Cory wrote:Please remove our software from these pages:
http://pti-acceptor-tools.software.informer.com/
http://pyramid-technologies-tools.software.informer.com/
http://rs232-interface-program.software.informer.com/

Hello, Cory.

No problem. Done.

Hello, Thomas.

You've got that right for the most part. I'll try to clarify the confusing bits.

1. The records themselves are created automatically. As soon as just one instance of SI Client reports a new application, that application gets a dedicated record on our website. This process is covered on http://software.informer.com/partners.php

2. The statistical data (numbers of users, numbers of downloads, etc.) is always updated automatically, with an occasional human check for possible anomalies.

3. The factual data (category, version number, etc.) is initially gathered from a variety of sources. The SI Client reports the version numbers, the app icon, the developer name, and some other info (you can view what exactly it's submitting by generating an XML report from within the app itself - you can do this e.g. from the Welcome screen upon the first launch). As for the category, home URL, download URL, and other such info - these are hard to come by automatically, especially when there's no PAD file to parse, so we generally rely on user reports until an editor comes up and reviews the application.

4. For applications with a lower number of users, the version info is updated automatically based on specific threshold values. For applications with a higher number of users, the version info is updated manually.

5. It is actually not uncommon for an application to be reviewed several times. New reviews are written pretty regularly, in fact, but those undergo several stages of human checks; so whenever the new reviewer changes the original category, which is by definition a very constant thing, they have to provide solid evidence in favour of their reasoning (e.g. show that most similar applications are filed under that new category).

6. If the information listed on SI is incorrect or outdated (or missing), the proper way to bring that up would be to use the 'Suggest a correction' box, yes. This info is checked by the admins, and is often used for creating new automated rules to prevent the same issues from popping up again.

OS-cognisant updates have been in the works for quite a while now, but implementing them requires dauntingly huge amounts of back-end data gathering. Now that the Mac Informer app has undergone its planned redesign though, I hope things should go a bit quicker.

Up to now, the proponents of this idea have been lurking here: http://macinformer.idea.informer.com/proj/?ia=61623

britnilinda wrote:what kinds of software are permitted for sharing here.

Pretty much everything goes as long as it doesn't break any laws and does not contain any explicit sexual imagery, drug references, and suchlike.

Cheers, got that. Try downloading the new version (the link is the same: http://files.informer.com/simac.dmg) - it should work now.

(If Mac Informer still fails to start up, or if you notice any oddities in its behaviour, use the same e-mail address to report those.)

That's peculiar. Could you archive the contents of the folder ~/Library/Application Support/MacInformer and send the compressed file to [edited out]?

Melissa Hamilton wrote:Are they two separate applications or the same things under different names? That is the question.
I have downloaded and installed Software Informer which I think is the actual application
listed on the Home page.

You mean siClient and Software Informer? They're the same thing. Those who refer to it as siClient simply use its executable file's name (siclient.exe) instead of the app's official title.

Roger Matile wrote:updated to Mac Informer client 0.5.5 and it crashes on startup on my Mac as well.
I get the message "Mac Informer quit unexpectedly."
I'm running OS 10.6.8 with 4gb of RAM on a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

Hello. Cheers for reporting this, the startup crashing should be fixed now in 0.5.6. You'll have to download the new version manually from http://files.informer.com/simac.dmg, however (or http://files.informer.com/simac.testing.dmg if you prefer the version with verbose debug info), as it crashes too quickly for the auto-update check to come through.

Cheers, we'll look into that.

Sorry, I'm afraid I won't be able to help you with this one.

Try creating a new topic in the 'Software Discussion' section of the forum. After all, 'Software Informer Client bug reports' is hardly a fitting place for questions like this.

I'm closing the topic.

I'm not sure I can help you with this one, there are just too many possible causes of this.

The only thing I can suggest is, go to Start menu -> Run... (or press Win+R), and type %appdata%. Press Enter. You should see a Windows Explorer window with your Application Data folder open in it. Look for the folder called Google. Enter it. Then locate the folder Chrome and delete it. This should flush your Google Chrome settings to their defaults.

This won't bring your saved passwords back, I'm afraid, but at least you'll be able to use Chrome again.

No worries, I know what you're talking about. These are libraries required by some other programs you've installed. And the reason they're listed several times is that there are several versions of those, and not all of them are interchangeable. They're not that big, so I'd suggest keeping them as t...

Yep, they will work on Windows 7.

As for the device info in the Details tab, you don't need to write it there. You need to type it into the search box on Google or Bing or whatever search engine you use. That info - VEN_xxxx&DEV_xxxx&SUBSYS_xxxxxx&REV_xx - you may call it an internal name of your device. This is how you will know you're downloading the correct driver. (To verify the validity of downloaded drivers, simply open the driver's .inf file and look if your VEN_xxx&DEV_xxx... is listed there).

No bother at all. One last note: the timestamps on those files on the FTP server don't actually mean that those files were put there back in 2010. Since they're all absolutely identical (15.10.10 00:00:00), and it's impossible to upload so much data within just one second, it's safe to assume that t...

Well, here's the official FTP server with all the drivers for your notebook. Whenever they release updated versions of model-specific drivers, they put them there, so it's safer to just download all the drivers from that folder (alternatively, you can use the web interface) - and you should be good to go.

If there are no updated drivers in that folder, it likely means that the updated drivers don't support your laptop.

This said, though, if you're feeling adventurous, open the Device Manager from the Control Panel, find the device whose driver you're intending to update, right-click on it, pick Properties, switch to the Details tab, and write down the following info (you can't copy it, you'll have to write it down manually):



That's VEN_xxxx&DEV_xxxx&SUBSYS_xxxxxx&REV_xx (some of the latter two may be missing, don't worry). Then just paste that info into Google and find out which other notebooks have the same device as yours. After that, you can try searching the downloads for those notebooks - maybe they're offering a slightly updated version.

The issue has proved much more complicated than we anticipated. It appears that most of these drivers should also be filtered by Notebook manufacturers, who often provide very different versions even within their own model range. There is usually no universal driver to link to, and drivers intended for Acer notebooks often won't work for Sony ones.

E.g. look at the downloads offered for the Memory Stick Host Controllers. The Windows 7 32-bit download points to http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/7kss55ww.zip; whilst the Windows XP 64-bit one leads to http://dlsvr04.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/Drivers/Cardreader/CardReader_Ricoh_WIN7_32_WIN7_64_36202.zip.

If these could be rectified by means of providing proper universal links for reported versions, it would be a trivial fix. Even regular users can do this (by clicking on the 'Suggest a correction' link on respective driver pages). But in this case this would only be a half-way solution, and would likely infuriate some notebook owners because their devices would stop working. No, fixing this issue implies a complete overhaul of the whole process of gathering driver versions and their download links - and I wouldn't even dare to give you an approximate ETA on when we'll be able to tackle this. For the time being, please avoid downloading updates for those devices that are mostly found in notebooks. That's the best advice I can give.

Are you looking for drivers for a specific notebook model? I could try to fix you up with official updates if you like, just tell me your notebook's manufacturer and model.

Thank you, we'll have a look which of those are wrong - the reported versions, the download links, or both.

Could you please list those wrong updates in the following format: Name - installed version (according to Device Manager) - detected version (in SI Client) - suggested latest version (in SI Client). Also, if it's not too much to ask, could you include a link where you've downloaded each of those upd...

Could you please elaborate which drivers you're referring to?

Cheers for reporting that. We've fixed the version.

It wouldn't do any harm, but it wouldn't be of much use either: they basically do the same thing.

Now, if PSI actually looked for security updates (including third-party patches) - that would make perfect sense. It's something one might expect from a software updater made by a security company. But alas.

Hello, Javad. Thank you for the initiative, we really appreciate it.

There's a Languages folder found in c:\Program Files\Software Informer\ - this is where you can find all the .lng files pertaining to the selectable languages. So you simply take the English.lng file, copy it somewhere, rename it to Persian.lng, open it with a text editor, and translate it. The translation instructions and guidelines are included in the file itself.

Also, there's a forum topic created by one of the translators a while ago, where he coordinates all upcoming and existing translations. Have a look: http://software.informer.com/forum/topic/3102/siclient-localization/

Well, the easiest way would be to use the exact same app, Brøderbund's PrintShop: http://www.broderbund.com/p-145-the-print-shop-231-deluxe.aspx (aye, the newest version does work in Windows 7). I'm not sure as to whether it can do batch conversion, but these days it looks like any app can.

I know Photoshop can handle .sig files, but it'd make for a considerably more expensive solution. You could try GIMP, however. Maybe they've got a plugin for handling .sig files.

Yep, a virtual registry implies using a virtualised environment and sandboxing applications within it. It doesn't necessarily imply virtualising a complete operating system, however. In addition to what Bread82 suggested, you could try Symantec Workspace Virtualization. It was previously known as Altiris SVS and gained quite a following before Altiris was acquired by Symantec.

Gary wrote:Hi guys,
I'm new here. My name is Gary and I'm from Australia I'm just wondering why I have "banned" below my avitar rather than a "new member"
Gary

Hello, Gary. Sorry about that, it was a leftover status assigned to some other, delinquent Gary, and the other filtering parameter (e-mail address) got ignored after pruning. We've fixed that.