EasyBCD 2.3 Beta Builds

EasyBCD 2.1 Beta Build 140.

Major updates for anyone doing things with manually-selected BCD stores. While basic functionality has always worked, there's a slew of updates for the advanced disk-related tasks.

* [EBCD-463]: Fixed crashes caused by cross-thread UI access
* [EBCD-459]: Recreate boot files will fail on external BCD
* [EBCD-460]: Reset BCD is not rewriting bootsector/mbr for external stores
* [EBCD-462]: NeoGrub state not being refreshed when switching to external store
* [EBCD-461]: Summary screen not reflecting reset BCD of external store
* Added status bar text after install NeoGrub
* Properly refresh BCD store after reset BCD call

EasyBCD build 141's been uploaded.

For this build, I decided based on the feedback over the past few months to simplify some of the options pertaining to modification of external BCD stores. In particular, the option to "force boot device" has been removed. EasyBCD will automatically determine if a entry for ISO/PE/Floppy/VHD/NeoGrub/PLoP should be specified to be loaded from the boot device verses the partition letter that it exists on.

In addition, when adding a portable entry (i.e. on a bootable USB disk) and adding an entry that needs files on another partition (such as creating an ISO entry with the ISO on drive C:\), EasyBCD will throw up a warning that this entry will not work on any other PC unless the ISO is first copied to the external device then the entry is added pointing to there.


* Fixed [EBCD-447], displaying a message about no XP-only support in EasyBCD when BCD isn't found for the first time. This is for people with no BCD store that don't realize XP-only isn't supported.
* Fixed typo in caption of ISO info dialog
* [EBCD-455]: EasyBCD shows a warning if an entry as configured will not load from an external device on a different PC.
* Fixed crash when removing an entry that doesn't actually exist
* Solved [EBCD-454]: Automatic detection of whether force portable boot or not

Uploaded EasyBCD 2.1 build 142.

Fixes a regression introduced in build 138 that resulted in entries being displayed out of order in EasyBCD.

With this update (build 143), all the bugs/issues open for 2.1 in the bug tracker have been resolved. As such, if all goes well and as soon as everything else aside from the software itself is ready, 2.1 will be released "pretty soon."

* Enabled community mode feature (will only show on first run)
* [EBCD-458]: Default entry name on main page is updated when entry is renamed
* [EBCD-465]: When changing boot drives, visual indication is given for the current boot drive and you may not choose it.
* Updated BootGrabber.exe to internal build with the /bcdcfg option
* Left-aligned toolkit icon texts
* Renamed "Bootloader Management" to "BCD Deployment"
* Updated to plop 5.0.12
* Updated to Grub4Dos 0.4.5b-2011-04-23
* Fixed [EBCD-466]: EasyBCD now sets first-added entry as default

This was the proverbial post that broke the camel's back.

EasyBCD 2.1 build 144 now contains automated detection, download, and installation of missing .NET 2.0 SP2 installs. Cheers.

Addendum:

Build 145 uploaded. Fixes a regression introduced by build 143 which resulted in the default entry not having its boxed checked on startup on the Edit Entries page.

Found out that "wait for user to press before choosing an entry" menu setting has never worked, thanks to JoeyP.

Uploaded build 146 to fix that. Hopefully final update before release, please test as hard as you can!

Thanks.

EasyBCD 2.1 Final has been released.

EasyBCD 2.1 and Some Big Changes The NeoSmart Files

It is the same as build 146 above.

Hello everybody!

Not wasting any time with the 2.1.1 build... Currently working on improving the BSD support by an order of magnitude, working hand-in-hand with the PC-BSD developers to support all fringe cases with a single click in EasyBCD. See here for more info: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.os.pcbsd.testing/5426

So, without further ado, EasyBCD 2.1.1 build 147 with the new PC-BSD support.

Happy testing!

Per feedback from ache regarding the new *BSD bootloader in EasyBCD b147, b148 now uses a more intelligent method to help streamline the boot process as much as possible:

Computer Guru said:

I'm uploading EasyBCD 2.1.1 build 148 which should use a more intelligent method to help avoid the extra key presses when possible.

Per testing, both FreeBSD and PC-BSD behave in the same way with the same gotchas (which is reasonable since they both just use BTX without much hacking around). They will both boot OK with the old b146- method of simply chainloading the bootloader. But when installed to a second, non-boot disk, they will need the new method in b147+.

EasyBCD will use the old method if *bsd is on disk 0, and the new method otherwise.

Click to expand...

You can share your feedback on this in the original discussion thread: EasyBCD 2.1.1 Beta Build 147: annoying GRUB, unneded for FreeBSD boot installed.

Uploaded build 149.

* [EBCD-478]: Advanced options not available for PE entries fixed: Advanced settings grayed out
* Modal dialog boxes are not shown if a reboot is detected to prevent shutdown hanging.

EasyBCD build 150 uploaded. Major credit to palyza for reporting most of these problems.

* [EBCD-474]: Create bootable USB is not properly disabled on Windows XP
* [EBCD-475]: Edit Legacy Entries points to wrong boot.ini when modifying external BCD
* Refactored Windows Vista+ checks and message boxes to a shared function
* Scroll to the top of the BCD Box when changing from Basic to Detailed and vice-versa
* Support internationalization of the BCD entry names and paths

Build 150 was broken on Windows XP, causing an infinite loop. Turns out XP doesn't support the method I was using to get non-English BCD names.

Thanks to ChiefZeke for bringing this to my attention.

* Using alternate method of getting internationalized BCD entries that will work on XP
* Removed extra blank line in BCD Store Not Found error message
* Removed warning about MBR not being backed up from Backup/Restore page
* Fixed crash when BCD Store both not found and not manually selected
* Fixed crash when going back to the main page and no BCD store is loaded
* Handling errors in EasyBCD constructor without crashing
* Don't warn about no default backup directory when closing EasyBCD and no BCD loaded

installer now includes binaries/UtfRedirect.exe which is used to force non-English output of bcdedit.

EasyBCD build 152.

• Primary fix is with regards to internationalization. Build 150 had working reading and writing of internationalized entries to the BCD, but did not run on XP. Build 151 used an alternate method that fixed the XP problem, but broke the *writing* of internationalized entry names. Build 152 *should* work on XP-8 for both reading and writing of internationalized entries.
• Source code for latest UtfRedirect is available online at NeoSmart/UtfRedirect - GitHub
• Added line break after entry count/bcd location
• Fixed issues with the font in the BCD Box breaking with non-ANSI characters
• Using a differently-styled text box for the main display output which does not have issues with side-scrolling and looks a little more elegant.

Cheers.

Time to break the silence, new build 153:

* Fixed rare case where EasyBCD wouldn't actually close when using File | Exit
* [EBCD-472]: always copy NTLDR to the system drive so XP can resume from hibernate OK (for both EasyLDR and NTLDR cases)
* [EBCD-473]: EasyBCD intelligently detects whether a BCD path should be auto-loaded on startup.
* Option to manually set default BCD path on startup in the options dialog

(Terry: I think this build will save you a lot of time in the future EasyBCD should only bug you to locate your BCD just once more and then forever keep its silence).

ADDENDUM

Build 154:

Making up for the long silence with another immediate build (sorry!!)

Turns out build 152 introduced a bug where the donation dialog is shown on every close of EasyBCD. Definitely not on purpose, fixed in this build.

EasyBCD 2.1.1 final (build 155) is now available for download.

Thank you all for your help in making this release possible.

Changes from the last beta build (154) are as follows:


* [EBCD-482]: Better handling of internal state when BCD store not found on startup
* Fixed line break issues in the main-screen textbox
* [EBCD-481]: BootGrabber.exe, UtfRedirect.exe, and NetTest.exe now run on Windows XP RTM through SP2
* [EBCD-477]: Display error dialog if no internet connection when trying to install .NET instead of failing without a message

And, of course, the biggest news is that EasyBCD and all its binaries are now digitally signed.

Stay tuned for more betas!

(NetTest, the commandline utility used in the setup to detect an internet connection has also been opensourced. Available at NeoSmart/nettest - GitHub)

Hello and welcome to the EasyBCD 2.2 beta program! This is the single most major update since the 2.0 release.

Take a look? Does it all look the same to you?

EasyBCD is now 100% localizable (well, it should be, but your job as beta testers is to make it crash and prove otherwise).

All EasyBCD strings are loaded from translation files located in "C:\Program Files (x86)\NeoSmart Technologies\EasyBCD\lang" - at the moment there's only en-US in there, but more are hopefully on their way with the help of translators from the forever-ago abandoned translation thread.

EasyBCD does a lot more than just load strings from the XML files, you'll find that in general the UI's spacing and arrangement is just a little bit different (a bit more whitespace and less cramped). EasyBCD now uses fluid alignment techniques that should make it look great regardless of how long or how short the translated text is (within reason, obviously).

The entire framework I wrote for the localization of EasyBCD is being released open source at NeoSmart/Localization - GitHub and can be reused by other .NET developers.

For now, translations of EasyBCD are done by directly editing the XML files in the lang folder. I'm working on making a new GUI tool that should make that a lot easier. But, for now, go ahead and take a look at that XML file to see what lies ahead.

Completely separate from the 2.2 beta work, EasyBCD 2.1.2 has just been released:

EasyBCD 2.1.2: Fedora 16 GRUB2 support and bugfixes The NeoSmart Files

EasyBCD 2.2 beta build 162 uploaded.

* New image during setup
* Per [EBCD-486], added option to manually select the partition GRUB2 is loaded from
* Removed duplication of certain drop-down items due to addition in MainUI.Designer.cs and in MainUI.Localization.cs
* Had forgotten to localize DonationDialog.Designer.cs!
* Localized strings stored in resources as well.
* Bumped version to 2.2 in setup captions
* Smushed image resources considerably -> smaller size
* Updated EasyBCD About Dialog to new logo
* Pulled in changes from 2.1.2:
* Updated to grub4dos-0.4.5b-2011-11-27
* PLoP updated to 5.0.13
* [EBCD-489]: Fedora 16 uses /boot/grub2/core.img for GRUB2

Also, I realize that I didn't post the complete changelog for build 160, having only focused on the localization:

* EasyBCD has the new EasyBCD and NeoSmart logos
* It'll also look prettier on the desktop with a 256x256 logo when viewing large icons as well.
* Fixed anchoring for stretching window
* Cleaned up bcd reload code
* Removed redundant call to SelectDefaults() --> faster main screen loading on first start


New EasyBCD logo:




New NeoSmart logo:

Very minor update to build 163.

Fixes reported bug where ISO image entry's browse and help buttons are swapped, and makes EasyBCD compatible with the newly-uploaded NLTUI translation tool.

OK guys, new build.

There have been a few stealth releases since the last post in this thread, that have focused solely on localization. I did not want to bother any of you with emails for builds with no noticeable changes, so those updates were kept to the localization thread.

We're currently on build 166. The last "notification" was for build 163.

Changes:

* Fixed recently introduced bug that wouldn't allow changing of timeout radio button
* Brought WinPE 'add entry' button in front of white space
* Fixed AboutBox resize on longer localization text
* Fixed DefragDialog resize on longer localization text
* Fixed DriveSelect resize on longer localization text
* Allow donation dialog buttons to resize to fit internationalized text
* NeoGrub install/remove buttons now scale with longer text correctly
* Fixed autosizing of Mac Add Entry button on localization
* Localized some forgotten texts in OptionsDialog.cs
* Added language choosing dialog (Tools | Select Language)
* Cleaned up transparency of all tab icons by deleting static imagelist

For the last point (transparency of PNGs), here's a screenshot to demonstrate the change. Left is old, right is new. This is clearly a Microsoft bug:


This build ships with the following languages:

English
Italian (thanks to Paolo Viappiani)
Spanish (thanks to Manel Fernandez)
Catalan (thanks to Manel Fernandez)

Preview of translated EasyBCD:


More languages coming soon!