Analyze-It, Browser Extension, Internet Explorer, Javascript, Look-It-Up, Plurk-It, Share-It, Windows

Internet Explorer Context Menu Chooser Application Version 2

Analyze-it menu chooser

Analyze-it menu chooser

With this new version the Analyze-it context menus were updated to the most recent version. Analyze-it contained so many menu items that I had to add a counter to the interface to indicate when there are more than the twenty menu item visible limit. The menu counter is only active for page context (basic context menu the page provides – nothing selected in other words) menu items. I suppose when there are more than twenty selected text context menus I’ll have to add another one; this is good for now. The counter only indicates when you are over the visible limit, it doesn’t prevent you from going over, which helps you fine tune your choices.

Analyze-it context menus

Analyze-it context menus

I had to break out Analyze-it into three logical, domain based sections, making it easier to choose the menu items you would like to use.

Analyze-it-Scritch menu chooser

Analyze-it-Scritch menu chooser

 

Scritch menu items

Scritch menu items

Scritch.org has its own section in the application now, making it easier to discern their tools from the rest.

ViewDNS menu chooser

ViewDNS menu chooser

ViewDNS provides a group of helpful online tools on their site that I have included menu items for in this release. The application is now up to date with my other add-ons hosted in various places. Again, if you are running a tablet exclusively, this application isn’t for you. This application is used with Internet Explorer not Microsoft Edge (the tablet browser included with Windows 10) . If you are on a Surface device and if you use Internet Explorer with your keyboard and mouse – this will give you extra context menus.

ViewDNS menu items

ViewDNS menu items

There is a newer version available – see post here

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Analyze-It, Browser Extension, Google-Music-Search, Google-Open-Storage-Search, Google-Translate-It, Internet Explorer, Javascript, Look-It-Up, Plurk-It, Share-It, Windows

IE11 Menu Addons – New Version – 1 – Happy New Year!

New Internet Explorer 11 Menus Version

 

This release basically fixes a few bugs and adds Google Music Search to the menu. I’ll be using whole numbers from now on on these installers (just makes things easier). I had to remove tumblr from the menu as their format changed (no more sharing with a GET request). Fixed the Fetch and Guess tools to be compliant with their new versions – so they should work properly. The spaces in query bug in Google Open Storage search was fixed – so multi word queries work properly.

Download and Install IE11 Menu Addons for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1

New Version Completed – Read and download from here.

If you’re paranoid about the download – the hash values for the file are listed on the Repo page.

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Windows

This is My Take on Windows 10 Technical Preview

New Start Menu

I had the opportunity to try out the Windows 10 Technical Preview recently and I was happy to see that the Start menu has returned with a facelift of sorts. The Start menu on Windows 8, as we all know, was changed to suit a touch interface. This was really great for their premiere surface tablet line up – but for desktop users without touch functionality this left a lot to be desired.
Personally, I do far too much on my system to even be able to rely on a touch interface at this point. The keyboard and mouse will not be going away any time soon in my life. Its shameful that Microsoft made the assumption that everyone would prefer that type of, non-selectable I might add, interface. Why shameful? I learned user interface design from Microsoft and MSDN while I was learning Visual Basic 6 eons ago – they have a tremendous investment in it that was ignored in Windows 8 (unless you’re a tablet user that is).

Application Menu Scrolls – Live Tiles Never Disappear

Enough of my ranting; Microsoft is fixing the Start menu problem now. Albeit, you’ll have to pay for a new version. There are other, less spectacular improvements on the way as well.
Windows users will have the opportunity to set up multiple desktops and switch between them. Granted, most Linux users have had this feature enabled on their desktops since the dark ages – now Windows has it.

Multiple Desktops Now

Window snapping has also been improved with selectable stacking (or tiling) with more than two windows. In the preview version I was using there was gaps between the snapped windows that made it less desireable. I have to assume that this will be remedied by the release date however.
I would have really liked to put Windows 10 through a couple of months of hard usage but my Nvidea drivers refuse to install as the version number is unrecognized by the driver installer. So I shouldn’t say I had the full “user experience” when I tested it. (Everyone knows – no video drivers = poor computing experience). Still, overall, it ran as well as Windows 8 on my box.
Windows 10 is still a work in progress. In my opinion it has a long way to go before they should actually call it a new version. It’s still Windows 8 with a facelift that suits desktop users in other words.
The technical preview is requesting that you (the tester) submit your views and opinions as you use it. That’s probably the most important improvement – the user opinion factor. So if you have an extra box laying around that you use for testing – try it. Put your two cents in and try to make the OS a bit better in the end.

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AIR, Javascript, Prattsville N.Y., Windows

Adobe AIR Application – Prattsville NY Creek Gauge (Alpha release – Windows only)

Simple System Tray Icon application that keeps a small meter that displays the water level of the Schoharie Creek in Prattsville N.Y. within sight on the Windows desktop

This is a useless application to anyone other than people who live in Prattsville N.Y. and the surrounding area. It utilizes the data received from the unmanned experimental sensor located in Prattsville (the gage house is on the side of the creek down by the bridge). There is no Mac functionality at this time for this application (maybe later on). The code is less than elegant at this point. However, there is a view source context menu item if you would like to view the code anyway (Mac users unzip the installer).
I wrote this application for myself to keep an eye on the creek water level in my neighborhood – sorry if its not perfect at this point.

  • Downloads water level datum and default hydrograph every 30 minutes (And caches them on the system in case of disconnection).
  • Click on the icon to download and display the most recent NOAA hydrograph in the lower right corner of the viewport
    (click on it again to make it go away)

  • Icon displayed changes to reflect changes in the water level.
  • Added context menu items that open various pages related to Prattsville N.Y. in the default browser

Download Prattsville NY Creek Gauge
(Requires Adobe AIR)

				  File: PrattsvilleCreek.air
				CRC-32: 4d057fdb
				   MD4: 0f5aa9605d292368cb546fc55ef8d81c
				   MD5: f53dbe407bfc5b477c84a7d9f66d0071
				 SHA-1: fdf93f2f2af533d8e80c84ad1a7621a7269279c5
                

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AIR, Google-Music-Search, Google-Open-Storage-Search, Javascript, Windows

Adobe AIR Application – Google Music Search

Adds Music Search functionality to Windows and Mac. Provides the functionality of the Google Music Search and Google Open Storage Search Chrome add-ons to Windows and Mac users. Opens up the Google search query in the default system browser whatever that may be.

application.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.5">
 <id>com.timothytocci.example.Google.Music.Search</id>
 <filename>Google.Music.Search</filename>
 <name>Google.Music.Search</name>
 <version>1.0</version>
 <description/>
 <copyright/>
 <initialWindow>
 <content>Google.Music.Search.html</content>
 <systemChrome>none</systemChrome>
 <transparent>true</transparent>
 <resizable>false</resizable>
 </initialWindow>
 <icon>
 <image16x16>icons/musicsearch_16.png</image16x16>
 <image32x32>icons/musicsearch_32.png</image32x32>
 <image48x48>icons/musicsearch_48.png</image48x48>
 <image128x128>icons/musicsearch_128.png</image128x128>
 </icon>
</application>

Google.Music.Search.html

<html>
 <head>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="lib/air/AIRAliases.js">
 </script>
 <script type="text/javascript">
 var thisVersion, currentVersion;
 var iconLoadComplete = function(event){
 air.NativeApplication.nativeApplication.icon.bitmaps = [event.target.content.bitmapData];
 }
 air.NativeApplication.nativeApplication.autoExit = false;
 var iconLoad = new air.Loader();
 var iconMenu = new air.NativeMenu();
 var showSearchCommand = iconMenu.addItem(new air.NativeMenuItem("Music Search"));
 showSearchCommand.addEventListener(air.Event.SELECT, function(event){
 showSearch();
 });
 var exitCommand = iconMenu.addItem(new air.NativeMenuItem("Exit"));
 exitCommand.addEventListener(air.Event.SELECT, function(event){
 air.NativeApplication.nativeApplication.icon.bitmaps = [];
 air.NativeApplication.nativeApplication.exit();
 });
 if (air.NativeApplication.supportsSystemTrayIcon) {
 air.NativeApplication.nativeApplication.autoExit = false;
 iconLoad.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(air.Event.COMPLETE, iconLoadComplete);
 iconLoad.load(new air.URLRequest("icons/musicsearch_16.png"));
 air.NativeApplication.nativeApplication.icon.tooltip = gettooltip();
 air.NativeApplication.nativeApplication.icon.menu = iconMenu;
 }
 if (air.NativeApplication.supportsDockIcon) {
 iconLoad.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(air.Event.COMPLETE, iconLoadComplete);
 iconLoad.load(new air.URLRequest("icons/musicsearch_128.png"));
 air.NativeApplication.nativeApplication.icon.menu = iconMenu;
 }
 checkVersion();
 showSearch();

 function checkVersion(){
 var appData = air.NativeApplication.nativeApplication.applicationDescriptor;
 var dp = new DOMParser();
 var xml = dp.parseFromString(appData, "text/xml");
 var version = xml.getElementsByTagName("version")[0].firstChild;
 thisVersion = version.nodeValue;
 var url = new air.URLRequest("http://weyou.us/apps/GoogleMusicSearch/version/");
 var loader = new air.URLLoader();
 loader.dataFormat = air.URLLoaderDataFormat.TEXT;
 loader.addEventListener(air.Event.COMPLETE, compareVersion);
 loader.load(url);
 }

 function compareVersion(e){
 currentVersion = e.currentTarget.data;
 if (currentVersion > thisVersion) {
 openInBrowser("http://weyou.us/apps/GoogleMusicSearch/");
 }
 }

 function gettooltip(){
 var temp = "";
 temp = "Google Music Search" + "\n";
 temp = temp + " Use google to find music.";
 return temp;
 }

 function showSearch(){
 var init = new air.NativeWindowInitOptions();
 var win = null;
 var height = 228;
 var width = 500;
 // adobe bug - should be centered perfectly
 var top = (air.Capabilities.screenResolutionX / 2) - (height / 2);
 var left = (air.Capabilities.screenResolutionY / 2) - (width / 2);
 var spot = new air.Rectangle(top, left, width, height);
 init.minimizable = true;
 init.maximizable = true;
 init.resizable = false;
 init.type = "lightweight";
 init.systemChrome = air.NativeWindowSystemChrome.NONE;
 win = air.HTMLLoader.createRootWindow(true, init, false, spot);
 var form = air.File.applicationDirectory.resolvePath("search.html");
 win.load(new air.URLRequest(form.url));
 }

 function openInBrowser(url){
 air.navigateToURL(new air.URLRequest(url));
 }
 </script>
 </head>
 <body>
 <!-- This page is never shown. -->
 </body>
</html>

search.html

<html>
 <head>
 <style>
 body {
 background-color: white;
 }

 input {
 height: 30px;
 width: 450px;
 }

 #goo {
 padding-top: 20px;
 }
 </style>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="lib/air/AIRAliases.js">
 </script>
 <script type="text/javascript">
 var win = window.nativeWindow;
 var stay = false;
 var staycount = 0;
 function close(){
 win.close();
 }

 function timeout(){
 if (!stay) {
 close();
 }
 else {
 staycount++;
 }
 if (staycount === 3) {
 staycount = 0;
 stay = false;
 }
 }

 function doquery(query){
 url = "https://www.google.com/search?q=" + encodeURIComponent(query);
 openInBrowser(url);
 }

 function openInBrowser(url){
 air.navigateToURL(new air.URLRequest(url));
 }

 window.onload = function(){
 var dlg = document.getElementsByTagName("body");
 dlg[0].addEventListener("mousedown", function(){
 stay = true;
 staycount = 0;
 win.startMove();
 }, false);
 dlg[0].addEventListener("mouseover", function(){
 stay = true;
 staycount = 0;
 }, false);
 var inpt = document.getElementById("query");
 inpt.addEventListener("change", function(){
 stay = true;
 staycount = 0;
 }, false);
 var btnmusic = document.getElementById("music");
 btnmusic.addEventListener("click", function(){
 var input = document.getElementById("query");
 var text = input.value;
 var query = 'intitle:index.of +?last modified? +?parent directory? +(mp3|wma|ogg|wav) +"' + text + '" -htm -html -php -asp -jsp -"Passwords"';
 doquery(query);
 win.close();
 }, false);
 var btnstorage = document.getElementById("storage");
 btnstorage.addEventListener("click", function(){
 var input = document.getElementById("query");
 var temp = input.value.split(" ", 2);
 var filetype = temp[0];
 text = temp[1];
 var query = 'intitle:index.of +?last modified? +?parent directory? +(' + filetype + ') +"' + text + '" -htm -html -php -asp -jsp -"Passwords"';
 doquery(query);
 win.close();
 }, false);
 setInterval(timeout, 5000);
 }
 </script>
 </head>
 <body>
 <center>
 <div id="goo">
 <img src="google_logo_front.png"/>
 </div>
 <br/>
 <div>
 <input name="query" id="query" type="text" align="center" placeholder="enter a bandname or filetype and query"/>
 <br/>
 <button id="music">
 <img src="google_music_search_button.png"/>
 </button>
 <button id="storage">
 <img src="google_open_storage_search_button.png"/>
 </button>
 </div>
 </center>
 </body>
</html>

Original Source

MD5: ff8765b516c027539d18693a8b0adc73

Install Music Search

MD5: d3084dfb2406a68a3957d63acffa33c1

 Adobe AIR application installers can be unzipped to inspect the code (if you don’t have 7-Zip you’ll have to change the file extension to .zip – do it on a copy).

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Windows

Altering the “New” Explorer Menu in Windows

When you’re using Windows Explorer to set up a project skeleton for a new project the “New” context menu within Explorer can really help productivity. Being able to create blank files of the proper type can save time and aggravation. The only problem is that the “new” menu not easy to alter and the default entries are less than helpful sometimes.

The first time I looked into changing things around I searched the Windows folder looking for a simple answer. I figured there was a folder there that I could just add files to at least extend the menu, and there was. But simply dumping a file into the folder didn’t do anything. So after searching the Internet and combing through a few message boards and forums I came up with a solution.

You alter the Windows Explorer “New” menu by altering the registry. Instead of opening up regedit.exe and changing every entry, its best to use a registry script. Registry scripts are really simple scripts that alter the registry in some specific way. Comments are hash marks, keys are surrounded in brackets, and values are entered below. You remove the values under a key by preceding the key path with a minus sign. Registry scripts have the.reg file extension. Not too hard to figure out at all.

The script below is the end result. Its well commented as to make it easy for anyone to figure out and alter. The script works off of the file extension of the type of file in the menu. For example, below .txt or .html keys in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is the ShellNew key where you alter the values. If the ShellNew key does not exist for a particular file extension you can create it if you want to add that filetype to the menu. An empty NullValue entry below that key will create an empty file with that extension when you click it in the menu. If you want to set up a template, you can by creating one in the C:\Windows\ShellNew folder and enter a FileName value entry with the file name. This especially comes in handy when you usually create one type of HTML document all of the time and you would like to get the boilerplate code out of the way.

Save the code below (after you alter it to suit your needs) as addnewmenu.reg and double click in Windows Explorer to run (you’ll need admin rights).


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

# Creates and removes add-new explorer menu entries
# NullFile creates an empty file with that extension
# FileName allows you to create a template file in
#  C:\Windows\ShellNew. (use one or the other)
# Commenting both subentries and adding a minus (-)
# before the registry key (inside the brackets)
# removes it from the menu.
# Ex:
# [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\ShellNew]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\ShellNew]
#"NullFile"=""
"FileName"="html.html"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.js\ShellNew]
#"NullFile"=""
"FileName"="js.js"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.css\ShellNew]
#"NullFile"=""
"FileName"="css.css"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.php\ShellNew]
#"NullFile"=""
"FileName"="php.php"

# Get rid of the entries I don't use
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Briefcase\ShellNew]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.zip\CompressedFolder\ShellNew]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\ShellNew]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.rtf\ShellNew]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jnt\jntfile\ShellNew]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.contact\ShellNew]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.wlcshrtctv2\LiveCall\ShellNew]

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