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LaunchMe 2.0.30 Posted Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:17:00 +1000 by Chris

I have release a Windows 7 update for LaunchMe, the CJD Presentation Launcher.

Windows 7 has disabled Autorun for USB drives as a security feature.  As a result you can only use autoplay to open the drive and see the files. To make this more user friendly and cleaner I have moved all of the configuration and content files to to a folder called 'content'. This also makes it cleaner and simpler when using LaunchMe on a network or as a desktop menu as you can hide all the configuration and images away so that users do not have to search for the LaunchMe.exe file.

I have also made some changes to the Autorun creator in the Setup Wizard.  Enjoy.

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PQM 4 - The wait IS over!! Posted Sun, 30 May 2010 03:55:00 +1000 by Chris

I am currently finalising the release of PQM 4 and hope to have it online in the next day or so.

I have to give special thanks to Florence (in France) and Marcelo (in the United States of America) who have made this release possible. Without their thorough testing and assistance this release would have taken a lot longer. I also must thank my partner Danielle for putting up with me as I developed this over the past few months.

Why PQM 4 not 3.5?

PQM 4 is more than just a feature update or Patch but is a whole new application. Based on the framework of version 3, first released in September 2009, it now provides the missing enterprise pieces of functionality with a massively overhauled interface and a major engine rewrite. Don't be fooled, it may look similiar to previous versions but this is due to a lot of hard work. As you begin using PQM you will find that it is the same but different. Unfortunately all of this time and hard work is not cheap and as a result this is the first time a paid version of PQM will be available. Don't fret, the features you have come to know and love are still free but users who upgrade to PRO will now be able to take advantage of an extensive feature set designed to make Print Queue Manager friendly, flexible and convenient allowing you to customise the application to your environment and your staff.

So when will it appear?

NOW you will see the next version appear online with a new webpage and PRO payment gateway.

In the coming week it will be reviewed and then published by my friends at CNET (Download.com) and distributed to the hundreds of third party sites around the world that support my products.

I hope you enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Christian.

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Where is PQM 4? Posted Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:28:00 +1000 by Chris

Print Queue Manager 4 is alive and well and still coming...

Over the last few weeks I have been experimenting with WMI and I even have a version of PQM with an entirely new WMI framework beneath it to replace the IADs connection.

It seemed like a great idea and from a management and reporting point of view WMI does provide significant benefits over IADs, but it lacks performance.

While I could extract more information from WMI the time it took to retrieve that information made refreshing the queue painful and using the program became very slow and difficult. That even occurred when looking at print jobs on my own computer.  I tried caching connection objects and all sorts of tricks to improve performance but I could actually see the items being added to the results grid half a second apart when loading lists of only 5-10 jobs. This was not acceptable. 

I did like some of the new features however.  I built the WMI interface as a module so I could easily take this interface and reuse it.  As a result of my experience in rebuilding PQM from underneath I learnt a few new tricks and discovered a few flaws, hopefully all rectified in PQM 4.  As a result, in one case, less jobs should be able to sneak through the queue as I discovered a flaw in the timing of the queue monitor.

Reverting back to my previous version prior to WMI but prepared I could then use some of the new features to enhance the current PQM without affecting it's integrity.  PQM 4 now uses IADs and WMI. WMI provides better reporting and some feature (printing test pages) while IADs provides better performance for print queue control.  I may look at upgrading the results list to WMI in a future release (4.1?) for more detailed job information but I would still use IADs for background polling and control. 

Some of the new features not previously advertised:

  • Printer, Server and Favourites Reports
  • Configurable Reporting Path and Command Line Report Generation for Intranet integration.
  • HTML and Javascript reports include printer and job details
  • Configurable Logging Path and automatic log file creation when nearing capacity.
  • Simple View to hide advanced features for non technical users.
  • Polling Indicator to show idle, job list update and high speed job release for AutoQueued printers. Also indicates WMI connection and query execution.
  • Test Page function
  • Import and Export Favourites

As you can see my feature list is getting longer and all the while I am improving the features I have already added. There have also been some massive menu changes and design changes even from the previews available online.

It is now coming together and the current release 4.0.77 is now stable, tested and ready to meet the audience. First step is to now distribute it to my UAT testers. Interested in becoming a tester? Email me: chris@dunn.name. Then if it gets the thumbs up it will be released in about 3-4 weeks if we find no major problems and I have time to release it.

Hang in there, I promise it will be worth the wait.

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Print Queue Manager - WMI Tech Refresh Posted Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:22:00 +1000 by Chris
Yes, Print Queue Manager is now a little delayed but for a great reason. The user interface is complete, including licencing and is a sensational upgrade on the last version and plenty of new features.

I have a test version of PQM 4 ready for the testers but some recent changes have meant a new version is being developed separately. I currently use the Windows API to access printers and rather than scanning local printers I scan the network so I can only find shared printers. This is required because if I wasn't looking at the network I wouldn't be able to connect to other machines. I could also only see printers shared with me.

This made me investigate WMI.

WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) provides a flexible way of querying the windows sub-system for information or control. WMI sits above the Windows API and can access all of it's information. It connects to a computer and enumerates printers allowing it to display all printers you have permission to access not just those shared to you. This simple change now means you will see a lot more print queues, including those on your local machine and domain administrators can find printers on any machine in their domain. I can also now tell you which machine a print job came from.

After some initial script testing I built a WMI library and I have now totally replaced the Print Queue Manager engine with WMI control rather than API control. Testing looks promising although WMI performance is slightly slower, it provides more potential for feature growth moving forward. I have already added some new features and as soon as I get some of the performance managed better I will have a copy of each version go to user testing.

I want version 4 to be user friendly as well as powerful, so I am not planning to release a WMI version if it cannot provide the user experience to be comparable to the API. Maybe the verdict will rest with my testers.

This may be the biggest single upgrade of Print Queue I have ever done. I will keep you posted, but it looks promising. :)

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Print Queue Manager 4.0 - Preview Posted Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:39:00 +1000 by Chris
Print Queue Manager 4 is coming soon.

It is not easy being green, a frog once said, but it can save you money. The new 'green', literally, Print Queue Manager will help you manage your print queues better minimising waste by ensuring you only print what you need. Want to prove it? Use the inbuilt statistics and logging to capture and review your page savings.

This is a development preview of version 4.



Key Features:

  • Favourites to remember queue settings for multiple queues
  • Automatic Activation option for AutoRelease for multiple printers
  • Configurable interface with larger job list.
  • New job list only view with touchscreen friendly quick action menu
  • Adjustable Polling Rates
  • Print savings statistics
  • Log file with CSV export option

Thanks to your suggestions I have made lots of fixes and improvements and the interface has had a complete overhaul.
The ability to manage Multiple Queues easily has been missed and I look forward to improving this even more in the future.
Licencing is still to be implemented but all features from existing versions will be free with new features restricted to 'Pro' licenced users.Pro licencing will be under $AUD10.

Feedback or suggestions welcome. Christian.

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Print Queue Manager - Next Gen Posted Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:22:00 +1000 by Chris
I am currently working on the next major version of Print Queue Manager designed to help users managing multiple print queues and to provide statistics and detailed logging to easily identify savings from better print queue management and to assist in identifying high print volume users. This next version is most likely going to be a commercial release (shareware with limited features for unlicenced users) but licences will be cheap. The reason for this is to provide funding to ensure I can continue to provide regular updates and fixes and new versions moving forward. If you have any suggestions for fixes or features for the next release please let me know. I am hoping to have the next version available in a few months. Some features already planned or developed include: * Favourites - Save your favourite print queues and settings so you can jump easily between them. * Statistics - Highlight print savings from using PQM * Logging - Detailed print logging to enable analysis of print savings, high volume users and daily volumes. Logs can be exported to CSV for Excel. * Improved interface - Larger job queue, cleaner layout, configurable features (e.g. Show/Hide Update checker) * Settings - Better control over settings including queue refresh rate and job queue font size. Looking forward to your feedback.

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Portal Update for m.chris.dunn.name Posted Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:20:00 +1000 by Chris
My Application Portal has undergone a stage 2 revamp. My key objectives for this upgrade were to:

  • Simplify the design and usability of the site
  • Add a legend and browser compatibility information
  • Ensure the portal worked through my mobile portal - m.chris.dunn.name
  • Tested on Opera 10 Mobile Beta & Mobile IE on Windows Mobile and Windows 7 with Opera and IE
  • Introduce some new status options for updates and new releases
  • Begin to introduce additional product or update information as an overlay in the portal
  • Remove window popup for Chris.dunn.name applications
These changes have been done in conjunction with the release of 3 updated products. Plenty of new stuff to check out. Let me know what you think. Christian.

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NEW Software Releases - Feature Requests needed!! Posted Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:05:00 +1000 by Chris

I have recently released updates to:

  • Lookup
  • MediaCentre
  • Print Queue Manager

All three now have a new installer, an updated help guide and will sit nicely together in your start menu and on your Windows 7 PC.

I have also included some feature updates to Print Queue Manager and MediaCentre both in response to feature requests.  All of the requests I have received recently have now been resolved in new features, so I am looking for more. Play with my software and tell me what you think, what would you do better?

Christian.

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Print Queue Manager 3.0.9 is NOW AVAILABLE!!! Posted Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:04:00 +1000 by Chris

I have released an update for Print Queue Manager.

The new version includes an installer and now supports Windows 7.

This release resolved a feature request from Marcello. I have removed delete from the clear settings option and have used delete and shift delete to control the removal of jobs as a user would expect. To ensure no jobs are accidentally deleted I have also added a confirmation message to both delete options.

Check it out: Print Queue Manager

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Lookup 8 is NOW AVAILABLE!! Posted Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:47:00 +1000 by Chris

Lookup, my Microsoft Access Database Search Tool, has just been upgraded to version 8.

New features include:

  • New Improved query engine
  • Support for new database formats and Access 2007/2010
  • Paging of results for easy searching
  • Improved Excel export
  • Support for Windows 7
  • New simplified user interface
  • Access Object Viewer for accessing database features
  • Improved configuration file management.
  • Improved Licencing
  • Improved performance logging

Find out more here: Lookup

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