News archive
SVGGraph 2.24.1
SVGGraph 2.24.1 exists to release some changes I have made over the last few months while I have been concentrating on other projects. The main change in this version is the addition of a StackedBarAndLineGraph to go with the existing BarAndLineGraph:
The StackedBarAndLineGraph supports all the usual options for stacked bar
graphs and multi-line graphs, with one exception: the dataset_axis
option can only be used to put line datasets on the second axis. This is
because bars stacked on top of each other must use the same scale or the graph
will not make sense.
TrayBlank 1.9
TrayBlank 1.9 actually adds something new for a change - options to start the screensaver directly. I've also updated the code that draws the tray icon to make it look clearer, and made the progress bar a lot more likely to be accurate.
The new option to start the screensaver directly is in a submenu called “Screensaver start” along with the existing delay option and another new option, “Directly after timeout”. What a direct start does differently is starting the screensaver as a new process instead of sending a message to Windows telling it to start the screensaver.
This means that the screensaver is run the same way as if you double-clicked on the screensaver icon itself. It will run on your main desktop instead of the empty desktop that Windows creates for screensavers to run on, so it has access to Windows Explorer and any other windows running there. Microsoft don't separate things out for no reason - if you don't trust your screensaver, don't run it directly! Actually, if you don't trust your screensaver you shouldn't run it at all. Uninstall it and run a virus and malware scan.
JPEG Saver 4.19.2
JPEG Saver 4.19.2 is another bugfix release. The main bug fixed in this version is a crash when using the “Desktop” or “Desktop Pile” backgrounds. I've also fixed the items editor not remembering the item name or its enabled/disabled state when creating a new item.
There are two new transitions in this version, “White Out” and “Colour Fade”. They both fade the current image out then fade the new image in, with “White Out” fading to white in between and “Colour Fade” fading to the colour in the centre of the first screen in between.
The new version is available from the downloads page.
JPEG Saver 4.19.1
This shouldn't surprise anyone - the first new JPEG Saver release since I moved all the drawing code around and added in Direct2D and DirectWrite just fixes a couple of bugs. Not very exciting bugs, either.
The first bug was the image filename being forgotten when the image was being processed. This meant that some of the interactive options were failing in new and unusual ways (not just the usual ways that they fail because of the separate desktop that Windows runs screensavers on).
While I was fixing that one I discovered another bug - memory was being allocated for a copy of the image, which wasn't being used. This one didn't do any harm because the memory was released again soon after, but it might have slowed things down a bit.
TrayBlank 1.8
Version 1.8 of TrayBlank fixes a few things that have been bugging me about version 1.7, including a bug that is still bugging me now that it is fixed. It really is fixed though.
The changes all affect the way TrayBlank behaves when the screensaver is not set - in other words, when the “Screen saver” drop-down in the Control Panel's “Screen saver Settings” dialog is set to “(None)”. Now when TrayBlank finds that the screensaver is not set its “Start screensaver” and “Configure screensaver” menu options are greyed out, and the progress bar showing the time until the screensaver starts is not shown.
The text in the tooltip is clearer now too - it was a bit muddled before, but now the name of the screensaver and the timeout are displayed on separate lines, or there will be a message telling you the screensaver is not set.