Win7 64bit: Avoid loosing settings!
Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 12:18 pm
Hi, I reinstalled Win 7 DE 64bit Home Premium (I had the RC whose lifetime ends soon). Hence, I reinstalled XnView. Installation worked fine. .ini etc were copied to C:\Users\MYUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\XnView which is fine. I overwrote the ini with my old ini from Win XP, after which it is important to do the setting F12 - System integration - Save Options - as ini in folder - User as without the setting, XnView might get the setting to save in XnView folder or in Windows folder which can be accessed by XnView in Win XP but can not in Win 7 - so XnView can't write there and looses the complete ini, also the one in user folder!
I consider the current situation as a major annoyance to users (risk of loosing settings) so a minor bug
@Pierre: I suppose that XnView makes a test write to the folder where the ini shall go (according to ini setting after startup and also after user changed the options (F12)). If test write sucseeds, proceed. If test write fails (i.e. on Win7 in xnView folder C:\Program Files (x86)\XnView and windows folder C:\Users\MYUSERNAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Windows\xnview.ini) prompt the user that the current setting will make him loose the settings, offer the working possibilities (ini in user folder C:\Users\MYUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\XnView or registry, maybe additionally offer to backup current settings as a file on desktop).
Side note: By the installer, *.JPG is not taken for XnView (remains Windows image viewer), just the other JPEG-filename-extensions. It can be assigned to XnView manually without hassle.
Kind regards, Georg
I consider the current situation as a major annoyance to users (risk of loosing settings) so a minor bug
@Pierre: I suppose that XnView makes a test write to the folder where the ini shall go (according to ini setting after startup and also after user changed the options (F12)). If test write sucseeds, proceed. If test write fails (i.e. on Win7 in xnView folder C:\Program Files (x86)\XnView and windows folder C:\Users\MYUSERNAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Windows\xnview.ini) prompt the user that the current setting will make him loose the settings, offer the working possibilities (ini in user folder C:\Users\MYUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\XnView or registry, maybe additionally offer to backup current settings as a file on desktop).
Side note: By the installer, *.JPG is not taken for XnView (remains Windows image viewer), just the other JPEG-filename-extensions. It can be assigned to XnView manually without hassle.
Kind regards, Georg
In the UI it's easy - disable the other options. On startup, if INI file contains windows or XnView folder (e.g. because it's a restored old INI or user did manually edit it), tell the user it is not supported on 7 so it will be changed to "user" - elsewise the user does not find his INI any more...