Exported settings files, V7 and V9

[JeremyNicoll]

I've just upgraded from V7 to V9. Before uninstalling V7 I exported the settings for my two (administrator and day-to-day user) userids. I note that they were plain ANSI text files. Then I uninstalled V7; I answered YES to 'did I want all components uninstalled' (though it would have been useful to know what that actually meant), then YES to 'did I want registry settings removed'. I noticed that 'all components' did mean all all, as what I assume was a product key file - password.bin - was left in the install folder.

Then I installed V9; after experimenting with this and that, I did a Reset, for 'all pages'. Then I exported this version's settings. This time I got a Unicode file.

I intend first to compare the two exported settings files from V7, to work out what settings I usually used. Yes, maybe it would have been easier to trawl through the settinsg dialogs making notes, dunno. I've converted the V9 settings file to ANSI (by loading it into Notepad and saving-as ANSI) so I can compare it with V7 settings.

I'm interested to know if:
a) V9 will import settings from ANSI text files, or if I need to convert them to Unicode first
b) V9 expects a settings file that it's asked to import to have any particular leafname and extension - I mean would "yesterday.details" work?
c) V9 syntax checks the layout of a settings file it's asked to import - especially, is a header required?
d) whether one can import partial settings files - eg one containing only colour information, or only options relating to text compares, and have
EDP update its settings for those values without changing the values of any settings not specified in the file (ie I don't want it to reset to
default any non-specified value).

I'm also interested in whether the settings that aren't accessed via the Options dialog (eg toolbar customisation) are processed by the Options import/export logic... and if not, how one's meant to manage that.

Most of my use of V7 was under XP, with a single user. Now, although I'd usually use my day-to-day user for file maintenance, if I need to compare stuff while installing/removing some other product I'd be using my admin id. I want to be able to keep options similar across both ids. Or, at least, to create a set of options that 'fit' comparing one set/type of files - and store that somewhere, and another set of options for some other sort of compares - and store that somewhere... and then load it into EDP on either userid when I want to do that sort of compare job from that id.

Being able to have partial sets of options would help a lot, and being able to work with them in ANSI text rather than Unicode would help me as the text editor I use almost always doesn't support Unicode. Yeah, I could create files in ANSI then convert them, but it's an extra step I could do without.

I think I might have to roll my own way of saving a subset of options - if partial settings files can be imported - so that I can export a whole set of options then keep only the lines that matter for that logical subset... but there's no point writing code to do that unless EDP will handle the subset files.

[psguru]

Let me answer your questions

a) V9 will import settings from ANSI text files, or if I need to convert them to Unicode first

ANSI files will work too.

b) V9 expects a settings file that it's asked to import to have any particular leafname and extension - I mean would "yesterday.details" work?

Any file name and extension are fine.

c) V9 syntax checks the layout of a settings file it's asked to import - especially, is a header required?

No.

d) whether one can import partial settings files - eg one containing only colour information, or only options relating to text compares, and have
EDP update its settings for those values without changing the values of any settings not specified in the file (ie I don't want it to reset to
default any non-specified value).

Yes, you can import partial settings.

I'm also interested in whether the settings that aren't accessed via the Options dialog (eg toolbar customisation) are processed by the Options import/export logic... and if not, how one's meant to manage that.

You will need to use Export/Import Settings commands under the Tools menu.

[JeremyNicoll]

Thank-you! That all sounds encouraging.

[JeremyNicoll]

Hmm. I mentioned above that I'd done a "Reset (all pages)" in my newly installed V9[-0-1-1] application. Now (and maybe before that, who knows?), the
display I see from Tools - Options - Tools - Plug-ins is completely unpopulated. Should there not be a list of supplied Plug-ins, default filters etc? A Reset (that page) makes no difference.

See screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ydcd38k47vkw ... t.png?dl=0

[psguru]

You need to reinstall 9.0 to get this list populated (you will probably need to Reset this page after the reinstall).

[JeremyNicoll]

Why reinstall? Are you saying that the installer ships with non-default settings? Are any other settings likely to have gone astray?

It implies that the only way I can readily "restore to defaults" in future is to export settings from a newly installed product and keep that settings file. Is this just a bug, or is meant to be like that?

[psguru]

When you reset plug-ins to default, ExamDiff Pro will read its settings from the values saved during the installation. If Reset didn't work for you, it can only mean that those values where not set, perhaps because you didn't select "Install plug-ins" during the setup. Hence my suggestion to reinstall.

[JeremyNicoll]

I didn't get a choice to install plugins. The install log is full of groups of records like:

2017-06-26 12:44:38.144 Dest filename: C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\wget\wget.exe
2017-06-26 12:44:38.144 Time stamp of our file: 2017-02-26 00:27:00.000
2017-06-26 12:44:38.144 Installing the file.
2017-06-26 12:44:38.144 Creating directory: C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins
2017-06-26 12:44:38.144 Creating directory: C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\wget
2017-06-26 12:44:38.332 Successfully installed the file.

Also:

C:\>dir /s "C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins"
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is F607-7930

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> 7-Zip
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> catdoc
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> cURL
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> IniSorter
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> jq
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> odt2txt
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> OOXML2Txt
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> PESnoop
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> Tidy
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> tidyjson
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> wget
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> XMLStarlet
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> Xpdf
0 File(s) 0 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\7-Zip

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
04/10/2016 08:12 49,664 7-zip.dll
04/10/2016 08:12 1,073,664 7z.dll
04/10/2016 08:12 265,216 7z.exe
01/01/2016 00:17 1,927 License.txt
04/10/2016 08:24 1,751 readme.txt
5 File(s) 1,392,222 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\catdoc

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
17/06/2014 11:04 151,552 catdoc.exe
17/06/2014 11:25 140,800 catppt.exe
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> charsets
24/05/2010 10:32 2,409 CODING.STD
24/05/2010 10:32 18,332 COPYING
24/05/2010 10:32 1,592 CREDITS
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> doc
24/05/2010 10:32 2,900 INSTALL
24/05/2010 10:32 2,893 NEWS
24/05/2010 10:32 1,631 README
24/05/2010 10:32 502 TODO
17/06/2014 11:25 173,056 xls2csv.exe
10 File(s) 495,667 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\catdoc\charsets

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
24/05/2010 10:32 26 .cvsignore
24/05/2010 10:32 8,922 8859-1.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 11,292 8859-10.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,027 8859-11.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,887 8859-13.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 11,304 8859-14.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,886 8859-15.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,150 8859-2.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 8,821 8859-3.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,122 8859-4.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 8,761 8859-5.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 6,619 8859-6.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 8,499 8859-7.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 6,644 8859-8.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 8,906 8859-9.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 1,552 ascii.rpl
24/05/2010 10:32 31 ascii.spc
24/05/2010 10:32 9,799 cp1250.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,569 cp1251.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,624 cp1252.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,207 cp1253.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,615 cp1254.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 8,573 cp1255.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 8,826 cp1256.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,487 cp1257.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,477 cp1258.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,121 cp437.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,967 cp850.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,266 cp852.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,890 cp855.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,945 cp857.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,173 cp860.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,154 cp861.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,724 cp862.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,021 cp863.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,888 cp864.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,140 cp865.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 10,093 cp866.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,646 cp869.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 8,708 cp874.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 9,978 koi8-r.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 8,685 koi8-u.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 25,366 mac-arabic.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 13,392 mac-centeuro.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 12,860 mac-cyrillic.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 14,397 mac-greek.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 27,635 mac-hebrew.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 14,755 mac-roman.txt
24/05/2010 10:32 1,259 Makefile
24/05/2010 10:32 1,175 Makefile.in
24/05/2010 10:32 1,169 tex.rpl
24/05/2010 10:32 227 tex.spc
24/05/2010 10:32 3,181 us-ascii.txt
27/09/1999 14:19 12,860 x-mac-cyrillic.txt
54 File(s) 501,301 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\catdoc\doc

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
24/05/2010 10:32 91 .cvsignore
24/05/2010 10:32 0 build
24/05/2010 10:32 10,650 catdoc.1
24/05/2010 10:32 10,650 catdoc.1.in
24/05/2010 10:32 1,229 catppt.1
24/05/2010 10:32 1,239 catppt.1.in
24/05/2010 10:32 1,236 Makefile
24/05/2010 10:32 1,180 Makefile.in
24/05/2010 10:32 2,500 wordview.1
24/05/2010 10:32 2,510 wordview.1.in
24/05/2010 10:32 2,873 xls2csv.1
24/05/2010 10:32 2,883 xls2csv.1.in
12 File(s) 37,041 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\cURL

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
23/12/2016 15:44 707,144 curl.exe
1 File(s) 707,144 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\IniSorter

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
07/03/2014 15:56 104,960 IniSorter.exe
1 File(s) 104,960 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\jq

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
05/03/2017 13:21 1,220,806 jq-win32.exe
1 File(s) 1,220,806 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\odt2txt

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
21/05/2007 13:42 15,819 ChangeLog.txt
21/05/2007 13:39 18,332 COPYING.txt
21/05/2007 13:40 982,016 odt2txt.exe
3 File(s) 1,016,167 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\OOXML2Txt

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
31/01/2016 15:54 68,608 Excel.dll
31/01/2016 15:54 200,704 ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll
05/02/2016 12:39 36,856 OOXML2Txt.exe
3 File(s) 306,168 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\PESnoop

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
24/05/2010 10:32 20,992 PESnoop.exe
24/05/2010 10:32 2,894 PESnoop.tXt
24/05/2010 10:32 45 yoda's home.url
3 File(s) 23,931 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\Tidy

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
01/03/2017 18:31 521,216 tidy.dll
01/03/2017 18:31 484,864 tidy.exe
2 File(s) 1,006,080 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\tidyjson

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
09/05/2008 01:49 98,304 Jayrock.Json.dll
09/05/2008 01:50 28,672 tidyjson.exe
01/10/2007 23:06 1,064 tidyjson.exe.config
3 File(s) 128,040 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\wget

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
26/02/2017 00:27 3,481,920 wget.exe
02/07/2016 22:04 1,241 wget.js
2 File(s) 3,483,161 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\XMLStarlet

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
09/08/2014 15:09 2,265,088 xml.exe
1 File(s) 2,265,088 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\Xpdf

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
28/05/2014 11:50 1,121 ANNOUNCE
28/05/2014 11:50 116,772 CHANGES
28/05/2014 11:50 18,321 COPYING
28/05/2014 11:50 35,821 COPYING3
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> doc
28/05/2014 11:50 421 INSTALL
28/05/2014 11:50 940,544 pdftotext.exe
28/05/2014 11:50 15,755 README
7 File(s) 1,128,755 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Plug-Ins\Xpdf\doc

26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> .
26/06/2017 12:44 <DIR> ..
28/05/2014 11:50 3,406 pdfdetach.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 4,011 pdffonts.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 3,044 pdfimages.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 3,973 pdfinfo.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 2,878 pdftohtml.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 3,316 pdftopng.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 3,405 pdftoppm.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 8,766 pdftops.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 5,604 pdftotext.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 3,596 sample-xpdfrc
28/05/2014 11:50 27,951 xpdf.txt
28/05/2014 11:50 31,859 xpdfrc.txt
12 File(s) 101,809 bytes

Total Files Listed:
120 File(s) 13,918,340 bytes
50 Dir(s) 226,262,007,808 bytes free

C:\>

[psguru]

I didn't get a choice to install plugins.

It's there, one of the setup pages:

Install Plug-ins.png (45.12 KiB) Viewed 20741 times

The install log is full of groups of records like:

Looks like the files are installed. Make sure your have the following Registry key with appropriate values:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Default Plug-ins

[JeremyNicoll]

> It's there, one of the setup pages...

Oops. I don't remember seeing that. But my own notes - which I didn't check(*) say:

- agreed install of plugins (programs which eg extract text from .doc & PDF files).

* That was careless of me. The reason I didn't check is that I knew something had changed in the way that plugins are installed, but it's the fact that these days you bundle plugins into the installer whereas in the distant past one had to download and install them separately. I /did know/ that I hadn't had explicitly to choose them - that pane in the installer seems to assume one will want them...

Also, I'm used to seeing, in Inno install logs, a logged Q&A, near the top, for example

2017-06-26 12:43:47.705 Message box (Yes/No):
The folder:

C:\Program Files\~P-folder\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro

already exists. Would you like to install to that folder anyway?
2017-06-26 12:43:50.564 User chose Yes.

and just assumed that all the other installer Q&A were also logged. As my search for 'plug' didn't show a question I assumed there hadn't been one. Turns out all the other stuff isn't shown in the log. Instead it just logs what it actually does on the basis of the answers.


> Make sure your have the following Registry key with appropriate values:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro\Default Plug-ins

Hmm. The install log doesn't mention any registry keys... I wonder if such logs used to? Can't tell, as I haven't kept the install logs for older installs.

My day-to-day userid's HKCU key of that name only has a (default) REG_SZ (value not set) entry.

Let me look at my admin id... Hmm, the admin id's Default Plug-Ins registry keys are populated.

[JeremyNicoll]

When I did the uninstall of V7 and install of V9, I ran the uninstaller and installer from my admin id. During the install apart from accepting the offer of Plug-Ins, I also accepted the offer of explorer integration.

Once installed, still using the admin id, I started it and c&p in my registration info, checked that that worked, and also ran a compare of a pair of files just to make sure that also worked. I also explored the app a little looking at some of the new features, eg in the GUI, but after that I did the Reset (all pages) because that had just been an unfocussed wander through options, and I knew I'd want to do a more-considered one later on.

Later in the day I logged in to my day-to-day id and started EDP via explorer integration. All I was doing was checking that it worked for that user too. I didn't wade through options looking at them all so I have no idea if Plug-Ins were listed or not at that point.

As noted above, six or seven hours ago I found that the HKCU keys for Plug-Ins are populated for the admin id, but not for the day-to-day id.

I'm guessing that your installer doesn't explicitly install for 'all users'? But because it puts the executable in a shared folder, and presumably registers the explorer integration at a system-level rather than a user one, that's the effect. Otherwise how would the app have worked when I first tried it under my non-admin id?

But finding defaults stored, or not, in specific users' HKCU keys feels odd. I would have expected if defaults were to be stored in the registry that they would be in an HKLM set of keys, so accessible to all users. It's fine that individual users' settings are in HKCU.


I also noted that there appear to be four empty appdata folders, all created on the install date. They are

"C:\Users\<adminid>\AppData\Local\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro "
"C:\Users\<adminid>\AppData\Local\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro 9.0"

"C:\Users\<dailyid>\AppData\Local\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro "
"C:\Users\<dailyid>\AppData\Local\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro 9.0"

The admin id ones were both created around the time I did the install - perhaps when I first ran EDP under that id? The daily id ones were both created about three hours later, presumably when I first ran EDP under the daily user.

Are there meant to be both version-numbered and unversioned folders? The ones whose foldername ends in a space were a bit of a surprise...

What will actually get stored in these folders?

Also: is there any overlap between the settings stored by Tools - Export Settings, and Options - Export? Are the latter a subset of the former, or a completely different set? Why is there two mechanisms for export, and why two routes into the settings in the GUI?

[MSpagni]

As I discovered long ago, even the "Export Settings" doesn't export everything.
Not the toolbars configuration nor, I think, some GUI settings like the "line inspector".

Since "Options.txt" is basically an .ini file and the ".edps" is a .reg file, to save & restore the toolbars etc. you need something different.
Possibly an archive with "CommandBars-Dirs", "CommandBars-Text" and "CommandBars-Binary".

[psguru]

As I discovered long ago, even the "Export Settings" doesn't export everything.
Not the toolbars configuration nor, I think, some GUI settings like the "line inspector".

Since "Options.txt" is basically an .ini file and the ".edps" is a .reg file, to save & restore the toolbars etc. you need something different.
Possibly an archive with "CommandBars-Dirs", "CommandBars-Text" and "CommandBars-Binary".

It actually does. All settings are stored in Registry key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro", and Export Settings saves the whole key, including command bars.

[JeremyNicoll]

No comment on HKLM, or the two appdata folders per user?

[MSpagni]

It actually does. All settings are stored in Registry key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PrestoSoft\ExamDiff Pro", and Export Settings saves the whole key, including command bars.

Let me disagree.
I already complained many times about it and I just tried again right now.

The toolbars are not restored via "import settings".
The "differences bar", that I always keep disabled, is visible.
The "output pane", that I always keep disabled, is visible.
The user toolbars are not even listed.
I prefer the "old fashioned" theme, but the "use modern theme" is checked.
And very probably much more.

I know that every time I reinstall EDP (not for just a simple update) I have to set a lot of things by hand.
Luckily it doesn't happen so often!