31 May 2009

Update O&O Defrag if you've having right-click crashes

If you have O&O Defrag installed and you find that Opus exits or crashes when you right-click things: Update to the latest version of O&O Defrag to fix the problem.

As far as we can tell the problem started happening in a recent-ish O&O Defrag update and was fixed in a more recent update. At least, we can reproduce the crash easily using a version from several weeks ago, but the crash goes away again if we install a version of O&O Defrag downloaded two weeks ago (19th May 2009).

Normally we wouldn't bother posting about such fixed issues but we're still getting a lot of reports about the crash and it isn't obvious that O&O Defrag is the cause and what needs updating. Hopefully people with the problem will see this FAQ.

(If you still have problems after updating O&O then they could be caused by something else. See the FAQ on Crash, exit or high CPU usage when right-clicking certain files for instructions on how to track down the problem.)

28 May 2009

Interactive list of Opus Plugins & Media Capabilities

Interactive list of Opus Plugins & Media Capabilities

I've made an interactive list that helps you find which viewers (etc.) are bundled with Opus and which add-ons are available to make Opus do more.

The list includes several plugins/features that have not been mentioned here or at the forum. Screenshots are included, where useful, to give you an idea of how things are before you install anything.

You can filter the list to show just what interests you. For example, you can make it show only plugins which support 64-bit & USB mode, and don't come bundled with Opus, so that you don't waste time looking at things you already have or cannot use.

(Filtering requires Javascript. Without Javascript you'll get a static list with all of the information at once. By default much of the information is hidden so play with the filter to see the other details.)

Maybe you'll discover something new. Hope it's useful!

http://www.pretentiousname.com/opus_plugin_list/index.html



22 May 2009

Directory Opus version 9.1.2.0

Directory Opus version 9.1.2.0 – May 21st 2009

A free update for all Directory Opus 9 users is now available for download from GP Software.

Bugs fixed / minor changes:

  • Fix for Desktop context menu crash in conjunction with the NVidia v185.85 drivers.

  • Fix for BSOD crash that could occur when copying over existing font files. (Crash caused by bug in Windows/GDI which is exposed by generating thumbnails of copies of the same font on multiple threads.)

  • Fix for problem triggered by generating WMV thumbnails (files could get locked and never released until Opus was shutdown).

  • Fix for error when dropping files to Zip files in the Folder Tree.

  • Fix for problem where RAR files with comments could not be opened in the x64 version.

  • Fix for crash that could occur in the initial configuration wizard.

  • Fix for crash when editing button lines longer than 1024 characters.

  • Fix for crash that could be caused by launching FrontPage via DDE (e.g. from the context menu for a .html file).

  • Fix for crash when viewing files in the Nokia phone namespace.

  • The Zip Auto-Extract function now sets the current directory of the launched file correctly to that of the extracted files (so that any associated files like DLLs will be found).

  • Shortcuts launched from Opus (e.g. by double-clicking in a Lister) now have their current directory set correctly if there is no value defined for the ‘Start In’ field (previously the CD would be that of the shortcut’s target, whereas the correct behaviour is the directory the shortcut itself is in).

  • Pressing Ctrl-X (Clipboard CUT) with nothing selected no longer clears the clipboard.

  • Improvements to Image Conversion function:
    • Added NOLOSSLESS argument to the Image CONVERT command to force recompression of JPEG files. (Lets you rotate a JPEG image and forcibly recompress it rather than rotating it losslessly.)

    • Image conversion now works for all selected font files instead of just the first.

    • Fix for JPEG-EXIF rotation offset not always being lossless when it could have been.

    • Image Converter can now reset EXIF rotation tags in JPEG files.

    • When clearing EXIF rotation, the orientation field is now set to 1. Previously the entire field was nulled-out which could potentially cause problems with some EXIF readers.

  • Cropping an EXIF-rotated image in the viewer used to rotate the image an extra time.

  • New Ogg/FLAC AudioTags plugin which works on x64 systems.

  • New Raw Digital Camera plugin:
    • Works on x64 systems.

    • Adds/improves support for many camera models.

    • Raw thumbnails now display the correct dimensions and are, where possible, correctly rotated.

    • Separate decoding options for the Image Conversion function so you can use Opus to produce high quality raw conversions without slowing down file browsing.

  • Added support for RGBA (alpha) Photoshop images.

  • New JPEG2000 plugin which supports x64 and is much faster than the old one.

  • TGA plugin: Added support for alpha channels, pre-multiplied alpha, indexed color, and greyscale. Fixed problems with swapped red/blue channels in 16-bit images and small/corrupt thumbnails for some files.

  • Fix for problem when renaming files on some Samba network filesystems. (It was possible to end up with two files with the same name showing in the list.)

  • The Select Destination dialog now shows all levels of Favorites in the drop-down rather than just top-level ones. Several other minor fixes/improvements to the dialog as well.

  • Selecting a Content Type format from the drop-down list no longer applies sections of the format that are turned off.

  • FTP changes to support WindowsCE FTP server.

  • The Go /controls command could cause a duplicate tab to be opened if the right-most tab was locked when it was executed.

  • Fixed problem with unreliable “Automatically select next file when viewed image is deleted” option for Viewer Pane.

  • Fixed layout issue when Find Panel was opened and there was a toolbar beside the Viewer Panel.

  • If inline rename failed in an FTP directory, the retry dialog would reveal the full path of the FTP file including the username/password.

  • The ‘Run Opus on startup’ option now uses a shortcut in the Startup program group rather than the registry. Fixes problems a small number of people had with Opus starting too early during boot.

  • The default behaviour for single-line functions is now asynchronous again. Now, only multi-line functions default to running synchronously. Of course this behaviour can be changed using the appropriate @ modifiers.

  • The ActiveX plugin now scans the registry if it cannot find a viewer. (Workaround for programs which trash the MIME and COM settings of any file-types they take over.)

  • Fix for the Replace dialog’s thumbnail generation getting in the way of the file move/overwrite if the dialog was dismissed very quickly.

20 May 2009

Heads-up: Desktop context menu crash

(Update: This problem is fixed in Opus 9.1.2.0. However, you may still like to disable the NVidia menu to speed up the Desktop context menu.)

If you've been experiencing Explorer.exe crashes when the Desktop context menu is used then you're probably affected by a problem caused by the combination of Opus and the latest NVidia drivers (v185).

A fix for the problem has been written and will be included in the next Opus release, which should be out fairly soon.

For now, if you're affected by the problem then you can prevent the crash by disabling either the Opus or the NVidia items on the Desktop context menu. (The problem only occurs if they are both on the menu together.)

To disable the Opus items, go to Settings -> Preferences / Miscellaneous / Windows Integration and turn off Add layout and other items to Desktop context menu.



To disable the NVidia item you can use NirSoft's ShellExView. Disable the NVIDIA CPL Control Menu Extension as shown below:



Alternatively, you can disable the NVidia item using SysInternals' AutoRuns, as shown below. This does exactly the same thing as using ShellExView.



Once the Opus update is out you'll be able to enable everything again. (Having said that, if you do not use the NVidia item then you may wish to leave it disabled as it causes an annoying one-second delay every time you open the Desktop context menu.)

(Note: The NVidia control panel has a View -> Add Desktop Context Menu option. Turning that off will not avoid the crash, nor the one-second delay. NVidia's menu code is still run every time you open the Desktop context menu, even if the option is turned off and nothing is actually added to the menu. You must disable the code using one of the methods above instead.)

All of the changes discussed above will take effect immediately. There is no need to restart anything.