Topic Locked. New topic over here:
https://portableapps.com/node/12885
Application: JkDefrag
Category: Utilities
Description: JkDefrag is a disk defragmenter and optimizer for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/X64.
I wrote out a full GUI for this program using AutoIt, and I'm pretty proud of it as I have no GUI experience. I modeled it after the Windows Defragmenter. This program also will launch the x32 or x64 version of the program depending on your architecture.
This program has changed to a new thread at https://portableapps.com/node/12885
Release Notes:
Development Test 7 (2008-03-28):
- added translations for DE, ES, FR, and IT (done with google translate, so they probably need tons of correcting)
- cleaned up my code a ton
- added option to enable flash drives from the ini file
- now opens log with notepadd++portable if present
- replaced icons with gpl one Zach made
- removed jkdefrag64gui.exe. jkdefraggui.exe now launches the 2 exes since it should still work in x64.
Development Test 6 (2008-03-24):
- Now displays the % Drive Fragmentation after you analyze! (took a while to do)
- Percentages and Sizes are right aligned
- JkDefrag now automatically closes after it finishes and goes back to the GUI
Development Test 5 (2008-03-23):
- Now supports multiple drive selections!
- added code to prompt vista users for admin privleges (thanks to wraithdu)
- small paf changes Patrick caught
ToDo List:
- correct translations
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cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'
1. well i think i need 2 scripts because one is compiled for x32 unicode and the other is compiled for x64
2. that may work but not nearly 100% solution and there are solid state drives that aren't removable now.
3. i'll add the drive status thing in
This is a great start. I think you should implement some more of the options that JkDefrag has. The GUI I current use can be found here (http://www.emro.nl/freeware/) It has a lot of options. Again, I know this is your first GUI and I think you did a great job. As you do more with this you can implement more features.
well i think this presents a decision to be made, is it better to have an easy to use interface with no confusion, or have an interface chocked full of options that may make the user not know which to pick?
Well I guess really I was looking for more defrag options, such as 'Sort Files by Name', 'Size' and so forth. I also thing it would be good to include an option to shut down after defrag. Most of the other options included in that package really aren't necessary. I agree with you too many option could cause confusion, I just think there should be a few more options like the ones I listed above.
The GUI looks really nice, and it's really simple, too!
Awesome Work! I'll pick out the small stuff later.
Nice start Travis
I agree with the suggestion to leave off drives that are empty from the list (floppies). You could add an 'advanced' tab for some of the other options... or an options window, but I like keeping the main screen simple. I'd suggest leaving off the 'GUI' in the title. Also, you should hide the GUI while it is running so extra button pushes aren't an issue.
BTW - Any chance you could use AutoHotkey instead of AutoIt? It's open source (AutoIt isn't anymore) and has fewer false positive issues with antivirus products.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
It is nice and simple. A transition to AHK could mean learning a whole new language, but if it'll prevent false positives....
BTW - Any chance you could rewrite the menu in C++ instead of Delphi? There are open-source compilers for C++ and it's a more widely known language.
lol
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
AutoHotkey is actually a fork of AutoIt version 2 (back when it was open source before they closed it off). So, it's the same language in many respects. And many AutoIt users don't know about AutoHotkey. That's why I'd suggested it. It's nothing like converting from Delphi to C++
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Yeah, it wouldn't be hard conversion at all, I've seen the syntax for both and they are very similar.
I know converting from Delphi to C++ would be a harder transition, but like i said, there's open source compilers for it...
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Transitioning from AutoIt to AutoHotkey is like making the transition from one version of a scripting language to another.
Transitioning from Delphi to C++ is essentially rewriting the entire thing. Not to mention learning a new GUI toolkit. Delphi is a nice RAD language and dead easy to learn (I learned it for the menu). C++ is definitely not either.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Lol...you win.
But for C++, there's the wxWidgets toolkit, and Code::Blocks has a plugin that is a wxWidgets form designer.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
New Forum Guideline:
When it comes to John, don't even try... you'll only embarrass yourself.
We can't add this as a guideline until John provides 1 more comment....but I'm pretty sure u'r right. lol
Lets get back on topic now though.
Good Job Travis. Works well, and I'm looking forward to future updates.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
LOL from the horse's mouth?
yeah, i'll try to re-write it later as long as it only takes tweaking and not re-doing. It did show a few false positives from the VirusTotal smaller name scanners and i guess in keeping with the spirit of open source i should start using autohotkey instead of autoit.
AutoIt3 and AutoHotkey have totally different syntaxes. It will requre a full rewrite. (At least as far as syntax is concerned. You may be able to just go line by line and change the syntax.)
cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'
Their syntaxes are similar, but definitely different. While it will require a rewrite, it will be easy to follow the changes as well.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
is it that big of a deal if i just leave it in AutoIt? from looking at the help file of autohotkey it seems like it would probably take me as long to transfer it to autohotkey as it took to write the program in the first place.
Dev Test 3 is now up. see main post for changes.
The previous release was fine, but it this one nothing works expect 'View Log'. All the other buttons just don't work, I assume it's having problems with JkDefrag or something.
Hmm... maybe this is just me. Now view log won't work either. I tried and upgrade and clean install.
the buttons only work when you have a drive selected and view log only works after something has been done. everything is working fine for me
You see, that's why I'm a noob.
no, that helps me out actually. now i'm going to try to have it select the first drive by default and possibly hide the view log button when there is none.
Yea... erm.... that's exactly what I was going for.
Thats goood (
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I have no problems with this one. Everything works fine. I think the GUI is a great complement to the app. I'm going to take down my JkDefrag and link to yours.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
I just try and I had no objection.
I want to know as I do to translate it into Spanish.
Thanks,
hm... i never really thought about doing translations. I may try to add translations later, but right now I'm still working on the functionality of the program.
Do it with a simple INI just for the strings on your screen. Since there's not much to the app GUI-wise, it shouldn't be too hard. Just wait until you've finalized what controls are on it and then add it in.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
good work Travis i have just used it to defrag a flash drive thats never been done before handled it no problems keep up the good work
if you don't know-ee you should ASCII
you shouldn't defrag your flash drive. it gives you no gain and flash media wears out over time so if anything it's bad to do. but it's okay i'm guilty of doing it too before i knew that fact. right now i'm trying to get it to not show flash drives but haven't got it done yet.
I've just tried using on Vista Ultimate SP1 and I'm running into an error message.
I select the drive and regardless of what option I select (Analyze, Defragment, or Defragment And Optimize I get the following AutoIt Error
Line -1:
Error: Unable to execute the external program.
The requested Operation requires elevation.
Since I'm just using a standard user account in Vista, I decided to try "run as administrator" option directly from the flash drive and it worked. So, it looks like it needs administrator access (at least in Vista)
yeah, I just found this on the JkDefrag website:
Permissions
JkDefrag needs "full control" permissions to all files and disks that it must defragment/optimize. On a default Windows system the "administrator" userid has full permissions to all files and disks. Users can also run JkDefrag, but then it can only defragment/optimize the files and disks for which the user has "full control".
Note: On Vista right-click the JkDefrag program and select "run as administrator".
I wonder if my program would get tagged as a virus if i tried to automate the "run as administrator" thing.
I think having it check and fail with an error is safer. And the menu will have a Run As Admin option with a right-click, so users can do it when needed.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Dev Test 4 is now up. A list of changes and an updated To Do list can be found in the main post.
Patrick proofed. That's a hard one to do.
Does the data folder ever get used?? I think u should try editing your script and have it redirect log files to the data folder. Also are the log files being deleted? It created one, i closed the program and its not there now. I think u should provide an option if u want to keep them or delete them.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
good suggestion. for the next release i'll put in a checkbox to allow the log file to be kept and then move it to the data directory
If they're not too big, just keep em since it's just a single file. Remember... each option is another choice a user has to make. For simple stuff, it's better to just handle it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
well one that was made from analyzing a 15 GB partition was 96KB. should i delete the log file on exit or move it automatically to the data folder and replace it with a new log after every time you run the program?
I think it would be best just to have them put in the data folder, and just have a pop up that says "log was put in data folder" or something like so if the user wants later they can go back and delete it from there. However u do it sounds great, but as John said its another choice for a user to make.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Add a variable that would make each log a different name like Jkdefrag followed by Jkdefrag(1) or something like that instead of replacing it each time. Then if the logs become to big like 2mb have a pop up that says "log files have reached 2mb, do u wish to delete(then add a yes or no)" this way the log files dont become to big.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Actually, I have a better idea. Keep the log just while JKDefrag Portable is up and delete it on exit of the GUI (which I think you're doing now). The only time you're gonna be interested in it is right after you run it. No real need to keep it.
If you're concerned someone might, add an INI option to DeleteLogFile= and have an option for false. But honestly, I don't think it's necessary at all.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Here's a directive in AutoIt to cover UAC in Vista -
---------
By default AutoIt scripts run with standard user permissions but AutoIt has been coded to allow the script writer the option to "tag" a script in order to tell AutoIt if it needs to run with full admin rights or not.
To force a script to attempt to run itself with administrative rights add the #requireadmin directive at the top of your script as follows:
When the script runs AutoIt will check if it already has full admin rights and if not it will cause the operating system to prompt the user for permission as shown in "UAC Prompts". If permission is not given by the user the script will terminate.
Why would you want to exclude flash drives? I know that it is not necessarily recommended, but I don't think that you should exclude them from the list, as I know many people will want to defragment their flash drives. I personally think that you need to change that back. You can't force users to do the "correct" thing, and if they want to do the "incorrect" thing, then they just won't use your product.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
well i chose to do it because most people don't know that defraging flash memory is a bad idea; they think it will help their flash drive like it does their hdd. possibly i could make a note somewhere about why flash drives aren't included or i could have a checkbox to enable it under advanced options.
I certainly do think you should have that note in there. And maybe the checkbox. Does it exclude external hard drives too? I don't have one, so I can't test that.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
no, external hard drives show up fine and flash drives don't which is how i want it. i'll add a note in the help file. i think i need to write up my own FAQ page or something.
There is no point in defragmenting a flash drive. It will not speed it up. All (or nearly all) modern flash devices use wear leveling to prevent a given area of flash ram from being used too much and wearing out... spreading out data across the ram. So, the PC really has no idea where the pieces of a given file are on a flash drive. Defragmenting a flash drive just does a lot of unnecessary writing to the drive and actually uses up some of its usable lifespan of number of writes.
So, yes, we should be ensuring that users don't defragment flash drives by leaving them out of the selection list. To do otherwise would be irresponsible.
If you genuinely want to, you could add an INI option called AllowDefragOfFlashDrives= and let the user set it to true if they want them to show up. It would only mean adding a couple lines of code in NSIS. Then, if a user really wants to use up some of the writes on their flash drive for no benefit... they can.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I was just trying to look at it from the standpoint of a new PortableApps user, so thank you for the explanation.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
Answers are already given. The main difference is that on a normal hard disk the read head has to travel to a point to read the data, so de-fragmenting would make sense. you reduce the number of times the read head has to look for a piece of data.
Because a flash drive doesn't have a mechanical read head there is no speed gain. And the wear leveling mentioned makes actually de-fragging useless.
Some have argued that defragging a flash drive would make a difference due to the write block sizes, but I really don't know, as the flash itself already writes to different parts of the drive to reduce the number of writes in a certain spot.
Defragging a flash drive (and solid state drives for that matter) only reduces its lifetime.
when i wrote earlier that i defraged a flash drive it was an old one that i never use
anymore as its to small for all my apps and no use for anything else but i agree
you shouldn't defrag flash dives
if you don't know-ee you should ASCII
Here's the small PAF stuff as always.
I think that's it, that was quick. Great work, keep it up!
Development Test 5 is now up. changes can be found in the main post.
I just tried it, and it gave that whole "this application wants access to your computer" screen and I was able to defrag both my hard drives.
Keep up the good work
"this application wants access to your computer"? Noo, really
Funny how legitimate software started by the user always make Windows doubt the usage, while on the other hand time and time again patches arrive to protect us against software we don't have control over. Viva la Vista
Dev Test 6 is now up
Wow, i really like the launcher with these later versions. So far it's working well, albeit JkDefrag isn't the best defragger out there, it's the best free one.
/sylikc
I just had a small thought. What about including John Bentley's StuffPad he has included with Xenon instead of using Notepad?
Edit: I just looked at it, and it's looks like it may need some small tweaking for settings placement and stuff as it was meant for Xenon. But it's in AutoIt, so it should be easy.
See, sometimes Patrick thinking has good results.
I like that idea.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Excellent idea.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
yeah, that's a great idea. but it doesn't have a search feature and it's a long log file. i don't know what to do.
I might look at some AutoIt code and try to add that feature. Possibly. Don't count on it.
Edit: Okay, so I may be able to do this. I've got the find window, now just to get it functioning.
I think I know what to use, just my first time with AutoIt, so give me a bit.
Edit2: Even better, I just found exactly what I need, I just need to incorporate it now.
Edit3: Incorporated. The find is now working, same with Ctrl+F. I'm just cleaning up the code now, and then changing where StuffPad stores its settings.
Edit4: Ok, I cleaned up the code a tiny bit, it's still pretty bad cause I spent like 10 minutes with the AutoIt manual. I set it so StuffPad saves settings to the Data directory when running from App\StuffPad, added an about box, and added a find window with hotkey. So just grab this zip, put the StuffPad directory under App\ and copy the source file to the JkDefrag source folder. You'll have to change the language manually, as I didn't wanna make it too complex, but I don't think anyone's really gonna change it too often anyways. I'll try to clean up the code later.
I'm actually going to ask John to remove it from Xenon as it doesn't add anything. Every Windows PC already has notepad. And anyone who wants a text editor will already have Notepad++ Portable on it. It's essentially an unnecessary waste of 500k.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Why do you want our portable apps to be more OS reliant? That limits Linux usage as well. StuffPad is just as simple as Notepad, but is open source. Now with search is makes is great to use. It's more like 400k when I'm looking at it, so why are you worrying about that much space when you're telling Oliver not to make translations and skins optional. Notepad++ is much more than a simple text editor like StuffPad. Users may also alter Notepad font settings and other small settings, which is essentially altering the settings of the person who owns the computer.
It's just plain silly to be bundling a text editor with multiple apps. Xenon, JkDefrag... what's next FileZilla, Firefox (makes more sense than JkDefrag)? But it's NOT gonna happen.
If a user cares to have a specific text editor open and bring it with them, that's fine. And, yes, apps like this can check for the existence of Notepad++ or we could add in a simple text viewer. But bundling a text editor with apps like this is just plain silly and a waste of space.
And, no we're not launching Notepad specifically. We're just telling the OS to open a text file. And that works perfectly fine under Wine on Linux. Wine actually includes a notepad.exe with it to view text files... so it's a moot point.
When I want a portable defrag utility, I don't need a portable text viewer just to look at a log file that most people will never open.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
well actually i am launching notepad specifically since i couldn't figure out how to have it open the log file with just the default text editor. i'm sure there's a way to do it but i'll have to look into it more
ShellExecute()
And put the filename in there.
And the OS will do the same thing as if you double-clicked the file in an Explorer window.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Which is great as long as ".log" is associated with an appropriate application; otherwise you rely on the user knowing enough to select something rational.
edit 1
Actually, it might be better to force the name to be something.txt.
I kind of like
MC
Or if that doesn't work, just have the log button rename it before launching it.
Don't add the date or anything in, though... we're only maintaining one log file and not between sessions.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
do some computers not associate .log with a text editor? and if ALL pcs have notepad mby i should just leave it launching notepad.exe JkDefrag.log like i have been.
Windows doesn't have .log associated with anything by default to my knowledge. So, telling JKD to save it as TXT is the best bet.
Then have your script check for Notepad++Portable and, if it doesn't exist, just do a ShellExecute.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I could kind of understand your reasoning before, but now I disagree. Opening the default text editor is not a good idea. Some users default text editor will be Notepad, for some it will be a text editor like Notepad++, some it will be WordPad, and for some it will actually be a word processor. Nobody wants to view a log file in a word processor that like 3 minutes to open up. Why take the risk or having a large program like that open, crashing the PC, fiddling with a users settings, etc.
Last I checked JkDefrag Portable is around 2.5 megs, adding Stuffpad brings it up to around 3. That's not a big difference at all. With Stuffpad, we're sure we won't be screwing up a PC's settings. You'll have portable settings. I've set stuffpad so saves to a .log file by default, and John Bentley had it so it saves in the PortableApps Documents folder.
To me, it seems more practical to use Stuffpad. If you feel there is not add to add an extra 400k app, then use Notepad. But don't use the default text editor, it just doesn't make sense to me.
"Which is great as long as ".log" is associated with an appropriate application; otherwise you rely on the user knowing enough to select something rational."
Well, if people care to look at a log file... they probably know how to open it.
Or just rename the .log into .txt
It's not just for opening the log file, the file has to be parsed to display the % fragmentation
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I agree that it's not needed but its open source and in the same language as my app and Patrick already did all the work adding the search feature.
Just leave Stuffpad out. You'd be making the app 33% larger with no benefit. Most people will never even open the log file. If you want, you can have it check for Notepad++ Portable first and then tell the OS to launch a text file if it doesn't exist. This will work under all versions of Windows as well as Wine.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Not to run any more off topic, but if you've started work improving StuffPad, and the original author doesn't have any more plans for it, why not take over the project (or at least complete your revisions) and release it as a separate app? If it has that much merit, then it deserves it's own release. You could even include support for other portable apps or portable file extensions if you want to go that route.
I was thinking about that.
Do u think it is possible to add a time remaining feature?? I think that might be usefull to some people. I cant think of anything else so other than that good job on making this portable.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
that would be a nice feature but i can't add it. that feature would need to be in the actual app itself and i only am writing the gui launcher.
... for barging in. I haven't used StuffPad that extensively while testing Xenon.
Does it offer more than say Notepad2, which is open-source as well as compact and small?
Notepad2
No, it doesn't. It's just Microsoft Notepad equivalent.
If this goes official, I have a high-res logo that I made.
The original JKDefrag logo used one of the Vista hard drive icons, I'm not sure it can be used with the GPL, so if that's an issue, I can remake my logo to use a different drive icon as well.
My logo can be found here.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
cool, thanks!
well i would think as long as jkdefrag only modeled it after and didn't directly use the vista hdd icon then everything would be fine.
It is EXACTLY the Vista HDDD icon.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Swap the hard drive icon out since we can't use it. Try the one from NuoveXT-2.2, Crystal Clear or Vista Inspirate which are all GPLed icon sets. I recommend NuoveXT as we're using icons from it in the upcoming platform.
And please stop using target="_blank" on links. We don't open new windows here.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I'll swap it out now and post a new one.
Sorry about that, this was the only time I used it, i think.
Edit:
here is the new icon, using the NuoveXT hard drive icon.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
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