Order of the Bath

There don’t seem to be many reports of this but Java 8 was a significant change from v7 and I have found at least two programs that no longer work. It is particularly difficult as the programs concerned are not actively maintained any more so there is little chance of getting the developers to make changes to allow for the new release. The problem seems to be that Java is now installed in a different place—dependent on the version number. I am testing using version 8u40

The programs concerned are

• EasySearch v3.0.4 running on WinXP (download not working). The only fix I can find for this is to remove Java 8 and install an old version 7u76 and also force it not to update (Control Panel >> Java >> Updates). I needed the JRE x86 offline version. Java 8 had been saying that some things won’t work in Winodws XP for a while but I wasn’t expecting it to be this serious. There is the same problem under Win7 running EasySearch in XP compatibility mode.
• YawCam running on Win7. There is a work-around for this one. Apparently the new way to find java is via \ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath but something this program does doesn’t work with this so you have to use the old style path which is \ProgramFiles(x86)\Java\jrel.8.0_40 . I would have reported this but the forum registration is not working.

JavaRanch [sorry, I lost the link] is reporting a similar problem.

Java doesn’t like to be told not to update—in fact it seems to ignore it and keep nagging you.

Do you like to keep a few shortcuts on your desk top? Those things that you need often or might need quickly, or those in obscure places that are hard to remember. I do. I don’t like a cluttered desktop but there are some things that are easier there. I have links to stuff on networked drives (that maybe require a mount or VPN before they are visible), links to utility programs like KeePass and PuTTY and some scripts that do routine things.

Microsoft in its wisdom (Windows 7) has decided to clean these up for us on a regular basis and if they are broken or not recently used then “tidy them up” for us—i.e. delete them. It wouldn’t be so bad but there are bugs in it, so it often deletes stuff that is frequently used and are not broken by any definition. This is not directly configurable, you have to turn off the whole of the maintenance daemon but it is not a great loss. Open the Control Panel and go to Troubleshooting (or System and Security—Find and Fix Problems on some systems). Now select the Change Settings in the left margin and switch it off. Done.

You can run it manually occasionally for the other benefits—same panel at the bottom is Run Maintenance Tasks. On the panel that pops up first click Advanced at the bottom and un-select Apply Repairs Automatically. The other things it does is check logs that may be wasting disk space, that the system time is set correctly and looks for disk errors. The last is the only really useful one.

Addendum: I notice that it also affects entries in Programs\Startup as well!

I have been reading about the new features of Windows 7 and one that looks attractive is the concept of Homegroups. This is an extension of the home networking facility which consolidates the files of all participating machines and users into common libraries. So, for instance, if you have multiple PCs on your network, each with multiple users then all their music folders are consolidated into one music library while the files themselves remain on the owner’s account. This is an extension of the “My Music” and “Shared Music” across multiple machines and accounts in a more transparent way. This has been available for a long time in Windows Media Player but the mechanism has been moved back into the O/S and extended to other libraries such as videos and pictures. There are not a lot of details, but I presume that this is for read only and write always goes local. The libraries involved are Music, Pictures, Videos and Documents and the sharing also includes printers. What it fails to mention, of course, is that it only works when the relevant machines are switched on!

An article I was reading on Windows Secrets, which is a lot more informative, suggests that Documents are handled differently from others. It says that “Homegroup setup makes sharing the Documents Library optional” but I can’t see why that should be given special treatment. Surely your Gangsta Rap collection and the pictures from your naughty weekend in Brighton could be just as sensitive?