Hello there, I wrote the following program using AutoHotKey, it is still in development and may contain a few bugs, but hopefully in a few weeks or a few days most will be gone and a few new features added.
Here is what it does:
Allows you to change the attributes of a file, such as make it readonly, an archive, system, and hidden.
What I plan on adding to it:
A better GuiSupport to change File Dates.Ability to change attributes of a folder and all the files in it.
Why I made this:
I found that many programs have the ability to change attributes but many cant be made portable. I also thought it would be usefull to be able to change file attributes on the go so there would be no need to have to write a batch file or open the command prompt.
TestingDone: Alright, I have actually tested this app out a lot, fixing some typos in the script and some obvious bugs that I could find. You should be able to use this as an administer and a limited user. This application has only been tested on an XP computer.
TestingWanted: I want to know from people testing this, what platforms it works on, and what can be changed/added to make this more efficient and user friendly.
Download: Attribute Changer Beta 3
(MD5: 01639823ceef296249ad3561696ea461)
ReleaseNotes:
(2008-06-22): Initial Release
(2008-06-23): Alpha 3
- Changed the location of the buttons.
- Made the current file attributes bold so you can see what attributes it already has before you apply other attributes.
(2008-06-24): Alpha 4
- Added ability to change file dates, Created, Modified, and Accessed
- Added support to see previous file attributes by reading the Settings.ini for that selected file.
- Added ability to see the selected file dates before changing them.
(2008-06-30): Alpha 5
- Added a restart button and a back button on the last window
- Now you select the file on the first window
(2008-07-05): Alpha 6
- Drag and drop added
- Couple of bugfixes and improvements
- Above done by Wraithdu
(2008-08-04): Beta 1
- Folder Select added
- Better Gui added
- Made program more user friendly
- Removed Data folder, and creation of .ini file
(2008-08-07): Beta 2
- Fixed a bug with the date gui
- Automatic and Manual Date set added
- New transparent icon
(2008-08-07): Beta 3
- Added Encryption abilities for files and folders of any attribute
Encryption: Since this is new, if you find any bugs or problems report them here, and if you know of ways to improve this then please post here, as I hope for this and many other functions to be working at their best.
This is my first AutoHotKey program, Im still learning AutoHotKey so be nice if something is wrong.
What is the state of things so far?
What testing have you already done?
Files/folders left behind?, how checked?
Registry Settings left behind? how checked?
Admin/limited users?
OS's tested on ...
Known problems you want tested for?
I think it would be a good idea for ALL new tests if we had this information to start with.
Too often it seems like someone just throws something together and expects us to find the things they at least should have checked first.
Good Luck
Tim
P.S., this is my standard reply to all new tests.
[edit: thanks for adding the TestingDone: and TestingWanted: sections, it's a start.
[edit2: note to self, became Alpha test 2 10:20pm]
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Very nice to it I'll say nathan, my suggestion though is make the options more broader to include the ability to see if a certain file has a certain attibute other than that I found nothing wrong with the app it self nice work
I'll certainly see if I can make a better icon instead of the default AHK icon, or maybe neorame could do it (if he wants too)
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
Thanks...Hopefully I can find a way to successfully do this without messing up the app Sounds nice, I look forward to seeing what the icon might look like.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
word of advice, Backup up often and I'll see if I can get an example Icon tomorrow
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
I just made a few backups. There now the attributes for the file you select will be visible in the Window where you can select the attributes you want to apply to that file. Test it out and see if that is what you wanted. Ill probably make that text appear bold later so it is easier to see.
Edit: What do you think about this, storing the last processed files attributes in the .ini or putting it in a .txt document so u can always go back and see what you applied to it so you can always revert it back to normal.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Ok so far it still didn't detect the current file attributes but none the less it's still a good start
I started working on that icon image and I've done a large scale image, tell me what you think so far http://thibeaz.com/AC.png
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
I never understood the point of marking a file as archived, can somebody tell me what this does?
It tells your backup program that the file has not been changed since the last time you made a backup, i.e. it has been archived so it does not need to be archived.
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
@Tim thanks for the explanation.
it looks good, Maybe something should go behind the checkbox. A text document or a computer maybe, not sure though, watever makes sense would probably look good. Looks nice, good job on the icon.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
New update, I mostly changed the Gui, changed button positions, changed font size, read above for the other changes. I will try and add the ability to change time for files, so Ill be experimenting with this for a while, ill try to get a new update later today or tomorrow. Oh yeah I applied zach's icon for the program.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
uhmmm the icon is not really done it's still a work in progress other than using an unfinished Icon the program is coming along nicely
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
My bad, though its a good icon, thought I would just put it there so I dont have to see the AutoHotKey one, plus it looks so good I thought it was almost finished.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
ok well I'll finish it sometime tonight or tomorrow morning
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
New update, this update adds a lot more features, please read above to see. There might be something I forgot to add that I changed, but Im sure you'll notice when you use the program. Also if you are having problems with things not working please read the "Instructions.txt" file first to see if your problem is answered there. If it is not then post a comment here and Ill try to help you solve your problem. Also if you notice any bugs or anything please report them here.
Enjoy
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Here is something that isnt a bug but someone will probably come here and say it is. If you want to edit the date for a file, make sure that readonly is not checked, if it is then the date will remain the same. So make sure you uncheck that attribute before you change any of the dates. To make things easier in the future, ill add back buttons so you can go to the previous window. Hope this will prevent any problems in the future.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Thanks so much for making this, it's been a great help. Also, I made another icon, probably not as good as Zach's, but here's the download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?r9cz2wldeeg
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
looks nice, I think ill wait a while before I apply an icon, just to see whos icon I should use. Thanks for making the icon, it looks really nice.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Been meaning to report this bug, along with a suggestion.
Bug
- if a file has an attribute already, ie A (archive), then your app's checkboxes simply toggle that attribute. So checking the box for A, will then remove the A attribute. This seems logically wrong to me. Checked should = the attribute exists, not checked = the attribute does not exist.
Suggestions:
- the "Start" dialog should only be on first run. After that, just go straight for the Open File dialog. It's just annoying after the first time.
- For future, drag-and-drop support for changing the next file so you don't have to exit and restart.
- forget about what attributes the file previously had, it seems kinda pointless to me unless you have a button to restore those attributes automatically.
ill see what I can do... Also about the bug, that is the current settings I have, it just applies the opposite attribute, but if this is annoying and frustrating then ill remove it. Ill try to see if your suggestions can be made, but there are no guarantees. Thanks for the suggestions, I think a drag-and-drop support will make this a better app.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Easy fix for the bug (had to learn a little AHK for this, heh). Just set the initial state of the checkbox according to the file's attributes, ie
Remember to clear the Options var before doing the next test (returns it to the default state).
Man, AHK is confusing with variables and when to use quotes and when not to. If the function expects a var, then no quotes. If it expects a string, then use quotes. It sure demands a good grasp of the syntax and memory.
thanks.... Yeah AHK is way different than Nsis thats for sure, it took me a while to get the whole variable thing, but now it seems pretty simple. I guess in time ill probably get pretty good at AHK, that is if I continue to make little scripts and stuff.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
An idea....Alright how about I include some of the text of the first window, but on the first window there is a box that can be user edited(type in) where on the right side there is a box that has "..." as the button text, then when you click it it will bring the file select window. Ill probably change the start button to next.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
That's one idea.
Or you could have a "firstrun" INI setting, so the intro "Start" window is only shown once. After that opening the program would go straight to the File Open dialog.
Another idea is to have a "Restart" button in the last dialog that would either re-open the File Open dialog and restart the process, or return to your new idea start page with the file selection box. This would be fine to avoid having to re-open the program to work on a new file.
alright, right now im trying to implement the back button, but it doesnt seem to work. Im using the following code to do it.
It works the first time you hit the back button, but then if u hit back again and hit next when you go to the first window, it skips the second window and just goes to the third window. Any ideas on y this happens? Ill try and find another way to do this I hope.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
I'm very green at AHK, but I'd say get rid of the loop statement.
yup, I only have one back button, and that is in the last window, I also added a restart button in the last window so you can restart the app. For some reason I couldnt get the back button to successfully go to the first window. Now as for the drag and drop feature, im still wondering how that is going to happen, but im at least getting somewhere.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Not sure if im gonna be able to add the drag and drop feature yet, im having some problems with acquiring variables and such, so its on hold till I find another solution. Ill probably release the next test which will make it easier to choose another app, I added a restart button and a back button. So are there any other suggestions and or bugs that I should know about before I get ready to release the next alpha?
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Not that I can think of. Oh, and the drag-and-drop was just an idea, not really a request. I know it's difficult to implement, at least in AutoIt it requires some advanced window message handling. So I'm not even sure it's possible in AHK.
New update, now it should be easier to do multiple files, read above for changes. What I plan for the next release is support to apply attributes to a folder, but I wanted to know what would be best, applying attributes to folder and all the files in it, or just the folder?
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Nice Program,but why does it say "AC" on the PA menu?
And can you select multiple files?
(Are you trying to get this official one of these days?)
Currently it will show "AC" because It stands for "Attribute Changer" and that is the name of the executable. Right now you can't select multiple files but I'll consider it for a later release. It might or might not become official but if it does that would be awesome, if it doesnt then I can always put it on my site or just leave it here in the beta forums. It might become official if it is useful enough to people.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
add usefulness by adding other abilities.
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
Here's a version that includes an attribute check, drag-and-drop in the main window, and better logic when hitting the "Next" button from the main window -
1. won't advance if edit box is blank
2. will clear edit box if file is not found
3. will return to the main window if user cancels out of the file select dialog instead of exiting the program
This was kinda fun, learned a little AHK tonight. I still hate some things about it, but I like some others.
BTW, how did you change the program icon? Did you reshack the AutoHotkeySC.bin directly (only method I found)?
Nice, thanks, I was looking at this script and my other one where I attempted to do the drag and drop, and I realized my mistake I made, I might have figured it out but it might have taken a while cause I had some things in the wrong place. Thanks for helping me on this.
Edit: About the icon, when you compile the script you can choose an icon for the compiled script. One thing I want to know is if you can include stuff like Nsis, like author, copyright, etc. so they are visible from the script exe.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Ahh, found the compiler I always just compiled through SciTE, so I missed the options.
As for other resource info, I don't know really. If you reshack the compiled EXE, it corrupts it because I think there's a CRC check. Search the AHK forums maybe? Not sure, I haven't really looked into it.
Not sure if you caught all the changes I made, but the most important one was the use of 'GuiControl' to update the edit box. You were adding another edit box on top of the old with with 'Gui, Add', which causes weirdness when you mouse-over it. Going through other people's scripts was how I learned NSIS and AutoIt3 (and now a bit of AHK ;)), so you're off to a good start. And thanks for giving me something to learn off of.
On my Vista SP1, when I select a file and move the mouse over the file name, it disappears.
(on the other hand, it works great on my XP SP3!)
Woops.... I forgot to upload the new attribute changer where wraithdu fixed that and helped add the drag and drop feature. Ill upload in a few min, but there wont be any new features except that.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
New update, read above for details, hope this update makes changing file attributes a bit easier.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
What do you guys think would be useful features to add in the future?
Currently I'm just adding the finishing touches on the Folder Select ability, and then after a few testing, then we can finally go to beta testing. But I think it would be best if we used external scripts for some of the above features that could be added. Tell me what you think about some of the above, and maybe something else that would be useful instead.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
would be nice.
I've noticed that dos's built in attrib doesn't really work. Perhaps a DOS UI would be nice?
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
Yes, I think a DOS UI would be nice.
does this program need to comply with these?
https://portableapps.com/node/12851
I dont think it needs to comply with it, unless I plan on making it official and if I use the PA installer. Not sure if I need to, since this is entirely created by me, and most of the info and since we are in alpha testing, it would be just more work to do every time I wanted to release a new version, maybe once we are out of alpha I'll look into it.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
ok...
Since I have been busy adding more features to the program. I was wondering if someone could look at the following Gui I have created and tell me what they think. I havent added any functions to any of the buttons so, if u wish to for me then feel free to do so.
Im also planning on changing the Gui for the attribute checking window, make it look a little bit better.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
K, well now that I have the folder select working, Im gonna do multiple files select, but Im not sure how to do it. Here is what I have so far, but I might have to write another script for multiple files, where it just shows the file name, not the file name+directory. Cause then things would get confusing. So can someone check my script so far and tell me if it is good. Thanks in advance
Well that is all of it for now, Im still improving it a lot, so expect an update to be out real soon.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
New update, see above for changes, also I cant figure out y two of the features is being highlighted like its a link. So hope you enjoy this new update, and I plan on seeing your feedback to improve this program more.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
WOOO HOOO! thanks a lot
EDIT:It would be nice if the icon could be transparent but I guess you couldn't see the icon too well...
Yup, a transparent icon would be cool, Ill look into that, maybe just remove all the extra white, now im looking into file encryption for files that only have the hidden attribute. Im looking into ccrytp, but im not sure what to do yet, how would you pass command line parameters to something like ccrypt? Ill keep looking into this, cause I want to make an update with this before school starts.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Alright, since the AC icon isnt finished I decided to make my own, and here is what I made, so tell me what you think.
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/8681/acba3.png
Edit: Man this thing looks awesome as an icon, It has a transparent background, I have to say Im impressed with myself as I have never made something like this in photoshop.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Hey, That icon looks realy nice
Thanks, I think Ill make a quick update with this icon, and a bug that I found. So ill get to work on that bug and I should be releasing in like an hour or so.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
New update, please read above for changes, also please tell me what you think of the new features and the new icon. Im still working hard to implement some encryption, but if you know a way that would be easy and bug free, then comment here, as I would appreciate any help with this program.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
New update, read above for new features. Please test and tell me feedback on the new features. If you find anything acting funny post here, and I will try to figure it out.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Do you think that adding 7z support in my program would be useful? If so then Ill start to look into using the 7z command prompt version. So you can pack your directories and compress them, and you will have the ability to choose compression, like store, normal, etc. So please write here and tell me if this would be useful for Folders, and maybe I can try to find a way to do it for files, like putting the file in a folder that is named the same as file and pack that.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
I think adding 7z support would be nice, it would help me a lot
by adding 7z support
yup, I should be able to release my new version of attribute changer real soon, I just need to get the 7z command version to work. I believe many ppl would start using this once I add 7z support, hopefully.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Thanks!
Keep up the work!
I just downloaded Beta 3 a litle while ago and
tried the new encryption out and I thought that
you should have on the Encrypt area,
on the bottom field verify password or something like that.
When I select a folder and do Encryption nothing happens and
it would be nice if it could apply attributes in files inside folders
Oh, by the way I took your icon and put some more
formats on the icon just because I wanted too, but when I added some more formats using IcoFX
the file size decreased.
here's the formats
http://www.mediafire.com/?xcgzopngbyb
P.S. I think if you put a launcher and installer and put it in the Test Releases page you may get more downloads and the 4 bit formats aren't too good (I think)
alright, I'll look into that, and I think I might be making an update real soon, but I havent been able to get 7z to work properly, cause Im having trouble with the syntax of the command version, so I will test my app out a lot and see if I can fix any little bugs.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
"Attribute Changer" is a perfect app which I have use it many times.
Attribute Changer is completely free, even for commercial use.
It's official site:
http://www.petges.lu/home/download/
I can use it without admin rights.
Please make this app portable..
Thank you!
The application is not open source, but instead freeware.
That imposes certain additional restrictions, and given that the author states that while the application can be distributed, it cannot be modified.
It would require whoever plans to maintain the project to seek permission from the author first.
If at first you do not succeed, use more sticky tape.
Yes it is not open source but there are many apps like that (skype...) here: https://portableapps.com/apps
I reasearch little bit but I could not find any better alterantive for this app.
I will ask to developer to change the licence to modifying it by others...
Asking the author to change the license is NOT needed. What is necessary is for the developer of the portableapps.com version to request permission from the author to be able to release a portable version of the program.
Note that this should be done by the developer, not by a user.
I had already asked for it :/ Anyway... Just in case I paste the link here:
http://www.petges.lu/home/forums/topic/about-licence/