files. Other ways are dialogs for browsing for files, folders and drives, new configurable searches, and context menus in Windows Explorer. The main windows for functions like viewing the file list, choosing properties and previewing output are now on separate tabs on the main window, and can be switched between without needing to accept or cancel anything.

This version was written for the latest Windows versions 8, 7 and Vista, and lists properties not available in XP, such as tags.

The new version can save every setup, every template and every search instructions list you make, and retrieve them easily.

Try it now! Tell your friends and workmates about it! please. Site: www.ddfilecatcher.com. Download from the site or from here.

More articles to follow.

Running the the virtual test machines was painfully slow, and I just did the testing and didn’t spend a lot of time getting to know the operating systems.

When I began work on the Vista computer, I noticed that the text didn’t fit on the labels of some of the DDFileCatcher dialogs, for example the Template Maker dialog and the Command File Maker dialog. Why would that be? They were the same font size as in Windows XP – 96dpi (dots per inch).

I wonder how many potential purchasers were put off by the labels. I guess I’ll never know.

So, in a few hours, I changed the sizes of the offensive labels, tested them at 96 and 120 dpi, and released the new version – 4.0.4.

I’m working some other improvements for Vista and Windows 7 at the moment. It was worth updating from XP.

I’m now editing the Ruby Rake setup file, that controls the compilation and building of the DDFileCatcher installation file, and using DDFileCatcher to get the new filepaths. Here’s how I did it:

XP file paths:
# set constant values:
MY_DOCUMENTS = “C:/Documents and Settings/Don Robinson/My Documents”
INSTALL_FOLDER = “c:/ruby/rake/ddfilecatcher4″
INSTALL_FOLDER_83 = “C:/ruby/rake/DDFILE~1″
RESHACKER_83 = “C:/PROGRA~1/RESHAC~1/RESHAC~1.EXE”

Vista file paths:
# set constant values:
MY_DOCUMENTS = “C:/Users/Don/Documents”
Here, I used the “Forward slash folder” property. Drag the folder onto DDFileCatcher, save the folder path to the Clipboard in “All file properties on each line” mode. I had to delete the final forward slash, because of the way I wrote the Rake code that uses constants.

INSTALL_FOLDER = “c:/ruby192/rake/ddfilecatcher4″
I just edited this by hand (added “192″)

INSTALL_FOLDER_83 = “C:/Ruby192/rake/DDFILE~2″
I didn’t just edit this line, because the numbers (eg ~2) can change, depending on sister files or folders. I used the “Short forward slash filepath” property and dragged the folder onto DDFileCatcher. The number had changed from 1 to 2.

RESHACKER_83 = “C:/PROGRA~1/RESHAC~1/RESHAC~1.EXE”
This one stayed the same, but I did use DDFileCatcher to get the forward slash short filepath again to be sure. I can’t think of an easier way to get a filepath like this one than using DDFileCatcher.

When I first thought of DDFileCatcher and wrote it for my own use in 2003, it was to get filepaths for installation scripts written in INNO Setup Compiler. It does a lot more now, but it still does the simple tasks.