Dial-a-fix/Changelog

Here you can find the history of changes made to Dial-a-fix. Work is ongoing, and this page will be updated with each release.

v0.60.0.24

Release date: 2006-10-27

• Fixed a double buffering bug that would cause Dial-a-fix to be mostly black when using XP themes.

v0.60.0.23

Release date: 2006-10-26

• Slowed tooltip wait speed to 250ms (from 0ms) - tooltips are no longer annoying.
• Re-added "Hide disabled policies" checkmark that mysteriously disappeared from previous build.
• Sped up policy scanning.
• Reduced startup lag slightly.
• Double buffered all forms and most controls (less flicker when moving/resizing certain dialogs), except the About box's rich text areas (Delphi 7's standard TRichEdit can't double buffer).
• The complete version number is now listed in the titlebar/caption, as well as the log.
• The Dial-a-fix download is now a single .zip archive which includes secedit.
• Until further notice from Microsoft, Dial-a-fix 0.60.0.23 now ignores browseui and shdocvw when Internet Explorer 7 is present (because attempting to register them produces "Unspecified error" - it is unknown at this time whether this is a Microsoft bug or if Microsoft intended this behavior for the new versions of these files).

v0.60.0.16

Release date: 2006-09-19

• This version officially deprecates DAF v0.57.7.
• Fixed problem with secedit.exe (of the Repair permissions tool) where it would potentially remove limited user accounts from the Windows XP welcome screen (they still existed, however) - also updated stand-alone Repair permissions script.
• Updated a few DLL error mechanisms to make it a bit more intelligent in its responses to the user.

v0.60.0.15

Release date: 2006-06-27

• Added "Hide disabled" option to policy scanner - hides any policy with a Value of "0".
• Log now records the value and REG_type of detected policies.
• Fixed a few tooltip inconsistencies.

v0.60.0.11

Release date: 2006-06-22

• Added new policies: DoNotAllowXPSP2, UpdatesDisableNotify.
• Added Auto-scroll capability to log pane.
• Made the text of the "Flush SoftwareDistribution" confirmation dialog clearer.
• Fixed some typos.
• Cleaned up some internal code structures.

v0.60.0.5

Release date: 2006-06-18

• Rewrote policy scanner *again* to address all limitations... now it is very informative - now uses a ListView and can even spot policies that are using the wrong REG_type (such as REG_SZ when REG_DWORD was expected) - it is also extremely optimized - only needs 1680 queries to find everything it knows.
• Removed one dumb policy (not really restrictive): NoRecentDocsHistory.
• Updated Help dialog to have minimize/maximize/resize functions.
• Updated all version numbers to reflect "v0.60".
• Removed "Debug mode" checkmark, as it is useless now that Dial-a-fix correctly reports DLL registration errors (thanks to native registration capability).
• Added "Suppress errors" in its place, to hide all error dialog boxes that would normally appear, but the code for this is not yet complete, so it remains disabled for now.
• Flush SoftwareDistribution button and GO button now disable the Tools dialog pane and its GO button so that you can’t run two conflicting tasks at once.

v0.58.0.84

Release date: 2006-06-17 This build is also known as v0.60.0.1

• Merged "Repair Windows Firewall" and "Repair networking interfaces" tools.
• Erroneously referred to Windows Installer 2.0 as "InstMsiW" in the notes (the file that comes with DAF Full was the correct one, but named incorrectly) - the correct name is "InstMsiA" (W being Unicode (2k/XP) and A being ANSI (Win9x)), but that does not matter now.
• Removed *all* installers.
• Added list of installers to the Notes pane of the Help dialog.
• Added webvw.dll to the list of IE7 ignores.
• Fixed misspelled policy - ForceActiveDesktop to ForceActiveDesktopOn.
• Added new Add/Remove programs policies: NoAddRemovePrograms, NoRemovePage, NoAddPage, NoWindowsSetupPage, NoAddFromCDorFloppy, NoAddFromInternet, NoAddFromNetwork, NoServices, NoSupportInfo.
• Added new Explorer policies: NoWebView, NoHardwareTab, DisallowRun, RestrictCpl, DisallowCpl, DisableLocalMachineRun, DisableCurrentUserRun, NoFileAssociate.
• Added new IE policies: NoBrowserBars, NoBrowserClose, NoBrowserContextMenu, NoBrowserOptions, NoBrowserSaveAs, NoFavorites, NoFileNew, NoFileOpen, NoFindFiles, NoSelectDownloadDir, NoTheaterMode, NoOpeninNewWnd, NoViewSource, NoNavButtons, NoPrinting, AlwaysPromptWhenDownload.
• Added new IE CPL policies: Advanced, Autoconfig, Cache, CalendarContact, Check_If_Default, Connection Settings, Certificates, Colors, Fonts, History, Languages, Links, Messaging, Profiles, Proxy, Ratings, Wallet.
• Now checks for net.exe, net1.exe, sc.exe, and regsvr32.exe on startup, and lets the user know of missing files (when applicable). Also speeds up usage of these files (except regsvr32.exe, which is not used by DAF).
• Main dialog now highlights the current item being processed.
• Added error handler for -2147312566 (TYPE_E_CANTLOADLIBRARY).
• Added check for MSHTML.TLB.
• Policy scanner was rewritten (again) and is about twice as fast, but the painting of the new progress bar slows it down a bit.

v0.58.0.69

Release date: 2006-05-25

• Added a list of files the "Reinstall/Repair IE" tool might request, and their common paths.
• Added IE version to the log pane, to help me out.
• Added a handler for registration error -2147467259 (0x80004005) ("Unspecified error") - currently suggests doing an SFC purge + SFC scan as there is not a known/common solution for this in most cases.
• Fixed up the status bar’s animation some more.
• Added a "Reinstall Windows Firewall" tool.

v0.58.0.61

Release date: 2006-05-24

• Fixed version.dll access violation.
• New button icons and a new logging pane.
• (Tools and Help buttons were changed to just icon buttons with no text to make room for the new Log pane button and still stay within 640x480).
• Log pane can save to a .txt or .log file or copy to clipboard.
• Cancel is now &Cancel and is quite smarter and faster.
• Fixed several bugs regarding the %TEMP%/%TMP% variable checks and made it smarter.
• "Flush SoftwareDistribution" button now asks you if you wish to preserve the update history, and it can be cancelled.
• DLL registration is now native; no longer uses regsvr32.exe, and with that, it now properly reports Win32 error codes (and can sometimes give suggestions).
• Please report all error codes received to DjLizard so that more suggestions can be implemented.
• Disabled "Install VC6 runtime" checkmark in 2000/XP because it’s really for 98/Me only (it didn’t do anything in 2k/XP, it just exited)
• Added ForceActiveDesktop policy, removed a policy typo.
• DLL registrations added: rpcrt4.dll, activeds.dll, oleacc.dll, credui.dll, cryptui.dll, mssign32.dll, certcli.dll, scecli.dll, userenv.dll, msi.dll, shsvcs.dll, olepro32.dll, sbe.dll, scardssp.dll, dmdskmgr.dll, dmloader.dll, dmstyle.dll, dmscript.dll, mmcndmgr.dll, clbcatq.dll, clbcatex.dll, ntmsmgr.dll, ntmssvc.dll, ntmsevt.dll, webvw.dll, shmedia.dll, es.dll, winhttp.dll, els.dll, query.dll, quartz.dll.
• Reinstall Defrag tool (which can register dfrgsnap.dll, dfrgui.dll).
• "Unregister before Register" option is unsafe, and will not be returning; selective unregistrations will be enabled on DLLs that have been tested and found to require it.
• Box #3’s "Register WUAU DLLs", box #4’s "Register DLLs", and Box #5’s stobject.dll (in the Explorer checkmark) are the first selective unregistrations; they will be performed without user intervention just before regular registration is performed.
• OLE section returns.
• Fixed ole32.dll CLSID registry entry creation.
• Added splitter bar in the Tools dialog for resizing the two panes.
• Repair WMI/WBEM tool no longer deletes the repository; now rebuilds via wbemupgd.dll and links to pertinent articles.
• No longer performs registration of the following files when IE 7 is installed: esetup.dll, pngfilt.dll, appwiz.cpl, imgutil.dll, inseng.dll, mshtml.dll, msrating.dll, msieftp.dll, themeui.dll, webcheck.dll.
• New status bar animation pane that takes up less code space, and less physical space on the dialog.
• Clicking the bold "5" in the bottom right box inverts the checkmark states for that box (so if none are checked, it checkmarks them all).