Help us choose a new logo. The designers have come up with two concepts, both of which we really like. Which one do you prefer?
A)
B)
Place your vote on the forum here (You need a forum account to vote. If you don’t have one feel free to post a comment here instead).
We have a bunch of Macro Scheduler v10 Manuals left in stock which will soon be replaced by v11 editions. So I’m offering some for free. If you want one, you need to do one of the following things:
– Tell us how you are using Macro Scheduler here
– Post a review and a link on another website, and send me the link.
The manuals are 150 pages, perfect bound and normally cost $19.99. And I’ll ship to anywhere in the world.
We’re also currently giving away a free manual with every Macro Scheduler v10 order. If you buy Macro Scheduler 10 now you’ll also get v11 free when it is released in the next few weeks. So there’s no reason to put off your purchase. Go here for more details.
Apparently Macro Scheduler runs on Linux via Crossover without problem:
http://www.mjtnet.com/usergroup/viewtopic.php?p=21118
Microsoft have just made the Windows 7 Developer Guide available. It’s more of an overview of the new features with a few screen-shots thrown in. But most importantly Microsoft states that Windows 7 is designed to be compatible with applications and drivers built for Windows Vista. So the good news is Macro Scheduler, which has the Works with Vista logo, should continue to run on Windows 7 without modification. Of course as soon as the Windows 7 beta is made available to MSDN subscribers we’ll be testing it out for sure.
With Macro Scheduler 11 we will no longer support Windows 98. Macro Scheduler 11 will not install or run on Windows 95, Me or 98. There are a number of reasons for this, one of which is full Unicode support. Already some of the script commands cannot be used on Windows 98 because they make use of operating system features that did not exist back then. Furthermore, Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 98 in July 2006.
If you need to run macros on Windows 98 you can continue to use version 10.
Macro Scheduler 11 has been tested on Windows 2000, Windows XP (x86 and x64), Windows 2003 Server (x86 and x64), Windows 2008 Server (x86 and x64) and Windows Vista (x86 and x64).
I’ve made a short video version of the beginner’s guide to scripting from the Macro Scheduler help file. It’s basically me running through the tutorial, or a close version of it. So for those who prefer to watch videos than read help files, check it out here. It’s just me. A little rough and ready, but I hope it’s clear enough.
Every now and then people ask me how they can distribute other files along with their Macro Scheduler executables, such as DLLs or image files that your script requires.
All software publishers face this problem and usually use an Install file creator, such as the free Inno Setup. You create a package of files and define how they are installed as well as what shortcuts to create etc. Most software you download is installed using software like this.
For small packages you might get by with a simple zip file, or, better, a self extracting zip file. WinZip will create one of these for you. There’s also a tool that already comes with Windows called iexpress.exe. Click Start/Run and type iexpress.exe and hit Enter.
This starts the IExpress Wizard which walks you through creating a self-extracting or self-installing package. It’s very simple to use. Just choose the files you want to be included in the package and select which one should be run on completion. You end up with an EXE you can give to your users/customers which when run will extract the files to a temporary folder and run your main script executable.
Another way is to embed the files directly into your script and have your script extract them at runtime before it does anything else. Dick Lockey describes a way you can do that here. The next version of Macro Scheduler, version 11, makes this easier. It will include a tool to import any binary file into the script and a function called ExportData to create the file at runtime. If you use this method remember to write the files to somewhere you have access to. In a least privileged user environment that won’t necessarily be the EXE’s program folder. The temp folder might be safest. And if you do that, delete them afterwards.
Well we’ve been busy since my last post on code folding. The main changes include:
* A completely overhauled script editor with even better code folding and bookmark support and improved syntax highlighting. The advanced editor and macro properties windows have been combined into one to make things much simpler and give easy access to things like the custom dialog designer and the debugger.
* Macro Scheduler 11 has full Unicode support. Finally use any language characters in your scripts, detect Unicode text and output Unicode text.
* Competely overhauled FTP functions with added TLS/SSL support and support for more flavours of FTP server.
* Added SSL support to HTTPRequest
* With v11 you can compile macros in “console app” mode and write to STDOUT
* We’ve added the ability to embed any kind of file in a script, and export it at runtime.
* And more.
We’re just starting the initial stages of closed beta testing. Hopefully if all goes well we’ll be able to open the beta up in a month or so. In the mean time I’d be interested to hear from anyone with a need for TLS/SSL FTP support. If you have a TLS/SSL enabled FTP server and would like to do some testing please let me know.
You too can sell Macro Scheduler through our Affiliate program.
We are offering commissions of 20% on all sales made through your website. Through our Affiliate partner Shareasale.com you can join up immediately and start selling today. There are no set up fees and signing up is simple.
Single user licenses start at $115 and our 25 Pack Enterprise license is $4600, so you can earn from between $23 and $1150 per sale, and that’s not including popular options such as upgrade protection.
For more info see:
http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=10663
I recently bought a new PC. It’s one of those things I always put off. The thought of installing all my software again, finding the original disks or download links, copying over all the data and settings, and getting the new PC mirroring the old one sends shivers up my spine. It always seems to take days, and then you usually find some obscure component is missing and something just doesn’t work properly. Especially when it comes to getting development environments running in the same way.
Vista and XP have a way to copy documents and settings, but that doesn’t help with the software. So I had a look around at other solutions that might help.
I discovered that Acronis offers a plugin for True Image Echo called Universal Restore which is supposed to allow you to restore a backup of your PC to any other PC. In doing so you end up with an exact replica of the original PC. It works by detecting the hardware of the new PC and injecting the correct drivers into the Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer during restore. Sounds pretty amazing. I read a number of very positive reviews.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get it to work. I kept getting errors during restore. But I think my unusual configuration maybe to blame. I would still recommend Acronis True Image for backups though. I didn’t really want an exact mirror image anyway – just specific applications and folders.
Then I found out about PCmover from Laplink. Their website says:
PCmover is the only migration utility that moves programs, files, and settings from your old PC to your new PC. Simply install PCmover on both your old and new computers and go! PCmover will determine which programs, files, and settings need to be moved, and when the transfer is complete, your new computer will have the personality and functionality of your old PC plus all of its own pre-installed software. Works with almost any Windows operating system, from Windows 95 to Vista.
To be honest I was a little skeptical that it would work. If you’ve ever tried to just copy an application folder from one place to another you’ll know that it rarely works as there are so many other dependencies. So I was interested to know whether PCmover would live up to it’s claims.
Unfortunately there is no trial version. But I decided to purchase a license anyway and give it a whirl.
Well – I’m impressed – it works! You can let it transfer everything, or choose which applications and settings to migrate. You can undo a migration too. I initially let it transfer all the Windows settings and decided I didn’t want that so I undid the migration and started again, this time being more selective. I did a further migration to transfer a few other apps which I missed the first time around.
Afterwards, about all I had to do was re-enter some license codes. But otherwise, everything worked as if I had installed it from scratch. Only it was effortless. And all my documents and data were there too.
Next time though I reckon the way to go is virtual. My next machine will be a virtual machine. Then when it’s time to upgrade the hardware – when I buy a new physical PC – all I’d need to do is copy the virtual disk file over. Backups become easier to: just make a copy of the virtual disk files. The whole PC becomes more portable too. Copy the virtual machine files to your laptop. Now your laptop has a complete snapshot of your main environment. It’s the future! But you can do it now.
If you’re new to virtual computing checkout the following products:
We already run several virtual environments, for testing and development purposes. Much cheaper than multiple physical PCs and easier than multi-booting. And they can easily be copied to new hardware.
So you see, it is finally possible to migrate to a new PC and avoid the pain!
