iReboot and XP

[gigabernie]

First of all I want to thank You for Your excellent programs. I use EasyBCD and iReboot on my triple boot: OpenSuSE , XP-pro and Vista Ultimate. Now here are some smaller bugs with OS other than English. In my case it is German:
Programs do not install links to the correct startmenu folder. During installation a new startmenu folder named "programs" is created. Yet the correct path should be
\startmen~\programme
In fact it is \startmenü\programme, but the "ü" doesn't seem to be a problem, probably because of the 8.3 convention of filenames.
But now a consequence of this is, that iReboot does not install to the correct startup folder, since this is called
\startmen~\programme\autostart
These are just minor bugs that can be fixed easily by the user...
Maybe a "How To" should be published in German, that I'll be willing to cotribute upon request.
But here are my wishes concerning the behavior of the trayicon:
There should be a way to keep checked items checked. Mainly the "Reboot on Selection" item. I never opened the trayicon without wanting to reboot. But as soon as I check the "Reboot on..." the optionsmenu closes and requires an unnecessary rightclick on the trayicon to do the selection. There are 3 possibilities to improve this behaviour, which is an issue in XP as well as in Vista.:
1. This item could stay checked after reboot.
2. This item could get checked by using a parameter with iReboot in startup.
3. The optionsmenu should stay open if this item gets checked.

TIA
Bernie

BTW: Are You working on a solution to manipulate the BCD from within Linux?

[Computer Guru]

Hi Bernie, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

With regards to the language issue - I was not aware of that bug, but now I see the problem. While we detect the correct path to start menu (that's why it shows up in startmenü at all) but not to the paths that follow. Bugged and listed for fixing in 1.1.

As for the saving of options... It should work. Currently we have iReboot coded to remember what was checked and check them on startup - does that not happen?

And BCD editing on Linux - not possible since Windows uses a binary BCD store that resides in a registry hive. Editing the registry from another OS (even in another Windows OS) is a huge risk - on Linux its neigh impossible.

Addendum:

I believe the "save last state" checkbox issue was resolved in 1.1 Beta. Have you tried it?

Addendum:

OK, I've just uploaded a new build of iReboot which should hopefully address all the localization issues.

You can test the new version at [Download] UAC-Free iReboot BETA - The NeoSmart Forums

Looking forward to the feedback!

[gigabernie]

Hi Guru,
"stay checked" and "language issues" are solved - thank you.
The "uninstall iReboot" doesn't work in XP or Vista. The "startup" and "windir\programs\NeoSmart\iReboot" have to be cleaned manually, which I did before I installed Version 1.1, in order to confirm the language issue. Since the uninstall didn't work with 1.0 I tried it on 1.1 with the same results. To be honest - I don't care. There is no reason to uninstall iReboot anymore.
What I do care about though is, that iReboot doesn't change the actual settings of the Bootloader. I think I found a good reason, why this should be changed (if possible):
My 2 PCs are running 24/7. One main reason for this is, that I run automatic updates between 2 and 3 in the morning - when it doesn't bother me. And there is a dual-boot on one PC and a tripple -boot on the other. So there are a lot of updates that need to be taken care of...
Now when I use iReboot, I "feel" left in the opinion, that my system would come up with the same OS after an update required a reboot, which is set on my systems to run automatically as well. Next day->surprise... It's not really a big deal, since it doesn't happen too often.

The UAC issue I didn't test. That was the first things I deactivated in Vista.

Thank you again for the good work!

Bernie

[Computer Guru]

Hi Bernie, thanks for getting back to me.

Whether or not the iReboot program files folder gets deleted depends a lot on Windows. Sometimes it doesn't flush the data to the disk early enough, so when we run uninstall.exe then close it, it thinks its still open and won't delete the files. You'll find that most software one the market has similar issues at times.

I just tested the uninstaller on two PCs here, and it worked fine this time around.

You have a good point with regards to how iReboot should handle a non-iReboot-triggered reboot of the PC. I'll have another build of iReboot that keeps the actual bootmenu synchronized with your last choice.

Addendum:

[#IRBT-6] Reboots done seperate from iReboot should default to last-selected OS - NeoSmart Technologies BugCentral

Addendum:

OK, fixed. You can download the new build at [Download] UAC-Free iReboot BETA - The NeoSmart Forums

Cheers!