Pocket App Review http://www.pocketappreview.com/ Objective portable software reviews with an emphasis on program quality. en-us Nucleus CMS v3.33 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/nucleus/nucleus2.gif Pocket App Review http://www.pocketappreview.com/ EjectUSB http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=17 EjectUSB
Version 1.4
Designed to be a simple utility to close all programs running from a specified drive or folder and then attempt ejection if a drive was specified. Extended functionality includes flushing the file cache, closing Explorer windows and removing registry entries and Recent Document shortcuts referencing the specified drive or folder.Documentation and an example configuration file are included in the ZIP. The source code is available as a separate download.

TrueCrypt and combination flash card / flash drives support will be made available via configuration files after sufficient testing has been conducted.

See EjectUSB in action!
» Watch the flash video

Release Version 1.4:
» Download EjectUSB (254 kilobytes, 11362 downloads)
» Source Code (23 kilobytes, 532 downloads)

Change Log:
Version 1.4
- Bug fix: Graceful program closing no longer only targets programs with a visible window.
- Bug fix: Flushing file buffers can no longer cause ejection to fail.
- Improvement: Dead tray icon cleanup is more resilient and slightly faster.
- Improvement: EjectUSB can now generate its own ejection success message. This will make ejection seem much faster on most computers.
- Addition: Added NoFakedMsg setting to the configuration file format.

Version 1.3 (107575 downloads)
- Bug fix: Program closing on Win9x works again (was broken in 1.2).
- Bug fix: Fixed issues on Win9x when running EjectUSB from a drive's root folder.
- Improvement: Implemented hybrid batch scripting. This provides theorhetical support for TrueCrypt and combination flash card / flash drives as well as conditional operations.
- Improvement: EjectUSB can now interface with EjectMedia.exe to eject flash cards / CDs.
- Improvement: Implemented support for Subst.
- Addition: Added DoNotSubst and NoRedirect settings to the configuration file format.
- Addition: Added /nobat command line argument to disable use of the hybrid batch file (if present). Meant to be used within the hybrid batch file if starting another instance of EjectUSB to prevent infinite loops.

Version 1.2 (4933 downloads)
- Bug fix: Improved handling of relative paths (\ and ..).
- Improvement: Implemented API-based ejection.
- Improvement: Implemented file cache flushing. Requires admin privileges.
- Improvement: EjectUSB can now interface with Sync (from Sysinternals) to flush the file cache (instead of using its own internal file cache flushing function). Requires admin privileges.
- Improvement: Improved command line argument parsing; drive letter or folder path no longer are required at all and no longer must be the first command line argument.
- Improvement: Efficiency improvements related to DLL calls.
- Addition: Added DoNotFlush and NoEjectAPI settings to the configuration file format.
- Change: RemoveDrive.exe is called with the -L switch to loop until successful ejection. This can be aborted by closing the RemoveDrive.exe console window.
- Change: DevEject.exe is now launched hidden.
- Change: Added current version number to EjectUSB.exe version info.

Version 1.1 (3413 downloads)
- Bug fix: Improved ejection capability via EjectUSB's own internal ejection routine.
- Bug fix: Improved command line argument and input parsing for handle.exe; there were some formatting differences between the output on Win9x and WinXP.
- Bug fix: TimeToWait is now a maximum per ''phase'' rather than per program; in rare cases EjectUSB could wait for multiple minutes on closing programs with the default TimeToWait value of 5 (seconds).
- Bug fix: Cleaning up dead tray icons was triggered by faulty criteria; in simple terms, dead tray icon cleanup was occuring when it didn't need to (wasting up to 1 second).
- Improvement: Minor efficiency improvements related to the previous two changes.
- Improvement: EjectUSB can now interface with Unlocker to close open file handles; simply UniExtract the Unlocker installer and put Unlocker.exe and UnlockerDriver5.sys in the same folder as EjectUSB. Unlocker requires admin privileges and doesn't work on Win9x.
- Improvement: Added a FAQ section to the documentation.
- Change: Slight change to the EjectUSB logo.
- Change: Separated the source code into its own ZIP file. Source code for EjectUSB will always be released with each version of EjectUSB.

Version 1.0 (1695 downloads)
- Initial release.]]> Software http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=17#c Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:02:39 -0700 Progress Update for EjectUSB 1.4 http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=24 Version 1.4 is released!

Read more for the original contents of this entry.I've been making progress on version 1.4. Here's an up-to-date Change Log:
- Bug fix: Graceful program closing no longer only targets programs with a visible window.
- Bug fix: Flushing file buffers can no longer cause ejection to fail.
- Improvement: Dead tray icon cleanup is more resilient and slightly faster.
- Addition: Added NoFakedMsg setting to the configuration file format.

The NoFakedMsg setting has to do with a nice speed improvement I'm working on for the ejection success message.

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Yes, it's been months since my last update. The changelog for 1.4 is currently pretty simple:
- Bug fix: Graceful program closing no longer only targets programs with a visible window.
- Improvement: Dead tray icon cleanup no longer literally moves the mouse cursor.

I've also been aiming to speed up the ejection success confirmation (it sometimes successfully ejects the drive long before the ''safe to remove'' bubble appears).

Tray icon cleanup has been largely rebuilt and just needs to run through some testing on Vista.

Progress Update for EjectUSB 1.3

Update: Version 1.3 is released!

I'm now aiming for a Wednesday release of EjectUSB 1.3. The new version is currently being put through beta testing with some generous volunteers, but is taking longer than I initially planned. Subst support is done, EjectMedia.exe support is implemented and Win9x support is fixed. TrueCrypt support is currently undergoing testing.

I'm aiming for a Friday release of EjectUSB 1.3. The changes are too numerous for me to want to list at the moment (a full change log will accompany the release) but they are planned to include a fix for Win9x program closing, Subst support (un-subst'ing subst'ed drives to be precise), addition of EjectMedia.exe (by Uwe Sieber) support to work with Flash Cards and Card Readers, and addition of a simple scripting system which will, among other things, add support for unmounting TrueCrypt volumes before ejection.

Progress Update for EjectUSB 1.2

Update: Version 1.2 is released!

I have EjectUSB 1.2 going through some quick beta testing and expect to have the release version available soon (Monday night).

Here's the current Change Log to whet your appetite:
- Bug fix: Improved handling of relative paths (\ and ..).
- Improvement: Implemented API-based ejection.
- Improvement: Implemented file cache flushing. Requires admin privileges.
- Improvement: EjectUSB can now interface with Sync (from Sysinternals) to flush the file cache (instead of using its own internal file cache flushing function). Requires admin privileges.
- Improvement: Improved command line argument parsing; drive letter or folder path no longer are required at all and no longer must be the first command line argument.
- Improvement: Efficiency improvements related to DLL calls.
- Addition: Added DoNotFlush and NoEjectAPI settings to the configuration file format.
- Change: RemoveDrive.exe is called with the -L switch to loop until successful ejection. This can be aborted by closing the RemoveDrive.exe console window.
- Change: DevEject.exe is now launched hidden.
- Change: Added current version number to EjectUSB.exe version info.

So far I've made significant efficiency improvements and overhauled how EjectUSB handles command line arguments to be more flexible. I corrected a couple flaws in the Win9x program closing routines (I was technically calling the Windows CE versions of the Toolhelp functions, which were working, but formatted poorly).

The biggest news though is implementing drive ejection via API calls; this will allow for multiple attempts at ejection and should practically guarantee successful ejection. I'm also adding support for Sync by Sysinternals to make sure all data is written to the drive before ejection (this is mainly important for USB hard drives, as opposed to flash drives).]]> Blog http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=24#c Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:03:12 -0700 New Domain for EjectUSB http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=25 EjectUSB.com so it's now redirecting to the PAR EjectUSB entry. I'll make up a site for it when I have the chance (and change the redirection so it'll be its own full-blown domain). Feel free to bookmark the new domain; I'll keep it functional.]]> News http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=25#c Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:29:04 -0600 Description Meta-Tag http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=23 News http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=23#c Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:51:12 -0600 The Future of EjectUSB (and PAR) http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=22
Just giving you a little insight into my plans. As for this site, I have 5 software reviews waiting in my queue and about 2 dozen in text files on my computer that I just need to finish up and post. I know it doesn't make sense that a site named Pocket App Review doesn't have any reviews, but that's because the release of EjectUSB pushed my timetable for launching PAR up a little bit. I still have a file backup utility to post here as well.]]> News http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=22#c Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:15:01 -0600 Feeds and URLs http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=21 think will work. Nucleus came default with RSD support as well, but I don't use that, so it got the axe.

I also implemented better looking URLs for the various entries; basically, the entry number got replaced with the title. It's backwards compatible with the entry numbers though so no links or bookmarks should be broken.For now I've stripped the description meta-tag out of my pages because it's all Google displayed as a description for ALL PAR page search results. Unless I can dynamically generate that meta-tag, it's useless and creates hideous results whenever someone gets a search result for PAR, so I'm just cutting it out for now and hoping search engines can just pull description text out of entry text.]]> News http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=21#c Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:17:34 -0600 Version 1.1 http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=20
» Go to the main EjectUSB entryIt took longer than I was expecting to hammer out some of the ejection issues, but I'm fairly pleased with the results. It occured to me that I should probably seek out more helper utilities for closing open file handles (I like Handle from Sysinternals, it's all I've found that works on Win9x, but I want people to have options) so I've added compatibility with Unlocker with this release.

I made a few efficiency improvements, partially to offset the efficiency decrease that was required to get ejection working more reliably, but mainly because my aim is to make EjectUSB as good and versatile as it can be. I made it originally for my own personal use and I regularly work on computers running many different versions of Windows, so I wanted EjectUSB to be functional on every version of Windows possible.]]> Software http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=20#c Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:06:26 -0600 On Branding and Browsing http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=19 New FaviconReturning visitors might notice the new logo (and favicon!) for the site in the upper-left corner; I figured something obvious to relate this site to things portable would be a good idea and what better than a huge disembodied USB plug?

I'll be adding a charity donation link under entries on this site. If you've enjoyed your visit and are the donating type, you'll have the option to donate to a charity in PAR's name (well, Sean's name really, he's my co-admin and editor; he didn't edit this post, which is why it's so rambling). We'll be starting with a Crohn's disease fundraiser.I also have settled on a site browsing mechanism; try the Archives link to the left to see it in action. It has sorting capability, and more importantly (from a design perspective) it filters out empty categories. When designing the site, I came up with all sorts of category names I might use ahead of time... which meant Nucleus' default category listing had tons of entries that led to blank pages.

My host was kinda spotty this evening, seemingly down quite a few times; I hope they stay up for a while now. I really do like them...

I plan to release a new version (1.1) of EjectUSB sometime either tomorrow (well, later today... I'm up kinda late) or Thursday. It's mainly just some optimizations to the wait-for-programs-to-close routines but will also include a minor bugfix related to graceful closing and registry wrappers (like much of the software from PortableApps.com).

I'll be releasing a very simple file backup utility on the site later this week. I've actually posted it on the internet before, but this release has a couple bugfixes (related to command line argument parsing) and the added ability to cancel a backup in progress; no clue why it didn't have that before.

IE6 users (like myself) will be glad to know I'm accounting for the lack of PNG alpha transparency support and color matching PNG backgrounds to the basic white I use for entry backgrounds; this just means transparent PNGs won't have gray boxes around them on IE6 (they'll have white boxes instead, which won't be obvious against white backgrounds). I'm not using the alphaimageloader trick because, well, it affects browser performance.]]> News http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=19#c Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:31:33 -0600 Site Navigation http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=18 News http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=18#c Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:43:10 -0600 garfield minus garfield http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=11 G-GIn a way, it's old news by this point, but the site ''garfield minus garfield'' really took me by surprise with its twisted humor.

I did a tribute comic in less than 5 minutes emulating the site. I always liked the Garfield comics, but I enjoy these even more.

» garfield minus garfield]]> Blog http://www.pocketappreview.com/main/index.php?itemid=11#c Sun, 2 Mar 2008 03:06:24 -0700