20 Oct 21:53

d143556

Latest

UXL Launcher Version 4.0 Stable Changelog

Released on 10/20/2020 (MM/DD/YYYY).

Only three months after version 3.3, UXL Launcher Version 4.0 is ready for its stable release. Kinda funny how both times there was only a three-month gap between versions, the next version ended up being a major version number increase. In case you're wondering what happened to version 3.4, this is that version, just with a major version number increase since it felt better that way. Anything planned for 4.0 has been pushed back to 5.0. If you'd like, you can read more on my blog.

Before I get into the main paragraph, this version fixes a security vulnerability where the officeDriveLocation could be set to something like https://google.com/search?q=, which would result in the user being sent to a Google search for whichever app they clicked on, or worse. This is now fixed, and I highly recommend updating to this version. Two weeks ago I released a 3.3.1 update so that people using a stable version could have this fix, but now that this one is out, that one isn't as important. While most people probably wouldn't run into that issue, it's still something that needs to be solved as the config file the app ships with could be modified too; it's not just the one in LocalAppData that's a concern.

This time, other than that security fix, the main focus was on re-arranging stuff in the Options window so that the options that probably would be used the most are easier to access. Many controls in the Options window had their text changed to be more specific with what they're for, as well. With the end of support for Office 2010, the defaults have been updated to be Office 2019 with 64-bit Office on 64-bit Windows (or 32-bit Office on 32-bit Windows), as Microsoft now recommends 64-bit Office with Office 2019. Besides that, there are a few other new features and changes that may be of interest. Please be sure to read the Readme included with this version of UXL Launcher or online as it has important info. Also refer to the System Requirements.

If you're reading this in Notepad or another text editor, it displays best in Word Wrap view. Click on Format>Word Wrap on the top bar. Notepad++ users will find it under View>Word Wrap. Word Wrap is automatically done if viewing on GitHub or on the website.

Hashes

You can use Windows PowerShell to confirm the hash of the main UXL Launcher EXE file by running
Get-FileHash .\UXL-Launcher.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in the folder you extracted the archive to and comparing the output to my sum listed below. HowToGeek has a nice article on this, but the Windows section is a bit further down on the page.

7-Zip also has a way to check file hashes in the CRC SHA dropdown in the file context menu. This project is not associated with 7-Zip.

To check the hash for other files, replace UXL-Launcher.exe with the appropriate file.

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive:
5BA5EDB9BD1FF1DA5D104C0410B4F0F2D568ADA2C434FFA43BD7E5A14C43E7FF

SHA-256 sum for "lib\libscrollswitchtabs.dll" in the archive:
423A65849280D1F9665AD03094DD8648482E889CD4FA0F7AA4CA7AE8F087C7A7

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe.config" in the archive:
6893BB5389DA7FFB63961CA35B4C7892B627181894F20950D93149277114CB7D

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher_v4.0-Stable.exe" (the installer attached to this release):
146D47925B1DBD7F73D413F38906EE1C4E9E011718FA60CF10C89061FF2FA9E4

Added

New theme: ProDark (issue #185)
- Description: Dark theme meant to resemble Office 2019's "Black" theme. The colors may not match exactly as they were eyeballed from the colors used in Word 2019. This theme is not associated with Microsoft, and Microsoft Office is a copyright and trademark/registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.
- This is the new default dark theme used when matching the Windows 10 theme settings (see below).
You can now choose which dark theme UXL Launcher uses when set to match the Windows 10 theme settings by changing the Dark theme for system theme matching dropdown under Tools>Options>Theme (previously Personalization). (issue #186, pull request #192)
- Current choices are Maudern, ProDark, and TenDark. Anything else will be set to ProDark and will not be displayed in the Options window dropdown, unlike the theme list dropdown.
- PortableThemeEngine also gained this feature and was bumped to version 2.1, while the built-in theme engine was bumped to version 1.04. No other theme engine changes are in this version, so themes won't have to change their theme engine runtime version numbers if people don't want to, but I did anyway.
- If you want to specify the dark theme for system theme matching when using PortableThemeEngine, you'd set libportablethemeengine.ThemeEngine.DarkThemeForSystemThemeMatching to one of the options above. Anything not in that list will be set to ProDark. Once the dark theme is applied, the property will automatically be reset to ProDark in case you want to go back to the default dark theme in the same session without specifying it again.
- PortableThemeEngineDebugger may be of use to people who want to experiment with this feature, though you'll have to build it yourself as a binary isn't provided.
Tabs in the Options and About windows can now be switched between using the mouse scroll wheel. This functionality is provided by libscrollswitchtabs, part of the drews-libs project.
In case you decline migrating settings on the first startup of an application upgrade, you can now migrate them at any time using the Migrate settings button under Tools>Options...>Maintenance. (issue #178)
- NB: This will overwrite your current settings, so use caution.
- It'll only work if you're running the program from the same place as the previous version.
- This feature may be useful for people using the Zip file version as, by default, that one doesn't ask to migrate settings on first startup even if there's a UXL_Launcher folder in LocalAppData. It'll have to be extracted to the same place to work as the previous list item states, though.
- After migrating, the app will restart automatically.

Any time a setting requires an application restart (for now, only turning on or off the theme engine), a messagebox will pop up asking the user if they want to restart now. (issue #177)

If this message is declined, it won't pop up again during that session even if the theme engine is turned on or off multiple times in that session.
Description from the commit:

Allow the user to restart the application if the theme engine is turned on or off. This'll prevent the "test settings"
messagebox from showing up if they do restart, but that's intended since there could be other things that would
influence the results at a later point. If the user clicks "No", they won't be bothered to restart for the rest of the
session.

Changed

Many of the controls in the Options window have been moved around (some across tabs) and had their text changed to better explain what they do. See pull request #190 for more details.
- Switched the tabs for Bypass configured location and the Office drive location (now simply Root drive path) (issue #73)
- Instead of requiring users to type in the drive letter they installed Office to, they can now select it from a dropdown of all drives that are "ready".
  - If they change the drive letter manually in the config file, it'll show up in the list, but changing it to something else and saving settings will get rid of it.
  - Please be aware that this means arbitrary drive letters can no longer be placed into the drive letter box as only drives Windows determines as "ready" are available. This is what was originally intended, so it's no big loss.
  - Arbitrary drive letters can still be used by modifying the config file, but if the location is unavailable, a warning label will show up below the dropdown.
  - If you plug in a drive after opening the Options window, you can click the Refresh button next to the dropdown to have it show up in the dropdown as long as it's ready. (issue #191)
- Controls and groupboxes have been resized and repositioned so they look better. One major example of this is on the Theme tab, where the theme details textbox has been moved to the right side and the checkboxes and other controls have been moved to the left side.
- The theme details textbox is now slightly taller.
- Now the Enable Office 365/Click-to-Run Compatibility checkbox is hidden if Office 2019 is selected, since it's irrelevant for that version.
- Tab text update:
  - General has been renamed to Versions + Compatibility.
  - Advanced has been renamed to Root Path.
  - Personalization has been renamed to Theme as mentioned above.
  - More details for the first two items (issue #183)
- Enable Office 365/Click-to-Run Compatibility checkbox has been changed to `Enable Off...

Assets 4

06 Oct 05:10

DrewNaylor

v3.3.1

2866ee0

UXL Launcher Version 3.3.1 Stable

UXL Launcher Version 3.3.1 Stable Changelog

Released on 10/6/2020 (MM/DD/YYYY).

While working on version 3.4, I found a potential security vulnerability, so I backported the fix to 3.3.1 so it's in a stable version right away rather than waiting two weeks.

Copied from version 3.4 RC1 changelog:
This version fixes a security vulnerability where the officeDriveLocation could be set to something like https://google.com/search?q=, which would result in the user being sent to a Google search for whatever app they clicked on, or worse. This is now fixed, and I highly recommend updating to this version. It should be safe to update to the release candidate version as there shouldn't be too many changes between now and the final. There will be a 3.3.1 update published for those who want a stable version with this fix. While most people probably wouldn't run into that issue, it's still something that needs to be solved as the config file the app ships with could be modified too; it's not just the one in LocalAppData that's a concern.

A few hours after this was published, I re-compiled the installer so it's quieter on startup.

Please be sure to read the Readme included with this version of UXL Launcher or online as it has important info. Also refer to the System Requirements.

Hashes

7-Zip also has a way to check file hashes in the CRC SHA dropdown in the file context menu. This project is not associated with 7-Zip.

To check the installer's hash, run Get-FileHash .\UXL-Launcher_v3.3.1-Stable.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in Windows PowerShell. Other files will have to have the filename switched out.

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive:
B415C20481821F471A2DDF8213A44DA0A5EE59B6F8BA962D1A17EAE2D5054319

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe.config" in the archive:
74651B2402720557FC483136D5DF5C8FDF5D48AD5B720B2AA7F0AFA427FB92F9

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher_v3.3.1-Stable.exe" (the installer attached to this release):
AB5EBD4CE1FD3DC20E1F2069C5CCFC3BA44DF5495ADEAA9599D039C46515274D

Fixed

Security vulnerability: It used to be possible to change My.Settings.officeDriveLocation to something like https://google.com/search?q=, which would take users to a Google search. This has been fixed by checking the length of the setting, and if it's not equal to 1, changing it back to C before using it on startup.

Deprecation/future change notices

A future version will change the default Office version in the Options window to Office 2019 due to Office 2010 support ending in October 2020.
Version 3.4 will have the Drive location and Bypass configured location options switch tabs. A link label has been added to the Options window to let the user know about this. (issue #180)
TE1.x/UXL Launcher Theme Engine will be deprecated sometime after support for TE2.x/PortableThemeEngine is introduced, and UXL Launcher 4.0 will fully remove support for TE1.x. Estimated deprecation timeline; may be changed at any moment:
- TE1.x full support; TE2.x gains features to match what TE1.x can do <-- You Are Here
- TE2.x support introduced; TE1.x is still the default but can be switched to using TE2.x via the UI
- TE2.x becomes the default; TE1.x is deprecated but support is still available and can be used again through the UI
- TE2.x is still the default; TE1.x is still available, but the UI to switch back to it is removed so you'll have to edit the config file instead
- TE1.x support is fully removed; only TE2.x remains

Assets 4

06 Oct 04:17

DrewNaylor

v3.4-rc1

c89f101

UXL Launcher Version 3.4 Release Candidate 1 Pre-release

Pre-release

UXL Launcher Version 3.4 Release Candidate 1 Changelog

Released on 10/6/2020 (MM/DD/YYYY).

Only three-ish months after version 3.3, UXL Launcher Version 3.4 is ready for the release candidate stage. If all goes well, two weeks from now the stable version will be released.

Before I get into the main paragraph, this version fixes a security vulnerability where the officeDriveLocation could be set to something like https://google.com/search?q=, which would result in the user being sent to a Google search for whatever app they clicked on, or worse. This is now fixed, and I highly recommend updating to this version. It should be safe to update to the release candidate version as there shouldn't be too many changes between now and the final. There will be a 3.3.1 update published for those who want a stable version with this fix. While most people probably wouldn't run into that issue, it's still something that needs to be solved as the config file the app ships with could be modified too; it's not just the one in LocalAppData that's a concern.

This time, other than that last-minute security fix, the main focus was on re-arranging stuff in the Options window so that the options that probably would be used the most are easier to access. Many controls in the Options window had their text changed to be more specific with what they're for, as well. With the end of support for Office 2010, the defaults have been updated to be Office 2019 with 64-bit Office on 64-bit Windows (or 32-bit Office on 32-bit Windows), as Microsoft now recommends 64-bit Office with Office 2019. Besides that, there are a few other new features and changes that may be of interest. Please be sure to read the Readme included with this version of UXL Launcher or online as it has important info. Also refer to the System Requirements.

Hashes

7-Zip also has a way to check file hashes in the CRC SHA dropdown in the file context menu. This project is not associated with 7-Zip.

To check the hash for other files, replace UXL-Launcher.exe with the appropriate file.

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive:
3FDB90F24EBFD512AE39436EE6A038E0D2954BE9FA5C996DB7CB7AEFA617CF15

SHA-256 sum for "lib\libscrollswitchtabs.dll" in the archive:
423A65849280D1F9665AD03094DD8648482E889CD4FA0F7AA4CA7AE8F087C7A7

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe.config" in the archive:
6893BB5389DA7FFB63961CA35B4C7892B627181894F20950D93149277114CB7D

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher_v3.4-RC1.exe" (the installer attached to this release):
6BDB1255C54D5FAE08A60DFFE2C5A9C2C4BDB668F8584537B2356BCD7AAAE12F

Added

New theme: ProDark (issue #185)
- Description: Dark theme meant to resemble Office 2019's "Black" theme. The colors may not match exactly as they were eyeballed from the colors used in Word 2019. This theme is not associated with Microsoft, and Microsoft Office is a copyright and trademark/registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.
- This is the new default dark theme used when matching the Windows 10 theme settings (see below).
You can now choose which dark theme UXL Launcher uses when set to match the Windows 10 theme settings by changing the Dark theme for system theme matching dropdown under Tools>Options>Theme (previously Personalization). (issue #186, pull request #192)
- Current choices are Maudern, ProDark, and TenDark. Anything else will be set to ProDark and will not be displayed in the Options window dropdown, unlike the theme list dropdown.
- PortableThemeEngine also gained this feature and was bumped to version 2.1, while the built-in theme engine was bumped to version 1.04. No other theme engine changes are in this version, so themes won't have to change their theme engine runtime version numbers if people don't want to, but I did anyway.
- If you want to specify the dark theme for system theme matching when using PortableThemeEngine, you'd set libportablethemeengine.ThemeEngine.DarkThemeForSystemThemeMatching to one of the options above. Anything not in that list will be set to ProDark. Once the dark theme is applied, the property will automatically be reset to ProDark in case you want to go back to the default dark theme in the same session without specifying it again.
- PortableThemeEngineDebugger may be of use to people who want to experiment with this feature, though you'll have to build it yourself as a binary isn't provided.
Tabs in the Options and About windows can now be switched between using the mouse scroll wheel. This functionality is provided by libscrollswitchtabs, part of the drews-libs project.
In case you decline migrating settings on the first startup of an application upgrade, you can now migrate them at any time using the Migrate settings button under Tools>Options...>Maintenance. (issue #178)
- NB: This will overwrite your current settings, so use caution.
- It'll only work if you're running the program from the same place as the previous version.
- This feature may be useful for people using the Zip file version as, by default, that one doesn't ask to migrate settings on first startup even if there's a UXL_Launcher folder in LocalAppData. It'll have to be extracted to the same place to work as the previous list item states, though.
- After migrating, the app will restart automatically.

Any time a setting requires an application restart (for now, only turning on or off the theme engine), a messagebox will pop up asking the user if they want to restart now. (issue #177)

If this message is declined, it won't pop up again during that session even if the theme engine is turned on or off multiple times in that session.
Description from the commit:

Allow the user to restart the application if the theme engine is turned on or off. This'll prevent the "test settings"
messagebox from showing up if they do restart, but that's intended since there could be other things that would
influence the results at a later point. If the user clicks "No", they won't be bothered to restart for the rest of the
session.

Changed

Many of the controls in the Options window have been moved around (some across tabs) and had their text changed to better explain what they do. See pull request #190 for more details.
- Switched the tabs for Bypass configured location and the Office drive location (now simply Root drive path) (issue #73)
- Instead of requiring users to type in the drive letter they installed Office to, they can now select it from a dropdown of all drives that are "ready".
  - If they change the drive letter manually in the config file, it'll show up in the list, but changing it to something else and saving settings will get rid of it.
  - Please be aware that this means arbitrary drive letters can no longer be placed into the drive letter box as only drives Windows determines as "ready" are available. This is what was originally intended, so it's no big loss.
  - Arbitrary drive letters can still be used by modifying the config file, but if the location is unavailable, a warning label will show up below the dropdown.
  - If you plug in a drive after opening the Options window, you can click the Refresh button next to the dropdown to have it show up in the dropdown as long as it's ready. (issue #191)
- Controls and groupboxes have been resized and repositioned so they look better. One major example of this is on the Theme tab, where the theme details textbox has been moved to the right side and the checkboxes and other controls have been moved to the left side.
- The theme details textbox is now slightly taller.
- Now the Enable Office 365/Click-to-Run Compatibility checkbox is hidden if Office 2019 is selected, since it's irrelevant for that version.
- Tab text update:
  - General has been renamed to Versions + Compatibility.
  - Advanced has been renamed to Root Path.
  - Personalization has been renamed to Theme as mentioned above.
  - More details for the first two items (issue #183)
- Enable Office 365/Click-to-Run Compatibility checkbox has been changed to Enable Office 365/Click-to-Run Compatibility [line break] (Always enabled for Office 2019 and above)
- Since 64-bit Office is the default for Office 2019 when downloaded from the Office website, there were changes in the Root Path tab:
  - 64-bit Windows is now `Program Files (x86): 32-bit Off...

Assets 4

26 Jul 20:23

DrewNaylor

v3.3

8499792

UXL Launcher Version 3.3 Stable

UXL Launcher Version 3.3 Stable Changelog

Released on 7/26/2020 (MM/DD/YYYY).

Time's gone by so fast that it doesn't feel like it's been seven years since the predecessor to this project was started, but it has, and I'm glad UXL Launcher continues to exist for now.

After almost a year and a half of waiting in the pipeline, filling in time, I'd like to welcome you to Version 3.3 Stable. This version was provided with some new toys including the ability to apply themes to the rest of the windows, such as the About and Options windows. In addition, there are some bug fixes, changes, and new features, including the option to bypass the configured location in the Options window for all apps that allow it, as opposed to just some of the deprecated/removed ones.

Please be sure to read the Readme included with this version of UXL Launcher or online as it has important info. Also refer to the System Requirements.

Hashes

To check the installer's hash, run Get-FileHash .\UXL-Launcher_v3.3-Stable.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in Windows PowerShell.

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive:
62A7FA99CB5879F2B1A58D8C8B3DEBE7616633F257EC67C87950A14FBC921A0C

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher_v3.3-Stable.exe" (the installer attached to this release):
FBE19C3F55C69AB80CCDF8C74AB9BC01F3D150106B8F3347FDE2AB963819F577

Added

The About and Options windows can now be themed in Theme Engine Version 1.03. (issue #135)
- All built-in themes have support for this.
- Themes need to set their UseThemeEngineVersion node value to 1.03 to apply colors to the About and Options windows. Themes that aren't upgraded to TE1.03 won't have their colors applied to forms other than the main window.
- To accomplish this, there are now additional controls that can be themed. Most examples taken from TenDark:
Click to show
- About window Banner Style: Options are "Light" and "Dark". Everything else will be set to "Light". You might need to capitalize the first letter and leave the rest lowercase for this to work since I forgot to do a lowercase string comparison. Default value: Light. Example:
```
 <AboutWindow>
     
     <BannerStyle>Dark</BannerStyle>
 </AboutWindow>
```
- Button FlatAppearance MouseOverBackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Nothing (requires leaving the node out; LiteralNothing isn't supported for this property). Example:
```
 
 <FlatAppearance>
 ...
 <MouseOverBackColor>Gray</MouseOverBackColor>
 ...
 </FlatAppearance>
```
- Button FlatAppearance MouseDownBackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Nothing (requires leaving the node out; LiteralNothing isn't supported for this property). Example:
```
 
 <FlatAppearance>
 ...
 <MouseDownBackColor>Silver</MouseOverBackColor>
 ...
 </FlatAppearance>
```
- Checkbox BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Transparent. Example:
```
 <CheckBox>
     <BackColor>Transparent</BackColor>
     ...
 </CheckBox>
```
- Checkbox ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <CheckBox>
     ...
     <ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </CheckBox>
```
- Dropdown (ComboBox) BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color except Transparent. Default value: Window. Example:
```
 <Dropdown>
     
     <BackColor>#363636</BackColor>
     ...
   </Dropdown>
```
- Dropdown (ComboBox) ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <Dropdown>
     
     ...
     <ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
   </Dropdown>
```
- LinkLabel BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Transparent. Example:
```
 <LinkLabel>
     <BackColor>Transparent</BackColor>
     ...
 </LinkLabel>
```
- LinkLabel ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. This is used when the LinkArea property is set to not cover the entire link label. Example:
```
 <LinkLabel>
     ...
     <ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
     ...
 </LinkLabel>
```
- LinkLabel ActiveLinkColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Red. Example:
```
 <LinkLabel>
     ...
     <ActiveLinkColor>Red</ActiveLinkColor>
     ...
 </LinkLabel>
```
- LinkLabel LinkColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: #0000FF. Example:
```
 <LinkLabel>
     ...
     <LinkColor>DodgerBlue</LinkColor>
 </LinkLabel>
```
- Panel BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Control. Example:
```
 <Panel>
     <BackColor>Black</BackColor>
     ...
 </Panel>
```
- Panel ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <Panel>
     ...
     <ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </Panel>
```
- RadioButton BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Transparent. Example:
```
 <RadioButton>
     <BackColor>Transparent</BackColor>
     ...
 </RadioButton>
```
- RadioButton ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <RadioButton>
     ...
 	<ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </RadioButton>
```
- TableLayoutPanel BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Control. Example:
```
 <TableLayoutPanel>
     <BackColor>#202020</BackColor>
     ...
 </TableLayoutPanel>
```
- TableLayoutPanel ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <TableLayoutPanel>
     ...
 	<ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </TableLayoutPanel>
```
- TableLayoutPanel ApplyToAboutWindowAboutTabTLP: Boolean. If set to True, the table layout panel colors will be applied to the table layout panel that holds the link labels in the About window. Default value: False. Example from "ReturnOfNight" theme:
```
 <TableLayoutPanel>
     ...
     
     <ApplyToAboutWindowAboutTabTLP>True</ApplyToAboutWindowAboutTabTLP>
 </TableLayoutPanel>
```
- TabPage BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Window. Example:
```
 <TabPage>
     <BackColor>Black</BackColor>
     ...
 </TabPage>
```
- TabPage ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <TabPage>
     ...
 	<ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </TabPage>
```
You can have UXL Launcher match the Windows 10 theme settings if you want to by checking the Match Windows 10 theme settings checkbox in the Options window Personalization tab. (issue #138)
- Please be aware that the Windows 10 theme is only checked on application startup and when saving settings.
- The light theme is Default, and the dark theme is TenDark.
- If the version of Windows that's being used doesn't support the AppsUseLightTheme key value (if UXL Launcher is being run on Windows 7, for example), then the Default theme will be used instead.
Themes that support TE1.03 can now specify LiteralNothing as the StatusBar BackColor value so that the small line at the top of the statusbar is visible as seen when not using the theme engine. If the theme doesn't support TE1.03, then the default value will be Control, otherwise the default will be LiteralNothing. (issue #141)
Theme engine error handler now has an output for System.ArgumentException exceptions. These may appear if the textbox backcolor property doesn't support the specified color.
You can now have most applications bypass the configured location instead of only deprecated or removed apps being able to. This [may help for Office 2010 Home and Student and Home and Business](https://github.com/DrewNayl...

Assets 4

12 Jul 14:33

DrewNaylor

v3.3-rc1

d022abd

UXL Launcher Version 3.3 Release Candidate 1 Pre-release

Pre-release

UXL Launcher Version 3.3 Release Candidate 1 Changelog

Released on 7/12/2020 (MM/DD/YYYY).

About a year and a half after the previous version, UXL Launcher Version 3.3 is ready for the release candidate stage. If all goes well, two weeks from now the stable version will be released. Time's gone by so fast that it doesn't feel like it's been seven years since the predecessor to this project was started. This version primarily focuses on allowing the About and Options windows to be themed, but there are a few other new features and bug fixes, including a new option to bypass the configured location for most apps. Please be sure to read the Readme included with this version of UXL Launcher or online as it has important info. Also refer to the System Requirements.

Hashes

To check the installer's hash, run Get-FileHash .\UXL-Launcher_v3.3-RC1.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in Windows PowerShell.

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive:
C91B7E558C5F2C5C47055D1ECD93275FE09BC58CC27C2F6C8D5825643D7829AA

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher_v3.3-RC1.exe" (the installer attached to this release):
1CD52E38B73F4B6942D6E0E6CF0DDF74666FAC563F5772FDD09E57D9398AD6B8

Added

The About and Options windows can now be themed in Theme Engine Version 1.03. (issue #135)
- All built-in themes have support for this.
- Themes need to set their UseThemeEngineVersion node value to 1.03 to apply colors to the About and Options windows. Themes that aren't upgraded to TE1.03 won't have their colors applied to forms other than the main window.
- To accomplish this, there are now additional controls that can be themed. Most examples taken from TenDark:
Click to show
- About window Banner Style: Options are "Light" and "Dark". Everything else will be set to "Light". You might need to capitalize the first letter and leave the rest lowercase for this to work since I forgot to do a lowercase string comparison. Default value: Light. Example:
```
 <AboutWindow>
     
     <BannerStyle>Dark</BannerStyle>
 </AboutWindow>
```
- Button FlatAppearance MouseOverBackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Nothing (requires leaving the node out; LiteralNothing isn't supported for this property). Example:
```
 
 <FlatAppearance>
 ...
 <MouseOverBackColor>Gray</MouseOverBackColor>
 ...
 </FlatAppearance>
```
- Button FlatAppearance MouseDownBackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Nothing (requires leaving the node out; LiteralNothing isn't supported for this property). Example:
```
 
 <FlatAppearance>
 ...
 <MouseDownBackColor>Silver</MouseOverBackColor>
 ...
 </FlatAppearance>
```
- Checkbox BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Transparent. Example:
```
 <CheckBox>
     <BackColor>Transparent</BackColor>
     ...
 </CheckBox>
```
- Checkbox ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <CheckBox>
     ...
     <ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </CheckBox>
```
- Dropdown (ComboBox) BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color except Transparent. Default value: Window. Example:
```
 <Dropdown>
     
     <BackColor>#363636</BackColor>
     ...
   </Dropdown>
```
- Dropdown (ComboBox) ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <Dropdown>
     
     ...
     <ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
   </Dropdown>
```
- LinkLabel BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Transparent. Example:
```
 <LinkLabel>
     <BackColor>Transparent</BackColor>
     ...
 </LinkLabel>
```
- LinkLabel ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. This is used when the LinkArea property is set to not cover the entire link label. Example:
```
 <LinkLabel>
     ...
     <ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
     ...
 </LinkLabel>
```
- LinkLabel ActiveLinkColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Red. Example:
```
 <LinkLabel>
     ...
     <ActiveLinkColor>Red</ActiveLinkColor>
     ...
 </LinkLabel>
```
- LinkLabel LinkColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: #0000FF. Example:
```
 <LinkLabel>
     ...
     <LinkColor>DodgerBlue</LinkColor>
 </LinkLabel>
```
- Panel BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Control. Example:
```
 <Panel>
     <BackColor>Black</BackColor>
     ...
 </Panel>
```
- Panel ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <Panel>
     ...
     <ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </Panel>
```
- RadioButton BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Transparent. Example:
```
 <RadioButton>
     <BackColor>Transparent</BackColor>
     ...
 </RadioButton>
```
- RadioButton ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <RadioButton>
     ...
 	<ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </RadioButton>
```
- TableLayoutPanel BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Control. Example:
```
 <TableLayoutPanel>
     <BackColor>#202020</BackColor>
     ...
 </TableLayoutPanel>
```
- TableLayoutPanel ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <TableLayoutPanel>
     ...
 	<ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </TableLayoutPanel>
```
- TableLayoutPanel ApplyToAboutWindowAboutTabTLP: Boolean. If set to True, the table layout panel colors will be applied to the table layout panel that holds the link labels in the About window. Default value: False. Example from "ReturnOfNight" theme:
```
 <TableLayoutPanel>
     ...
     
     <ApplyToAboutWindowAboutTabTLP>True</ApplyToAboutWindowAboutTabTLP>
 </TableLayoutPanel>
```
- TabPage BackColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: Window. Example:
```
 <TabPage>
     <BackColor>Black</BackColor>
     ...
 </TabPage>
```
- TabPage ForeColor: Can be any valid HTML or system color. Default value: ControlText. Example:
```
 <TabPage>
     ...
 	<ForeColor>White</ForeColor>
 </TabPage>
```
You can have UXL Launcher match the Windows 10 theme settings if you want to by checking the Match Windows 10 theme settings checkbox in the Options window Personalization tab. (issue #138)
- Please be aware that the Windows 10 theme is only checked on application startup and when saving settings.
- The light theme is Default, and the dark theme is TenDark.
- If the version of Windows that's being used doesn't support the AppsUseLightTheme key value (if UXL Launcher is being run on Windows 7, for example), then the Default theme will be used instead.
Themes that support TE1.03 can now specify LiteralNothing as the StatusBar BackColor value so that the small line at the top of the statusbar is visible as seen when not using the theme engine. If the theme doesn't support TE1.03, then the default value will be Control, otherwise the default will be LiteralNothing. (issue #141)
Theme engine error handler now has an output for System.ArgumentException exceptions. These may appear if the textbox backcolor property doesn't support the specified color.
You can now have most applications bypass the configured location instead of only deprecated or removed apps being able to. This may help for Office 2010 Home and Student and Home and Business. You can use this by selecting the Bypass configured location for all compatible apps radio button in the Options window `Ad...

Assets 4

30 Apr 21:48

DrewNaylor

v3.2

f691d87

UXL Launcher Version 3.2 Stable

I'm pleased to announce the release of UXL Launcher Version 3.2 Stable! It didn't take too long for most of the development of this version, but then some other projects delayed it, though it ended up better being delayed.

Please enjoy this version and its changelog. Version 3.2 contains a few bug fixes, some potentially major, and new features, but most importantly, Office 2019 is officially supported! In addition, files can be created from "File>New", and existing files can be opened from "File>Open...". There have also been a few places where code was cleaned up a bit, and two new themes were added. Important links, including links for more information on specific topics, are in the changelog below, so I'll let you read it.

---------------
CHECKSUMS
~~~~~~~~~

You can use Windows PowerShell to confirm the hash of the main UXL Launcher EXE file by running
Get-FileHash .\UXL-Launcher.exe -Algorithm SHA256
in the folder you extracted the archive to and comparing the output to my sum listed below. HowToGeek has a nice article on this, but the Windows section is a bit further down on the page.

To check the installer's hash, run Get-FileHash .\UXL-Launcher_v3.2-Stable.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in Windows PowerShell.

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive:
00C482364F9B229666E9E4F624E754EDB2AF8E913D743448639859D31434A2CD

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher_v3.2-Stable.exe" (the installer attached to this release):
F21C959981FACD47388CA124D32180C27A17B54ED8ADE86D4718949872152550

---------------
CHANGELOG
~~~~~~~~~

Below this text is the changelog. It compares UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable to UXL Launcher Version 3.2 Stable. Any changes made to the UXL Launcher Theme Engine are described in their own section after the rest of the changelog.

If you would like to look at the same comparison as I did while writing this changelog, you can do so here:
v3.1...v3.2
The link above will be active by the time this is posted, but I used a slightly different comparison since the one I linked to wasn't ready yet. However, the content was the same, so it shouldn't matter.

Many of the changes presented below have a related issue in the Version 3.2 milestone, if you would like to look at a bit more detail than listed here. Not all of the changes listed in this changelog were linked to a related issue, so you may need to do a bit of digging in that milestone to find the related issues.

UXL Launcher Version 3.2 Stable Changelog

Added:
- Official support for Office 2019! (commit e9811fe) (More details)
  - For now, it's only supported if installed from outside the Windows Store.
  - Office 2019 has been unofficially supported since Version 3.0 due to Office 2019 and Office 2016 sharing installation folders, but Version 3.2 shows "Microsoft Office 2019" in the Options window and forces Office 365/Click-to-Run support regardless of the checkbox status so that (non-Windows Store) Office 2019 should work.
- Apps that have been deprecated or removed from Office that are still installed on your computer can be directly launched with their respective buttons after enabling "Bypass configured location for deprecated or removed apps" under Tools>Options window>Advanced tab. (commit 65aadef) (More details)
- You can now create new documents with the File>New menu. It's based on the overall organization of the LibreOffice 4.4.3.2 File>New menu. Currently, the following choices are available: (closed in #132)
  - Microsoft Word document (Ctrl+N can be used as a keyboard shortcut for this)
  - Microsoft Excel workbook (macro sheet)
    - There's no command-line option for creating a regular workbook.
    - Because there's no command-line option to create a regular workbook, just create a new regular sheet and delete the macro sheet at the bottom of Excel.
  - Microsoft PowerPoint presentation
  - Microsoft Outlook email
  - Microsoft Outlook contact
  - Microsoft Publisher publication
- Files you've already created can be opened from the File>Open... dialog, which also has Ctrl+O as a keyboard shortcut. This dialog supports filtering to show commonly-used Office formats, such as doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, mdb, accdb, and pub. If you want, all files can be shown, but executable files can't be opened for security purposes. This message can be hidden by changing the config file's setting for "showUnsafeFileExtensionBlockedMessage" to "False". (closed in #131)
- A new theme called "TenDark" has been added. This is meant to be a dark theme that kinda looks like Windows 10's dark mode. Please note that the button highlight colors are a bit hard to see.
- Another new theme has been added and has colors based on my cat.
- The InnoSetup installer scrips used for UXL Launcher have been added to the repository.
- A tooltip has been added to the custom theme path textbox in the Options window so that it's easier to tell where the custom theme file you're using is located.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Changed:
- The readme and parts of the wiki have been improved and cleaned up a bit since the release of UXL Launcher 3.1.
- Copyright years have been updated to 2013-2019 from 2013-2018.
- Microsoft's own copyright year (as listed in the About window and in code) for Office and Windows has been updated to 2019 from 2018.
- The About window's "Acknowledgments" tab now says "Acknowledgements". (More details)
- Updating the text for both the titlebar and the statusbar is now done from one code block (one for each string and window area) to make it easier to update rather than having it be in multiple places. This also makes it so that any Theme Engine problems don't impact updating the titlebar/statusbar text.
- Instead of showing the full version number in the titlebar, only the major and minor version numbers are shown. The About window still shows the full version number. (More details)
- Codenames are now stored in the My.Resources file instead of being hardcoded so that it's easier to update when working on a new version.
- The debug label used to show if the user says they have Office 365 has been renamed from "debugLabelForMSIInstall" to "debugLabelForUserHasOfficeThreeSixFive" to better reflect the purpose of the label.
- "Revert to Default Theme" in the View menu has been renamed to "Reload Default Theme" and its keyboard shortcut was changed to Ctrl+R from Ctrl+0.
- The "I installed via Office 365" checkbox was renamed to "Enable Office 365/Click-to-Run Compatibility" and was merged with the "I installed via MSI" checkbox. When unchecked, this checkbox acts like the MSI checkbox, and when checked, it acts as the Office 365 checkbox. (More details)
- On the Options window Advanced tab, the "View system info" button was replaced with a label that shows your Windows edition so that it's easier to configure UXL Launcher to work with the version of Office you have installed. This label explains which option to click based on whether your Windows installation is 32-bit or 64-bit. (More details)
- The "Clear Textbox" button on the Options window General tab has had its text shortened to "Clear".
- This "Clear" button has been moved closer to its relevant textbox.
- Inside the "What edition of Windows do you run?" groupbox on the Options window Advanced tab, the labels and radio buttons have been moved up-left so that they're more centered with the new Windows edition autodetection label text displaying.
- "Test settings" now attempts to find Office Language Preferences in the configured location (based on the user's settings) rather than trying to launch it (Office Language Preferences). If "Test settings" can find it, a messagebox will be shown telling the user that it was found, and their Office-related settings should be fine unless they change their version of Office. Otherwise, the user will be told that it couldn't be found, and the messagebox will offer a button to go back into the settings to change them again. Both of these messageboxes show the configured location based on the user's settings. (More details and merged in #129 ) (Technical details)
- When saving settings that use Boolean values that are changed by using checkboxes, the setting is made equal to the checkbox's CheckState instead of having an If...Else block to determine what to change the setting to based on the checkbox being checked or unchecked. This reduces code complexity and (possibly) duplication. (More details)
- If something other than a drive letter has been entered into the Office Drive Location textbox in the Options window, the drive letter will now go back to what's alrea...

Assets 4

17 Apr 01:36

DrewNaylor

v3.2-rc1

f5980fd

UXL Launcher Version 3.2 Release Candidate 1 Pre-release

Pre-release

The release candidate for version 3.2 is finally here, and it only took 14 weeks and 3 days, give or take a few depending on how long it takes me to write this changelog. If all goes well with this release, UXL Launcher Version 3.2 Stable will be released two weeks after this release is available. If not, changes will be made, then it'll go up.

Please enjoy this version and its changelog. Version 3.2 contains a few bug fixes, some potentially major, and new features, but most importantly, Office 2019 is officially supported! In addition, files can be created from "File>New", and existing files can be opened from "File>Open...". There have also been a few places where code was cleaned up a bit, and a new theme was added. Important links, including links for more information on specific topics, are in the changelog below, so I'll let you read it.

---------------
CHECKSUMS
~~~~~~~~~

To check the installer's hash, run Get-FileHash .\UXL-Launcher_v3.2-RC1.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in Windows PowerShell.

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive:
821206648AA6EE6159539B20C29DC68EA4F592C3B10488FFD54AB61B818F512B

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher_v3.2-RC1.exe" (the installer attached to this release):
4F1944BF1A1F73F0586F51A122624FDB5B6EF306D7A60EAC0D7C2656EF867418

---------------
CHANGELOG
~~~~~~~~~

Below this text is the changelog. It compares UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable to UXL Launcher Version 3.2 Release Candidate 1. Any changes made to the UXL Launcher Theme Engine are described in their own section after the rest of the changelog.

If you would like to look at the same comparison as I did while writing this changelog, you can do so here:
v3.1...v3.2-rc1
The link above will be active by the time this is posted, but I used a slightly different comparison since the one I linked to wasn't ready yet. However, the content was the same, so it shouldn't matter.

UXL Launcher Version 3.2 Release Candidate 1 Changelog

Added:
- Official support for Office 2019! (commit e9811fe) (More details)
  - For now, it's only supported if installed from outside the Windows Store.
  - Office 2019 has been unofficially supported since Version 3.0 due to Office 2019 and Office 2016 sharing installation folders, but Version 3.2 shows "Microsoft Office 2019" in the Options window and forces Office 365/Click-to-Run support regardless of the checkbox status so that (non-Windows Store) Office 2019 should work.
- Apps that have been deprecated or removed from Office that are still installed on your computer can be directly launched with their respective buttons after enabling "Bypass configured location for deprecated or removed apps" under Tools>Options window>Advanced tab. (commit 65aadef) (More details)
- You can now create new documents with the File>New menu. It's based on the overall organization of the LibreOffice 4.4.3.2 File>New menu. Currently, the following choices are available: (closed in #132)
  - Microsoft Word document (Ctrl+N can be used as a keyboard shortcut for this)
  - Microsoft Excel workbook (macro sheet)
    - There's no command-line option for creating a regular workbook.
    - Because there's no command-line option to create a regular workbook, just create a new regular sheet and delete the macro sheet at the bottom of Excel.
  - Microsoft PowerPoint presentation
  - Microsoft Outlook email
  - Microsoft Outlook contact
  - Microsoft Publisher publication
- Files you've already created can be opened from the File>Open... dialog, which also has Ctrl+O as a keyboard shortcut. This dialog supports filtering to show commonly-used Office formats, such as doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, mdb, accdb, and pub. If you want, all files can be shown, but executable files can't be opened for security purposes. This message can be hidden by changing the config file's setting for "showUnsafeFileExtensionBlockedMessage" to "False". (closed in #131)
- A new theme called "TenDark" has been added. This is meant to be a dark theme that kinda looks like Windows 10's dark mode. Please note that the button highlight colors are a bit hard to see.
- The InnoSetup installer scrips used for UXL Launcher have been added to the repository.
- A tooltip has been added to the custom theme path textbox in the Options window so that it's easier to tell where the custom theme file you're using is located.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Changed:
- The readme and parts of the wiki have been improved and cleaned up a bit since the release of UXL Launcher 3.1.
- Copyright years have been updated to 2013-2019 from 2013-2018.
- Microsoft's own copyright year (as listed in the About window and in code) for Office and Windows has been updated to 2019 from 2018.
- The About window's "Acknowledgments" tab now says "Acknowledgements". (More details)
- Updating the text for both the titlebar and the statusbar is now done from one code block (one for each string and window area) to make it easier to update rather than having it be in multiple places. This also makes it so that any Theme Engine problems don't impact updating the titlebar/statusbar text.
- Instead of showing the full version number in the titlebar, only the major and minor version numbers are shown. The About window still shows the full version number. (More details)
- Codenames are now stored in the My.Resources file instead of being hardcoded so that it's easier to update when working on a new version.
- The debug label used to show if the user says they have Office 365 has been renamed from "debugLabelForMSIInstall" to "debugLabelForUserHasOfficeThreeSixFive" to better reflect the purpose of the label.
- "Revert to Default Theme" in the View menu has been renamed to "Reload Default Theme" and its keyboard shortcut was changed to Ctrl+R from Ctrl+0.
- The "I installed via Office 365" checkbox was renamed to "Enable Office 365/Click-to-Run Compatibility" and was merged with the "I installed via MSI" checkbox. When unchecked, this checkbox acts like the MSI checkbox, and when checked, it acts as the Office 365 checkbox. (More details)
- On the Options window Advanced tab, the "View system info" button was replaced with a label that shows your Windows edition so that it's easier to configure UXL Launcher to work with the version of Office you have installed. This label explains which option to click based on whether your Windows installation is 32-bit or 64-bit. (More details)
- The "Clear Textbox" button on the Options window General tab has had its text shortened to "Clear".
- This "Clear" button has been moved closer to its relevant textbox.
- Inside the "What edition of Windows do you run?" groupbox on the Options window Advanced tab, the labels and radio buttons have been moved up-left so that they're more centered with the new Windows edition autodetection label text displaying.
- "Test settings" now attempts to find Office Language Preferences in the configured location (based on the user's settings) rather than trying to launch it (Office Language Preferences). If "Test settings" can find it, a messagebox will be shown telling the user that it was found, and their Office-related settings should be fine unless they change their version of Office. Otherwise, the user will be told that it couldn't be found, and the messagebox will offer a button to go back into the settings to change them again. Both of these messageboxes show the configured location based on the user's settings. (More details and merged in #129 ) (Technical details)
- When saving settings that use Boolean values that are changed by using checkboxes, the setting is made equal to the checkbox's CheckState instead of having an If...Else block to determine what to change the setting to based on the checkbox being checked or unchecked. This reduces code complexity and (possibly) duplication. (More details)
- If something other than a drive letter has been entered into the Office Drive Location textbox...

Assets 4

10 Jul 21:52

DrewNaylor

v3.1

093d972

UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable

Edit Oct 2, 2018: I've made an installer! Its checksum was added below and the file name is UXL-Launcher_v3.1-Stable.exe. The files included are the same as the ones in the zip file. I'll probably make an installer for 3.2 when it's out since most of the work is done now. The installer uses Inno Setup and was compiled from this script. Please note that this installer was tested on Windows 10, 1803, and Windows 7 SP1, and does not check for .Net 4.6.1, so that'll have to be installed separately if it isn't already. If you run into trouble with the installer, please file an issue on the Issues tab above.

---------------------------------------------------

After an entire one and a half years (1.5 years/18 months) and almost two weeks of work with numerous delays (mostly from video editing, HideSettingsPages, and classes), the release of UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable is finally here! I was feeling generous, so I released it a few days early. I wanted to get this out sooner, but there were some delays as previously mentioned. Once this is released, I'll start working on Version 3.2 which should have Office 2019 support.

Please enjoy this version and its changelog. I worked hard on both Version 3.1 and the changelog and there are several optimizations that might not be immediately obvious, such as using an RTF document in the About window instead of an embedded web browser and a bug fix for a major issue that was discovered after the release of Version 3.0 Stable. Other changes include the implementation of a theme engine with custom theme support. Important links, including links for more information on specific topics, are in the changelog below, so I'll let you read it.

As of October 2, 2018, an installer is available if you want to avoid manually extracting zip files. It adds a shortcut in the Start Menu and on the desktop, if you want it to.

---------------
CHECKSUMS
~~~~~~~~~

MD5 checksums are no longer used for UXL Launcher as of Version 3.1 Stable. More details.

To check the installer's hash, run Get-FileHash .\UXL-Launcher_v3.1-Stable.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in Windows PowerShell.

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive:
732D53E2821D025A63EE612F93A17FA76620EF7AD239BF3866E9718F26ECE7C2

SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher_v3.1-Stable.exe" (the installer attached to this release):
88506A1D8584A28247EF87DB304EFC3EC6E929AFCB333E782F18638FB354D06C

---------------
CHANGELOG
~~~~~~~~~

Below this text is the changelog. It compares UXL Launcher Version 3.0 Stable to UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable.

If you would like to look at the same comparison as I did while writing this changelog, you can do so here:
v3.0...v3.1
The link above will be active by the time this is posted, but I used a slightly different comparison since the one I linked to wasn't ready yet. However, the content was the same, so it shouldn't matter.

Many of the changes presented below have a related issue in the Version 3.1 milestone, if you would like to look at a bit more detail than listed here. Not all of the changes listed in this changelog were linked to a related issue, so you may need to do a bit of digging in that milestone to find the related issues.

UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable Changelog

Added:
- A basic theme engine (known as the "UXL Launcher Theme Engine") has been added to UXL Launcher.
  - Its version is currently Version 1.01. This number will increase when there's any change at all made to the theme engine and some changes can be avoided by the theme designers if the change causes problems with their custom theme.
  - This allows the user to change the colors on the main window and Quickmenu with either built-in or custom themes.
  - The theme engine is turned off by default (to retain the overall look of Version 3.0 so that it's not a jarring upgrade) and can be turned on from Tools>Options...>Personalization tab>Enable UXL Launcher Theme Engine checkbox. Enabling or disabling the theme engine requires an application restart. Currently, a manual application restart is required, though this may change in the future. Enabling or disabling the theme engine requires an app restart because I don't know of an easy way to enable or disable a custom professional toolbar renderer at runtime after one is enabled and I don't want things to break.
  - Themes can be configured from Tools>Options...>Personalization tab by selecting a theme from the theme list dropdown box, then clicking Save. A description of each theme is shown in a textbox on the left side of the Options window.
  - If you want to temporarily reset to using the Default theme until the next time the app starts or settings are saved in the Options window, you can use the View>Revert to Default Theme menu button, or press Ctrl+0 (Control and the number "zero" at the same time). This button only shows up when the theme engine is enabled.
  - For companies who want to keep their computers locked down, support for custom themes can be disabled by changing the value of the allowCustomThemes setting in the config file from True to False. The user will be told that support for custom themes has been disabled and to contact their administrator if they try to choose a custom theme in the Options window. It may be a good idea to install UXL Launcher and its config file in a location away from regular users with write access, such as in a read-only folder in a network drive and have the config file hidden to prevent modification.
  - Currently, there are six themes included with UXL Launcher and the option to use your own theme or a theme downloaded from the Internet. If a particular custom theme becomes popular enough within the community, it may become a built-in theme if the theme designer gives permission.
  - You can use a custom theme by selecting (Custom) in the theme list drop down box, then clicking the Browse... button next to the custom theme path textbox and navigating to the file you want to use, or by pasting the custom theme file's path into the textbox. Currently, the Browse... file open dialog has filters for XML files, TXT files, and all other file types.
  - A wiki page on how to make your own custom theme is available.
  - Theme engine output such as errors and theme file info can be shown by changing the value of the debugmodeShowThemeEngineOutput setting in the config file from False to True. It'll show up in the Visual Studio Immediate Window and any other configured debug listeners. Please be aware that this may cause the app to slow down if enabled.
  - Theme-related debug labels have been added to the main window.
- Users can now opt to use a custom statusbar greeting personalized with their firstname or nickname.
  - This is configured under Tools>Options...>Personalization tab>Use personalized statusbar greeting and typing in a firstname or nickname into the textbox below the radio button, then clicking Save.
  - The resulting statusbar greeting will be in the format of Welcome back to UXL Launcher, Firstname! "Firstname" is where the user's configured firstname/nickname goes.
  - The name typed into this textbox will not be used to personally identify the user.
  - If necessary, you can use the Clear button to the right of the textbox to erase all content within the textbox and set focus to it for easier firstname/nickname changes.
- Hide When Minimized (View>Hide When Minimized) allows the user to hide the main window and only use the Quickmenu to launch apps. Double-clicking on the Quickmenu icon or right-clicking the Quickmenu and clicking Show UXL Launcher will both show the main window again.
- The titlebar text now includes information on whether the app build currently running is considered "Stable", "Git" (built from code and not ready for release), or any other status.
- Information on the theme engine and applauncher-icons (most of the icons used in UXL Launcher) has been added to the About window.
- The license has been added next to copyright text in the About window so that it's now easier to tell what license a particular component uses. In the case of UXL Launcher, it says, "Copyright (C) 2013-2018 Drew Naylor. Licensed under Gnu GPLv3+." If there's no copyright, it's next to the author's name. This is how applauncher-icons displays this: "By Drew Naylor. Licensed under CC BY 4.0."
- A bunch of screenshots have been added to a wiki page linked from the readme.
- Buttons that update based on current build status that link to the AppVeyor page for UXL Launcher have been added to the readme.
- The UXL Launcher logo has been added to the readme.
- Better code org...

Assets 4

28 Jun 06:12

DrewNaylor

v3.1-rc1

fc344f3

UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Release Candidate 1 Pre-release

Pre-release

After an entire one and a half years (1.5 years/18 months) of work with numerous delays (mostly from video editing, HideSettingsPages, and classes), the release of UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Release Candidate 1 is finally here! If all goes well, this will be the final 3.1 Stable release with few modifications. If you notice any major bugs that aren't mentioned in the Known Issues or bug list, please report them in the Issues tab and I will get around to fixing them if they're easy to run into.

If all does go well and no major problems are discovered in Version 3.1 Release Candidate 1, UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable will be released on July 12, 2018. Likewise, if any additional changes are discovered, they'll be added to the Version 3.1 Stable changelog.

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CHECKSUMS
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You can use MD5Check to confirm the MD5 checksum listed below. http://www.angusj.com/delphi/
MD5 checksums are used for UXL Launcher because it can be easy to check for the end user.

HOWEVER, IN UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable, MD5 CHECKSUMS WILL NO LONGER BE PROVIDED. THIS RELEASE CANDIDATE (and any other Release Candidates for Version 3.1) WILL BE THE LAST VERSION TO PROVIDE AN MD5 CHECKSUM BECAUSE IT'S A WEAK STANDARD. More details.

If you want to use the SHA-256 sum instead (which you should do because an MD5 checksum won't be provided with UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable), you can use Windows PowerShell to confirm the hash by running
Get-FileHash .\UXL-Launcher.exe -Algorithm SHA256 in the folder you extracted the archive to and comparing the output to my sum listed below. HowToGeek has a nice article on this, but the Windows section is a bit further down on the page.

MD5 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive: 18D12F8A9DAABDEBC1383555F67C7845

If you want to use an SHA-256 sum instead, here's an SHA-256 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive:
06E28217C001F78F1D74D1092FAD7F69F37724B81E3E523DF345981B383CF10D

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CHANGELOG
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Below this text is the changelog. It compares UXL Launcher Version 3.0 Stable to UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Release Candidate 1. When the final Version 3.1 Stable changelog is written, changes will be compared between that version and Version 3.0 Stable.

If you would like to look at the same comparison as I did while writing this changelog, you can do so here:
v3.0...v3.1-rc1
The link above will be active by the time this is posted, but I used a slightly different comparison since the one I linked to wasn't ready yet. However, the content was the same, so it shouldn't matter.

UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Release Candidate 1 Changelog

Added:
- A basic theme engine (known as the "UXL Launcher Theme Engine") has been added to UXL Launcher.
  - Its version is currently Version 1.01. This number will increase when there's any change at all made to the theme engine and some changes can be avoided by the theme designers if the change causes problems with their custom theme.
  - This allows the user to change the colors on the main window and Quickmenu with either built-in or custom themes.
  - The theme engine is turned off by default and can be turned on from Tools>Options...>Personalization tab>Enable UXL Launcher Theme Engine checkbox. Enabling or disabling the theme engine requires an application restart. Currently, a manual application restart is required, though this may change in the future. Enabling or disabling the theme engine requires an app restart because I don't know of an easy way to enable or disable a custom professional toolbar renderer at runtime after one is enabled and I don't want things to break.
  - Themes can be configured from Tools>Options...>Personalization tab by selecting a theme from the theme list dropdown box, then clicking Save. A description of each theme is shown in a textbox on the left side of the Options window.
  - If you want to temporarily reset to using the Default theme until the next time the app starts or settings are saved in the Options window, you can use the View>Revert to Default Theme menu button, or press Ctrl+0 (Control and the number "zero" at the same time). This button only shows up when the theme engine is enabled.
  - For companies who want to keep their computers locked down, support for custom themes can be disabled by changing the value of the allowCustomThemes setting in the config file from True to False. The user will be told that support for custom themes has been disabled and to contact their administrator if they try to choose a custom theme in the Options window. It may be a good idea to install UXL Launcher and its config file in a location away from regular users with write access, such as in a read-only folder in a network drive and have the config file hidden to prevent modification.
  - Currently, there are six themes included with UXL Launcher and the option to use your own theme or a theme downloaded from the Internet. If a particular custom theme becomes popular enough within the community, it may become a built-in theme if the theme designer gives permission.
  - You can use a custom theme by selecting (Custom) in the theme list drop down box, then clicking the Browse... button next to the custom theme path textbox and navigating to the file you want to use, or by pasting the custom theme file's path into the textbox. Currently, the Browse... file open dialog has filters for XML files, TXT files, and all other file types.
  - A wiki page on how to make your own custom theme is available here.
  - Theme engine output such as errors and theme file info can be shown by changing the value of the debugmodeShowThemeEngineOutput setting in the config file from False to True. It'll show up in the Visual Studio Immediate Window and any other configured debug listeners. Please be aware that this may cause the app to slow down if enabled.
  - Theme-related debug labels have been added to the main window.
- Users can now opt to use a custom statusbar greeting personalized with their firstname or nickname.
  - This is configured under Tools>Options...>Personalization tab>Use personalized statusbar greeting and typing in a firstname or nickname into the textbox below the radio button, then clicking Save.
  - The resulting statusbar greeting will be in the style of Welcome back to UXL Launcher, Firstname!
  - The name typed into this textbox will not be used to personally identify the user.
  - If necessary, you can use the Clear button to the right of the textbox to erase all content within the textbox and set focus to it for easier firstname/nickname changes.
- Hide When Minimized (View>Hide When Minimized) allows the user to hide the main window and only use the Quickmenu to launch apps. Double-clicking on the Quickmenu icon or right-clicking the Quickmenu and clicking Show UXL Launcher will both show the main window again.
- The titlebar text now includes information on whether the app build currently running is considered "Stable", "Git" (built from code and not ready for release), or any other status.
- Information on the theme engine and applauncher-icons (most of the icons used in UXL Launcher) has been added to the About window.
- A bunch of screenshots have been added to a wiki page linked from the readme.
- Buttons that update based on current build status that link to the AppVeyor page for UXL Launcher have been added to the readme.
- The UXL Launcher logo has been added to the readme.
- Better code organization.
- Information on how UXL Launcher and Drew Naylor are not associated with Microsoft and that Microsoft does not endorse this software has been added to the project.
- Additional applications are now listed in the part of the boilerplate text that says that UXL Launcher is not to be confused with other apps. The new ones are "UX Launcher" (an Android launcher) and "Ulauncher" (a Linux app launcher).
- applauncher-icons (most of the icons in use within this app) boilerplate text has been added to the readme.

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Changed:
- The readme and parts of the wiki have been improved since the release of UXL Launcher 3.0. This includes the addition of a "Screenshots" page in the wiki and a list of known Microsoft Office install locations.
- UXL Launcher icon and About window banner has an updated border that's a bit easier to see.
- applauncher-icons has been updated to version 2.1.
- The UXL Launcher icon is n...

Assets 3

23 Dec 20:23

DrewNaylor

v3.0

203b830

UXL Launcher Version 3.0 Stable

I am pleased to announce the release of UXL Launcher Version 3.0 Stable after three (3) months of work on this version alone! It's been almost three and a half years of work total on this app since I started working on Drew's App Launcher, the predecessor to UXL Launcher.

MD5 sum for "UXL-Launcher.exe" in the archive: E79767D259E4D504C0F64EEA2FBFF923

You can use a tool called MD5Check to compare the hashes.

Below this text is the changelog. It compares Drew's App Launcher version 2.8 to UXL Launcher version 3.0. UXL Launcher is the successor to Drew's App Launcher and was almost completely rewritten from scratch with very little code reused without modification from Drew's App Launcher.

UXL Launcher Version 3.0 Changelog:

Added:
- Support for Office 2010 via 365, Office 2013, Office 2013 via MSI, Office 2016, and Office 2016 via 365.
- Proper error handlers to tell the user that we can't find the specified program in the folder chosen in the Options window.
- Context menu to the systemtray/notification icon for quicker launching of most of the apps.
- Always On Top to keep the window on top of other windows that aren't set to Always On Top. Note that this is disabled temporarily when the Options window and About window are opened.
- Settings tester button in Tools>Options window>Test settings button to make sure everything is configured properly.
- Support for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows installs in the same EXE file.
- Proper About window with tabs for app info, License, and Acknowledgements.
- Button to open the System Info page in the Control Panel in the Options window>Advanced tab.
- Better organization with a menubar instead of a tab control.
- Better code organization.
- Link to the UXL Launcher wiki via Help>View Help Topics menubar entry which can be opened via Ctrl+F1.
- Exit button via File>Exit menubar entry.
- Banner to About window.
- Part of the boilerplate License notice from the code to About window paragraph.
- Support for HiDPI screens such as those found on the Surface Pro 4.
- Debugging labels to the main window for developers and general debugging.
- "Check for Updates" button in About window. This takes the user to the GitHub Releases feed.

Changed:
- Attempt to conform to Microsoft's UX guidelines.
- Brand-new icon that's visible at all the supported zoom levels in Windows Explorer.
- Main window size is smaller and more efficient.
- The Office Drive Location textbox in the Options window now accepts Backspace and lowercase letters. Note that it automatically changes lowercase letters to CAPITAL LETTERS when the user types in the box.
- Moved the Options window and Office Language Preferences to the Tools menubar menu.
- All the groupboxes on the main window have had their text changed.
- Blue text in the Options window is now black.
- Redesigned Options window.
- Reorganized app category groupboxes to an order similar to how people usually list off the Office apps (ie. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)
- Resized all the app icons on the main window to 50x50 pixels.

Removed:
- Support for the internal changelog pages.
- Support for Windows XP and Windows Vista
- "Version History" column and buttons from About window.
- Excess source code files that just add bloat.
- "Notes" textbox from the About window.
- Tab control on main window; replaced with menubar.
- Drew's Modification Exception has been removed in favor of just the Gnu GPL v3+.

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HOWEVER, IN UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Stable, MD5 CHECKSUMS WILL NO LONGER BE PROVIDED. THIS RELEASE CANDIDATE (and any other Release Candidates for Version 3.1) WILL BE THE LAST VERSION TO PROVIDE AN MD5 CHECKSUM BECAUSE IT'S A WEAK STANDARD. More details.

UXL Launcher Version 3.1 Release Candidate 1 Changelog

Releases: DrewNaylor/UXL-Launcher