30 May 2011

FAQ: Problems installing Opus

A new FAQ on installation problems has been posted to the Opus Resource Centre forums.

Since it's fairly technical and may be updated from time-to-time, I'll just link to the forum post rather than reproduce its contents here:

28 May 2011

Directory Opus version 10.0.0.4 (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.

Directory Opus 10.0.0.4 is available now for all Opus 10 users:


This is a preliminary, beta release. It fixes a number of issues reported since the release of Directory Opus 10:
  • The Save dropdown in the Folder Options dialog now has additional options to update the format for that folder (or all folders) in any saved Layouts / Styles / Tab Groups
  • Added a new Miscellaneous / Advanced option called "gloss_and_gradients" that makes it possible to disable the new-style gradients used in the UI in Opus 10
  • CLI DOSPROMPT buttons did not update their enable/disable state correctly when switching tabs
  • The Duplicate Finder did not put the results collection display into grouped mode unless the Delete Mode option was checked.
  • If a Duplicate search had been run, and then you switched to another tab and clicked either the Select or Delete buttons in the Duplicates panel, they would act on the active tab instead of the tab containing the results
  • Fixed problem which could make the Replace dialog progressively shift to the left if it needed to be resized due to long description strings
  • The copy progress dialog was not resized correctly for Sync mode, meaning the right-edge of the progress bars were out of view
  • When grouping by certain digital image fields (those expressed as a fraction or decimal, e.g. exposure time), those groups are now sorted numerically rather than alphabetically
  • Fixed background of Preferences (and other) dialogs when using Windows themes that don't use a bitmap to draw the tab control background
  • Added an additional MIME type for DNG images in the metadata pane
  • Fixed problem where folder tabs would sometimes jump around if you clicked them and the machine was under heavy load
  • Fixed a crash that could result from browsing to some virtual filesystems on Windows XP (e.g. a mobile device)
  • Fixed a problem with the Viewer pane that prevented files in libraries from working with some plugins (e.g. movie files)
  • Document metadata (Author, Title, etc) in the file display now works in libraries
  • Fixed some context menu commands not working on files in libraries
  • Add to / Extract from 7zip plugin archives now works from the context menu in libraries
  • Added support for an alternative method of static cascading context menus in Windows 7
  • Fixed crash that could occur in some (rare) cases when moving the mouse off the status bar padlock's tooltip
  • Fixed folder tabs background image not appearing on one side of the Lister in some cases
  • No longer displays garbled metadata for encrypted PDF files (currently does not display anything - we hope to support these in the future)
  • Fixed crash when right-clicking on a file in Explorer when ALL Opus archive support is disabled

23 May 2011

Directory Opus version 10.0.0.3 (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.

Directory Opus 10.0.0.3 is available now for all Opus 10 users:


This is a preliminary, beta release. It fixes a number of issues reported since the release of Directory Opus 10:
  • Fixed an error that meant selecting a third-party context menu extension on the root of a drive could trigger the New->Folder command instead
  • With the 'Display localized folder names' option disabled, folders are now sorted in the tree according to their non-localized names
  • If you dragged a folder tab *down* or *up* (depending on top or bottom tab state) the tabs would jump around when the mouse was below (above) the tab but still over the tab bar. Hypothesis that this is behind the "jumping" tab problem (forum thread).
  • The File count/Dir count/etc columns would clash when turned on at the same time as the Rating column
  • Paste of files to libraries didn't work from the context menu of the library itself
  • The replace confirmation dialog is now automatically resized if the description or filename strings are too wide for the controls
  • The viewer's next/previous list was not properly resolved when it came from an archive inside a library
  • Fixed problems with navigation lock losing sync one level too soon when going up on or against an FTP site
  • Fixed problems where the source file display would be refreshed (and lose its scroll position) after copying to an FTP site in the destination with navigation lock turned on
  • The copy progress dialog is now always resizeable, not just when the copy queue is displayed
  • Menus where all items had labels above/below their icons, and icons wider than their labels, would draw the icons on top of the line that delineates the menu's lefthand strip.
  • The overflow menu for toolbars docked to the bottom of the screen would appear on top of the chevron/overflow button, meaning if you clicked and released to open the menu you'd end up selecting the bottom item before you'd even seen it.
  • Glass and Transparent toolbars docked to the left or right would draw buttons past the overflow scroll buttons when in customize mode.
  • Pop-up menus configured to open above or below their parent button would open covering it if their contents were too tall to fit above or below. This resulted in problems like accidentally selecting a favorite when clicking & releasing to open the menu because the favorites list was so long it made one of the favorites appear under the mouse pointer. In situations like this, the menu is now shifted to the right or left of the parent button.
  • Added a new method of reconnecting network drives which seems to have resolved all outstanding issues with network drives
  • Added support for Portable Devices category in native My Computer view (digital cameras)
  • Fixed some cases where the Copy/Delete Filter flag from the destination Lister could affect a copy - now it should only consider the flag in the source Lister
  • Reintroduced the bug that makes the 'Keep folders sorted alphabetically' flag not obey the 'Reverse sort order' flag. People seem to prefer it this way :)
  • Fixed a problem where Shift-Page Up/Down or Home/End did not work in List mode immediately after entering a folder
  • When the Find panel is opened in a Lister with multiple tabs, its location now defaults to that of the active tab
  • Context menus from the Breadcrumbs or File Display Border did not always associate their commands with the current Lister, meaning commands like 'Open in New Folder Tab' could sometimes open a new Lister instead of a new tab
  • The tree and the file displays now will not go into inline rename mode if you click on an already selected file and the window was not currently active
  • Fixed problems where certain combinations of Folder Tree options could result in unnecessary tree rebuilds and doubling-up of some items
  • Fixed repaint issue when resizing Folder Tree with a virtual folder (like Recycle Bin) open in the file display
  • Folder-Tab lock states were not restored in layouts which had the "ignore folder formats" flag set
  • Fixed a crash extracting metadata from some particular PDF files
  • Metapane now supports EXIF data in JPEG2000 and DNG files
  • A button combining Set COPYFILTER=on with the Copy command now correctly applies the filter
  • In Japanese translation, default toolbars will no longer be assigned accelerator keys using japanese characters (will only pick Roman characters from the label)
  • Fixed error/crash sending certain long command lines to Opus via dopusrt /col
  • The FTP site properties command was incorrectly disabled when added to a toolbar
  • Image thumbnails are no longer re-colored when a File & Folder Label specifies an icon color. (Icons are still re-colored, including in Thumbnails mode.)

14 May 2011

Directory Opus version 10.0.0.2 (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.

Directory Opus 10.0.0.2 is available now for all Opus 10 users:


This is a preliminary, beta release. It fixes a number of issues reported since the release of Directory Opus 10:
  • Fixed remaining issue with disconnected network drives; attempting to read a folder from a disconnected network drive through Opus will now correctly trigger the reconnection
  • Fixed crash when extracting EXIF data from JPEGs etc, when XResolution/YResolution tags are malformed
  • If a lister was maximized, then minimized, then saved to a layout, when you load the layout the minimized lister will now be maximized when activated.
  • Fixed problem that could cause mouse tracking over details/power mode items to be out of alignment
  • Document/Video/EXIF date/time fields now respect the settings for day names and seconds (i.e. they now display in the same format as the modified / create / last accessed date/time fields). This fixes the remaining issue with jumbled date/time columns.
  • A Go FOLDERCONTENT menu pointing to a folder containing links to folders now works from a floating toolbar even if no current lister is open
  • Updated RAW camera support for a few new camera models

10 May 2011

Your old toolbars are still there after you install Opus 10

If you install Directory Opus 10 over a previous version then you'll see the new default toolbars when it first launches.

Don't panic, your old toolbars have not been erased. (That would only happen if you uninstalled the old version before installing the new one.)

Your toolbars are still there, they just aren't turned on.

Turning toolbars on and off is done the same way it was in Opus 9. Right-click the empty part of a toolbar and then select Toolbars to get a list:



You can also use the list in the Settings -> Customize -> Toolbars window:



The new default toolbars and menus expose a lot of new and once-hidden functionality, so we wanted everyone to at least look at them to discover some of what's new.

It is also difficult to detect how much each person has customized and whether or not they'd want to use/try the new defaults, so we always go with the new defaults and let you turn the old ones back on if you want to.

We figured that people who have done a lot of customization will be familiar with turning toolbars on & off, and with how this worked in previous Opus version changes, while people who had not customized much (or anything) would probably not want to be left with the old Opus 9 default toolbars after updating to 10.

Toolbar names:

The new default toolbars are called Location, Menu and Operations (in order of appearance).

The old default toolbars were called ListerMenu, Toolbar and Pathbar (in order of appearance).

If you happened to have a toolbar with the same name as one of the new defaults, it will have been renamed automatically. e.g. Menu (1).

8 May 2011

Directory Opus version 10.0.0.1 (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.

Directory Opus 10.0.0.1 is available now for all Opus 10 users:


This is a preliminary, beta release. It fixes a number of issues reported since the release of Directory Opus 10:
  • Back by popular demand - the "don't sort new files" option has been reintroduced. It is now found in Prefs -> Misc -> Advanced, called "no_sort_new_files". Note that if you had the old option turned on in your config them the new option should be set automatically.
  • Reinstated the 'File display border Up button does "Up Back"' option.
  • Color Picker lets you type color numbers, and has buttons to copy/paste colours, as well as toggle between hex and decimal.
  • Complete jumbo icon support in thumbnails mode. (256x256 icons on vista above)
  • New camera raw plugin with support for new cameras and improved support for some existing cameras.
  • Fixed some issues with raw photos being rotated incorrectly.
  • FIX: Tree sorting with localized names disabled now correctly sorts uses the "real" names
  • FIX: Toolbar buttons now enabled when files are selected in virtual folders (e.g. recycle bin)
  • FIX: Resource leak in Copy progress dialog
  • FIX: Libraries don't support delete to Recycle Bin
  • FIX: It was possible to cause a crash by holding down the F5 key to generate multiple refreshes simultaneously
  • FIX: Windows XP - Virtual folders don't repaint properly when tree is resized
  • FIX: Prefs up/down page button state (enable/disable) was not updated after changing pages with the buttons themselves or with the back/forward media keys.
  • FIX: Cursor key scrolling goes wrong in List mode with thin window.
  • FIX: Left/Right cursor keys jump incorrect number of files in list (and vertical tile) view mode
  • FIX: When a sub-collection is renamed and the parent collection refreshed, the renamed sub-collection disappears from the display
  • FIX: Fixed a crash that could occur when generating thumbnails or extracting metadata from images with XMP tags
  • FIX: CD case coverart image can now scale to full thumbnail size if user has increased maximum thumbnail size above 256
  • FIX: In details/power mode, with 1 pixel of extra line spacing, gridlines turned on and a colour set for the sort column, the gridlines were not displayed in the sort column
  • FIX: Problems with the "Select Folder" dialog and libraries (would show an internal library path in the text field, rather than a "user-friendly" path, if you selected a library folder from the tree it would always ask you to create a new folder, and create new folder didn't work)
  • FIX: AudioTags plugin now recognises more non-iTunes AAC format variations.
  • FIX: 100% CPU usage caused by entering folder with malformed EXE (DivxInstaller.exe).
  • FIX: Power mode inline rename via long-click was broken
  • FIX: Rename from the folder tree context menu did not activate inline rename, but instead opened the rename dialog
  • FIX: A context menu command like 'Open in New folder tab' did not work properly from the tree
  • FIX: If the system "short date" format had spaces in it, date/time column rendering was jumbled.
  • FIX: Date/time columns now display ... at the left if the string is too wide for the column
  • FIX: With a certain combination of tree options, accessing a user folder like My Pictures that had been moved from its default location could sometimes result in the tree entering an endless rebuild loop
  • FIX: Workaround for crash caused by UltraCompare illegally broadcasting messages in the WM_APP range when started.
  • FIX: Windows Search integration sometimes didn't work on Vista
  • FIX: Go "@site//path/to/subdir" didn't respect SSL/SSH settings for FTP addressbook entry
  • FIX: Icon modes sometimes tracked the wrong item under the mouse.
  • FIX: Viewer Next/Prev list didn't work in libraries.
  • FIX: Could no longer paste clipboard images directly into FTP sites.
  • FIX: Disconnected network drives were not shown in My Computer or drive toolbars
  • FIX: Fixed two rendering issues with full row, themes + extra line spacing
  • FIX: Fix crash with particular exe being misidentified as a zip file
  • FIX: Folder Tabs now draw unthemed if their colors are overridden. No longer blended with the theme.
  • FIX: Fixed shell folder thumbnails within libraries.
  • FIX: Folder Tree selection colour was blended to the standard window color, rather than the tree's actual background which may be different.

5 May 2011

Seeing Opus 9 icons after updating to Opus 10

If you've updated from Opus 9 to Opus 10, but you're still seeing the old "9" icon on your desktop or taskbar, that's a bug in Windows itself.

You can fix it quickly and easily by running my Clear Icon Cache tool.

The tool isn't specific to Opus and may also solve other situations where Windows shows wrong or missing icons.

We'll have more Opus 10 news in the coming days, so stay tuned...