Hi;

I've just launched a free tool to autamatize the deployment (download, installation and configuration)
of great open-source and freeware software to XP computers. So far, more than 50 softs are ready.

Please, see for yourself :
http://www.windowsdream.com

Use MultiSet.

MultiSet is an automatic program installer with a simple and convenient interface. Very often it takes a lot of time for a user to install the necessary programs after installing the operating system. And at the same time a user needs to change discs in CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives, enter registration data and make routine tasks, which takes a lot of time. MultiSet will install all the necessary programs automatically. And at that you will not have to write a single line of code!

Well, this is not exactly the same thing. The SysAngel Software Updater downloads software that has been packaged specially for that purpose (only MSI). That's why the installs are painless and 100% automatic, without even a single line of code to write.

I personally have to maintain these MSI packages... so I believe that when you install a Windows system for a relative or friend, and do not want to come back every time there's a software update / install to do, it's quite convenient a solution. And... since the softs are all opensource / freeware, I keep everything free, and give the packages and the Updater for free too.

http://www.windowsdream.com

I see that there is an installer. It must not be available yet, It is mentioned but not shown. Is the installer made to install apps at the same time windows is installed?

It's available on the download page. After you've installed it, you just have to launch it and choose what software is to be installed. Zips are downloaded and installed. It's a fast process.

But I see your point. I'll add the feature, so you'll be able to pre-choose which apps will be installed after Windows is installed, so to be usable in an unattended install with no user interaction. (You can already do so, but there's user interaction when it comes to choose the apps to add.)

Did I understand what you'd like my app to do ?

Hi;

I'm pleased to announce that an update of the Updater is ready.
In fact, I'd like a few people to give it a little test...

Amongst new features :
- more comfort in the GUI
- installation much more convenient (one stand-alone and automatic EXE, dotnet 2.0 included -- or not included if you don't need to install it)
- compiled with dotnet 1.1 only, so you don't have to upgrade to 2.0 if you don't want to
- a silent mode (argument: -s) to get upgrades with no questions nor GUI (but no new installation).

Think of it as a 500k soft that can complete an unattended windows installation, without the need to rebuild the CD/DVD each time there's a software update. Or think of it as something small enough to stand on a CD rather than on a DVD...

Natan -- to write to me: updater [at] windowsdream.com
http://www.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource
http://ping.windowsdream.com -- Partimage Is Not Ghost

If you are in fact serious about this project, then I would suggest you have it looked over and possibly carried on BetaNews.com, Softpedia.com, MajorGeeks.com, etc.. something. I don't want you to take this personally, but you're asking for people's First and Last names in order to get an ID. Maybe I'm wrong, but I smell a rat. Your web site is pretty bare of any real information and your WhoIs record is practically empty.

Hi;
thank you for this feedback. You're right... well, it's only new, and time has lacked.
I'm not crazy about personal info, and by all means, you can fill the form with crap and yet get an id

But yes, this is a serious project. I work in the field of system architectures (RIS, AD, MSI), and I find it natural to share some of the projects (like the PING, or the MSI packages themselves.)

Regards
Natan
http://www.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource
http://ping.windowsdream.com -- Partimage Is Not Ghost

Well like I said.. I could be wrong but I hope you understand how hesitant people are these days to not only give out information, but to run a utility and sign up for some kind of online updating service that the utility uses, when there isn't much info to go on.

Salut et bravo pour ton soft
Existe il une version Fr ?

edit : je passe par proxy et le download ne marche pas , une fois le soft installé..

Hi RoqueSpear ! yes, I believe you're right. I've just added a possibility for people to download the soft without registering, and then fully using it with anonymous registration. I'll have to work on the website so to explain that in fact, only the email has some interest for me, as a way to get some feedback, or to announce improvements sometimes.

The work is going on... By the way, I've seen the good job you've done in the field of packaging. Am I allowed to include a couple of them in my list ?

Natan
http://www.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource
http://ping.windowsdream.com -- Partimage Is Not Ghost



(Translation into English is below)

Salut hfrfc !
Merci beaucoup pour tes compliments. Il y aura une version fr d'ici un mois, je pense. Le temps de repenser l'allure de l'interface graphique, un peu austère actuellement.

Pour le proxy, ça a été prévu, mais pas encore documenté. Il suffit de lancer regedit.exe, et de remplir les clés HKLM\Software\Sysangel\Installer\Proxy\.

A bientôt
Natan

////

Hi hfrfc !
Thanks for your compliments. There should be a French version in about one month. BTW, I'll rethink the GUI, which is not very beatiful presently, though working.

There's a possibility to use a proxy. It has not been documented yet, in fact. Just launch regedit.exe, then feed keys in HKLM\Software\Sysangel\Installer\Proxy\.

Eg.:
SERVER => 192.168.0.66
PORT => 8080
USER => mydomain\myuser
PASSWD => topsecret

Natan
http://www.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource
http://ping.windowsdream.com -- Partimage Is Not Ghost

You can use them if you like, just keep in mind that they do not all install in the default direcrtories or with the default Start Menu shortcuts. As you may have noticed, there are explanations for each installer as to where these things are placed.

Thank you. Well, I for myself prefer to keep up with usual directories, and modified the MSI accordingly.

Announcing: 6 new applications have been added to the Updater's repository:

- AdobeReader ver. 7.0.5 (Lang.: EN)
- AdobeReader Language Support ver. 7.0.5
- DVD Decrypter ver. 3.5.4.0 (Lang.: EN) (Courtesy of RoqueSpear)
- FFDShow mpeg-4 video decoder ver. 20050803 (Lang.: EN) (Courtesy of RoqueSpear)
- Firefox ver. 1.5 (Lang.: EN)
- Virtualdub ver. 1.6.11 b23774 (Lang.: EN) (Courtesy of RoqueSpear)

(All these applications can be deployed directly onto your PC through the SysAngel Updater, which you can get there: http://www.windowsdream.com. It's connected to a regularly-updated software repository, and it's free).

Regards
Natan
http://www.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource

A link would be nice selanec... Could you post one please?!?

MultiSet can be downloaded there: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System.../MultiSet.shtml
Note that it's a shareware application, distributed as trialware.

MultiSet records the actions you make when manually installing a soft, so it can reproduce it later. This might help you in some cases, but it has nothing to do with my project. With my Updater, what is installed is only MSI Packages. This means that:

- they can be installed on a variety of platforms
- they are really silent
- you are sure to find an entry in the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel section
- they have the ability to be repaired when damaged
- and of course, that they are compliant to Microsoft's standard (Windows Installer service)

Another interest of the Updater is that you don't have to build an installation package. The MSI packages are being done on a regular basis, and stored on a web repository for the Updater to download and install.

Regards
Natan
http://www.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource
http://ping.windowsdream.com -- Partimage Is Not Ghost

Announcing: 2 new applications have been added to the Updater's repository:

- Royale Theme
A new theme, potentially destined for Windows XP, has leaked out of Microsoft and onto the web. The theme appears to have come out of a beta version of Media Center 2005, currently in testing. The theme is not a substantially different incarnation of the existing of Luna, the current default theme for Windows XP. You can see the main changes in the screenshots below; one could describe it as being a 'glass mod' of Luna. As Microsoft knows, it is very hard to please everyone when it comes to themes. However, I think they can be reasonably certain that most people will like this new version of Luna. Microsoft New Zealand is making available some free desktop backgrounds for use on your computer. Includes the New Zealand version of Bliss; the world-famous directional sign in Bluff; and the theme pack for Royale. Check back each month as we add more!

- GXTranscoder 2.23.0 build 2863 (Lang.: EN)
The GX::Transcoder is a flexible audio converter software, which is able to convert in a batch mode between a lot of audio formats. Additionally the Transcoder uses plugins to add more functions for transforming and playing audio files. The GX::Transcoder in it's standard version is able to en- and decode MP1, MP3, MP2, MPC, OGG Vorbis, PCM up to 7.1 Channel, G.721, G.723, G.726, G.729, ADPCM, GSM, VOX, DSP, VQF and RAW files as well as decoding QuickTime MOV and QT files. There are also AddIns available, which extends the Transcoder to handle the formats AAC, M4A, M4P4, LA, LPAC, WMA, TTA, OptimFrog, WavPack, FLAC, rkAudio, Real Audio, Speex, Bonk Audio and Shorten. There are plans to support even more audio formats. The transcoder also contains a video converter. This converter can transcoder between all installed avi codecs, mpeg with dvd, vcd and svs extension and wma video files. The GX::Transcoder can transfer the tags ID3v1, ID3v2, APE v1 and v2, Vorbis Comments, FLAC and WMA Tags. The GX::Transcoder is Freeware.

(All these applications can be deployed directly onto your PC through the SysAngel Updater, which you can get there: http://www.windowsdream.com. It's connected to a regularly-updated software repository, and it's free).

Regards
Natan
http://www.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource

Announcing: 1 new application has been added to the Updater's repository:

- Free Undelete 2.0 (English)

FreeUndelete is a freeware data recovery program for deleted files. In case of accidental deletion of files on a NTFS file system (used by default in Windows XP, 2000 and NT) FreeUndelete is the utility to help. See more: http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/

(All these applications can be deployed directly onto your PC through the SysAngel Updater, which you can get there: http://www.windowsdream.com. It's connected to a regularly-updated software repository, and it's free).

Regards
Natan
http://updater.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource
http://updater.windowsdream.com/why_msi.html -- Understand why installing packaged MSI is better

Hi there!

Just added :

- 7zip 4.32 (Lang: EN)
7-Zip is a file archiver with high compression ratio.
7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU LGPL.
The main features of 7-Zip:
* High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
* 7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU LGPL
* Supported formats:
o Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
o Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM and DEB
* For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
* Self-extracting capability for 7z format
* Integration with Windows Shell
* Powerful File Manager
* Powerful command line version
* Plugin for FAR Manager
* Localizations for 60 languages

- Paint.NET 2.5 (Lang: EN)
Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Server 2003. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

- Microsoft PhotoStory 3.0.1115.0 (Lang: EN)
Bring your digital photos to life with Photo Story 3 for Windows. Download Photo Story 3 for free and experience your photos in amazing new ways.

- Microsoft Producer 2.0.1389.0 (Lang: EN)
Microsoft Producer is an add-on tool for MS Office PowerPoint 2003. Producer 2003 is designed to let you easily incorporate audio, video, HTML files and still images with your MS PowerPoint slides to create dynamic and rich-media presentation.

What can I Do with Producer?
You can install and run Producer on your computer that is running the Microsoft Window 2000 or Window XP operating system. Producer is a standalone application that lets you take your PowerPoint slides and synchronize them with audio and video. This can be audio and video that you have already recorded on your computer or new audio and video content that you record in Producer. Furthermore, you can add still images and HTML files to your presentation. Working with Producer, you can create a variety of presentation based on your specific needs.

- Winamp 5.12 (Lang: EN) (Courtesy of RoqueSpear)
Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music player that supports MP3, MP2, CD, MOD, WAV and other audio formats, custom interfaces called skins, audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins.

There are three versions of Winamp. The Lite version has all the features described above, the Standard version adds Microsoft WMA/ASF support and features Visualization Studio and the Full version has all that plus Mjuice compressed audio format support.

Features
* Playback: playlist, randomize, shuffle, repeat
* Equalizer: ten band, load/save, song-specific pre-amplifier equalizer settings
* Visualization: built-in spectrum analyzer and oscilloscope, plug-in support
* Playlist editor: drag and drop, load/save, ID3 tag editor, sort
Interface: extremely customizable, dockable windows, skin support.

(All these applications can be deployed directly onto your PC through the SysAngel Updater, which you can get there: http://www.windowsdream.com. It's connected to a regularly-updated software repository, and it's free).

Regards
Natan
http://updater.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource
http://updater.windowsdream.com/why_msi.html -- Understand why installing packaged MSI is better

Hi there!

Just added :

- VobSub 2.23 (Lang: EN)
VobSub is a plug-in for VirtualDub that allows you to rip subtitles from DVD VOB files and to use the provided DirectShow filter for DivX playback with subtitles.

Package also contains other tools like SubResync which allows you to synchronize subtitles with your video file.

- Mediaportal 0.2.0 RC1 (Lang: EN)
MediaPortal turns your PC in a very advanced Multi-Media Center / HTPC.
It allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more. You get Media Portal for free/nothing/nada/nopes and best of all it is opensource. This means anyone can help developing Media Portal or tweak it for their own needs!

(All these applications can be deployed directly onto your PC through the SysAngel Updater, which you can get there: http://www.windowsdream.com. It's connected to a regularly-updated software repository, and it's free).

Regards
Natan
http://updater.windowsdream.com -- Auto-update your PC with freeware/opensource
http://updater.windowsdream.com/why_msi.html -- Understand why installing packaged MSI is better"