Centurion Setup Revision History Version 22.0 (July 18th, 2011) · Major interface improvements, too many to list. Added support for Aero Glass (Vista/2008/7). Improved appearance, layout, margins, skins. · Added the ability for the end-user to change the location of the Start Menu shortcuts. Simply check the "Allow User To Choose Start Menu Location" box on the Locations branch. · Added the ability to notify the developer when an installation and/or uninstallation is complete by making an HTTP request. Please see the "Notification" section of the Completion branch. · Added the "Browse Background Schemes" tool. · Added the "Installer Description" field to the Build branch. Previously this was hard-coded to "Installer for ". · Added the "Offer To Open History" setting to the Completion branch. · Added the "Upgrade" and "Reinstall" batches. · Added the "Automatic Color Scheme" box to the Display branch. If checked, the background and copyright colors are automatically matched to the side panel graphic. · Added the "Side Panel Border" option to the Display branch. · Added support for installer/uninstaller .ICO files that contain more than one icon. · Added a high resolution shell icon for Vista/2008/7. · Added the ability to import the Deletions Table from another project. · Added the /ed switch, which sets the installer's expiration date to a specified number of days in the future. · Added the "Preview" button to the Desktop Shortcut Folder Icon field. · Added a row of buttons along the bottom of the Exclusions field. · The installer's dialog buttons are now narrower, taller, and right justified. · The installer's dialog captions now have an icon. · Improved the "Preview Image" tool. Added a toolbar. It can now display any frame of a multi-image ICO or GIF. Added the ability to copy and save the image. The size of the image is displayed. The window will now remember its size and position. · Improved the method for synthesizing the copyright color. · Numerous improvements to the Help file. · For the Pre-Installation, Upgrade, Reinstall, and Post-Installation Batches, if "Hide DOS Window" is checked, the output from the batch will now be written to the Installation Log. · The installer will now record (in the registry) the product's estimated size. This is reported on the Windows 7 "Programs and Features" window. · The installer's caption exit buttons are now all disabled. Previously they were enabled, although clicking them would have no effect. · The last button before installation starts is now labeled "Install" instead of "Continue". · The uninstaller's exit code is now 0 instead of 1. This should help prevent Vista from reporting that the uninstallation failed. · The uninstaller now reports an error if it cannot load the Uninstall.dat file. · The "Disallow Network Installations" feature can now detect when a drive letter is mapped to a network folder, and therefore refuse to install. · The installer now logs the system error if the product cannot be registered for uninstallation. · The installation log now includes the operating system version and edition. · The installation log now includes the version of the existing installation, if present. · The build progress window now displays the number of input bytes and compressed output bytes. · The "Preview File Specification" tool now lists the largest, smallest, and average file size. · The "Grant Security Rights" feature will no longer grant security rights to the Shared directory if there are no Shared files. · The "Total Overhead" statistic no longer rounds up to the nearest multiple of 4096. · The "Build Zip" tool now reports the size of the Zip file. It also performs better error checking. · The installer's "Choose Installation Directory" controls have been moved down for an improved appearance. · No delayed installation is attempted if the destination is an invalid drive. · For new projects, "Disallow Network Installations" and "Disallow Removable Media" are now checked by default. More often than not, installations to network and floppy/optical/USB drives cause problems for the developer. · For new projects, "Disallow Abort" is now checked by default. Aborting an installation could possibly cause problems. · For new projects, the new "Bind Executables" option is now unchecked by default. There is a slight chance that it could damage certain executables (such as those compressed by Bitsum's PECompact software). Be sure to test executables after installation if this feature is enabled. · For new projects, the new "Check Signatures" option is now unchecked by default. Better to let the user enable this feature if it is desired. · The "Copy Installer to A:" tool has been removed. Floppy drives are extinct. We are also considering removing the "Copy Installer to Media" tool and the "Multiple Disk Spanning" feature. If you use either of these, please let us know. · Fixed: the "Report errors in automatic mode" setting was sometimes being ignored. · Fixed: when the installer or uninstaller causes a reboot, some systems were displaying a popup message after booting. · Fixed: the installer's Browse window was not scrolling the folder into view on Windows 7 due to an operating system bug. A work-around has been implemented. · Fixed: the "Import Uninstall Data" tool no longer also imports the Firewall table. · Fixed: after performing an auto-close, the installer was not always regaining focus. · Fixed: when the user rejects the synthesized color scheme, the copyright color was not being restored. · Fixed: improved detection of whether or not a drive is a USB flash drive. · Fixed: the uninstaller was not always refreshing the desktop. Version 21.0 (August 30th, 2010) · Added support for displaying a copyright notice on the installer's background. · Added the "Offer to open log" option to the Completion branch. If checked, the "View installation log" checkbox will appear on the Installation Successful window. If the user checks this box, after the installer exits, the installation log is opened. · Added the "Bind Executables" option to the Install branch. If checked, the installer will "bind" all installed executables, which makes them launch faster. Added the bind.exe DOS utility. · Added support for background GIF's that have transparency. · Added the "Location" column to the Shortcuts table. This allows a shortcut to be installed to a custom location. Previously, shortcuts could only be installed to the Desktop, Start Menu, or Startup folder. · Added support for installing shortcuts to a sub-folder. In the Description column, list the sub-folder name, followed by a backslash, followed by the shortcut name. Example: Support\Contact Us · Added the "Start Menu Shortcut To Installation Log" option to the Completion branch. · Added the "Check Signatures" option to the Build branch. If checked, the Build Summary will warn if any EXE, DLL, or OCX file has a problem with its digital signature. · Added to the "Analyze DLL" tool a report on the file's digital signature. · Added the "Display Build Summary" option to the Build branch. · Added the "digsig.exe" DOS utility, which can be used in the Post-Build Batch to verify that the installer has a proper digital signature. · Added the "dllcheck.exe" DOS utility, which is useful for determining which static DLL links cannot be satisfied by the operating system. · Added the "Favorites" tab to the help file. · Added the "Customize Toolbar" option to the Options menu. · Added a warning if a file appears in the File Specification Table more than once. · Added the "Balloon help disabled" option to the toolbar's context menu. · Centurion Setup is now "large address aware" which allows it to take advantage of 3GB of virtual memory. Please refer to the Help file > Guides > The /3gb Switch for instructions on how to configure the operating system for this. · The installer size limit has increased from 1 GB to 2 GB. However, it is unlikely that the operating system can allocate enough memory for an installer this size. The practical limit appears to be around 1.3 GB. · The Yes/No/Cancel buttons on various popup windows are now translated. Previously they would appear in the default language for the operating system, not the one chosen by the user when installation began. · The "Grant Security Rights" feature will now try to give the user ownership of the installation directory, and will remove all "Deny" policies. · While the installer is installing files, it will now prevent the system from shutting down or rebooting. · The installer's FileDescription has changed from "Self-extracting installation program." to "Installer for ". This appears on the UAC dialog when admin rights are required. It also appears when you hover the mouse over the installer. · The installer's "Choose Language" dialog will now preselect the language that matches the computer's regional settings. · The "Expiration Date" field now obeys the computer's locale configuration regarding the date format (mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy). · The "Run Batch" tool will now prompt the user to choose the default working directory for the batch. · The uninstaller will now obey the "Override Title Size" setting. · The uninstaller will now delete "thumbs.db" from every installed directory. · If an EULA or README file is in unicode, instead of reporting an error, it will be converted to 8-bit ASCII. · On Windows 7, the taskbar button will now show the progress while building the installer. · Numerous improvements to the "Check For Update" tool. · The Send Feedback and Report Exception features now use HTTP to deliver the information to Gammadyne. The old SMTP method is only used as a fallback if HTTP fails. This is necessary because some ISP's only allow SMTP to their own mail servers. · The Default skin now conforms with the appearance of Windows 7. The original default skin has been renamed "Experience". · Improved the graceful handling of the "Out of Memory" condition while building an installer. · More icon improvements. · The Validating Data phase is now slightly faster. · The "Uninstall Data Files Subdirectory" field now defaults to "Uninstall" for new projects. · The name of the Finnish language has changed from "Suomea" to the more correct "Suomi". · Fixed: the "Preview File Specification" tool was listing files twice if they are both specified in the File Specification Table and by the "Include Everything" option. · Fixed: if the shared folder contains subdirectories, those subdirectories were not always being uninstalled. · Fixed some minor incompatibility issues with Vista/2008/7. Version 20.0 (April 23rd, 2010) · Added 40 stock side panel graphics. · Added the "Prompt" option for the "Admin Rights" setting. On Vista/2008/7, this will force the user to provide administrator credentials before the installer can be launched. This is now the default setting for new projects, and will also overwrite the former setting in existing projects. Without admin rights, it is unlikely that the installation will work properly. · Added to the installer support for the operating system style enhancements to buttons. · Added the "Disallow Removable Media" option to the Install branch. · Added the "Product Can Be Uninstalled From Removable Media" option to the Uninstall branch. · Added the "Override Title Size" setting to the Display/Background branch. · Added a divider above the installer buttons. · Added the "Exclude Files Dated Before" option to the Exclusions branch. This is useful for creating patches. Added a help file chapter on creating patches. · Added the "/icon" switch, which will override the installer icon. · Added the "Load Background Defaults" tool. · Added the "Build ZIP" tool. This will build the zip file without building the installer. · Added the "Synthesize Background Colors" tool. This uses the average color of the side panel graphic to develop a matching background color gradient. · Added the "Preview" button to the "Custom Side Panel" setting. · Added to the Help file a guide on creating patches. · The open/save file dialog will now use the operating system style enhancements. · Behavior change: the "Offer To Launch Product" feature now supports a full DOS command line, not just the filepath of an executable. This allows parameters to be specified. However, please note that it is now necessary to wrap the executables's filepath in quotes. · The Build Summary's Build Date, and the , , and Special Tags are now formatted using the computer's regional settings. · Analyze DLL tool: the manifest is now reported. · The "Save Build Summary" filepath now supports Special Tags. · The Preview Icon window now allows the mouse wheel to adjust the size of the icon. · Changed the installer's default background colors to better match the default side panel graphic. · The "Installer Output File" and "Installer Icon" fields now supports environment variables and Special Tags. · The "Preview Greeting" tool will now obey the "Custom Side Panel" and "Display Title" settings. · The "Run Installer" and "Run Uninstaller" tools will now prompt the user for elevation unless Centurion Setup has administrator rights. · Registry keys are now created with full rights for all users. Previously, they inherited the security rights of the parent key. · If the uninstaller lacks security rights to access the uninstall data, it will now recommend that the user login with an administrator account. · If a reboot is necessary, the user is no longer offered to launch the product or readme file. · Improved the tutorial. · If for some reason the installer crashes, it will now write a crash dump to the installation log. · Fixed: the Preview File Specification tool was not displaying the correct total file size when the Exclusions branch was used. · Fixed: the Flash Drive Root Shortcut Description was reporting an error when set to "". · Fixed: the installer's gradient background was sometimes not filling the last row and column of pixels. Version 19.0 (November 4th, 2009) · Most icons have been replaced or improved. · Added the "Firewall" branch. The installer can now add exceptions to the Windows Firewall. · Added the "Completion" branch. Some settings from the Install branch have been moved here. · Added the "Offer To Open Notes" and "Offer To Launch Product" options to the Completion branch. The options are offered after installation is complete. · Added the "Exclusions" branch, where the user can specify files that should be left out of the installer. · Added the option to install a shortcut in the root of a USB flash drive (if the product is installed to a flash drive). · Added the ability to force uninstallation before re-installation if the existing installation is older than a specified version. · Added the "EULA: Hide Side Panel Graphic" option to the EULA branch. · Added the "Readme: Hide Side Panel Graphic" option to the Readme branch. · Added the "Leave Installation Log" setting to the Completion branch. · Added the ability to drag and drop entire folders on the File Specification Table. · Added a warning if the Destination column contains an environment variable with no trailing backslash. · Added the "firewall.exe" DOS utility. This program can add exceptions to the Windows Firewall. · The Description column of the File Specification Table is now allowed to have leading spaces. · Analyze DLL tool: missing import names are now fetched from the source DLL. · Analyze DLL tool: added an English description of the language used by each Version String Table. · Analyze DLL tool: added "Save As" and "Exit" buttons. · Analyze DLL tool: now reports the date the file was created and last accessed. · The zip file is now created after the Post-Build Batch executes so that the installer can be given a digital signature before being zipped. · Left clicking on a tree branch will no longer give the tree focus. · The "Use Checksums" option is now unchecked by default. · Fixed: a shortcut's "Working Directory" field could possibly end in two backslashes. · Fixed: the "Icon" column of the Shortcuts table could fail to work right if an absolute path to the icon was specified. Version 18.3 (May 12th, 2009) · Fixed: the "Use checksums" feature was reporting a corrupt installer due to the new PE checksum feature. Version 18.2 (May 11th, 2009) · Added the "Installation Directory Key" setting to the Uninstall/Data branch. This is useful when migrating from a different installer that stores the product's installation directory in a different registry key. · Added to the "Uninstall Data" table the ability to store data anywhere in the registry. · Added the ability to drag and drop an .INP project file from Windows Explorer onto the window caption. This will open the project. · The installer's PE checksum is now updated. · Fixed: the %AppDataDir% and %AppDataAllDir% environment variables were not being populated for the Pre-Build and Post-Build batches. %AppDataAllDir% was not being populated for any batch under Windows 95. · Fixed: the "Grant security rights" feature was failing in some situations. Version 18.1 (April 6th, 2009) · The installer's version resource is now automatically populated with the Product Name, Company Name, and Version fields. This information can be viewed by right clicking on the installer, choosing Properties, then selecting the Version tab. · Improved the smoothness of the side panel graphic when stretching is necessary. · The "Analyze DLL" tool will now report all strings in the version resource, not just the standard set of strings. It will also report data in the VS_FIXEDFILEINFO structure. · Removed the "Use unpacked installer" option due to the packed installer's incompatibility with version resource modification, installer/uninstaller icon customization, and customization of the side panel graphic. The 180 KB saved by using the packed installer does not justify its disadvantages. · "Grant Security Rights" is now checked by default. · Fixed: when launching Centurion Setup, the user should no longer be prompted every time for admin credentials by Vista UAC when using a Standard User account. · Fixed: .INP project files were not being correctly associated with Centurion Setup. Version 18.0 (March 23rd, 2009) · Name changed from "Self-Extracting Archive Utility" to "Centurion Setup". · Added a graphic side panel to various installer windows. · The installer data is now broken up into 4 MB chunks which are compressed separately. This improves support for very large installers and reduces the likelihood of an "Out of Memory" error. · Improved the installer's "Browse For Folder" window. Added a "Make New Folder" button. The window is now resizable, and will remember its size. If "Disallow network installations" is unchecked, the user can now browse for a network drive. · Added the "Auto-Close" branch. This is used to automatically close programs before installation and/or uninstallation. · Added the "Product Description" field to the Product branch. This field appears on the installer's greeting window. · Added the ability to customize the order and visibility of the toolbar icons. Right click on the toolbar and choose "Customize". · Added the "If Newer" option to the "Install..." column of the File Specification Table. If selected, the file will not be installed if there is an existing file that is newer. · Added Windows 2008 and Windows 7 to the Unsupported Operating Systems section. · Added to the "Title Font" field support for multiple font names, separated by commas. The installer will choose the first font that is installed on the system. · Added the option to hide the Progress Window. · Added 4 installer icons and 6 uninstaller icons, each in 3 sizes. · Added a "Preview" button for the installer and uninstaller icon settings. · Added the "Insert Special Tag" tool to the context menu of the Explicit EULA and Explicit Readme. · Added the "Background" branch. All settings related to the installer' background have been moved here. · Added translations for the "Product requires a 64-bit operating system" error. · The default installer icon has changed appearance, and the size has increased from 32x32 to 48x48. · The Build Summary will now include a warning when in shareware mode. · The Build Summary will now wait for the Post-Build Batch to finish before appearing. · Numerous interface improvements. · Numerous improvements to the help file. · The "Overwrite Read-Only Files" and "Log Each File" options are now checked by default. · The installer's progress bar is now "smooth". · Restored support for Windows 95. · Centurion's main executable is now digitally signed. · The installer's Abort button was changed to Cancel. The buttons on the EULA window have been simplified to "Accept" and "Decline". · When "Cover Taskbar" is unchecked, the Progress Window will now take care not to be obscured by the taskbar. · Moved the "Cover Taskbar" setting inside the "Display Background" group. · Completed the translations for the admin rights warning. · The "Compression Style" setting is now a simple checkbox. This is due to the new chunking method used by the compression engine. · Unfortunately the Catalan language has been removed due to incomplete translations. · Removed the redundant Preview Greeting and Build Installer buttons. Use the toolbar buttons instead. · When a file is successfully installed or uninstalled, it is now removed from the registry's list of delay-until-reboot file operations. This resolves the following unusual scenario: 1. An installed file is locked. 2. Installer A is run. It registers the locked file to be replaced at next boot. 3. The file is unlocked. 4. Installer B is run. It replaces the file. 5. The system is rebooted. The file from Installer B is replaced with the file from Installer A, leaving the installation in an invalid state. Version 17.3 (September 22nd, 2008) · Added the "Override Title Text" option to the Display branch. · Added support to the "Installer Output File" setting for the "%Version%" environment variable. · The help file's Search feature will now highlight all occurrences of the keyword. · SEAU's installer is now digitally signed. · Fixed: dropping files on the File Specification Table was not stripping the Source Files Directory (since 17.2). · Fixed: unchecking the Display Background Title box could fail to work properly. Version 17.2 (July 2nd, 2008) · Balloon help has been totally revamped. · Numerous improvements to the help file. All references to an "archive" have been changed to "installer". · Added the ability to fetch the installation directory from the registry. Simply specify a registry path in the Suggested Installation Directory field (it must begin with "HKLM\" or "HKCU\"). · Added the "%Version%" environment variable. · Fixed: possible problems when the "Install..." column is "Exclude". · Fixed: rare installer crash when using the "Grant Security Rights" feature. If this feature is used, please install this update and rebuild your installers. Version 17.1 (May 1st, 2008) · Added a build warning that Vista only supports installations to the Program Files directory. · Removed the "WinNT 3.1" Unsupported OS option. The installer cannot execute on this ancient platform. · Fixed: selecting and copying text in the help file did not always work properly. · Fixed: rare installer crash in NTMARTA.DLL related to the new security features. All security API calls are now made inside of an exception trap so that they cannot crash the installer. Version 17.0 (March 19th, 2008) · Numerous user interface improvements. Please press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F5 to reset System­G, then reload your preferred skin. · Added support for 64-bit applications. Simply check the "Product is 64-bit" box on the Product branch. · Added the "Admin Rights" option the Install branch. SEAU's own installer uses the "Warn" mode. · Added the "Grant Security Rights" option on the Install branch. SEAU's own installer uses this. · Added the "Hide Filenames" option to the Display branch. · Added the "Install EULA" and "Install Readme" options. When no shortcuts are needed, these options eliminate the need to specify the Readme and EULA in the File Specification Table. · Added a "Browse" button to the Icon column of the Shortcuts table. · Added the %AppDataAllDir% predefined environment variable. This contains the directory where application data can be stored for all users, typically "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data". · Added the "Metal" skin. · Moving to the Visual Studio 2005 compiler has forced us to drop support for Windows 95. · Improved the German translations. · Increased the DOS environment size from 5000 to 10000. · Numerous improvements to the Build Log. The former archive size is now listed. Each executable's version is now listed (previously only DLL's were listed). · Fixed bugs in the "Analyze DLL" tool's listing of exports and imports. · Fixed a problem with the Shortcut Table. Errors could go unreported, and the "Ignore" column could possibly fail to function. · Fixed the installer "Error Code 1" error (rare). It appears the GetCommandLine() API cannot be trusted to always work correctly. Version 16.0 (March 8th, 2007) · Added support for operating system environment variables in all fields that support SEAU's predefined environment variables. · Added icons to the tree. Also, the font size of the tree can now be adjusted. · Added a title and description for each branch. · Added the "Progress Window Position" setting to the Display branch. · Added to the "Analyze DLL" tool a listing of exported and imported functions. · Added the "Batches" branch, which combines all of the batches into one branch. · Added the ability to manually launch a batch. This can be useful for testing. · Added the "Tile" Stretch Mode for the background image. · Added the %AppDataDir% predefined environment variable. This contains the location of the user's "Application Data" directory under "Documents and Settings". · Added the "/password" command-line switch for overriding the installer's password. · Added a "Validate" button to the Shortcuts table. · Added a "Browse" button for the Suggested Installation Directory. · Added a "Help" button to the Files, Associations, and Uninstall Data tables. · Numerous user interface/skin improvements. The "Default" skin has been redesigned to resemble the appearance of Windows XP. · All interface fonts are now antialiased by default. The setting to control this is located at: System-G Menu > Configuration Editor > Controls > Font > Antialias. · Moved the "Associations" and "Shortcuts" branches under the "Files" branch. Moved the "Locations" branch under the "Install" branch. · A 48x48 version of the uninstaller icon is now included. · The Password field is now censored for security. · The limit on the Info File Header size has been increased from 10 MB to 50 MB. Version 15.0 (September 15th, 2006) · Added the "Zip" branch, which provides the ability to build a zip file with the installer inside it. · Added the "Require password" setting to the Product branch. · Added the %Inetpub% predefined environment variable (for the IIS data directory). · All of the Gammadyne command line utilities can be used by a SEAU installer. They are installed to the "cmd" subdirectory of SEAU's main installation directory. · Improved and added skins (please reload your current skin). · Improved icons. · Improved the "Analyze DLL" tool. · On Windows 95/98, even if user profiles are disabled, Start Menu shortcuts will be installed to the current user's Start Menu directory if there is one. Also, fixed a problem where the All Users shortcuts were uninstalled, but the Current User shortcuts were not. · If a shared file's reference count registry key does not exist for some reason, the file will no longer be uninstalled. · Fixed some minor interface bugs. · Fixed some incorrect German translations. Version 14.1 (March 6th, 2006) · Added the ability to perform offline product activation. · Fixed a possible inability to connect to the Product Activation Server (when using a proxy server). Version 14.0 (February 24th, 2006) · Added support for the new Gammadyne Product Activation System. · Added the "Version Warning" setting to the Product branch. · Added the "Shortcuts" branch. This is useful for creating shortcuts to URL's and pre-existing operating system files. · Added the "Reboot After Uninstallation" setting to the Uninstall branch. · Added a check to see if files can be created in the main installation directory. If not, the user is advised to check their security settings. · Added the "Windows Vista/Longhorn" unsupported OS option. · Added the "/source" command-line switch, which overrides the Source Files Directory. · The creation date of the archive will now reflect the date the archive was last built, not originally built. · The creation date of installed files will now match the file's modified date. · Fixed a scrolling bug in the String Editor. Version 13.3 (September 7th, 2005) · Added the "Taskbar Text" setting on the Display branch. This controls the text on the installer's taskbar button. · Added the "Show Greeting" setting on the Display branch. This determines if the Greeting Window is displayed when the installer is launched. · Reduced the clutter of the Locations branch. · Fixed a potential problem with missing Start Menu shortcuts. When installing Start Menu shortcuts for all users on Windows 95/98, and user profiles are enabled, and the user has a local Start Menu, the shortcuts will now also be installed in the user's local Start Menu. Version 13.2 (May 24th, 2005) · Added to the "Shortcut Arguments" column the ability to override the target of the shortcut. See the help file for details. · Added the %UninstallDir% environment variable, which contains the uninstaller's directory. · Added to the installer support for 3 new command-line switches that add commands to the Installation Batches. · Added the ability to create a new file association if no prior association is available to be modified. Enter the Label and Description columns as normal, then insert an exclamation point (!) at the beginning of the Label. · Eliminated the need for GHELP.EXE. The main application executable will now handle displaying the help file. This reduces the size of SEAU's installer by about 600 KB. · Installers will no longer contain a version resource with Gammadyne's information. Unfortunately, the version resource cannot be dynamically updated with the project specifications. · The uninstaller will now refresh the operating system's cached information for file associations. The installer will now refresh this cache even if all associations failed to be completed properly. · Fixed a potential problem with the "Shortcut Icon" column. The shortcut's icon could potentially be put in a subdirectory of the uninstaller's directory. It will no longer be put in a subdirectory. Version 13.1 (April 19th, 2005) · Added the "NoModify", "NoRepair", and "ModifyPath" Uninstall Data fields. · Numerous user interface improvements. · The 13.0 installer was reporting version 12.0 in the Install Log. · Fixed a problem with DLL's being uninstalled even if the "Leave" box is checked. This would only occur after reinstalling the archive when the DLL has not changed, and only for files of the "DLL" File Type. Version 13.0 (January 18th, 2005) · Added the Afrikaans language. · Added the "Title font" setting to the Display branch. · Added the "Display background title" option to the Display branch. · Added the "Display background image" option to the Display branch. The "Background Bitmap" is now referred to as the "Background Image". · Added the ability to control the way that the Background Image is stretched. · Added the ability to override each individual controls' font size. · Added the "Import from CSV" and "Export to CSV" options to the context menu for table controls. · Added the "/target" command line switch, which allows the archive output file to be overridden. · Added the ability to reorder the File Specification Table by pressing Alt+Up or Alt+Down. This is useful because the order of the FST determines the order of the shortcuts on the Start Menu. · Added the "Desktop Shortcut Folder Icon" setting to the Locations branch. · Button icons now have a transparent background. · If the archive cannot open itself, a more detailed error message is now provided. · Multiline background titles now properly obey center and right justification. · Numerous minor improvements. Version 12.0 (August 10th, 2004) · Added the "DLL" File Type. Unlike the "System DLL" File Type, this is for DLL's that are installed in the main installation directory. · Added the "Analyze DLL" tool. · Added the "Determine New Files" tool, which is useful when creating a patch. · Added the "Shortcut Directory" column to the File Specification Table. · Added the "Always Confirm Reboot" option to the Install branch. · Added the "Title Position" setting to the Display branch. · Added the "Create AUTORUN.INF" option to the Copy Archive To Media tool. · Added support for .GIF background images. · Added to the Build Summary a list of notes about the archive. This includes missing files, DLL versions, etc. · Added the "Import from project..." option to the context menu for the Uninstall Data table. · Added the "Ignore warnings" option to the context menu for the File Specification Table. · Added support for the Gammadyne Spell Checking Module. · The project name and output filename are now listed in the Build Summary. · The "Copy Archive To Media" tool will now maintain the file date, and will report the drive's write speed. · Fixed a problem detecting a DLL's version resource when the code page is not 1252. · Fixed a crash that could occur when clicking on a character in the Character Map. · Numerous minor improvements. Version 11.3 (January 27th, 2004) · Fixed a bug that could prevent a locked file from being replaced at the next reboot. · Updated to System-G version 2.2. Version 11.2 (October 21st, 2003) · Added support for registering .TLB Type Libraries. · Added the "Bitmap Size" setting to the Display branch. · Added the "Solid Fill Background" setting to the Display branch. · Added Windows Server 2003 to the Unsupported Operating Systems section. · Added detection for illegal shortcut names. · Updated to System-G version 2.1. · When using the "Hide DOS Window" option with Pre/Post-Build Batches, any PAUSE command in the batch will now be automatically removed (to prevent a hang). · Numerous minor improvements. Version 11.1 (April 22nd, 2003) · Added the "Cover desktop" option to the Display branch. · Added the "Ignore" column to the File Associations Table. · Added the "Copy bottom color" and "Swap top/bottom color" options to the Top Color's context menu. · Added the "Copy top color" and "Swap top/bottom color" options to the Bottom Color's context menu. · The "Deletions" table will now allow the wildcard characters, * and ?. · Moved the "Loiter" setting to the Display branch. · The Uninstaller Icon is now expected to be the same size as the Installer Icon. Previously, it was always expected to be 32x32x256 which could cause an internal error if the Installer Icon was a different size. The restrictions on the Uninstaller Icon have been clarified in the help file. Error messages have been improved. · The installer will now call the operating system's SHChangeNotify(SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED) API function if it changes a file association. This ensures that the file association takes effect immediately. · Missing files in the File Specification Table that are marked as "Exclude" will no longer produce warnings. · The "/r" command line switch now allows quote marks to be represented with the accent character (`). · Fixed a bug that could cause installed fonts to not be available after the system reboots. · Numerous minor improvements. Version 11.0 (February 10th, 2003) · Added Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, and Catalan translations. · Added support to System-G for interface "skins". We strongly recommend that you try some of the new skins on the "Skins" submenu of the "System-G" menu. · Added the "COM" File Type, which eliminates the need to call regsvr32.exe to register and unregister a COM-enabled file (such as an ActiveX control). · Added the "Archive Mode" setting to the Build branch. This setting can be used to decrease a large archive's startup delay. · Added the "Limit executable size" option to the Spanning branch. This is useful when the first disk needs to accommodate additional files. · Added the "Copy Source Files" option to the Tools menu. · Added the "Disallow network installations" option to the Install branch. · Added the "Save Project Before Building" option to the Build branch. · Added a progress window to the uninstaller. It will describe what the uninstaller is doing and show a progress meter. · Added the "Title Shadow" option to the Display branch. · Added the "Browse for Files" button to the bottom of the File Specification Table. · The installer's language list is now alphabetized. · It has been observed that the operating system's RemoveFontResource() API function does not always return an accurate status code. The uninstaller will still call RemoveFontResource() and delete the font file, but it will not report any errors based on the status code. Since nothing can be done about it anyway, there is really no reason to report that the uninstallation failed. · If the Registry Keys Path is more than 2 levels deep, the uninstaller will now delete the higher levels (so long as they are empty). · The installer title is now displayed before the user chooses a language. · Some German translations have been revised. · Fixed a problem with setting the %SystemDir% environment variable when running an archive that is located on a network path. · Fixed an inappropriate error message when installing to a network path. · Numerous minor improvements. Version 10.0 (September 26th, 2002) · Added a new Help file system. This system has the following advantages over the old Windows Help System: - The entire help file can be printed at once, instead of by topic only. - When printed, the page number that a hyperlink is pointing to will be printed. - Unprecedented control over how the document is printed, including base font size and margins. - Hyperlinks to web pages and email addresses are now supported. - The keyword search supports full search expressions, such as: "mail server" and (smtp or pop3) and -dns · Added support for JPEG, PCX, PNG, TGA, and TIFF background images. · Added various command line switches that override certain project settings. · Added the "Uninstaller Icon" setting to the Uninstall branch. · Added the "Uninstall Data Registry Key Name" setting to the Uninstall/Data branch. · Added an interface string for the caption of the Greeting Window. Previously, this would always display "Self-Extracting Archive Utility x.x". Now it will default to "Setup", but you can change this. · Added the "Touch File" tool. · Added the "Check Version" option to the Product branch. · Added the %CommonDir% environment variable which contains the system's shared files directory. This is typically "C:\Program Files\Common Files". · Added the "Edit" button to the editbox for the Readme File and EULA File. · Added the "FAQ's" option to the Help menu. · The registration number is now held in a file named "seau-reg.ini" instead of the registry. · The installer's Background Title now supports multi-line strings. · Improved appearance of toolbar icons. Added icons to menus. · Numerous improvements to the Help file. · Numerous improvements to System-G. · The "Log Each File" feature will now log all shortcuts as well. · The "Shortcut Availability" setting now defaults to "All Users". Please note that this is contrary to backward compatibility with projects created before 9.2 because originally the "Current User" mode was always used. · File Associations are no longer permitted on .EXE, .COM, .BAT, and .PIF files as the consequences can be disastrous. · All carriage returns in the string set will now be normalized to CR/LF pairs in case the user pastes in text that has abnormal carriage returns. · When prompting the user to choose their language, the background will now use the Gradient Fill properly. Version 9.2 (March 7th, 2002) · Added the "Shortcut Availability" setting to the Locations branch. This allows you to control which users can see the Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts. · Added a number of environment variables for directories that pertain to all users. Previously, environment variables were only available for the current user's directories. · Fixed a bug with the String Set "Edit" button not opening the string set automatically. String sets had to be opened manually. · When a file cannot be installed, the operating system error message is now logged. · When a file cannot be installed because its target directory cannot be created, the installer will no longer attempt a delayed installation since this is sure to fail. Version 9.1 (January 24th, 2002) · Added the "Destination" column to the File Specification Table. This column allows you to install a file to a non-default destination. It also allows a file to be installed with a different name than the original. · Added the "Loiter" setting to the Install branch. This defaults to the original preset value of 700. · Added to the "Check For Update" feature the ability to automatically download and install a new version of SEAU. · Added the "Report Errors In Automatic Mode" option to the Display branch. · SEAU will now prevent shortcut icons from using the same filename as another file in the archive, thus preventing the problem that is caused by this situation. · SEAU settings that are allowed to use environment variables can now use all of the same environment variables that are available to batches. The list of variables in the help file has been consolidated into one location. Look under the keyword "environment variables". · The "Place uninstall shortcut on start menu" option is no longer ignored when there are no other start menu shortcuts. There is no reason for SEAU to second guess this setting. · The "Copy File Attributes" feature will now only copy the following file attributes: hidden, read-only, archive, system, temporary, and offline. All other attributes should be left to the operating system. · The "Start Menu Location" is no longer disabled if there are no start menu shortcuts, since the "Place Uninstall Shortcut on Start Menu" option may use this. · Fixed a problem with resetting file attributes related to NT security. · Fixed a bug with installing File Association icons under Windows 95. The icon reference was stored in the registry as the REG_EXPAND_SZ type, which Windows 95 was not handling properly. This registry data is now stored as the REG_SZ type. · Fixed a problem with the %InstallDrive% environment variable not containing a trailing colon. This affected certain SEAU settings, but not the batches. · Fixed a bug with loading System-G color schemes. Version 9.0 (January 2nd, 2002) · Added the "Deletions" branch, which allows the installer to conditionally delete files prior to installation. · Added the "Uninstall/Data" branch, which allows you to install additional registry data along with the normal uninstall information. The now redundant "Control Panel Name" setting has been removed, however its old value but will be automatically added to the new Uninstall Data Table. · Added the "Delay installation if necessary" option to the Install branch. This allows locked files to be replaced during the next reboot, as is done with locked system files. Because this new option is checked by default, you should familiarize yourself with the change in behavior from past versions of SEAU. · Added the "Icon" column to the File Associations Table. This allows you to associate an icon with a file type. · Added the "Put Desktop Shortcuts in Folder" option to the Locations branch. · Added the "Place Uninstall Shortcut on Desktop" option to the Uninstall branch. · Added the "Confirm installation directory's existence" option to the Install branch. · Added the "All others" option to the list of unsupported operating systems. · Added the "View product install log" option to the Tools menu. · Added the "Copy file attributes" option to the Install branch. · When a file cannot be installed, the log will now include a description of the error. · If the final size of the installer is above a megabyte, the size in kilobytes is now also reported in the Build Summary. · Pressing Escape will now exit the Build Summary. · The "Lock File" tool is now capable of locking corrupt DLL's. · If the Expiration Date has already passed, the user is now given the option of building the archive anyway. · For products that can't be uninstalled, the "Install Type:" is no longer logged. · Improvements made to the help file. · Fixed a problem with the delayed replacement of System DLL's when the product is installed on a different drive than the operating system. It was discovered that the WININIT.INI file cannot move files across drives on Windows 9x systems. The temporary replacement file is now created in the operating system's temporary directory instead of the installation directory. · Previously, to add a System-G setting, source code had to be written in about 25 different locations. New settings can now be added by writing just 2 lines of code. The bad news is that old .SGC and .GCS files are no longer compatible with the new scheme. The good news is that the new .SGS files that replace .SGC and .GCS files are plain text, not a proprietary binary format. This means that .SGS files can be easily edited using Notepad. To prove that these changes are worthwhile, the following settings have been added: - Enhanced 3D borders - Borderless checkboxes - Borderless radio buttons - Show balloon help on captions - Minimize on double click - Sizable window border thickness - Static window border thickness - Black window edge Version 8.2 (August 27th, 2001) · Fixed an installer bug that would prevent the "Browse" button from changing the default installation directory. Version 8.1 (August 22nd, 2001) · Added the "Display background" option, which can prevent the installer and uninstaller from hiding the desktop. · Added the "Don't ask to reinstall" option to the Install branch. · Shortcut arguments can now contain the following predefined variables: %InstallDir%, %InstallDrive%, %SharedDir%, %SystemDir%, %BootDrive%, %ProgramsDir%. · Rearranged the options on the Install branch. If "Always install in automatic mode" is checked, other options that do not apply will now be disabled. · Fixed a bug that would prevent a Startup shortcut from being created if no Desktop or Start Menu shortcut is created for the same file. Version 8.0 (May 4th, 2001) · The "Info" branch has been renamed to "Product". The Product Name has swapped places with the Company Name. · Added the "EULA" branch and all of its settings. This includes a method for having language-specific EULA's. The archive may now have more than one EULA. · Added the "Readme" branch and all of its settings. This includes a method for having language-specific Readme's. The archive may now have more than one Readme file. · Added the following special tags which can be inserted into EULA's and Readme's: , , , , , , , and . · Added the special tag for Interface Strings. This tag is replaced with the Company Name. · Added the "Unsupported Operating Systems" feature to the Product branch. · Added the "Bloat Archive" feature to the Build branch. · Added the "Place uninstall shortcut on Start Menu" option to the Uninstall branch. · Added the "Hide DOS Window" option for both Build Batches. · Added a Help option to each branch of the tree. · Added the "Preview File List" button to the toolbar. · Added the "Spanning" branch below the Build branch to replace the Build Window. · Added a workaround that should prevent some occurrences of the "Phantom Taskbar Button" bug. Because this is an operating system bug, it is not known if this will prevent all such occurrences. · Added the "Shortcut to" interface string. This is used as a default when a shortcut is being created, but the "Description" column of the File Specification Table is left blank. · Added a verification code to spanned files that is used to detect whether or not the disk contains the correct file. Previously, if the spanned file had the correct filename, it was accepted as valid. A different verification code is used each time the archive is created, so this ensures that the user will not be able to mix up disks from different archives or different versions. · Added the "Verb" column to the File Associations Table. Previously, the verb was the same as the text in the Operation column. The Operation column has been renamed "Menu Option", since now this column only affects the appearance of the context menu option. For backward compatibility, if the Verb column is empty, the Menu Option column will be used to create an appropriate verb. · Added the ability to specify a hotkey character using the ampersand (&) in the Menu Option column of the File Associations Table. · Added the "Save build summary" option to the Build branch. · Added a report of the product's installed size to the Build Summary. · Added the current date and the compression style to the Build Summary. · Added the ability to run multiple instances of SEAU simultaneously. · Added the "Insert Environment Variable" context menu option to the batch editboxes. · Added to the Help file a description of how to install and register ActiveX (.OCX) files. · An empty file specification is now permitted. We use this to build an executable that will report errors if its checksum is incorrect, but otherwise does not alter the hard drive. This is useful for testing the proper delivery of attachments with Gammadyne Mailer. · The installer's progress window now displays "Validating data..." while the archive's integrity is being checked. · The "Spanned File Prefix" is now stored with the project instead of being global. Important Note: the old value will be lost when version 8.0 is installed. · The Browse button on the File Specification Table will now go directly to the Default Source Files Directory. · The installer now uses memory more efficiently for disk-spanned archives, improving speed and reducing the chance of an "Out of memory" error. · The "Expiration Date" setting has been moved to the Product branch. · An error is now reported if a EULA or README file is empty. · An error is now reported if the Product Name or Company Name begins or ends with whitespace. · When a file is marked "Leave" (so that it should not be uninstalled), its shortcuts will no longer be uninstalled. · Improved the uninstaller's method for self-deletion. Under some conditions the uninstaller would fail to delete itself. · The limit on the size of the File Info Header has been increased from 1 MB to 10 MB. If this limit is exceeded, the error is now reported at build time rather that when the archive is executed. · The "/s" command line switch will no longer prevent the Post-Build Batch from running. · Removed the "Use checksums" options. Checksums are now always performed. · The Language Dialog will now initially reflect the correct Interface Strings for the Continue and Abort buttons. Previously, these would always be labeled "Continue" and "Abort" initially until the language was changed. · Fixed incorrect Swedish text for the "Progress Window Top Text" string. Version 7.1 (January 10th, 2001) · Added Italian and Swedish. · In English.STR, the string "foofoo" was inadvertently left in the "Uninstall" string during the testing process. · Fixed a bug that would prevent the Shortcut Arguments from appearing in the Start Menu shortcut. Version 7.0 (November 17th, 2000) · Product data is no longer stored in the registry. The standard project interface, used by other Gammadyne programs, is now used by SEAU. Use the "Import old SEAU data" option on the File menu to convert your old product data into project files. · The drawer interface has been superseded by the tree interface. · Added the toolbar. · Added the ability to change the name of the Shared Files directory. · Added a large number of system directory variables that can be used in the Suggested Installation Directory setting. For example, you can use the prefix "%WinDir%" to suggest that the product be installed in the operating system directory. · Added the Pre-Build and Post-Build DOS batches that run before and after the building of the archive. · Added the "Add" and "Delete" buttons to the bottom of the Languages listbox in the String Editor. · Added the "Don't report successful installation" option. · Added the "Hide DOS Window" option below each DOS Batch editbox. The "Hide Batch Windows" option has been removed since this is now controlled separately for each batch. · Added the "Shortcut Arguments" column to the File Specification Table. · Added the "Duplicate" button to the bottom of the Associations Table. · Added the %BootDrive% and %ProgramsDir% pre-defined variables for use in the Program column of the File Associations Table. · SEAU can now handle larger archives by using memory more efficiently. · When a shortcut to the uninstaller is created, the Product Name is no longer appended to the Interface String. Instead, the Interface String now contains the variable "". This does not affect the default appearance of the uninstaller shortcut, but it gives you more control over it. · A sample EULA is now provided. · The "Patch" option now has a drop down list of all programs that are installed on your computer. · Numerous System-G improvements. · Numerous improvements to the help file, including a description of how to install data into the registry. · The "Expiration Date" option is now controlled by a checkbox. · Periods are now allowed in the Company Name and Product Name. · The README and EULA files are now checked for illegal 0 bytes, the presence of which would previously cause the installer to report that it is corrupt. · The Preview Files button is no longer disabled when no files are in the File Specification Table. · Changed the wording of the "Corrupt Archive" error message to emphasize the likelihood of a faulty download over that of a virus. · Improved the reboot feature for Windows NT/2000. · The log now lists the install date in this format: "11-Jan-2001 1:11:11p". This prevents the month from being confused with the day. · If an error occurs during installation and the user asks to see the log, Notepad will be called directly if no program is associated with .LOG files. · Fixed a bug that would prevent SEAU from running an installer that contains spaces in the filename. · Fixed a bug that would ignore the "Never Overwrite" file setting when the "Leave" box is checked. Version 6.2 (March 21st, 2000) · The "Lock Library" tool has been renamed "Lock File" as it will now lock any type of file, not just DLL's. · Added the "Log each file" option to the Install folder. · Added the "Disallow abort" option to the Install folder. · Added support for building archives from the command line. · Numerous System-G improvements. File specification edit boxes now keep a history of past input. Fixed a potential access violation when right clicking. · Shared files that were marked to be left on the user's computer are now properly dereferenced when a product is reinstalled Version 6.1 (February 28th, 2000) · Added the "Override uninstaller filename" option to the "Uninstall" folder. This allows you to change the filename of the uninstaller. · A provision is now made to allow the uninstaller to have a different icon. This icon is called "Uninstaller.ICO" and is located in the directory where SEAU is installed. You may replace this file if you like, however the icon must be 32x32x256. · The "Register SEAU" option has been moved to the Help menu as this seems to be a more common location among shareware programs. · When you click on the "Remove" button at the bottom of the file specification table, you will no longer be asked if you are sure. This seems to be more annoying than helpful. · Fixed a bug that prevented the file specification table from being scrolled horizontally. · Fixed a bug that could cause the installer to hang when using a hidden batch operation on a non-English version of Windows. Special thanks to Reidar Karlsen for bringing this to our attention. Version 6.0 (February 22nd, 2000) · Added the "Associations" folder and all of its functionality. This is used to make the installer set up an association between a file type and a program. · Improved compression ratio and speed using two new techniques. · Added the Spanish string set. · Numerous System-G improvements. · Fixed a bug that could cause the "String set" to not reset properly if the order of the string set files change. Please note that because of this bug fix, you will need to set the string set for all of your products. · Fixed a glitch in the String Editor that could cause the string editbox to appear blank even though it contains text. This would only happen when switching from a multi-line string to a single-line string when the cursor is on line 2 or greater. Version 5.6 (January 4th, 2000) Note: this was not a public release. · Major upgrade of the System-G interface. · Added the "Use unpacked installer" options. This allows the user to override the default behavior and use the unpacked installer. · Added the "View last build log" option to the "Tools" menu. Version 5.5 (December 13th, 1999) · Added the "Control Panel Name" setting to the "Uninstall" folder. This allows you to change the product name as it appears in Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. If left blank, it will default to the product name just as before. · Added a number of pre-defined environment variables for DOS batch operations. The space allocated for environment variables has been increased from 1024 to 4096. · The installer will now pace itself so that the entire installation does not occur in the blink of an eye. · The "Gradient fill background" feature now displays a smoother transition from the top color to the bottom color. · As a safeguard, the installer will now verify that it was created with the proper version of SEAU. · It was discovered that Windows NT will sometimes crash while trying to change the installer's icon. This is because of an incompatibility with ASPack. SEAU now ships with two installers, one packed and one not. The archive will only be built with the unpacked installer if NT is being used, the installer's icon is being changed, and the icon is not 32x32x256. The packed installer has been renamed from "SEAG.EXE" to "SEA-P.EXE". The unpacked installer is named "SEA-U.EXE". · Fixed a bug that would place multiple shortcut icons in the archive instead of using a single icon for each shortcut. This did not cause any problems, but was a waste of space. · The "Product must already be installed" feature has been renamed simply "Patch". It still does the same thing. The help file description of this feature has been improved. Version 5.4 (November 29th, 1999) · After searching far and wide, we have found a far superior replacement for WWPack32: "ASPack" (http://www.entechtaiwan.com/aspack.htm). ASPack compresses the installer from 196K all the way down to 88K! · Added the "Shortcut Icon" column to the File Specification Table. This allows you to change the icon that is used by the desktop and start menu shortcuts. The File Specification Table has been slightly rearranged. Version 5.3 (November 21st, 1999) · A problem with WWPack32 1.20 beta2 would cause any installer with a Readme file to exit at the time that the Readme file is to be displayed. Sorry, but the installer is back up to an overweight 196K until we can resolve this. Version 5.2 (November 21st, 1999) · Previously, the archive data was simply appended to the installer. Now, the archive data is placed inside the installer as a legitimate "section" as if the linker had placed it there. This eliminates the false readings other programs might produce (either that a virus is present or that the executable is corrupt). Also, this allowed us to pack the installer with WWPACK32, decreasing its size from 188K to 108K. · The installer's icon can now be set under Windows 95/98. However, the icon must be 32x32 in 256 colors. This option was previously only available under Windows NT because Micro$oft, in their infinite wisdom, was too lazy to implement the UpdateResource() API function in Windows 95/98. · Added the "Leave" column to the file specification table. This option allows you to leave a file on the user's computer during uninstallation. · Added the %InstallerDrive% local environment variable for batches. This variable contains the drive letter where the installer is being run from. · Added the ability to alter the filename prefix of spanned files. · Added the "Add File" and "Remove File" buttons to the bottom of the file specification table. The "Preview Files" button was moved next to these two buttons. · Version checking is now more versatile in the formats that it can properly compare. For example, the installer will now recognize that version "12.34-56a" is earlier than "12/34.57". · A provision has been made to allow the README and EULA files to be installed like normal files. Simply list the file twice, once as a "Readme" or "EULA" file type, and once as a "Normal" file type. · README and EULA files can now be used on products that cannot be uninstalled. · The installer is now faster and uses memory more efficiently. · The "Edit Interface Strings" and "Lock Library" options have been moved to the new "Tools" menu. · The desktop and start menu shortcuts were sometimes being placed in Uninstall.DAT twice. This does not cause any problems and has been fixed. · The German translations have been slightly altered. · Fixed a bug that prevented the user from saving a string set after loading "default.str". · Fixed a bug that could cause installed system files to be uninstalled (they are no longer allowed to be uninstalled under any circumstances). This would only occur if the system file was marked as "Overwrite only" and the system file was already present on the user's computer. · Fixed a bug that could cause the archive to report that it is corrupt, error code 31. This would only occur if you edited the interface strings, opened a new interface project, then built the archive. Version 5.1 (September 3rd, 1999) · A bug was causing an error with the "Archive everything in directory" option. · Fixed a bug that could cause the installer to hang when installing to a subdirectory of a nonexistent directory. · Uninstall.DAT is no longer created if the product cannot be uninstalled. Version 5.0 (September 1st, 1999) · Added the ability to install system files (DLL's). · Added the "Expiration Date" feature. · Added the "Verify Files" option. · Added the "Overwrite Read-Only Files" option. · Added the "Hide Batch Windows" option. · Added the "Uninstall data files subdirectory" option. · Added the "" special tag. This tag is useful for building patches. Special tags are no longer case sensitive. · Added the "%SystemDir%" predefined batch variable. · Added support for multiple languages and interface customization. · The text user interface is no longer available. It was felt that it was not advantageous to maintain such an underused feature, especially with the challenges of multilingualism. Also, the main advantage of the text archive, small size, has become insignificant. Furthermore, since a text installer links to the same Windows DLL's as the graphical version, it was not a true DOS application. · The "Silent extraction of files" option was removed because it was only useful for text user interface archives. · The Background Title and Greeting have been removed from the Display folder because they are now part of the list of interface strings. This is necessary because of the support for multiple languages. · If the previous installation must be uninstalled, the installer will no longer offer to uninstall it. The reason for this is that this prevents improvements to future installers. The original uninstaller must be used to uninstall the product. · The background title is now allowed to get a little larger. The reason this cannot be set by the user is that the end-user's resolution varies widely. The installer automatically detects how large the title needs to be. · The "Ignore" column in the File Specification Table has been changed to the much more versatile "Install…" column. Complete backward compatibility is maintained. · The "Uninstaller uses bitmap" setting was not being saved properly. · During installation, the end-user no longer has the option of overwriting a newer shared file or font with an older one. The circumstances in which someone would want to do this are very rare. If the user really needs to do this, they should simply delete the file in question, then run the installer. Version 4.0 (June 22nd, 1999) · The "Preview Files" window was not properly displaying the scrollbar. · The "Preview Files" window will now display the total number of files and their total size. · The "Compress Archive" checkbox has been replaced with the "Compression Style" setting, allowing more control over how much memory is used by the compression engine. · The total size of all files going into the archive is now limited to 1 gigabyte. An error will be reported if this limit is exceeded. · SEAU is now better at handling out-of-memory errors when building an archive. · The build speed is now correct when compression is not used. · The first phase of the build process, before the "Build Archive" window appears, is now significantly faster. A progress window is now displayed during this phase so that you know SEAU is working. · The installer now shows two lines of text at the bottom of the progress window, in case the text does not fit on one line. · During a build, if the "Abort" button is pressed, the user will be prompted if they wish to abort the procedure. · The compression engine has been tweaked for better results with very large archives. · The file specification table now has a "Browse" button in the lower right corner. · Added three preset environment variables: %InstallerDir%, %InstallerFilename%, and %InstallerFilepath%. · The background title will no longer default to the product name. This allows you to omit the title, if you want. · Added the "Background Image" feature. · Added the Export/Import options. · For build statistics, the "Overhead" no longer includes the header information, only the size of the self-extracting executable. The size of the header information is now included in the reported "data" size. · The "Delete Company" feature would previously fail under Windows NT because of inconsistent behavior of the RegDeleteKey() API function. · Added the "Archive Icon" setting. Version 3.3 (June 7th, 1999) · The compression algorithm was accidentally compiled with debugging enabled, causing a major slow down for large archives. Our testing procedure has been revised to make sure this doesn't happen again. · The build statistics have been significantly altered. Also, an incorrect compression speed was being reported on very fast computers. · Compression is now performed at lower priority so that the system does not become sluggish. Tests show that this does not significantly impact the speed of compression. Version 3.2 (June 4th, 1999) · After much research on compiler options and optimizations, the archive overhead has been reduced and compression speed has been improved. · The return value from the Windows CreateDirectory() function is now ignored because it is apparently not accurate. The installer will now manually check to see if the directory was created or not. · System-G now has a help file. · A bug was fixed that could cause the uninstaller to not delete itself if an invalid version of COMMAND.COM exists in the root of the C: drive. · A bug was fixed that could cause batch operations to fail under Windows NT when long filenames are being used. · The compression engine is now better at limiting the amount of memory it uses. · Added the "Reboot after installation" option. · A bug was fixed for text-interface archives under Windows NT that prevented the user from viewing EULA's and README's. · After discovering that the DOS "start" command is not consistent between NT and 9x, another method is being used to send feedback and go to the Gammadyne Homepage. Version 3.1 (April 14th, 1999) · The character map has been enhanced. · System-G now ensures that certain color combinations contrast properly. · Added the "Undo" feature for editboxes. · Added the "Check for Update" feature. · The "Archive all files in directory" checkbox was not always ungraying properly. · The uninstaller was not always removing subdirectories properly in non-expunge mode. · Compression has been improved. · Added the "Gradient fill background" feature. · Added the "Preview Files" and "Preview Greeting" options. · Added the "Ignore" column to the file specification table. · Added the "Copy Product" feature. Version 3.0 (March 15th, 1999) · Appearance of folder tabs has been improved. · Tool tips and combo box lists will now respect the task bar's space. · Added the "Window" menu. · A bug was fixed that could hang the installer or uninstaller when batch operations were used. · Controls are now linked to the help file. The help file has been significantly improved. · Added the background title option. · Added the "Browse" button for the default source files directory. · Added the "Build Archive" button in the Build tab. · The "Overrides" and "Registry" folder have been combined into the "Locations" folder. The folders have been arranged in a more intuitive order. · The installer was assuming that the Start Menu Programs directory was always called "Programs". However, this is not a safe assumption. The operating system is now asked what the proper name of the Programs directory is. This was a problem for users of non-English versions of Windows. · Added the "Smaller tool tips" toggle to the System-G menu. · Added the "Set read-only attribute" option. · The user can now right-click on a folder's tab and the context menu will display a help option that will describe the entire folder. · Special foreign language key-combinations will work better. · SEAU is now more tolerant of missing registry information. For example, even if the operating system doesn't know where its start menu directory is, the installer will make an educated guess. · The end-user will now be informed if the installation drive does not have enough free space to hold the product. · The "Add installation directory to PATH" option was added. · The Greeting will now be displayed when a shareware installer is run in automatic mode. · The "Tools" submenu of the System-G menu has been added. · A bug was fixed that could cause decompression to fragment the heap in such a way that the installer might run out of memory. Also, compression should be slightly faster. · It was discovered that there is a limit to the size of a batch operation command line. If this limit is exceeded, the batch operation will not execute. For this reason, no parameters are provided to a batch operation (%1, %2, …). Instead, important information like the installation directory is assigned to variables. See the section on batches for more information. · The Help button was added to the Build Archive dialog. · Because of inconsistencies with Micro$oft's SHBrowseForFolder() API function, we have changed the "Choose Installation Directory" dialog. · The one-time greeting was added to help get new users started. Version 2.5 (February 10th, 1999) · The user is no longer allowed to install to the C:\Program Files directory. The user can still install to a subdirectory of this folder. · Under no circumstances will the Program Files directory or Windows directory be expunged. The previous versions did not always prevent the user from installing to an existing directory, then destroying the directory when the product was uninstalled. The "Expunge" option was added for this reason as well, so that it can be disabled. Expunging is a very powerful action that has proved too dangerous for novice users, therefore its use is not recommended. · The context menu for edit boxes now includes the Character Map and Statistics options. · The installation log now lists the installation directory and the installer's version. · Files to be deleted by the uninstaller are no longer stored in the registry key "ProductDeletions". The registry has trouble with extremely long strings. This information is now stored in a file called "Uninstall.DAT" that is created in the installation directory. Each line of this file is the complete path and filename of a file that was installed that must be deleted by the uninstaller. If the first character of the line is a tilde (~), then the path is a directory to be deleted, not a file. If the "Expunge" feature is enabled, Uninstall.DAT will only contain the names of shortcuts and support files created by the installer. Otherwise, it contains the names of all installed files and directories. Your product can add to this file if it wants additional files to be deleted during uninstallation. · The greeting message is now ignored if it contains only whitespace. If the user inadvertently typed a single space for the greeting, no greeting message would appear. · The "Use checksums" option was added at the request of a Chinese user running Chinese Win-98. Some users may experience problems with the checksum feature of archives if they rely on software that alters executables. · The double buffering feature was added. This makes rendering the interface much smoother. This option can be disabled on the System-G menu. · The user can now use the tag in the greeting and the suggested installation directory. · Help file improved. · The overhead of GUI archives has been reduced from 244 Kb to 152 Kb. Version 2.4 (January 14th, 1999) · Option to go to Gammadyne's home page was added to the help menu. · The drawer control will now remember which control had focus in each folder. · The minimum media size is now reported on the Build Summary window. You are not allowed to build an archive using a custom media size less than this value. · If the user holds down on the F11 or F12 key, the program's appearance will update more smoothly. · The user now has an option on the shareware registration window to go directly to the web page where a registration number can be ordered. · The KERNEL32.DLL function GetDriveFreeSpaceEx is not available on Windows NT before version 4.0 and on Windows 95 before OSR2. This function is no longer used. This problem can prevent archives from executing on the older operating systems. · Right clicking on a control will now give that control input focus. This helps avoid some confusion concerning context menus. · There was a problem with the file specification table's comboboxes. They did not always update properly. Version 2.3 (January 5th, 1999) · Added "Startup" file type. · The installation date and time is now stored with the uninstall information under the registry name "InstallDate". · An unnecessary reference was being created to the uninstaller in the SharedDLLs registry key. This was a throwback to when the uninstaller was a shared file. The presence of the value will not affect the system. This bug has been removed. · The uninstall information for shared files (under the registry name "SharedFiles") no longer includes the complete path. It was deemed that the complete path is unnecessary because the shared directory is always the same. This change is transparent to the operation of SEAU, and is backward compatible. · More information is now stored in the log file. · For graphical archives, the EULA, README, directory selection, and progress windows are now centered on the screen. · Added option to remove all source files from the source file specification table. · If the EULA or README file cannot be displayed, no fatal error will be produced. Only a warning message will appear. · If there are any problems with the installation, the user will be asked if they want to view the log file. A warning is displayed if the log file cannot be created. Before, the user was simply told where to find the log file. · The "Send Feedback" option no longer uses MAPI to send email. A more reliable solution was found. · The "Copy Archive To Media" feature was added. · When the end-user chooses an installation directory, the specified drive is checked for validity. Previously, an invalid drive specification on a networked computer could cause a long pause before it was reported that the directory could not be created. · Help file improved. · The uninstaller will now properly delete read-only files. Version 2.2 (December 22nd, 1998) · Improved compression. · Added options for automatic install and uninstall. · Help file improved. · Added the System-G menu. This menu will be part of every new Gammadyne product. Version 2.1 (December 16th, 1998) · Feedback option added to Help menu. · Help file improved. · If the installation directory is empty after installation, it is deleted. This is necessary in some rare situations, such as when an archive installs only fonts. · The EULA and README dialogs are larger. Version 2.0 (December 8th, 1998) · New option to create GUI archives. · Tool tips will now only appear if the window has focus. Tool tips will disappear when the window loses focus. · Fixed bug concerning files dated at midnight. · The PAUSE batch command will now be ignored for automatic installations/uninstallations. · New option to disallow the user from selecting an installation directory. · The uninstaller would sometimes leave a zombie process on the system. This has been fixed. · Context menus can now be called up for disabled controls. · The main executable for SEAU has been renamed to SEAU-M.EXE. There was a conflict with the downloadable archive having the same name. A warning will be produced if the user tries to create an archive with the same name as one of the files in the archive. · When problems occurred with the file specification table, the reported line number of the problem was not always correct. · New command line installation switches /N and /D. · Products with no company can now be uninstalled. The uninstaller is no longer kept in the shared directory. It is now placed in the main installation directory. Also, EULA and README files can now be used without a company name. · For text archives, the EULA and README files will be opened with EDIT.COM instead of Notepad. This allows the documents to be viewed correctly if Windows is not running. Graphical archives will still use Notepad. Version 1.0 · Project began, September 22nd, 1998 · Original release, November 19th, 1998.