Directory Opus version 10

GPSoftware are pleased to announce the release of Directory Opus 10.

This much-anticipated major update brings a wealth of new features, some of which are highlighted below.

Since Directory Opus 9.0, through four years and 50* free updates, we've given away many new features which would have qualified as major releases with most other software. During that time we worked in parallel to build something even bigger: Directory Opus 10. We're sure you won't be disappointed!

(*That used to say 35 but I realised I'd missed a set of updates.)

• Download the new version now!

Upgrades and licencing:

• Buy a new licence (new customers)
  
• Upgrade an existing licence (existing customers)
  
• Get a free 60-day evaluation licence (available to everyone to test-drive the new version)

• If you own Directory Opus 9 then you are entitled to a 40% discount.
  
• If you bought Opus after 31st December 2010 then the update is completely free!

Highlights of the new version: For a detailed list of changes, click through the categories on the What's New page or read the Opus 10 What's New PDF placed in your Start Menu by the new installer.

• File copying:
  
  • File Copy Queue. Queue copy jobs either explicitly (to a named queue) or automatically based on the source and destination paths.
    
  • 'Unattended' File Copies. For long file copies, tell Opus what to do if any errors occur, then leave it without worrying about the operation stopping part-way through to ask you a question.
    
  • Improved progress dialog.

• Windows 7 features:
  
  • Jump-list support. Place any command, folder, FTP site, layout, etc. on the Opus jump-list.
    
  • Taskbar progress indicators.
    
  • 'Native' Opus display of Libraries.
    
  • The option (on by default) to show the 'shared folder' overlay. (Microsoft took it away from Windows 7, lots of people complained, so Directory Opus brings it back!)
    
  • Opus is flagged DPI aware and all known issues with DPI-scaling have been addressed.
    
  • Support for 'static' folder commands and context menus. e.g. 'Create New Virtual Machine' added by VirtualPC.

• Vista and Windows 7 features:
  
  • Explorer-style folder thumbnails, and more support for huge icons in thumbnails mode. (A few items still use small icons; full support didn't quite make the cut but will be added in the first update.)
    
  • Support for newer thumbnail APIs. (Mainly important for PDF thumbnails.)
    
  • Hardware-accelerated transition animations when you change folders. (Requires DWM/Aero Glass.)
    
  • The built-in Command Prompt Here function has a new option to open a UAC-elevated prompt, also with a red background (by default) to help it stand out.

• For all Windows versions:
  
  • 'Native' Opus display of virtual folders like Desktop, My Computer, and CD Burning.
    
  • The Libraries concept isn't just for Windows 7 anymore. Opus provides an emulation of Libraries for Windows XP and Windows Vista users.
    
  • Support for Windows Search, including a new toolbar search field for instant indexed searching.
    
  • When using UNC network paths, the built-in Command Prompt Here function can now be used. Opus will automatically map a drive letter to the current UNC path, then unmap it later when it is no longer needed. Finally, you can conveniently use the Windows command prompt with UNC paths!

• Archives:
  
  • Improved Zip support, adding Unicode, AES encryption, 4GB+ archive sizes, Self-Extracting Zips, multi-volume archives, speed increases and more.
    
  • New support for 7z, TAR, BZip2, GZip, Z, ARJ, CAB and several other archive formats, without requiring any additional software. The key formats all support archive creation as well as extraction (even within .tar.gzip files; they are re-compressed on-the-fly).
    
  • Improved support for RAR, including the ability to create and modify RAR archives within Opus if you have WinRAR installed. (Extraction can still be done without WinRAR, of course.)
    
  • New support for disc images, including .ISO and .WIM.

• Metadata editing:
  
  • A new metadata panel shows you MP3 tags, EXIF data and document properties in addition to generic file attributes, tags, ratings and descriptions for the selected file or files.
    
  • Make changes to one or more files without leaving the lister. (You can also open the metadata editor as a separate window, detached from the lister.)
    
  • Buttons and hotkeys can also set metadata using new commands.
    
  • You can now search for files using tags and ratings.

• Much-improved folder tree:
  
  • Better performance with network drives.
    
  • Better behaviour with hidden folders.
    
  • Better behaviour with virtual folders.
    
  • Support for FTP/SSH and the new archive formats in the folder tree.
    
  • More control over what is shown in the tree, including the option to hide empty drives (on by default).
    
  • A choice of horizontal scrolling modes, including the modes used by XP, Vista and Windows 7 and one more.
    
  • You can change what happens when you click items in the tree with different mouse buttons.
    
  • A button is provided to jump to the current folder (if you had scrolled it out of view).
    
  • You can hide the tree header (top border).
    
  • And more... (See the detailed list.)

• FTP / SSH:
  
  • Works in the folder tree (as mentioned above)
    
  • You can also see your FTP bookmarks in the main file display.
    
  • Improved FTP proxy support, including SOCKS4/SOCKS5.
    
  • Improved FTP logging support.

• Image viewer:
  
  • New Grow to Page mode will enlarge as well as reduce images to fit the window/screen. The old Fit to Page mode, which only reduces, is still available.
    
  • Next/Previous image lists are now populated when the viewer is launched from outside of Opus.
    
  • Screensaver and sleep are disabled during movie playback and slideshows.

• Image format support:
  
  • Improved Photoshop (PSD) support, including 32-bpp/96-bpp and indexed images.
    
  • Targa (TGA) alpha channels, 16-bpp and indexed images.
    
  • TIFF alpha channels.
    
  • (Updated raw camera support will be included in the next update.)

• Improved audio tags & cover-art thumbnail support:
  
  • iTunes AAC (M4A and M4P) tags & cover-art.
    
  • Ogg Vorbis and FLAC cover-art (in addition to existing tag support).
    
  • Speex (SPX) tags.
    
  • Monkey's Audio (APE) tags.

• Miscellaneous:
  
  • New Filter Bar to improve the UI for real-time filtering. (Type * into the file display, then a pattern.)
    
  • File Grouping. (e.g. Group files by size or date.)
    
  • Non-modal error messages. (e.g. No more having to click OK if you accidentally select an empty drive.)
    
  • Inline progress displays. (e.g. No separate progress window while connecting to an FTP site.)
    
  • Better visual feedback during drag & drop.
    
  • You can now set persistent highlights on specific files and folders (not just folders anymore), including re-coloring any file's icon to make it stand out.
    
  • Improved Navigation Lock, works with all navigation events.
    
  • Auto-Select previous folder when you Go Up.
    
  • The option to include a '..' parent item. (We said we'd never do it... We changed our minds!)
    
  • Better 'Go FolderContent' menus.
    
  • Wildcard folder formats allow you to assign formats to files by name or type (e.g. *.zip) as well as assign different formats to different levels in a folder hierarchy (e.g. in a music folder, have the Artists folders use thumbnails while the Album folders below all use Details).
    
  • Image Converter now has a NOLOSSLESS argument to force re-compression of the image even if a lossless rotation is possible (e.g. because you want to reduce the file size/quality and don't actually want a lossless rotation).
    
  • Image Converter can now reset EXIF rotation tags in JPEG files.
    
  • New update checker. Less intrusive, supports SOCKS HTTP proxies and can automatically download new versions for you (or just alert you like it did before, if you prefer).
    
  • New default toolbars which make it easier to find more functionality without having to know Opus inside-out.
    
  • All-new toolbar icons in a Vista/Win7 style. (The old XP-style icons are also included and updated.)
    
  • Many cosmetic tweaks as well as the ability to customize a few more things (e.g. panel border colors and fonts).

• ...and much more!

In the coming days and weeks we will be bringing you new and updated tutorials which cover Directory Opus 10. Stay tuned to the Tutorials forum or the Directory Opus News blog so you know when they are ready.

Known issues:

• If you had installed the old 7zvfs.dll plugin from the forum (or elsewhere), you should delete it after installing Opus 10 to avoid conflicts with the new Opus 10 archives plugin.
  
  • Go to /home/VFSPlugins in Opus.
    
  • KEEP opus7zip.dll
    
  • KEEP 7z.dl
    
  • delete 7zvfs.dll

• A crash was found which happened when entering a directory that contained certain executable files. Re-download the installer if you are affected.

New guide: How to find components causing memory leaks

(This guide, and others, can also been found in the Opus FAQs at the Directory Opus Resource Centre forums.)

Programs like Explorer and Directory Opus are at the mercy of the third-party components they load. This includes things like shell extensions and video codecs which may be added by other programs you have installed.

When those third-party components go wrong they can cause crashes or memory leaks within the programs they are loaded into. This post discusses a way to track down components causing memory leaks.

What is a memory leak?

A memory leak is when a program allocates memory and then doesn't give it back when it is no longer needed. The leaked memory is wasted because the program itself is no longer using it but nothing else can use it either until the program exits.

High memory usage does not always mean there is a memory leak. If you are doing something that inherently needs a lot of memory, and that memory is given back when the operation completes, then that is not a memory leak.

Memory leaks are usually unbounded. If you keep doing something that triggers a leak then the memory usage usually keeps increasing. (If the memory usage only increases the first time you do something, and the increase isn't huge, then it's probably just a component allocating a cache which it will re-use to speed up future operations. Such caches are often returned after a few minutes of inactivity, although it depends on the component.)

Using VMMap to find memory leaks

If you look using Task Manager it might say explorer.exe or dopus.exe are using a lot of memory but it won't tell you where the blame lies. There could be a bug in the programs themselves but it's almost always a third-party component. Here's how to find out which one.

Download the free VMMap tool from Microsoft/SysInternals and extract its zip file somewhere. VMMap is a low-level debugging tool but don't worry, what we're going to do with it is quite simple.

1. Double-click VMMap.exe and it should open a window with a list of running processes.
   
   At the top of that window, click the Launch and trace a new process tab, then enter the path to dopus.exe, like below.
   
   Do not click OK yet.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Before you click OK you need to exit Directory Opus (dopus.exe) so that it can be re-started by VMMap. (This will allow VMMap to keep a record of the memory allocations made by the new dopus.exe.)
   
   Simply closing all Opus windows will not exit it by default. Use the Exit option on Opus's tray-icon menu. (See also: How to Exit Directory Opus.)
   
   
   
3. Now click OK in VMMap; it should re-start Opus.
   
   VMMap will also display a colourful list of numbers but don't worry about understanding them. :)
   
   Keep VMMap and Opus running; do not close either of them from now on.
   
   
   
4. Use Directory Opus in a way which triggers your memory leak.
   
   Ideally, trigger the leak several times so it is large and easy to find. (Make it leak at least 10MB, or more if you can, so it stands out from other memory allocations.)
   
   Use the standard Task Manager to keep an eye on dopus.exe's memory usage so you can tell when you've triggered the leak.
   
   
   
5. Return to VMMap and push F5 (or click View -> Refresh) to make it refresh.
   
   
   
6. Click Trace... at the bottom of the VMMap window:
   
   
   
   
   
7. In the Trace window which appears, sort by the Bytes column and scroll to the top of the list.
   
   It should look something like this where the first item has a much larger Bytes value than the others:
   
   
   
   If the first item doesn't have a relatively large Bytes value then you may need to trigger the leak more times (keep VMMap running and remember to Refresh it each time you come back to it), or you may be incorrect about there being a leak at all. Otherwise, continue...
   
   
   
8. Select the first item and then click Stack... at the bottom of the Trace window.
   
   
   
9. You will now see a list of DLLs (and dopus.exe) involved when the memory was allocated, like this:
   
   
   
   The component causing the memory leak is usually the first non-Windows DLL in the list. You can usually ignore the ones whose paths start with C:\Windows (e.g. ntdll.dll and user32.dll).
   
   In the example above, the memory leak was caused by LeakyShellExtension.dll which, as you can guess, is a shell extension I wrote for this guide which intentionally leaks memory. I wrote it to leak about 10MB each time a file was right-clicked and then right-clicked files a few times to make it leak about 70MB in total.
   
   
   
10. Once you have a suspicious DLL the name and path are often enough to identify what it belongs to. If not, find the DLL on disk, right-click it, select Properties and then go to the Details tab. That will usually contain information about who made it and what it's a part of.
    
    Sometimes it's worth looking at some of the other DLLs in the list, too.
    
    Once you know what the DLL belongs to you can try uninstalling (or updating) it to see if the leak goes away.
    
    If the leak goes away then you know who to report the bug to.
    
    If the leak remains, repeat the process and see which DLLs are indicated. If it's the same DLL again then you know that you didn't successfully uninstall it. If it's another DLL, maybe the first one was innocent and can be reinstalled.

Thumbnail plugin for Adobe Illustrator and EPS files

A new plugin has been released which gives Directory Opus the ability to display thumbnails of Adobe Illustrator (.ai) and EPS files.

This is a third-party plugin made by Ardfry Imaging and it requires their PSD Codec to work.

(While the plugin itself is free, the codec it depends on is US$19.95. There is a trial version so you can test it out. It also adds AI, EPS and Photoshop (PSD) thumbnails to Explorer, File-Open dialogs, etc. If you're wondering why it doesn't add PSD thumbnails to Opus as well it's just because Opus already understands PSD by itself.)

The plugin supports both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Opus and Windows Vista/7. (The plugin doesn't support Windows XP.)

Head over to Ardfry's page for more information, download links, and some screenshots:

http://www.ardfry.com/psd-codec/view-eps-ai-thumbnails-in-Directory-Opus.html

It's great to see this plugin as I know several people on the Opus forum have requested something like it. Thanks to Ardfry!

Directory Opus version 9.5.6.0

Directory Opus version 9.5.6.0 - October 14th 2010

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

Direct Downloads:
Directory Opus x86 (32 bit)
Directory Opus x64 (64 bit)

Bugs fixed / minor changes:

• Fixed crash that could occur if the Set SORTBY function was called with a column that wasn't currently displayed.
  
• Drag & drop of attachments from Outlook to a folder tab now works correctly.
  
• Fixed problem with slide-out back/forwards buttons where they would not notice the mouse was no longer over them if the mouse moved during the slide animation.
  
• Fixed the Go command's OPENINDEST argument so that it will use an existing destination Lister if the current Lister is not a dual-display one.
  
• Fix for the 'Open in Directory Opus' folder context menu item not working in Windows 7 if Explorer Replacement mode was disabled in some cases. This also fixes the 'Open folder to view files in Directory Opus' AutoPlay option if Explorer Replacement mode disabled.
  
• Fixed crash when using the Print Folder command without any printers installed (or with print service disabled).
  
• Fixed problem that prevented custom Folder Colors from working reliably in the tree.
  
• If two or more files on an FTP site were selected and 'Open' chosen from the context menu, they would in some cases be downloaded and opened multiple times.
  
• New FTP Proxy for USER: user@proxy_user@host and PASS: password@proxy_password
  
• Fix for FTP sites that claim to support UTF-8 but return non-UTF-8 encoded directory listings.

Directory Opus on Twitter

There is now a @Directory_Opus account on Twitter for those who prefer to get updates that way.

Directory Opus version 9.5.5.2 (Beta)

This is an Opus Beta release only. If you aren't comfortable running the very latest version of Opus then you may like to wait for the next stable/public release.

To download the new beta version, visit the Directory Opus 9.5.5.2 thread.

Bugs fixed / minor changes:

• Fixed crash that could occur if the Set SORTBY function was called with a column that wasn't currently displayed.
  
• Drag & drop of attachments from Outlook to a folder tab now works correctly.
  
• Fixed problem with slide-out back/forwards buttons where they would not notice the mouse was no longer over them if the mouse moved during the slide animation.
  
• Fixed the Go command's OPENINDEST argument so that it will use an existing destination Lister if the current Lister is not a dual-display one.
  
• If two or more files on an FTP site were selected and 'Open' chosen from the context menu, they would in some cases be downloaded and opened multiple times.
  
• New FTP Proxy for USER: user@proxy_user@host and PASS: password@proxy_password.

Quick View Plus and Opus

Quick View Plus (QVP) is a product which can view hundreds of file formats without the need for any additional software. For example, it can display Microsoft Word or Corel Word Perfect documents without having either program installed.

Quick View Plus 11 includes a preview handler that works within Directory Opus (and newer versions of Windows Explorer and Outlook).

Simply installing Quick View Plus 11 Standard (or above) will add its viewing abilities to Directory Opus if you are on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or above.

Notes & Caveats (correct at the time of writing, September 2010):

• Windows XP: Quick View Plus 11 does not install its preview handler on Windows XP, although it may do if you have Outlook 2007 installed (this has not been tested).
  
• 64-bit: Avantstar, who make Quick View Plus, do not officially support using it on 64-bit versions of Windows; however, from brief testing it appears to work fine.
  
• QVP editions: Quick View Plus 11 comes in two editions: Standard and Professional. The Standard edition is all you need if you just wish to view files within Directory Opus.
  
• QVP Trial version: The current Quick View Plus trial version does not correctly install its preview handler, meaning it will not work within Directory Opus. Avantstar are aware and will hopefully fix this in the future. The problem does not affect the full version of Quick View Plus. You can still use the trial version's standalone QVP application to test how well it views certain files.

(Thanks to Michael Kenward, Jon Potter and Avantstar themselves for their help discovering the info above. Thanks also to Ron Hirsch whose quest for a way to view Word Perfect files in 64-bit Opus led us here.)