Hi webfork,
webfork wrote:Some impressions of the software:
Definitely the closest to a Pstart replacement I've yet found. Nice work.
Good:
- Supports drag and drop
- Definitely like the virtual drives capability
- Ability to run software as admin
- Window state, On execution, and AutoExecute like Pstart
- Added the ability to "hide this software from menu" (better than Pstart)
- Cafe integration
Thank you very much! Your opinion, for me, is really important.
webfork wrote:
Unclear:
- Not sure what the "Protocols" bit is about also the "ToolWindow style". What's this?
With "Protocols", we mean the ability of the menu to intercept the calls to (internet, web, call them as you want) protocols http/https, mailto, ftp, and redirect each of them to a program of your choice. These actions are triggered by clicking on an hyperlink of type "http:/https:" (web pages), "mailto:" (email addresses), "ftp:" (ftp sites). Then you can define, into the Properties of a program, that it must intercept a particular protocol (is enough to check the corresponding checkbox, and the command line is populated consistently). Of course, the program must be able to manage these protocols. As an example, you can instruct X-Firefox (or Opera, or any other portable browser) to intercept "http/https" protocols, X-Thunderbird (or equivalent) to intercept "mailto" protocol, FileZilla (or equivalent) to intercept "ftp" protocol. From this moment on, every time you click a link of type "http/https" (also from a mail into X-Thunderbird
), X-Firefox opens it, and so on...
TooWindowStyle is a first, rough attempt to manage some window styles. If this option is checked, you can act on the "Configuration" window transparency. That's all.
webfork wrote:
Like PortableApps, program requires users copy/move files into the WinPenPack\Bin folder. Really would like to just drag files in from wherever and have them stay in their original locations.
To have all programs "under control" is a must for a menu that must work also from a portable device. While you can drag your files on the menu structure, in the next executions it tries to resolve the programs path (this is one of the features of wPPMenu.Net, so you can have always the correct paths wherever you execute it from). I understand your point of view, but I also think that you can take advantage of this feature, that allow to bring the structure of your folders under winPenPack\Bin, with a simple drag&drop, plus "move" option...
webfork wrote:
After you double-click an item on the menu, it turns to black on dark-blue, which means it more or less disappears. Can do a screenshot of this if you need.
Since this happens only from the "Configuration" window, that is not the main place to launch the programs from, maybe this can be delayed a little? The Configuration window appears by default when executing the menu, but I think that a more realistic setting is to uncheck this option, using the tray icon for launching programs, as with PStart...
webfork wrote:
The stats window lists Hotkeys, but no ability to create/modify them. Am I missing something?
The Hotkeys list is a summary of all hotkeys assigned to the menu for launching single programs; these hotkeys can be defined in the Properties window (tab Advanced) of each program. By the way, from the Stats panel, clicking the blue ruler on the left border, you can view many other interesting informations about the menu settings.
webfork wrote:
The ability to remove the top 3 options "Config, Check Upgrades, winPenPack home" as well as "Recents". Would like the ability to move all those all under the options menu so like Pstart only the programs are visible.
At this moment is only possible to hide the Recents (unchecking both the advanced menu options "Active MRU" and "MRU on trayicon submenu"). This action, indeed, does not prevent the menu to register the recents, so you can enable/disable it at any time, being sure that all the Recents are preserved.
"Configuration", if the option "Show window on startup" is unchecked (strongly suggested
), represents the only way to reach the configuration window, so it cannot be deleted; there is another menu option (Various|TrayIcon|Left Click action) that allow you to open the Configuration window double left-clicking the tray icon; this behavior is the equivalent of "Show panel" manu item of PStart (that, AFAIK, cannot be hidden too).
"Check Upgrades", if hidden from tray menu, is only triggered at startup and from the Configuration window contextual menu; we found useful to have it available also from tray menu, but at this moment cannot be completely hidden from there, sorry...
"winPenPack Home" allow to have wPP site just one click away...
Please do not ask me to delete this item!
webfork wrote:
Edit: Run as User capability
The Expert Mode activate the X Expert contextual menu item in the Configuration window, and is mainly useful just to act on the installed X-Programs, so you can perform various activities on them. All the settings I depicted above are available also to "normal" menu users.
There are still many features we have not yet spoken, so if you have any question, you are welcome to ask!
Best Regards
ZioZione