MadBoy

Depends on your wife I was thinking to add sound disabler for those watching dirty movies at work

Windows Key + D shows desktop and doesn't hide anything and not all ppl have Windows key. My program on other hand has customized keys and hides your programs totally from taskbar so that even if someone sits next to you or takes over computer from you can't see them running (except in processes). Only way to see them is to press the Hotkey again. Hope that makes it more usefull and clears things up.

What is it for: This simple program will let you hide any program from your taskbar with simple press of HotKey and unhide it with the same hotkey when you're safe to show it again. Thanks to it you can quickly hide any program that you shouldn't be using at your office and/or don't want your boss/collgegues to see it. It hides program totally from taskbar and only way to see it is to press the Hotkey again. So even if people come and sit next to you they won't see anything. So lets say you're a coder and should be coding program and at same time you like to use mIRC to talk to ppl but your boss doesn't approve it and often he comes in to you and asks you to show him your work so he actually has to look at your screen for longer while. Now normally you would either have to close mIRC each time or just simply make it HIDDEN window. Hope that can be usefull for some. It is for me How to set it up: 1. Edit windows_hider.ini 2. Under the [HIDE] section put programs you want to hide (examples below) - full applications names can be used (as in Total Commander 7.0 Release Candidate 3) - partial application names can be used aswell (as in Total Commander) 3. Under the [MISC] section modify the hotkeys for exiting the program and for hiding/unhiding programs you need to hide. Exit hotkey is mandatory as program is invisible (no taskbar/no systray icon) with just process being active. So no other way then hotkey to stop it. Examples: 1. Lets say you want to hide 2 instances of Total Commander. You open up .ini file go to [HIDE] section and type: My_program_1 = Total Commander 7.0 Release Candidate 3 My_program_2 = Total Commander 7.0 Release Candidate 3 OR My_program_5 = Total Commander My_program_6 = Total Commander 7.0 OR My_program_7 = Total If you use 3 instances of Total Commander you have to put it there 3 times. If you just put 2 and you have 3 instances program will choose the last 2 used and will hide them. Keep that in mind when setting it up. This is very simple proggy and it's first release. If there will be more interest in it i might add some features You can download it from here: Windows Hider 0.1 Keyboard appendix from here: windows_hider_appendix.doc You will need it to set up properly Hotkeys as some can be and some can't be used due to some limitations

Hey, as you noticed yourself the diffrence is huge and mostly depends on speed of computer and how the drivers are packed and not realy on my program. Solution to that is to get bigger Usb stick to keep drivers unpacked Anyway having them 'cached' in my program would speed it up even more

Have you tried to use them without compresing them? Could you compare both methods? Compressed vs Uncompressed? And what's the time of each.

@Ashanti00 - as for the SetupCopyOemInf method unfortunetly it copies all the .inf files into directory so it's very painfull. I have a PLAN for every method to support only those nessecary but that requires going thru .inf files. So i was thinking about some little tool to create pre-db so that kind of information can be cached instead of looking at it at instalation time. - anyways i wouldn't worry about the 4000 chars limit too much. On your place i would test it if it works without problems first on RegistryPath method as i think it just ignores the limit realy. I've put it there just in case but i have tested it several times and it seems to just work fine. Especially that the number of chars in actual registry path is READ from registry so it is there Test that method and you should be okey. @geo411m - well it depends if you have used the packed drivers with .7zip or you unpacked them first. If you used packed drivers then it's normal for 7zip to take longer time to unpack those as they are heavily packed. If you have unpacked them before and the process is still taking long time then you should keep in mind that what actually windows does is going thru all .inf files and comparing them to device that's missing the drivers, and you have like 3GB of drivers! That is supposed to take time. You can do 2 things: 1. Limit the number of drivers in it (like keep one dir per few PC/Notebook models) 2. Use all drivers option only for realy bad cases when you are unsure what drivers are missing and it would take you longer to do it manually then doing it with my little proggy. Actually the solution for both of you is the pre-db of drivers .inf files and corresponding HW-ID to them. That would heavily speed up the process if i would create program that creates little db (simple file would do i guess) and that program should be run after you prepare your cd/flashdrive or drivers directory. Then my program wouldn't have to go thru all directories and add them to registry or copy using the other method but would actually just use the file to compare what Windows realy wants and put only 'right' stuff. It would save a lot of time i guess. That's in my PLAN for future addition to my proggy. Just i am preety much busy at work latly as i got too many things on my head. Right now i am in UK on delegation trying to takeover builds work from UK team so we can do it cheaper in Poland That's why the late answer aswell! Also my motivation on developing this proggy further running preety low @bingothepyro I was thinking a bit more about your request for UNCPATHS and i am not sure registrydevicemethod supports those. I haven't tested it but i see quite few problems. Especially when you are missing network card drivers Anyway temp solution for you is to write simple .bat script that would map unc path to some drive and then start my proggy using that drive and use that. This should be preety simple and fast solution. Maybe not that cute as built in feature of my proggy but it will do the job. If you won't be able to fix the .bat file yourself i can write the .bat file for you i guess.

As mentioned on first post this is normal behaviour for it. Just set Drivers_dir=\TEMP\D and everythign will be fine. I did it this way because CDROM or REMOVABLE always reports driveletter only, same when you use drive letter manually. To make it work diffrent for Relative i would have to do a lot of code workarounds and change stuff in many many places. That's why it's done this way. Also it might give ppl some confusion if once it will be only drive letter and the other time relative path. Besides as it's states Drivers_drive is Drivers Drive As for the UNCPATH's i'll see what i can do

Try "devcon.exe". Search for it on Microsoft. Helpfull utility and probably something you looking for. With it you can force some stuff. And don't be an a** about help here. Ppl have holidays you know..

Have you tried looking at Bashrat DriverPacks? I think he has some nvidia drivers extracted. Might give you hints.

Exactly This forum has given a lot of help. Problem is if your question is something not much ppl done before it might take some time to answer this. Problems with hw/drivers are very specific and aint easy. Don't take anything as granted m.i.l.e.s. People here do have jobs, families, other responsibilities then sitting on forum and when seeing the question and not knowing the answer going and testing it out for you. Actually m.i.l.e.s the simplest solution for you I can give to you is to actually rename some sys, cat and change info in .inf file and try to see if Windows picks it up. Test it on one driver (within Windows) by Plug & Play. For example: 1. Install Windows without any drivers integrated 2. Find some device that isn't discovered by default 3. Rename all files, change info in .inf files 4. Go to Device Manager and make it pick it up by Update driver option or so (you know the drill) If it works you might also want to try the automated version for that (on diffrent driver/device also being unknown for this system). 1. Add path to driver to registrydevicepath in Registry (I hope you know the full path, i am too lazy to paste it ;p) 2. Go to device manager 3. Remove device from system 4. Press Plug&Play redetection button Now if Windows picks it up without any problems i'm sure you can positive on effects for your other methods. To be honest when i posted first time to you and said "i am not sure" it's because i didn't tested this but i can't see why this wouldn't work if you keep everything tight and pointing into right directions. Only thing that could be broken is signing drivers but also not positive on that. I don't have enough time to test this stuff for you but i am sure you can manage to do it yourself. Afterall you are the one having problem. Bashrat/IceMan would prolly know this as they got into .inf files preety much a lot (IceMan due to his backup tool for drivers) and Bashrat because of his driver packs. But as I know they are Busy in Real Lifes. Hope this helps you and when you have positive effects go ahead and post solution that can be used by others.

Well i am not sure this will work. From my WFP and SFC are diffrentthings then unsigned drivers. Well why are you using Method SetupCopyOemInf then? That's what it does. It implements every inf it finds into Windows drivers dir. Of course this could be changed by either preparing packs for each computer by hand. Otherwise it's a lot of work for program to do it. If you want drivers just for devices you have installed use RegistryDevicePath method which will only put drivers that need to be put and will skip the rest. Those are 2 diffrent methods and you should be the one to choose which one suits you the best.

@jeca, You can go into Properties of My Computer / Hardware and change policy to ignore unsigned drivers. I am trying to implement that in program itself so it would be done automatically. Currently there's no other way to done it then Manually / Setting it during unattended instalation. Problem with automatic that process is that it isn't simply registry changes. It will require me to actually "go and press the right buttons" with AutoIt mouse gesture/windows controling. I have some ideas how to do that and all. Just not realy motivated I use RegistryDevicePath method which seems to me little less invasing.

New version is out. Needs testing if it doesn't crashes and if it detects/removes everything correctly. Please make sure to report everything! @JECA please test it on your computers. It was done so it works for you. But i am not 100% sure i have done everything correctly so expect even crashes ;p Changelog for 0.7.1 - Fixed (hopefully, needs testing) better detection of devices with problems (thanks Jeca) - Cleaned up, change code for removal of devices (requires testing aswell) Download available in first post.

@jeca i'll take a look at it on monday again and will try to add another conditional statement and have it read the problem in such cases aswell. I think i see a way to do it So no worries. You will get yourself easier job! Cheers!

@jeca debug log shows that: PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001A&SUBSYS_3A161186&REV_01\3&61AAA01&0&58 Name: Ethernet- Device has a problem: 28. This is correct entry however my program assumes that it would look like this: PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001A&SUBSYS_3A161186&REV_01\3&61AAA01&0&58 Name: Ethernet- Device has a problem: 28. That's why the program doesn't see it. The "new" program i sent you in last post has diffrent approach and see that device. However it has no other functions added so far then detection and listing of devices and it may take a while to even make it usable ;P Don't know realy what i can suggest to you. Is anyone else having that problem? Maybe this is something common only for Russian systems? On all tested computers it was working fine so i wonder now.

Sorry Jeca. Gave you wrong link. Sometimes my versioning system ain't that good and i lost myself. Here's the version i was meant to give you to check http://www.pro-solutions.pl/download.php?id=8531532142 This is Pro_S_Hardware Installer, diffrent approach. If it doesn't show anything usefull for you then i am lost What we can more do is to debug how devcon.exe works for you, and why it doesn't detect your 'bad' devices. try running 'devcon.exe status * > debug.txt ' and send that to me

@fizban2 - i didn't checked anything yet on forum, i've assumed that when new drivers are rlsed few days ago it would be the working ones since i read about XFi problems ages/months ago. @dale5605 - i will buy 2gb ram, dual core and best graphics card there is if i will know it will be usefull for anything else then just simple system and to get Winamp running. If i can't have Vista running with just Winamp open and i can't then go thru dirs on hdd because it's causing problems with playing music then something is wrong. If i have to buy new hw and see that the system takes 30% and rest is for games or anything else it's preety bad. My hardware setup ain't that bad yet, i installed Vista to test few things and i am dissapointed for now. I don't even want to mention that when i play music and i start Media Center in ultimate vista then the music is hardly playing anymore. I am realy afraid to even start games with my current setup on Vista even thou on WinXP they were working quite nice and i could play newest F.E.A.R without problems.

@jeca Please go deep into this device and check the error code number it has. Also please try version linked below. This one doesn't remove anything or change anything but it should show Status on device. Make sure device that is not findable by hardware0.7 is found by this one. If it is oh well then there's a lot of work for me to make it working as this is just GUI and few checks. No code. I also think that devcon might have issues with your language. I am not realy sure what might be wrong It's hard to work on something that you don't have full access to. Anyways try this one and tell me if it shows anything else then OK on that Device. http://www.pro-solutions.pl/download.php?id=2311123534

Don't quote me on this but probably if you will put correct information into .inf and any other place you need to after you rename .sys file and .cat files everything should be fine. Just you will always have to remember that especially when new drivers comes out and you will have to prepare them again and again and again. I'm sure someone more experienced on drivers then me like IceMan or Bashrat should easly answer this.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum - SBXF_PCDVT_LB_2_13_0012.exe with date 10.3.2007. However i see that there is driver with same name that was released 15.03.2007. So downloading it now and will check it out but it would be weird to use exactly same numbers. Edit: Same problem when installed the ones from 15.03.2007. Actually those were the same drivers but turns out they were diffrently dated.

Hello. I've Vista Ultimate x32 installed on AMD Athlon x64 3000 / 1gb ram / sata 2 hdd / some Asus mobo and Sound Blaster X-Fi with newest drivers installed. My problem is that when i simply without doing any changes to system run WinAmp and play music in it my processor usage for just this simple tasks goes up to 40-50% (counting audiodg.exe and winamp process). If that wouldn't be enough when i start playing with windows aka trying to access directories on hdd, switching between other windows (doing usual work, not even starting other programs!!) music stops for 1second or causing little noticable interrupts. I have read about AudioDg.exe being the protective drm crap and causing some problems. I am aware that my PC isn't something great but i'm not gonna upgrade computer knowing that it will behave similar even with 2gb ram or dual core. Question is if this is just Sound blaster bad drivers, bad vista audiodg.exe process that or maybe realy my computer isn't "suitable" enough for this simple task .. playing music. hope somebody can share his experience on this

Not a biggy kickarse. Everyone has his own work. I implemented that feature for you but it's up to you to use/test it. I don't need it so no problem.

Changelog for 0.7.0 - Added option Force_run [ADVANCED] to ommit checking for unknown devices (even if 0 devices without drivers are detected program still can be run) - Added option Reboot [ADVANCED] that in Automatic mode can reboot or shutdown pc after program is done running. - Added option Plug_and_play [ADVANCED] to have ability to choose between Internal Plug & Play command and Devcon Rescan (was requested) - Fixed hopefully 7zip problem with long filenames/spaces ADVANCED options in .ini Plug_and_play - possible options are Internal or Devcon. It enforces use of one of the functions depending on preferences of the user. Force_run - possible options are Yes or No. It gives ability to force run even if there are no devices that require action. It can be used if devices are not visible yet for system when the program is run but when Plug and Play rescan command is run they would normally show up but wouldn't be able to find drivers. Reboot - possible options are 0 or 2 or 6 or 9. Gives ability to reboot/shutdown pc after application is ending it's work. Works only in Automatic Mode. 0 means no reboot at all. 2 means reboot computer when done, 6 means run force reboot when done (closes other applications etc), 9 means shutdown and power down computer. Cheers Ps. If you guys have any questions lemme know I'll try to help.

I'll test them on Saturday. CUrrent drivers are bad or just Vista audio protection system is bad (choose one) :|

I have new version (0.7) ready Just waiting for MSFN to give me some space for my thread so i can upload it directly to forum. New version adds Reboot options in automatic mode, force_run for @wisalius, and does some minor fixes that i will put in changelog as soon as version is released