QText 3.20

New version of QText has one feature that I planned for a while now.

Just right-click on any tab, select encrypt and chose your password. Upon first access to tab you will get password prompt and file will be decrypted and left open in order to be used. As soon as program is closed and taken to tray, file will be locked again. Other than password prompt, look and feel of encrypted files should be same as it was before.

For those that like three-letter abbreviations, 256-bit AES in CBC mode is name of the game. Security-wise it might not be a best choice since (in chosen implementation) it derives key and IV directly from password. Since that operation is very fast, unfortunately this also means that is very fast to mount brute-force attack. Of course, the longer password, the more resilient it will be. I wouldn’t save my nuclear-launch codes here, but everything else should be safe.

I always tried to keep data accessible to user even without QText installed. That was main reason driving decision to use text files and folder structure as storage mechanism instead of single file. Availability of user data is what also drove me to use OpenSSL encryption here. OpenSSL is available on virtually every platform. Because of same algorithm it is possible to manually decrypt each file if need arises:

openssl aes-256-cbc -d -in file.txt.aes256cbc -out file.txt -k "password"

I consider this a good trade.

As always, upgrade is available from within application or at these pages.

VHD Attach 3.40

Most noticeable change for this release will be new icon. Not a huge change, but a colorful one. Considering that last icon was gray-scale, I see it as a good change.

Other visible change would be New disk dialog. It is changed a bit in order to allow for more flexible size entry. Finally you can create 0.1337 GB hard drive that you always wanted.

Under the hood there were many changes. While some were bug-fixes, most of them were focused on drive management. This will finally give possibility of drive letter change in next version (currently being tested).

Download is available from within application or via program pages.

P.S. If someone is interested in checking drive letter management beta all you need to do is to send me a mail.

VHD Attach 3.30

VHD Attach is updated once more.

One personal annoyance is finally fixed. It was always difficult for me to find auto-mounted disks. I auto-mount them right after installation and then, month later, I cannot find where they are exactly. Now all those disks will be added to list of recently used files.

With that sorted out I proceeded with adding taskbar progress for creation of fixed drive. Funny thing that someone who wrote how easy adding it to your application can be took sweet time to do it himself. Regardless of shame, now operation progress can be checked with just quick taskbar glance.

For detail-obsessed there is parsing of dynamic disk header. Not much, but it will make someone happy.

Of course there was some generic bug bashing but let’s not get into it.

Check pages for download or use built-in upgrade.

[2012-05-31: Yes, there is bug-fix out already. :)]

MagiWOL 3.30

Nothing to look here, just an evolution.

New version of MagiWOL changes import progress dialog a bit by adding time remaining text. As it always goes, it is precise full 0.1% of time.

There are some internal changes as response to crash reports but nothing too exciting to talk about.

Download and use.

MagiWOL 3.20

MagiWOL is IPv6 ready.

If you are on network that supports ONLY IPv6, you will really appreciate it since most of Wake-on-LAN programs are unable to work in that scenario.

If you are on dual stack (Windows Vista and newer) and behind your IPv4 home router, this change does not matter much now. Once your home IP pool gets exhausted, you will need it (there is only 4M addresses). Consider this update as future-proofing…

VHD Attach 3.10

First version of VHD Attach was written in .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. I figured that since Windows 7 comes with it, it has WCF and it is new, there was no reason not to use it.

Just to prove me wrong there came ThinPC. It comes without any .NET Framework and only version that can be installed is 4.0. Yep, that is one that breaks backward compatibility with 3.0 and 3.5. Well, this version is now written in .NET Framework 2.0.

Those who need to create virtual disks had that feature in 3.0x but only for dynamic disks. With this version you can create fixed disks also.

Some GUI refreshing was in order but do not expect anything revolutionary. It is just an evolution, baby.

Download is available from within application or from these pages.

QText 3.00

Since there was quite a stable beta before, I will just quickly rehash what is new.

• If you have big number of files, you can finally sort them in folders.
• Corporate users will love that QText will leave no traces if it is not installed (check for zip version).
• File synchronization tools (e.g. SugarSync or DropBox) should work nicely with QText.

What are you waiting for? Download it.

MagiWOL 3.10

New version of my take on wake-up calls is up.

Most noticeable change here is having everything accessible over toolbar. In past some options were in hidden menu but that menu is gone now.

Other feature that is long overdue is upgrade functionality within application.

There was also some bug-fixing involved but that stuff is too boring.

Enjoy new version.

VHD Attach 3.02

This is very small update to VHD Attach. I removed application config files introduced with last version. Of course that means that both Thin PC users will hate me. For them, there is FAQ with separate download.

I do plan to sort things out in later version.

VHD Attach 3.00

Few last tweaks are completed and it is time for new version of VHD Attach.

Biggest change to this version is addition of dynamic virtual disks creation. In addition to this, application now recognizes stolen extensions and offers fix. Upgrades should also be a little bit easier since there is in-application check for new versions.

There is lot of small cosmetic adjustments. Like switching focus to Explorer upon attaching Bit Locker drive or drag&drop support in main window. And lets not forget that those who love analyzing virtual disks just got few more details about VHD.

Check it yourself.