Changes for this version:
This release works around an issue with the file attributes display under Windows XP. Contrary to the documentation of the Windows shell PKEY_FileAttributes property, under Windows XP the property returns a string, not the attribute flag word. Consequently, the file attributes shown under Windows XP were random in prior release. This version resolves the problem for files in the file system by getting the attributes by an alternate method, and for other files (such as in a zip, or cloud storage), it uses the string form.
Fixes an issue where single item Keywords/Tags, and People names were not getting listed.
Resolves an issue with the recursion detection which prevented ExpPrint from processing sub-folders on SharePoint (WebDAV) mapped drives.
Includes the system error text when the listing path/file name is invalid/inaccessible.
This update includes support for additional properties:
There is also:
Following the release of version 5 we've tested ExpPrint against popular shell extensions for Microsoft's Windows Live SkyDrive: SDExplorer & Gladinet Cloud Desktop.
Users of SDExplorer Advanced should ensure they have a version of SDExplorer >= 3.0.0.179 - otherwise you'll get a crash with ExpPrint if you attempt to collect any hash values from the SDExplorer namespace.
This version of ExpPrint has a work-around to prevent a crash with the current version of SDExplorer base edition, though versions of SDExplorer >= 3.0.0.178 resolve the issue.
While V5 looks like its predecessor, we have rewritten its core and greatly extending the file and folder information that you can list.
1 Please note that the new media/document metadata features only work on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and later Windows operating systems.
2 Some Explorer shell extensions do not fully support browsing. For example, the current .NET Global Assembly Cache (GAC), (normally c:\windows\assembly) folder is not listed as it is displayed in Windows Explorer.
Reworked all file handling to cater for very long paths (> 260 characters) on both local drives and network shares. With previous versions, long paths over 260 characters were either missed or partially handled.
Fixes for multiple monitor usage. The viewer & updater application windows now appears on the same monitor as the main ExpPrint dialog. Previously they always displayed on the primary monitor.
Added a "center page" format style sheet.
Added an auto-update notification mechanism.
Change to the XML serialization to cater for using a space character - so that you can omit a time/date format.
Cosmetic fix to the progress dialog.
Update to the documentation.
Minor update to fix slow starting of Windows Explorer when Explorer is invoked in some situations (such as when using WinKey+E).
In rare situations where the display name of an item was inaccessible the result was a blank display name. The file name is now used if this occurs.
Getting the file owner now works much better. Previously it frequently failed to work for network shared drives.
In ExpPrint+ Listing (XML) mode, where a listing was created from a selection of items rather than from a single directory selection, the viewer may have reported a schema problem. The XML produced this way didn't conform to the schema (Fitem elements were at the same level as Ditem elements). Also, the directory total element was output as the wrong type (Ditem rather than Dtotal). The XML is now structured correctly and conforms to the schema.
In classic mode, size number formats could be corrupted if you used a digit grouping format of 12,34,56,789.
Classic mode is now deprecated and not available by default. Please contact us by email if you need to enable the old classic mode.
The “Generate” button on the ExpPrint+ page is now labelled “Create”.
The “Detailed Table Option” dialog’s Crc32 column option is now off by default to match the default setting in the main ExpPrint dialog. Similarly, the Version column is also off by default.
The progress dialog caption now reads "Creating Listing File" for ExpPrint+ (XML) listings.
The title of the listing now defaults to using the full path rather than just the display name. You can edit the title in the ExpPrint dialog before creating the listing.
Under the “Detailed Table Option” dialog, in the “Edit Column Display Name” dialog, the initial keyboard focus is now on the editable control.
Under the “Detailed Table Option” dialog, the indentation value is now explicitly formatted as a floating point number to make it more obvious that non-integer values are allowed.
The Edit Style button on the "Detailed Table Option" dialog now displays the standard elevation shield icon to signify that it invokes the editing application elevated. It does this so that you can save files to the ExpPrint Plugins directory - which requires elevates privileges under Vista and later operating systems.
The “ExpPrint Viewer” and the “Detailed Table Options” dialogs have been extensively reworked to provide sample views, explanations, and interactive previews for several options to make it easier to know what they do.
Improved shell integration - new transparent icons are used where the operating system supports them. The .xplisting file type is now recognised the same way other XML documents are by the operating system in that you can search their contents and display a preview of the raw document.
Internal reorganisation and performance optimisations
In some circumstances (such as large or slow networks), getting the owner and version information severely impacts performance, so these are now user configurable options in the listing generation.
Removed the OK & Apply buttons from the main ExpPrint dialog to remove any confusion – they did nothing!
No longer disable or hide the file selection controls of the viewer application when invoked with a filename.
As the dialog is now less cluttered we have removed the More/Reduce buttons that expanded/contracted the full dialog.
Each item can be a hyperlink, allowing you to navigate to the item from the listing displayed in your browser.
Time & Date formats are now editable combo lists rather than text controls, providing a list of common formats that you can select.
No longer automatically select the first item in the “Open Settings” drop list. This means the dialog always defaults to the default settings rather than those of the first settings file in the drop list.
If you save a new settings file, it's automatically selected in the “Open Settings” drop list.
New hide options. All sections of the listing can be individually hidden, giving increased flexibility in the types of listings that can be achieved. See the ExpPrint documentation for the details.
You can no longer type text into the size range combo box. The only options are those selected from the list. This change eliminates odd UI behaviour that could arise previously.
The size format now defaults to the user’s default regional setting.
Added an option to display large directories with emphasis – as was previously done for file items.
The shared directory indicator string is now user customisable rather than being fixed as "*".
Added a “Set Size Column Name” button. This automatically adds the correct size format name to the Size column text.
Reworked the default unexpanded style (NotExp). This style is used to indicate that a directory’s content is not shown. It now uses a newer CSS feature that most current browsers support. The result is that unexpanded directories are now listed with a "[+]" prefix rather than in strikeout. This works with IE8, and the current versions of FireFox, Chrome, and Opera. If you prefer the older strikeout, or an alternate style, you can create your own style definition.
The shared indicator column is now centered. It looks better that way if a "shared" heading text is used.
Added validation of the generated listing file against an updated schema definition file (expprint.xsd). If any file format issues are detected (there shouldn't be any) a message detailing the issue is shown.
Minor cosmetic changes:
Allow registered name in About dialog to correctly display '&' character.
Added notes on main dialog about hash generation facilities.
Updated documentation about browser compatibility - tested with current versions of popular browsers.
Fix for the Detailed Table Options dialog. The Hide Hidden check box was set to the inverse of its saved state.
Style sheets are now modular to simplify and reduce duplication in the style sheets. You can now select a combination of style sheets to construct the final appearance of the listing rather than having to create a single style sheet containing every aspect of the design. A default style sheet defining the general appearance is used in all cases to ensure a good basic presentation.
The "Detailed Table" viewer now has an Edit Style button to allow easy access to editing the style sheets.
Added EXE/DLL version listing and Crc32, MD5, and SHA-1 hash value listing facilities.
Time and date formats are now generated as UTC times and shown in your local time format or one of your choice.
File size can be displayed in the existing variable unit format where each item is displayed in the most appropriate units (bytes, KB, MB, etc.) for its size, or you can specify a set unit for all items. The size formatting can also be specified.
Fix minor issue in classic mode where system error messages were not being shown.
Added styling for hidden files and directories and new style sheets to take advantage of this by allowing hidden files to be displayed faint or not at all. Additionally, hidden items can also be removed from the listing entirely.
V3.0 (and the earlier trial V2 implementation) stored timestamp values in the generated listing file in a local format. V3.1 now uses a standard universal timestamp allowing dates and times to be displayed in a format of your choosing, but unfortunately it is incompatible with the previous version.
If you try to display a listing from a saved file created with the previous version you may encounter an exception like this:
System.FormatException: The string '2007-11-14 09:32:57 PM' is not a valid AllXsd value.
If you want to re-use your existing listing but don't need the date or time values displaying, don't enable any of the 3 timestamp columns (Modified, Created, or Accessed). Alternatively you can open your listing file in a text editor (Notepad is fine) and remove all the time and date values. The easiest way of doing this is to replace all the MTime, CTime, and ATime attributes with different names, for example, rename them to xMTime, xCTime, and xATime. Notepad and other editors allow you to replace all occurrences, so this only takes a couple of minutes to do.
V2 listings were saved as ".xml" files, to re-use them in V3.x rename them to have the extension ".xplisting".
We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but we thought it best to implement the change of date format as soon as possible.
Fully integrated the XML facility. This is now the default output format.
Reworked the XSLT default table format comprehensively.
Headings are now customisable parameters and most options are now done at display time in the XSLT rather than at generation time.
Table layout now has a separator row.
Alternating rows are now marked so they can be formatted in the CSS.
High values are now more correctly identified by a class rather than an ID.
File sizes are now displayed in a more compact format (KB, MB, etc.).
Column order is user configurable.
Multi-column output now has user a configurable number of columns.
CSS files are now user configurable at display time rather than at generation time.
XML listing has additional owner data.
Fix for text file output when date & time formats were set to "none".
Fix for sporadic loss of registration status.
Added facility to dismiss the temporary prompt for the XML output option.
Parameterised the XSLT files to cater for:
* Style identification of high sized files - the sample CSS files show the size in red if it's over the high threshold.
* Indenting of both files and directory items.
* Adjustable indenting spacing.
The XSL and CSS file references in the XML are now URL encoded so it now works with FireFox & IE, however Opera only works with relative paths.
Made the XML facility more visible - the Print action now asks if you want to use the XML facility.
Added request for feedback prompt on the XML facility.
Bug fix - the encrypted attribute was previously incorrect.
Pulled common xslt template code into separate files and use variables to define their behaviour, these are set after the file's inclusion.
Reworked the filtering on size examples. There's now no need for the catch all templates as the filtering is done on the predicate of the call-template operation.
For the full name template, sort by full name then type, rather than type then display name. This is much more appropriate for printing search results.
XML output file is now prompted for rather than relying on the text file option.
Default XSLT and CSS files are pre-selected.
XML output capabilities.
Fix full path output in the directory totals - it was duplicating the current directory.
Fix for a bug that could have occurred when printing search results and the first item was a file in a zip folder. This version no longer lists such files as the resulting information was misleading.
Vista compatible version.
Uses new registration numbering.
Minor cosmetic changes.
Internal changes for efficiency & future output capabilities.
Directory total includes the number of files as well as their size.
Fix incorrect error message reported when unable to open text output file.
Corrects a fault in the text file output where names composed of multi-byte characters were truncated.
Although there is little different in this version from the last release, the underlying code has been restructured to accommodate anticipated changes for the next major release. This release resolves the following issues:
When outputting as CSV, the file name field is now quoted (because file names can have ',' in them). Similarly, the size field is output without regional formatting so as not to contain any commas. A spreadsheet import should parse the quoted name, and provide its own number formatting facility.
Prevent the Print button action if you press Enter from the "Print to Text File" field.
This version resolves a few cosmetic issues:
If you used the "Full Path Name" option, each folder was listed with its name duplicated. For example, "C:\folder1" appeared as "C:\folder1\folder1". This issue was introduced with the folder size totalling changes.
Correctly applies the directory indent setting for directories that aren't processed due to the depth limit setting.
Fixes a mismatched indenting situation that occurred when processing an inaccessible directory.
Folder size totalling - at last!
If you select to output the size column, ExpPrint now shows 2 extra pieces of information:
1. The total size of files within that particular folder. This is displayed in the size column of the initial folder item line.
2. If the folder has sub-folders, the folder line is reprinted with the total size of files in that folder and its sub-folders. If you output the Type column, this shows as "<< Total Dir Size".
Note that the "Max. Sub-dir Depth" setting affects the total size results.
The contents of folders that are not printed are not included in the total, so, depending on your point of view, the results may be misleading.
The default attribute output is now more in keeping with what Explorer shows.
You can still see the full list by selecting the "Adv. Attributes" option.
Correction for a layout problem that could occur if the folder and body fonts were different sizes.
Improved consistent alignment of the printed columns.
This version incorporates a revised evaluation scheme.
For a limited period, the default settings are more user-friendly. After this period, the less-friendly default values apply and you will see a reminder message displayed when starting ExpPrint and when invoking the Print operation.
File and folder names now use the "path ellipsis" drawing method so the name is less likely to be truncated in situations where it is too long to fit the available column width. The name column also has a small space added to prevent it butting up against the adjacent column.
This release resolves the long standing quirky operation of the "Full Path Name" setting - so that it now works as you'd expect. It also incorporates changes from the MS Platform SDK to allow full XP themed display support.
Microsoft has released an update to their unicows.dll. This fixes most known issues that affected the earlier release of ExpPrint, and it re-establishes a more complete Unicode functionality in ExpPrint (when running NT4, Windows 2000, or Windows XP).
Fix to prevent a spurious error message if you cancelled the Print (Page) Setup dialog.
Work-around for a crash that could occur under Windows 9x due to a bug in the current version of the Windows 9x Unicode support library.
Discovered (and fixed) a long standing problem. It manifested itself under Windows XP if you print the contents of an NTFS drive that has the hidden "System Volume Information" restore folder present. The inaccessibility of this folder caused ExpPrint to incorrectly operate recursively, and it would eventually crash.
Temporarily removed the support for XP theme display because it causes spurious operation with the Unicode support library under Windows 9x (and it doesn't currently work anyway). We'll release an update when Microsoft has resolved these issues.
Fixed a crash that could occur under Windows 9x
Changed the installation to install unicows.dll in the application folder rather than in the windows folder. Note that unicows.dll is only installed under Windows9x/Me operating systems.
Unicode version. Uses the Microsoft Layer for Unicode DLL under Windows 9x.
Under NT4/2000/XP you can now print characters that aren't supported by your current code page (providing the chosen font supports them).
The text file output is still ANSI - so any file names with characters not supported in the current code page won't appear correct there.
Under Windows XP, while printing, the progress dialog displays the new "marquee" style control.
Added XP theme support, but there's a problem in XP so it doesn't work except under peculiar circumstances (such as right clicking on a shortcut in the Quick Launch toolbar)! Microsoft are aware of this problem, it might be resolved in a future XP service pack.
Code change to not print footer when outputting to text file (this may have caused a problem on some systems, though we're not aware of any).
Improved response to the Cancel button when printing to text file.
Now uses MSI setup.
Moved all language dependent strings into the resource for clean translation.
Use shell dialog font for a more conformant display under Windows 2000 & XP.
The text file name uses the auto-complete facility.
Tested Right to Left output. While we haven't conducted full Hebrew or Arabic testing (since we can't read it), it looks like the output should be OK on such systems. Let us know if it isn't!
Correction to support numerical output of file sizes in locales that use Indic grouping of numbers 12,34,45,789.
Prevent the ExpPrint menu option appearing on the Start button context menu.
Cosmetic adjustment to properly align the size header with the column data.
Changes to improve installation/registration and documentation.
Modified the About dialog. Changed the registration number field to make it a little easier to enter the number. Updated the home page URL and
added a mail link.
Introduced a minimum space between the name and size columns. This prevents the file name running into the size figures.
Fixed a typo on the main dialog.
Added support for new attributes introduced with Windows NT 2000. Added the "Skip Unlisted" check box to exclude folders that don't get expanded when the "Max sub-dir depth" limit is reached. With this check box off, sub-directories that aren't fully listed are printed with a *. With this check box on, those entries aren't listed at all.
Minor change to allow international registration names.
Minor - no change in functionality.
Rebuilt and updated documentation to reflect the self extracting installer.
Added the "None" formats to the date & time combo boxes to provide a proper method of inhibiting the time or date fields. Added a space character to the size column format so that the right aligned size column doesn't run into the left aligned column that follows it.
Bug fix. Prior to this version, if you printed the contents of a removable disk, and removed the disk, it could give rise to Explorer not being able to launch any programs from its Start menu. This version fixes this problem, which is easily avoided in earlier versions by leaving the removable disk in the drive.
Added support for colour selection of the fonts - you can now print the header/footer, body, and folder texts in their own colours.
Modified the footer printout slightly. The tab separator between the page number and time combined with the right alignment gave rise to truncation in some situations. The separator is now 4 spaces.
Fixes a minor problem where printing to a text file continues when you have an empty (or invalid) file name.
Enhanced indenting to give more flexibility. You can now indent as before (Directories only), indent files, or you can double indent by setting both Directories & files. See the help topic for a more graphical explanation.
ExpPrint now uses the standard system date & time formats in the date & time combo boxes, rather than using its own preset defaults.
Added the reverse sorting facility.
Changed the simple "Process sub-directories" setting to a "Sub-directory depth" entry. This gives you control over how many sub-directories are processed, so that you can choose to only list the top 'N' directories.
Note that directories that aren't listed in full will print with a "*" marker after their name to indicate that their contents are not printed.
Extra font settings for headers & footers.
Better optimisation in the use of the right aligned space left by the size column.
Indenting now applies to text file as well as the printed output.
Heading output to text file.
Changed logo & added the cosmetic bitmap display to the context menu for easier indication of the ExpPrint menu item.
Fixed a few minor cosmetic problems.
New registration system.
Full path name option for use with Explorer's Find Files facility.
The page footer now prints the page number, and date & time at the right hand side of the page, rather than centred, so that long paths aren't as easily overwritten.
Specific indication of system time & date setting facility in the time & date drop down combo boxes.
Fixed a quirk with user entered time & date formats - non default entries were lost when ExpPrint was restarted.
Fixed potential quirk in keyboard handling when controls are disabled.
This version is larger than prior versions because it no longer uses the MFC DLLs that V1.0 used.
Copyright ©JD Design 2011