Repository Applications Update Information

I have edited Last10.Tweaks to now download the latest hosts file (if online or it will use the included one) and then it will add Trouba and my custom blocks to the end of the file as well as doing a find and replace to allow google ads to be clickable and a few other fixes. This is a major update to how it works, it does show a rapid succession of CMD windows as I am not sure if TheFreezerBox has a find and replace feature built in to SetupS or not (it's been a while), instead of using FART I use FNR as it allows wild cards etc.

If any of you test/use this please let me know how it goes and Freezer if you do happen to have a find and replace within file built in to SetupS, let me know and I'll fix it up to use that instead.

I added our hosts edits using #AddToHosts# from ssApp.cmd, but it took approx 3 minutes to add all 300 entries, so using type >> worked so much quicker.

 

Would it be appropriate to add similar updates to the tweaks meant for Win7?

 

Yes it would, the example is given, I do not have a Win 7 to test it with so if anyone wants to have a go at updating it please do.

Win 7 has the hosts in the same location so you would really only need to add the fnr.exe, hosts.append.txt and wget.exe to the main path and then add all the lines of text in ssApp.cmd below and including
"rem download latest hosts from someonewhocares else it will keep the older included one", this will make the Win 7 tweaks the same. Wouldn't hurt to add the new hosts file to the _PatchSYS.7z just so it's up to date and maybe Autoruns may need updating (I've not looked at 7 for many years now).

 

It's funny you mention it. I was thinking a couple days ago about the very same thing. The short answer is no, SetupS doesn't have that function built-in. A longer answer is it does have variable substitution built-in that it processes the various SetupS-related files with -- the ssApp/ppApp/ppGame.app/.ppg/.reg/.bat/.cmd, etc. files. What I'd like do is expand that variable substitution function to generic files (for example an app's .ini-files and such).

But how to explicitly process those files is another matter. I'm thinking the simplest way might be through the post-processing script; but it would need some generic keys to substitute. Something like this might work (if "fart.exe" were to be included in SetupS's tools folder)

Code:

%fart% --ignore-case "*.ini" "#AppPath#" "%AppPath%"

Or "fnr.exe", if that's more appropriate. I don't have any information about "FNR". But FART does have wild card support (but possibly with filenames only).

 

http://findandreplace.io/?z=codeplex

FNR allows reg expressions etc, it is the better of the two, it also allows you to build cmd lines to put in a batch etc, so give it a look/go first, FART is ok if you stil don't like it tho.

the "*.ini" could be "realfilename.ini" and it would only process the one file, so that suits me, FNR has sub folder support too tho if that is needed? quotes need to be allowed on the command line and as part of the search (I think FNR has support for that too). I would like you to include %FNR% or %Replace% and allow your SetupS to substitute the varibles before parsing the command line direct to FNR.exe's command line. maybe offer fart and FNR??

Gotta run, school starts back tomorrow, bust day.

 

""Effective April 9, 2019, Adobe Shockwave will be discontinued and the Shockwave player for Windows will no longer be available for download."

 

OMG - how long that has lasted is incredible, we will need the last version ever on the repo, just in case we want to play some gerbil in a blender or dumb ass bass etc as a SWF file.

 

@Trouba,

FYI, I've updated your latest Open-Shell with just with my most recent tweaks for Windows 8.1

It looks like you've been doing some changes/tweaks to Windows 7. I'm curious, do you know if those Win7 settings will work on Vista or if it would require a separate .reg file?

 

They might, Freezer, I'm not sure. I included your edited Win8.1 reg tweak file in the .35 version, or did you change it again?

 

Yeah, you were working with one of my older ones. I just made some changes to the Explorer toolbar more to my liking than I had before.

 

Yeah I had changed the Win7 reg file to set a more aero-y/transparent (tho dark) theme for the Win7 start menu. Same menu style, different skin.

 

I have re-written Last10 Tweaks and fixed a missing 127.0.0.1 in the hosts updater, The reg files have been combined into single reg files (Re-Tweak is still separate to make sure things you want enabled are easy to find still), the new Last10 Release I am currently working on will have the tweaks cleaned from the scripts/logon folders, I may even attempt to make it self-populate so you only need to remember to update the one lot of .reg files in a single location (will see if I can get some other bigger bugs sorted first tho).

 

I noticed there are Tweaks ssApps for Last7 & Last10... any plans to do one for Last8? I know earlier BP inquired about an update to the Last7 one.

I looked into them out of curiosity to possibly make one for Last8 myself but wow, these ssApps seem much more extensive, comprehensive than those included in the "..\$RegTweaks\" folder -- almost overwelmingly so.

 

I'd need to download a Windows 8 to test it on, but I can't see a problem with Windows 10 tweaks being ran on Win 8, there would be a bunch we can remove at the top and in re-tweaks, but even if they are in the registry they shouldn't hurt anything.
The system patches are only hosts and autoruns, myUninstall. so if you happen to have a Win 8 VM up and running you could easily verify this works and then really all you'd need to do is rename it

Keep in mind that most of the tweaks included were migrated from windows XP to Vista then to Windows 7, Windows 8 and finally Windows 10. so most of them are well tested, if you happen to have a LastOS 8 (Awaken or CosmOS 8.1.3) then you can easily compare the tweaks from that as we don't have any Win 8 stuff in the repository anymore.

If you focus on each step of the Tweaker you can see that each thing it does happens one at a time the order is as follows;
Reg Tweaks (ssApp.reg)
Scripts; ssApp.cmd; Extract Patches, Apply Re-Tweaks, Enable UAC, Disable Wake to Update, Passwords to never expire, Download hosts to OS, Append Our hosts mods to hosts, Search and replace hosts mods to enable Google ads to be clickable etc.

Looks complex, but each step is very easy to see one at a time

 

Yes I know what you mean. I've got a couple "Internet Time" tweaks from XP that still work and I still use.

 

Remember that the context menu tweaks will likely not all work (will leave you with dud entries) as they have made changes even between Win10 versions where it comes to .dll's or resources the reg tweaks point to. There are also a number of Win10-specific tweaks in the Win10 tweaks that again were new options in later Win10 versions that I had to hunt down that don't at all apply to Win8 or 7. But probably 90% will be viable still between OS's.

 

BTW: Virtualbox v6.x can no longer be installed on a 32-bit host OS, although it can run 32- and 64-bit OS as guest/VM. So next time I'll update the ssApp to be x64-only (forgot that before upload). So VB v5.x is being maintained as the option that allows you to install VB on 32-bit host OS, hence both are there in the repo now.

 

XMedia Recode is now a dual arch ppApp since v3.4.7.0 as they added a x64 option.

Free Alarm Clock is a nifty little app, if somehow your phone, tablet, and memory won't work Just make sure you check the option for it to start with Windows or next time you reboot it won't load and nothing will go off.

EDIT: Also kept the Foxit Reader ppApp a little less "lite" than previously; now only Creator (virtual pdf printer driver) and ConnectedPDF and some other features aren't there but most features and plugins are retained for the ppApp version, hence the absence of "lite" in the name. Foxit normally makes a Promotional version (larger installer) and a clean installer, but they moved to a different download link methodology (unique identifiers for each installer) so I haven't made the ssApp version yet as I could only find the Promotional installers (include demo for Foxit Phantom).

 

There are always a few apps that call home to check for updates or licensing without giving one the ability to disable this, etc. So I found this batch script that, if you put it in a program's directory and run it, will add a firewall block for the exe's within that directory. It's a bit heavy-handed as it targets all exe's even in subfolders. It would probably be better to just target the culprit exe only, but then again but for a few apps that we do want connecting to the internet it'll probably be fine to use. This is the code inside the .bat file:

Code:

@echo off
@ setlocal enableextensions
@ cd /d "%~dp0"

for /R %%a in (*.exe) do (

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Blocked with Batchfile %%a" dir=out program="%%a" action=block

)

I run this from the pp/ssApp.cmd as follows:

Code:

CALL "%AppPath%\_Block-EXEs-in-Firewall.bat"

It works great so far, but of course any improvements/refinements are welcome. I was thinking this ought to be a SetupS feature, no?

 

Just so you know, if you remove the /R it will remove the recursive option.

If you wanted it to only do the first (alphabetical) in the folder only add a "exit" without quotes above the )

If you wanted to target a certain file manually, swap both the %%a to the {EXEName}.exe and just use the CD /d line and the one netsh line (the rest wouldn't be needed)

BTW you can remove the @ at the start of the 2nd and 3rd line as the @echo off at the start will silence them.


Also thanks for the cd /d I never knew that was an option , will be stealing that one too.

Probably wouldn't hurt to have SetupS handle Windows Firewall, but seeing as not everyone here uses the inbuilt one, maybe it's better to just leave it external like it is?

 

I wonder if this would work even with the built-in Windows Firewall turned off? (As a matter-of-course, I always have mine disabled).

I don't usually have issues with "phone home" -- but then again I tend to lean more towards FOSS anyway. So I had thought y'all had used the hosts-file to accomplish those sorts of blocks -- which SetupS does have that feature for (the %AddToHosts% component tool) ... ?

 

I'm not sure, I generally use the Windows firewall, although I would think it would only affect the Windows firewall. However, what's tough sometimes is determining what sites to block in the hosts file, as some apps have dedicated update and/or licensing servers and you'd have to capture the outgoing pings of the exe's and that is a painful process in my experience. I recently repackaged some apps by ON1 (photo apps) that would summon Windows' personal/public internet access option window upon first start(s), which is system specific so you can't reg it out. Running this firewall block script prevents this.

I'd prefer it to be exe-specific, so not all exe's in the directory and its sub directories as the script is now. But talking about SetupS.... I think I just found a bug in it. When I enter the following line in the ppApp.cmd:

Code:

%Extract% "%AppPath%\_PatchPFx86.7z" -o"%ProgramFiles(x86)%"

and save with SetupS Editor, it changes that line to:

Code:

%Extract% "%AppPath%\_PatchPFx86.7z" -o"%ppApps%"

Maybe a good time?

 

Maybe. I think SetupS is confused because the ppApp is referencing the normal ssApp install-to folder of "Program Files" rather than the normal ppApp one of "ppApps". Which means you got auto-corrected. LOL

Is there any reason those patch files must be inside %ProgramFiles% instead of %AppPath% or %AppData%? But if so, as a work around, you may need to include the full path inside the archive and extract to the system-drive instead. Like so:

-o"%SystemDrive%"​

Which reminds me... there is a more serious bug involving %SystemDrive% / %SystemRoot% that I've not gotten around to fixing yet:

http://forum.lastos.org/index.php?threads/making-a-really-useful-windows-8-1.1687/#post-19461​

 

It is indeed a unusual request to make of SetupS, but writing to the Program Files Common folders for x64 and x86 always works well. I actually don't think the files in that _PatchPFx86 archive are required for the app to run because I used the app at first without knowing that those files weren't being written to PFx86, so unless some sub-program or plug-in (it's a photo software) uses those files, it's probably OK. They are mostly just runtime .dll's which should be installed on the system already anyway, so it's probably fine. The issue with some of these runtimes like vc runtimes is that they name the 64-bit versions the same as the 32-bit versions, which means you can't place both archs in the same directory. Microsoft at its best

If that workaround you propose works, that's all it would need, no problem. I just didn't think about trying that yet.

Yeah I remember you bringing that %SystemDrive% issue up now, what do you think it could be?

 

You're right. If even MS can't properly use their WoW64 subsystem, then what hope is there? (Confusingly named "%SystemRoot%\Syswow64" for 32-bit DLLs, libraries, & executables; and "%SystemRoot%\System32" for 64-bit DLLs, libraries, & executables...)

It's probably an error in the variable-substitution table. Either a typo or in the logic I used.