Version 3.0 alpha 7

[Iridium-IO]

Changes

• Added Watchers to monitor selected folders in the background for changes over time and keep track of decaying compression (Be careful with this; bugs undoubtedly lie ahead) [Feature request] Monitor compressed directories for changed/added files and compress them #207
  • Includes details on when the folder was last compressed, when the folder was last modified, what compression level is predominant and also how much compression decay has occurred.
  • Watchers are lightweight and listen for Windows' firing of file changed events. Only when the system has been idle for >5 minutes does it run an analysis on folders that are flagged as changed. If none were flagged, nothing happens.
  • Watched folders can be accessed by a new page in the UI by hovering near the bottom of the program window.
• Recompressing a folder now skips files that have already been compressed with the selected compression level
• Slightly improved speed of pre-compression file checking
• Added system tray icon and notification support (no notifications yet; let me know which notifications would be handy to have. Maybe notify if a watched folder decays to <50% of its compression?)
  • CompactGUI now automatically keeps running in the system tray and on startup if you have folders you want to monitor. (Planned: add option to disable this)
• Made application single-instance to avoid issues with running multiple instances at once

Known issues

• Watched folders will not play nice if you added a folder to the watchlist while in admin mode, and then went back to normal mode afterwards. It will still technically work, but the analysis will not be accurate (as it will skip over files it doesn't have permission to check)
• Clicking the Analyse button to check all the watched folders won't show any visual indication that it's doing anything until it is finished. It is actually working, but you just can't see anything. Feel free to spam click the button if it makes you feel better.
• The fading in/out bottom bar is a bit glitchy.

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Important!

Because this application now uses .NET 6, you have two choices of downloads:

• 
  • 2.72 MB: If you don't have the .NET 6 runtime installed when you try to run this, it will prompt you to download it from Microsoft
• 
  • 150 MB: Includes all libraries required to run it completely standalone, however it's nearly 50x the size. I do recommend installing the .NET 6 runtime instead (which is itself only a 50MB download).

File Checksums

MD5: 		2DD4F0B810BE81433FCCE33493F44C26
SHA-256: 	9E0138F3330F524851C0EAE6DC24499BBACD3EAEE9FDD1418DAC1C714E8BFCB7

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This discussion was created from the release Version 3.0 alpha 7.

[Tha14]

@ImminentFate Hello again. Thanks for the new version! I have an issue with the latest version(and I do not want to create a new issue about it tbh). I am used to using multiple instances of compactgui at once, mainly because I am compacting multiple folders in multiple drives at the same time. I really do not like the fact that it is now checking for the mutex, showing the message and then promptly exiting. I would like to ask, if it is not a big hassle, to add an option in the settings to allow multiple instances. If you don not feel like adding the option anytime soon I'll be happy to contribute(but I have to warn you that my code will probably be kinda shoddy). Thanks again and sorry for the long comment.

[Tha14]

Also, A force recompress without ignoring any files would also be very useful.

[Iridium-IO]

Hey, I can add that as an option for sure, but I won't add it to the options menu since 99% of people shouldn't be using it that way(and it will almost certainly break the background watcher), but instead I can make it so you can manually override it in the settings.json file. How's that?

With regards to the forcing option, it already forces compression if you choose a different algorithm. There aren't many scenarios in which it is truly useful to force compression using the same algorithm (a system crash right in the middle of compressing a file is the only scenario I can think of)

[Tha14]

Hey, yeah, it would be nice to have the first option mentioned in the settings. I'll have to keep testing the differences between alpha 6 and alpha 7 to see why 7 doesn't compact some of the files it thinks are already compacted.

[Joha100f]

Hey, so i downloaded the compresser and it told me to download .NET 6 and then i did that.. but it still says i need to download .NET 6. Do you know what the problem could be?

[Tha14]

Hey, You should go to this page and choose the middle option which says "Run desktop apps".

[Chaython]

CTD on windows 11 build 22621.521, happens when I select a folder not previously compressed.
I tested all the way down to beta 3, beta 3 will let me select the folder, but crashes open telling it to compress a file.

[GOKUSSL4]

I hope to see the alpha reach maturity as this is a great project i have used this program for years now. :)

[minhgi]

anyway to add the ability for CompactFUI to auto recompress watched folders after it particular threshold changes. like when we install new program, there are new files added which had more uncompress files and at 25% since the last compression run then auto compress kick in.

[Iridium-IO]

That is the plan :)

[minhgi]

thanks again. how is going with new version?

[Iridium-IO]

Adding handlers to manage the system's idle state and pause/resume auto compression ended up being a massive pain in the neck. I've given up on that for now, since it seems Microsoft can't even use their own idle detection properly in the first place (Windows indexer/defender/updates all run at the worst times already).

[minhgi]

is it possible to use the Windows Task Scheduler to run at a particular date and time we want to set it. Example like every month or every two weeks at giving time we set it for. If the windows idle detection can't be use.

Mostly would schedule for monthly since I don't see much change for me because up windows and applications update. Thanks for explaining the issue with the recompression implementation.

[jumofogit]

Can't run app on Windows 11 21H2, no errors, no application. 3.0.0 alpha 7