[WFX] VirtualPanel: Temporary panel for TC

[Phred]

Continuing ..but first an aside:

I believe I may be understanding what VP actually does do, but the Readme makes very heavy reading.

HOWEVER, may I first interpose comments on what I read in tuska's posts..

A lot of what I read inside VP's configuration files forces me to say:

We are NOT all administrators, and neither should we be.

In these days of virulent infections, phishing attacks and ransomware, no-one should be operating from day to day in an adminstrator account, I assert*. Administrator accounts should be for administering. Everyday operations should be conducted in Standard User accounts. This I strongly believe.
*developers notwithstanding.

In most commercial environements, running with root privileges is a sackable offence. Some operating systems actually prevent the execution of programs in a root context.
(Read today's news about the encryption of all the files in the University of Calgary's IT system.)

VP's configuration files lie within restricted space - c:\Program Files\Total Commander\plugins\wfx\VirtualPanel\ - that should not be and is not editable by a standard user.
Author Ghisler never does this: his ini and bar files are always placed in user-writable locations.
A program installation that finishes with a ticked box for 'Run [this program]' is anathema to me since it implies that the administrator who installed it is prepared to run it in his name.

Therefore, MVV, I implore you to reconsider the placement of your user-files. VirtualPanel.bar is a single immediate example. Extras.EN appears to be the most aggregious file in this regard.
Would you please consider altering VPs installation process so that VP can be easily handled by a standard-user-friendly account?

If I have this completely a-about-t, then I apologise in advance; it doesn't look good to me.
I trust VP's having to operate in a s/user context wouldn't affect it fundamentally..

(Thanks to Author, elgonzo, Hacker et al; we will just have to work around MBAM, carefully..)

[MVV]

VP's configuration files lie within restricted space - c:\Program Files\Total Commander\plugins\wfx\VirtualPanel\ - that should not be and is not editable by a standard user.

Please re-read the Readme, you haven't understood it. By default VP uses configuration file that TC suggests (fsplugin.ini), but there is an option to use configuration file in VP folder (and this option requires creating that file manually).

Would you please consider altering VPs installation process so that VP can be easily handled by a standard-user-friendly account?

If you haven't manually created configuration file in VP dir, all will be configurable without any admin rights.

VirtualPanel.bar is a single immediate example. Extras.EN appears to be the most aggregious file in this regard.

This BAR file is only an example of executing VP commands with VPBatch, it is not required for using with VP. You may put it into any folder of your choice if you want to modify it frequently.

[JnLLnd]

Hi MVV,

I have a question for you that is a little off-topic in this thread. I posted it here:
http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=45642

If whenever you have a chance to take a look at it?

Thanks,

Jean

[dschordsch]

Was not able to get this plugin to do something. Im not even sure what it does. Misconfigured undocumented lifetime sucking flow stopper software.

[TW]

there's a quite gig introduction of this in the start posting. maybe you should give it a read before complaining?

[Peter]

,,,Im not even sure what it does. Misconfigured undocumented lifetime sucking flow stopper software.

The readme.txt with 10 pages of information is not enough?

[MVV]

dschordsch,
Hey, I'm glad to see you too!

However it would be nice if you read the Readme...

After installing plugin, it can be accessed via Network Neighbourhood just like any other file system plugin.

Also first topic post and download page describe what plugin does (actually this description is in updated Readme too, but was not released yet - I've updated the package)... Still not enough?

VirtualPanel is a temporary panel plugin for Total Commander. It is is a sort of virtual folder that allows keeping links to frequently used files and accessing them as if they were real files and not just links. It doesn't store any files, it only keeps links to them in special list files. ...

[dschordsch]

Well, i installed the provided example bar file, buttons did do nothing.

Then i fixed the paths (Total Commander does not install the plugin to 'Plugins\FileSystem\VirtualPanel' but to 'Plugins\wfx\VirtualPanel'), Buttons still do nothing. The reason is that there is no folder AskParam in my Total Commander dir and there is also no AskParam.exe anywhere on my system.

Then i did a ctrl+f on your first post about VP and found you losing one sentence about this dependency in the very last line of your post - no link to it. Then i found the link to the forum post for the AskParam.exe in your profile text. And this forum post links to this location. And the zip download on this page, when scanned with Virus Total results in six virus warnings. (See also here).

At this point i stop of course. If this is a false alert, probably Christian Ghisler will write about it on a prominent location. Lets see.

[MVV]

Such a curious investigation!

It is a sample bar file, it is not a real part of VP package (mostly because there is no way to specify valid paths for all users) and VP works w/o it:

Here is a sample BAR file to use main VirtualPanel script features.

And there is a note below its contents in the first post:

Please specify your paths to VPBatch.exe and AskParam.exe if you use it.

BTW if you could search AskParam topic, you would find old discussions about false positives... Ghisler can't and doesn't check all tools and plugins himself of course, we have to live with it.

But wait, no one forces you to use this plugin or AskParam or anything else. Especially if you are so sceptical.

[petermad]

If this is a false alert, probably Christian Ghisler

Why should he do that? - he has nothing to do with the addon.

Then i fixed the paths (Total Commander does not install the plugin to 'Plugins\FileSystem\VirtualPanel' but to 'Plugins\wfx\VirtualPanel')

I agree, that since %COMMANDER_PATH%\Plugins\wfx\ is the default path for TC to install filesystem plugins (try with a clean wincmd.ini), I think it is at the least confusing to the average user that you are using %COMMANDER_PATH%\Plugins\FileSystem\ - but I also see that the .bar files are no longer included in the wfx_VirtualPanel_2.0.7.1366.zip package - so it is no longer a problem - neither is references to the askparam.exe addon in the bar files.

2MVV
If you chose to reintroduce the .bar files in the package, I suggest that you change the path's in the .bar files to point to "wfx" in stead of "FileSystem", and that you include askparam.exe and askparam64.exe in the package - they are not a big files.

[MVV]

petermad,
I won't include AskParam into VP package, but I've fixed paths to plugin dir in first post.

[petermad]

2MVV
Great

[dschordsch]

It is a sample bar file, it is not a real part of VP package (...) and VP works w/o it

But HOW? How do i open this virtual panel? And how do i close it? Where is this information?

[Dalai]

2dschordsch
Every file-system plugin is accessible in TC's Network neighborhood, either via drive list or drive bar (there are other means, but that only adds more complexity and/or confusion).

Regards
Dalai

[dschordsch]

Every file-system plugin is accessible in TC's Network neighborhood, either via drive list or drive bar

Thank you, that was helpful! I was now able to open this panel.

So a simple documentation for this plugin, to be inserted here, at the start would be:

Quick Start

• download the zip from here.
• Click on it in Total Commander, install it.
• Navigate to your Network folder
• Here you can see a folder 'VirtualPanel', navigate into it.
• Drag a file or folder from your real file system into the Virtual Panel folder in order to create a virtual clone.
• Rightclick into the virtual folder for more options, infos and stuff.

MVV, why so difficult?

Edit: you may read this in order to understand why it is important to make it short. This is even more true for users with above-average intelligence.

Edit 2: And if i may add one last thing: Dont let words like 'a' / 'this' / 'that' / 'you' / 'then' away.