I first noticed it when upgrading to 2019. Now, with 2022, it's even worse. But I'm also using ReSharper, and their upgrades over the years probably have become more demanding also. The worst thing (with my old 8 GB RAM and HDD only PC) is that if I leave the machine for a few minutes, Windows memory management instantly throws everything into virtual memory, and then when I get back I have to wait for it to be pulled back into RAM again before I can do anything. Drives me nuts. I presume that if you have plenty of RAM you're at least being spared from that.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/[^][^] Top quality, and great support. Been using their Image for DOS for years, creating and restoring hundreds of images on multiple computers, never had a problem. What I especially like is that it has byte-for-byte verify both when imaging and restoring which guarantees that the restored system is 100% identical to the one the image was made from. BootIt Bare Metal is excellent too for disk partitioning etc...

Great, thank you!

I've just installed Visual Studio 2008 Pro in Windows 8.1/64, but without the included SQL Server Express 2005 as it's not compatible with Win 8 according to MS. So what can I use instead which is compatible with both VS 2008 and Win 8? SQL Express 2008? I just need it for developing apps that uses an SQL database, nothning else. I'm also going to install Visual Studio 2013 Pro so it must be an SQL version that doesn't conflict with that. I assume that whatever SQL version that comes with VS 2013 (just bought it so I actually don't know what it installs) won't work with 2008, or what?

rjmoses wrote:

Take away one '=' in the if statement, put it in a seldom used error recovery routine and you have the bug I spent six months chasing. The mental skills required to spot the difference between '=' and '==' is difficult overcome when you are under pressure.

A good IDE like Visual Studio will catch that one, and many other errors, when debugging. With ReShaper installed it will catch it when typing.

"If it were pre-ordained, then why would the pre-ordinance allow you to buy a plane ticket for a plane that is going to crash in the first place?" It could happen that way also - you just need one event to stop you from entering that plane. There are many possible to choose from. The main goal is your survival, whatever means it takes to reach that goal are taken into consideration. It's a dynamic process, just as with all other events in life, it just involves some factors that we usually are not aware of. Some call it "Framework 2" - a dimension of reality where all events are coordinated in order to fulfil all individual desires. It's the opposite of pre-ordained - all events are a consequence on free will and individual choice. On the other hand, a choice does itself create some kind of pre-ordination within it's own context, you can however change the outcome if the probabilities allows for it. I.e. you can still change your mind before you jump from that cliff, however, as soon as you have jumped there's usually no way back (unless it's not your time yet). "And the other 237 people who do make the plane - their time was pre-ordained to be at exactly the same time?" What's the difference between 237 people choosing to die together on a plane and 10.000 choosing to gather at a stadion to see a game of football? In both cases it's an individual choice that makes you go there, it's just the purpose that's different. Suicide however is generally a taboo so choosing (usually on a subconsciious level) to die in a plane crash or some other accident is an alternative and "legitimate way" to leave the planet. And it's not always all passengers at a plane crash that die. Often some survive - and often in ways that you may call miraculous. Why then choose to get on the plane in the first place? Maybe they want that experience for some subconscious reason. Why do people do skydiving? It's dangerous like hell, but it's probably an incredible experience. Surviving death can be a great wake-up call - it can make you feel like being reborn and make you look at life in a completely new way. I know from personal experience... ;-)

It's all about focus and motivation. If you can focus 100% on what you do and feel strongly motivated to do it, you can do anything. :) Whatever you can do, or believe you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right." - Henry Ford

I believe people die when their "time has come" and not at any other time. That's why people sometimes miraculously survive accidents where all odds seem to be against them. Like someone being disturbed by something on their way to catch a plane that crashes. Such "coincidences" have happened to myself a few times, and I've seen it happen to many others as well. So from that perspective, no matter what you do to manipulate the outcome of a situation it's pointless - unless it's meant to facilitate the enevitable outcome. It's not magic, just a question of probabilities in the total scheme of energetic processes which stretch beyond the level of plain physical probabilities. Mind over matter, if you like... :)

I just bought VS 2013 Pro ($725 in Europe before tax/vat btw) but I definitely feel it's worth it - you do get a lot for your money. That's the point with anything you buy (and sell), IMO - do you feel it's worth the price? If not, you'd probably not buy it. BTW, I bought Visual Basic 3 many years ago, I paid about $200 (before vat) for it AFAIR (3 diskettes). :)

That can be adjusted. I had a problem with an XP machine where IE8 always froze after some time when browsing using many windows and/or tabs, particularly with sites with many large images. It showed up that something (no idea what) had set it into single process mode (all windows and tabs runs in the same process), by adding the value TabProcGrowth = 0 to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Saved a lot of memory actually, but the sideeffect was that it would freeze whenever memory use exceeded a certain amount, usually a little above 1 GB, even if there still was more than 1 GB free RAM left (4 GB in total on system). After setting TabProcGrowth = 18 it now runs in op to 18 processes (less will probably do, but haven't had time to experiment with it) and it hasn't frozen so far no matter how many tabs/windows I've opened, not even when being close to having used up all available memory. But if does indeed use a lot more memory this way per window/tab. More here: http://www.mydigitallife.info/hack-to-launch-only-one-or-limited-processes-of-ie8-regardless-of-number-of-tabs/[^]

Pete O'Hanlon wrote:

Nope. You didn't read my answer properly. I read your post and your follow up, and in neither case did you demonstrate that the original program behaved in a poor fashion.

Well then let's try another way: You're not supposed to delete the source folder, as it is the very core of the profile. So if you do, there's obviously something wrong. So the program needs to notify you that there is a problem, and in a way that makes sure you get the notification (it already does in case of other problems). It doesn't do that however. All it does is putting a note on top of the logfile (why there btw, when other error messages are put at the end of the file, and in red text?) that the source folder has been deleted, which most users probably don't see. And even if they do, it's too late anyway - their files are gone. The program has the ability to make copies of deleted files so you can rollback, but if the files are the size of several GB each (some of mine are are 20 GB or more), this is a bad solution as it requires a lot of extra diskspace (which simply may not be available) and takes a lot of extra time. It's much simpler not deleting the files, and notify the user of the problem so he can correct the situation. If nothing else, then include the option so users can choose whichever solution they find most appropriate to their situation.

Pete O'Hanlon wrote:

The last thing you want as a user is a program that should work without no interaction, stopping working because it's waiting on the user noticing that there's something they need to do.

It does not to have to stop working (I assume we're talking about scheduled backup of multiple profiles). It can simply skip running that particular profile so the backup files do not get deleted (they're not supposed to be deleted in this case anyway, remember), and continue with the rest of the profiles, and then set a flag in the program window and a tray icon notification as it does with other errors, so the user gets notified about the problem and can fix it.

ChandraRam wrote:

Doesn't the Windows Briefcase already implement something like this? You might want to take a look at the interface when you try to "sync" the briefcase...

Thanks for the suggestion, but it doesn't have all the features Second Copy has and which I use.

Pete O'Hanlon wrote:

So basically, you want an exact copy that's NOT an exact copy? I assume that it's expected to have a telepathic interface to know that you didn't actually mean to do this.

I don't think you have understood the issue correctly. Try reading my post again. Programs need to be foolproof, even experts make mistakes sometimes. A program that deletes your data because you make a mistake which the program easily can detect you have made obviously has a serious flaw.

Perspx wrote:

Yes I think there's a problem with that model - I wouldn't be too pleased if I accidentally deleted a folder and all the files from the backup copy (which acts as protection for a mistake such as that) were also deleted.

Exactly.

Perspx wrote:

I think a way around that problem would be to prompt the user, or have a setting for being prompted when the program is about to reflect changes on either the source or destination folder, possibly with a list of files that will be added/deleted so that the user knows what changes are going to take effect.

There are different ways to do it yes. Basically the program should cancel the copying (= deletion) proces for that profile and then give the user a warning in some way, depending on how the program is structured in general. Now, the user is actually me, and the program in question is SecondCopy http://secondcopy.com[^], a very well written, pretty advanced and very popular program that has won lots of awards. I've always been very satisfied with the program, except for when I by accident discovered this flaw. Over the last two years I've written three times to the company that makes the program about the problem, trying to make them fix it, but with no luck. Last time (some months ago) it seemed as if they finally understood what I was trying to tell them, nevertheless all they've done is adding a comment to the log file "Warning: source folder does not exist" which is pointless for you won't see that before after the files have been deleted, and I think most people don't even read the log file anyway. My reason for writing here is mainly to get some qualified responses from other programmers that I can refer to, in the hope that that will make them listen. So any comments, short or long, are welcomed. -- Rich

Hi, A question for any programmers here: Imagine you have written a backup program. In this program you can set up profiles, each profile has a source folder and a destination folder. When you run the profile, the files in the source folder are copied to the destination folder according to what options you have chosen for that profile. One of these profile options is called "Exact Copy". This means that the destination folder will be exactly synchronized with the source folder: if you add files to the source, they will be added to the destination folder, if you delete files from the source folder, files with the same name will be deleted from the destination folder. This means that if you accidently delete some files in a source folder, the backup of these files in the destination folder will be deleted also when the profile is run. So far so good, the program cannot know which files in the source folder that are deleted intentionally and which may have been deleted accidently, and therefore cannot warn you next time the profile is run. The only one that can prevent accidental deletion of files is you, by being aware of what you are doing. Now imagine a user tells you that he has discovered that if he uses Exact Copy in a profile, but accidently has deleted the source folder itself for that profile, all files in the destination folder are deleted also next time the profile is run. In other words, the program acts just as if the files in the source folder all have been deleted. Do you think there is a problem here, and if, what would you do to fix it? -- Rich

Johnno74 wrote:

If you are using firefox, check out the extension "scrapbook"

There's one for IE here (Standard & Pro versions): http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/Inquiry_Standard_Edition.htm[^] http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpProducts_Detail.asp?id=30[^] Rich

Brad Bruce wrote:

How do you guys keep track of documentation?

http://www.kinook.com/UltraRecall/?ur[^] Rich

Anyone have any experience with ProfileSharp? http://www.softprodigy.com/ProfileSharp/index.aspx[^]