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    • PA 21.00.18 testing via context menu causes extraction of files

      D

      When the function for testing archives is invoked via the shell context menu (PowerArchiver > Test) then all the files in the archive get extracted to the current folder.

      The test dialog reports as many errors as there are files in the archive but it fails to give any hint as to which files are supposed to be erroneous or what the nature of the problem might be. Comparing the extracted files to the originals shows no differences at all.

      The .7z in question was produced with maximised compression settings in 7zip (taking forever but resulting in smaller archives than .7z produced by PowerArchiver with maximised settings). Therefore I wanted to see whether PowerArchiver can at least test .7z that it produced itself. Hence I had PowerArchiver convert a .pa with the same contents to .7z. There weren’t any errors reported but the resulting .7z contained fewer than half of the files contained in the .pa (137 of 366), so I scratched that test.

      Performance is abysmal when testing via the context menu (e.g. almost 2 minutes for testing a .7z that 7zip tests in 4 seconds), but that is most likely due to the fact that the extracted files are written to disk. Testing the same .7z in the PowerArchiver GUI takes only 8 seconds but causes the mysterious appearance of a UAC dialog, as reported elsewhere.

      The testing function is vital because PowerArchiver has a history of producing archives that it cannot unpack without errors or that do not conform to the respective file format standards (e.g. ZIP) so that other programs report them as erroneous.

      The point of creating archives is that the files in them will most likely have to be extracted at some point. If the extraction cannot be guaranteed to produce correct results then the whole program is absolutely pointless. Actually, worse than pointless - it causes data loss and hence damage.

      Tech Support
    • Start PowerArchiver 2023 Starter when my computer starts

      Brian Gregory

      In PowerArchiver 2023 22.00.06 configuration, the option labelled “Start PowerArchiver 2023 Starter when my computer starts” seems to be redundant.

      I am only allowed to change this option when PA Starter is disabled, and then it seems to be ignored.

      When I enable PA Starter this option is forced to the enabled state.

      I think it’d be good to remove “Start PowerArchiver 2023 Starter when my computer starts” completely. I’ve always found it confusing having both options.

      Added later: However i don’t particularly want to use queue but I do like having the PAStarter icon in my tray area.

      Tech Support
    • Testing .pa archives

      PA_Fan

      W10 Pro 22H2 - 64 -bit

      PA 22.00.06 (PA 2023)

      It has been the case with previous versions of PowerArchiver, but I had hoped that the latest might behave differently. Not so, I’m afraid.

      I have, for various obscure reasons, created a few .pa archives, mainly in the hope that they will save me some more space. From time to time, I use the “Test” option to check that important archives are OK and uncorrupted.

      With every .pa archive I’ve tested, the process runs through OK but then reports that there are errors. This is always the number of files in the archive e.g. if 11 files, then 11 errors reported.

      In the .pa, I can:-

      preview the files (usually PDF) extract some or all files and look at or use them convert the .pa to a .zip or .zipx archive, which then works fine and tests without errors

      Is it the case that the Test routine isn’t designed for .pa archives, or is there another reason? Although the .pa seems to function properly, despite the test reporting errors, I would like to be sure that every .pa is OK and not “broken”.

      Some of the .pas are quite old and produced with earlier PA versions (they are truly “archives”). If I extract all the files in the old .pa, create a new, fresh .pa and add back the files to that, then test the new, no errors (at least in the .pa I’ve tried this on) are reported. This would suggest a mismatch between old .pas and newer versions of PA itself.

      Tech Support
    • PA 21.00.18 Action / Test behaves oddly for me on .PA files

      Brian Gregory

      PA 21.00.18 running on Windows 7 64 bit.
      I made a big .PA file and thought I’d check it was made correctly with Menu / Actions / Test.
      Discovered:
      a) PA always issues a UAC prompt to do this!
      b) PA always says there are many errors in PA files.

      Tech Support
    • Small UI / Theme bug in 2023

      Z

      Clipboard02.jpg

      See the, supposedly, blank space where the green box is? It’s like that in Modern Light theme too. I can toggle it, but it’s missing text or shouldn’t be there I guess?

      Thanks :)

      Tech Support
    • PowerArchiver and PACL for macOS

      spwolf

      Dear @Alpha-Testers and all of our users,

      time has come for testing of PowerArchiver and PACL for macOS.
      Please let us know here if you have Mac and can test latest builds.

      Features implemented:
      PowerArchiver 2020 - tabbing, opening, extracting, adding, testing, favorite folders, support for multiple languages, opening via Finder, explorer mode, installer.
      PACL 10 - support for most formats and features in Windows version.

      Upcoming: Tools such as archive converter, batch zip, multi-extract.

      To start testing, please sign up here in this thread, and we will send you latest build.

      thank you!

      Ashampoo_Snap_Wednesday, November 20, 2019_12h54m56s_008_.png Ashampoo_Snap_Wednesday, November 20, 2019_12h55m05s_009_.png Ashampoo_Snap_Wednesday, November 20, 2019_12h55m14s_010_.png Ashampoo_Snap_Wednesday, November 20, 2019_12h55m30s_011_.png Ashampoo_Snap_Wednesday, November 20, 2019_12h55m39s_012_.png Ashampoo_Snap_Wednesday, November 20, 2019_12h55m49s_013_.png Ashampoo_Snap_Wednesday, November 20, 2019_12h56m00s_014_.png Ashampoo_Snap_Wednesday, November 20, 2019_12h54m43s_007_.png

      76e97ab9-8d75-4175-9ce8-446500031f38-image.png

      Tech Support
    • Functions in Windows 11 context menu no longer work after last Windows Update

      T

      For some reason, the PowerArchiver functions in the Windows 11 context menu no longer work after the last Windows Update. Only the functions in the classic context menu function as they should.

      I’ve tried uninstalling PowerArchiver and using RevoUninstaller to remove all bits and pieces that were left behind and did a clean install of PowerArchiver, it didn’t fix the issue. Other items in the Windows 11 context menu work.

      Tech Support

    Random crashes with explorer viewing style

    Tech Support
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    • Janizdreg
      Janizdreg last edited by

      PowerArchiver often crashes on my computer. Here’s how it happens:

      • I use PowerArchiver’s explorer viewing style (the crashes are somehow related to this since I don’t get any crashes when using the classic style)
      • I open an archive
      • I exit PA and it crashes upon exit

      The crashes occur randomly, roughly 33% of the times I exit PA.

      I’ve got Windows XP Home Edition SP1 and I’m using PA 9.2 if that helps.

      P.S. Apart from this annoying little bug PowerArchiver is by far the best archiver software I’ve ever used and I totally love it, so a big thank you to the devs - hope you will keep up the good work. :)

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • spwolf
        spwolf conexware last edited by

        Hi,

        If you could somehow isolate the problem, we would have an chance of fixing it. What exactly do you do in PA? What kind of files do you open (size, type, etc), folders you browse, etc, etc. 33% is a lot, it should be quite reproducable!

        thanks,

        Janizdreg 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Janizdreg
          Janizdreg @spwolf last edited by

          Okay, here’s what I’ve found out so far to be necessary to reproduce the bug:

          • PA’s viewing style is set to explorer (as mentioned earlier)
          • An archive is opened in PA through Windows explorer (if you open the archive via PA, there won’t be any crashes)
          • No files are extracted from the archive before closing PA (extracting a file and then closing PA seems to prevent the crashes)
          • The archive shouldn’t be stored on the desktop or in my documents folder - crashes don’t occur when the opened archives are stored in these

          In addition the crashes don’t depend on type or size of the archive - PA can crash handling any archive as long as the other “crash criteria” is met.

          Hopefully these instructions are enough to make the crashes reproducable. Whether or not they are, I’ll play around some more and see if I can pinpoint this thing a little more accurately.

          TBGBe 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • TBGBe
            TBGBe @Janizdreg last edited by

            @Janizdreg:

            [1]PA’s viewing style is set to explorer (as mentioned earlier)
            [2]An archive is opened in PA through Windows explorer (if you open the archive via PA, there won’t be any crashes)
            [3]No files are extracted from the archive before closing PA (extracting a file and then closing PA seems to prevent the crashes)
            [4]The archive shouldn’t be stored on the desktop or in my documents folder - crashes don’t occur when the opened archives are stored in these

            1. Done
            4. Two Zip files in “C:\PA_Testing”
            2a. (PA not running) Tried both with rightclick “Extract to here”
            2b. (PA not running) Tried both with rightclick "Extract to … " {FileName as Folder}
            2c. Tried both rightclick “Open with PowerArchiver” ; extract files; No error (Checked with Explorer that extracted files exist while PA not closed)

            Can you expand on your steps 2 and 3?
            What exact version of PA - Help/About shows 9.20.07 for me?

            Janizdreg 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Janizdreg
              Janizdreg @TBGBe last edited by

              It seems you misunderstood my instructions (but they did suck in the first place ;)) so here’s rewritten, better instructions on how to reproduce the bug:

              1. Set PA to use explorer viewing style and close it
              2. Create a folder C:\PA_Testing\ and to it an archive patest.zip which can contain anything or be empty of files, doesn’t matter
              3. Open patest.zip using Windows explorer (double click or press enter on it, assuming PA is using default settings) so that the PA window will open up inside that specific archive
              4. Don’t do anything to the archive, especially do not extract anything from it
              5. Close PA

              There and then it should crash. If it won’t, try opening and closing PA using the archive a few times (just do the “good ol’ enter & alt+f4 dance” for a while) and it should.

              Also, the exact PA version I’m using is 9.20.07.

              TBGBe 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • TBGBe
                TBGBe @Janizdreg last edited by

                OK, instructions better :p

                Tried with Zip, CAB and 7z format archives.
                Open / Closed(Alt F4) PA 5 for times each format.
                Then tried closing with File/Exit.
                Then tried closing with Toolbar button.

                Then tried opening with double-click.

                Still no crash :confused:

                Only difference I can see is that I have XP Home Sp2.

                P.S. Is your PA registered? If not, as mine is, then it maybe something with the not-registered dialogue/date-check ?

                spwolf 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • spwolf
                  spwolf conexware @TBGBe last edited by

                  I have tried it about 30 times as well, and could not get it to happen. Let us know step by step what exactly you are doing, and with what kind of archives (format, size, number of files).

                  thanks,

                  Janizdreg 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Janizdreg
                    Janizdreg @spwolf last edited by

                    Ok, here’s exactly what I do:

                    First, I do a clean install of PA. Then I run PA once but I don’t alter any settings except set the viewing style to explorer and enter my registration information. After that I close PA.

                    Then I open Windows explorer, go to C:\ and create a folder PA_Testing, thus getting a path C:\PA_Testing. I open the folder and right click there, choose new/text file and name it patest.txt, and do nothing about it. I right click on the text file and choose Compress To “patest.zip”. I double click on the newborn patest.zip file (which is sized 118 bytes) and the PA main window opens. I click ALT + F4, PA exits and crashes at the same time. That’s it.

                    I just tested PA 6.11 and I get no crashes with that. Neither do I get them when booting to Windows 98 SE (on the same computer) and opening the patest.zip with the latest PA version. Maybe this indeed is something Windows XP SP1 specific since TBGBe was not able to reproduce the crashes in Windows XP SP2 either.

                    spwolf 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • spwolf
                      spwolf conexware @Janizdreg last edited by

                      @Janizdreg:

                      Ok, here’s exactly what I do:

                      First, I do a clean install of PA. Then I run PA once but I don’t alter any settings except set the viewing style to explorer and enter my registration information. After that I close PA.

                      Then I open Windows explorer, go to C:\ and create a folder PA_Testing, thus getting a path C:\PA_Testing. I open the folder and right click there, choose new/text file and name it patest.txt, and do nothing about it. I right click on the text file and choose Compress To “patest.zip”. I double click on the newborn patest.zip file (which is sized 118 bytes) and the PA main window opens. I click ALT + F4, PA exits and crashes at the same time. That’s it.

                      I just tested PA 6.11 and I get no crashes with that. Neither do I get them when booting to Windows 98 SE (on the same computer) and opening the patest.zip with the latest PA version. Maybe this indeed is something Windows XP SP1 specific since TBGBe was not able to reproduce the crashes in Windows XP SP2 either.

                      Sounds good - I will test it more, with your steps. It really has nothing to do with PA 6.xx, most PA was rewritten several times since then - or since 8.xx for that matter. Most bugs are easy to reproduce and solve, trickier ones take time but once we find an way to reproduce it, it is easy to fix. It could be anything from some obsecure code to some application tagging itself to PA on your system and then making PA crash.

                      We will try this and move from that point forward. I will let you know my results.

                      thanks,

                      spwolf 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • spwolf
                        spwolf conexware @spwolf last edited by

                        It works fine on WinXP SP1 (tested). I am thinking that it might be related to some other software that attached itself to PA.exe - it has happened before.

                        Can you please download and install DLL Show (it is pretty small):
                        http://www.gregorybraun.com/DLLShow.html

                        It will show you an list of programs/dlls running under powerarc.exe, you can export the list to .txt and send it to us at supportRMV ME@conexware.com.

                        thanks,

                        Janizdreg 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Janizdreg
                          Janizdreg @spwolf last edited by

                          Done, uploaded the list to http://janizdreg.atspace.com/txt/POWERARC_Module_Dependency_List.txt

                          spwolf 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • spwolf
                            spwolf conexware @Janizdreg last edited by

                            @Janizdreg:

                            Done, uploaded the list to http://janizdreg.atspace.com/txt/POWERARC_Module_Dependency_List.txt

                            You run an tight ship there mister :-). I will be downloading that Sygate firewall to check if it somehow has something to do with it…

                            thanks,

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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