Setup

1. Download the software package from this page, extract the files and run "setup.exe".
2. At first run, you have to agree with the licence.
3. Go to "Settings" tab.
   1. In "Preferences" subtab, the path to the folder where you want logs to be written in "Log folder" field. This is where the result logs will be generated. If it does not exist yet, it will created when the first log file need to be written.
   2. In ".exe files" subtab, fill the paths where "7z.exe" and "flac.exe" can be found. UnRAR.exe should be set already as its license allows its inclusion to this software.
      (You may find 7z.exe through http://www.7-zip.org/ and flac.exe through https://xiph.org/flac/ )

There are some more settings in the "Settings" tab. For now I'll let you explore them.

Usage

• Windows running .NET framework 4.0+
• 7z.exe (tested with version 16.04 [64] ) to test *.7z, *.bz2 (BZip2), *.gz, *.tar, *.wim, *.xz, *.zip files. Output needs to be in English!
• flac.exe (tested with version 1.3.2 win32/win64 tested) to test *.7z files. Output needs to be in English!
• To test *.rar files, UnRAR.exe is provided with the application. Output needs to remain in English!

Version 0.2.1.0 - 20190212

• New
  • UI: It is now possible to drag and drop files and folders into "Inputs" field. There is a checkbox in settings if you wish to deactivate it.
• Fixes
  • Fixed?: When stopping testing process while doing a lot of parallel tests, it may happen that the testing queue never gets emptied and UI doesn't get reset. Hopefully this is solved now.
  • UI consistency: Corrected: "Launch tests" and "Skip" buttons were not reset when stopping during discovery phase.
  • UI consistency: Corrected: "Browse for a file to include/exclude" and "Overwrite 'Input' text field with initial demo/tutorial" buttons, "Always skip these folders" text field and "Try testing *.exe file with UnRAR first, then with 7-Zip." checkbox were not disabled when launching tests.
• Misc.
  • Updated embedded UnRAR.exe to version 5.61
  • Tested with UnRAR 5.61 (x64), 7-zip 18.06 (x64) and flac.exe 1.3.2 (x64)
  • (Code signing self-signed certificate had to be changed after switching my environment to a new computer. Not sure yet if it may impact installation.)

Version 0.2.0.0 - 20180718

• Parallel testing (~multithreading)
  • Testing processes can now be ran in parallel (multithreaded). Default thread count is based on .NET's "Environment.ProcessorCount" which counts your computer's logical cores. There is a setting to change this manually too.
    Previous version was singlethreaded, relying on the fact the algorithms such as RAR5 are multithreaded. But some, for instance RAR4, are not multithreaded. This should bring a huge performance gain when testing a large number of files encoded with singlethreaded algorithms (or at least when testing algorithms are singlethreaded).
• Multivolume I still have a more flexible file extension/tester matching system in mind, but here is already something that should solve many cases.
  • *.001 are now testable through 7z.exe
  • *.r00 and *.r01 are now testable through UnRAR.exe, *.r01 is considered non testable if matching *.z00 exists in the same folder.
  • *.z00 and *.z01 are now testable through 7z.exe, *.z01 is considered non testable if matching *.z00 exists in the same folder.
  • Prevented case when all files ending with *.rar but belonging to the same multivolume archive would get tested along with each other. Which resulted in n²-1 redundant tests (if I got the formula right). Files ending with ".part1.rar" are still considered testable while all other volume, following pattern ".part[N].rar" are now considered non-testable.
  • ?: Should multivolume non-first volumes be counted as non-testable or simply ignored? For now they are counted as non-testable.
• Self-extracting I still have a more flexible file extension/tester matching system in mind, but here is already something that should solve many cases.
  • *.exe are now optionally testable. *.exe first get tested with UnRAR.exe, if not a RAR archive, a *.exe file will then be tested by 7z.exe, if failed, it will be counted as failed test. There is a checkbox to test or ignore *.exe files. Default value: false.
• Benchmarking
  • Added "kB/s" indicator
• Targetting tuning
  • In the "Inputs: Paths to be tested" field, you may now include/exclude specific files, the same way you would include/exclude a folder.
  • There is now a setting to automatically skip some folders by name (separated with "|"). Default value: System Volume Information | $RECYCLE.BIN. (In previous versions, "$RECYCLE.BIN" was hard-coded.)
  • Prevented cases when some file could be tester multiple times or counted multiple times as non testable files (typically if a folder and its parent folder were both set as inputs).
• Stability and efficiency
  • Closing main form/application now more efficiently closes background threads.
  • Stopping during discovery process will now be much faster (kind of instant).
• UI
  • At first start, the input text field is now filled with a demo/tutorial, that should be able to scan you all computer if started.
  • Tests that have been stopped by clicking on "Stop" now count as skipped.
  • Possible future improvement: Progress indicators work fine is the full process is ran. Using "Skip" or "Stop" buttons result in skipping files, which may make progress indicators interpretation arguable. This does not look like a priority but may possibly be re-thought in the future. Probably in a smaller update.
• UI consistency
  • "Skip" button is now disabled during the discovery process and only activated during testing process.
  • Progress indicators that can only be evaluated after at least one file has been tested (such as "Est. total time") now read "?" before they can be evaluated, instead of "00:00:00.0000000".
  • UI consistency: "Launch/Testing" button now reads "Scanning" during the scanning process (instead of "Testing").
  • "Time spent on current file" is replaced with the count of active parallel tests when parallel testing.
  • .exe path text boxes and most setting buttons are now disabled while processing.
• Dependencies and compatibility:
  • Tested with UnRAR.exe 5.60 and 7-Zip 18.05.
  • Updated UnRAR.exe to version 5.60
• Possible issue(s):
  • On my Win7 computer, stopping the testing process ("Stop" button") gets the application stuck with one running parallel test running (according to UI). This did not happen on the Win10 computer where I write the code. Cause unidentified so far.

• Process could get broken if .exe files command line outputs change. In that case you would most likely get "Failed" test results for files that are not actually broken. (Which is safer than the other way around.)
• As 99.99% of my archives are *.rar files, and even my *.flac files are in *.rar archives, RAR is the format I tested the most by simply using the application. Hence the other formats are getting less intense testing.

As for many things, I see A LOT of ways I can improve this application. Progression will depend on the time I find for it. Obviously, in case it meets success and generates some money through donations, I may give it more attention.

Features and improvements ideas

• Making treatment by file type more flexible
• • Handling multi-volumes (should get solved with previous point)
  • What to do with auto-extract *.exe archives? (should get mostly solved with previous point)
• Replacing the licence screen with "Welcome" screen including the licence and some required settings such as .exe file paths
• Make logs nicer to read? HTML? XML/XSLT? JSON/JS?
• ...

Coding and debugging ideas

• Use DLLs instead of command line? Do such DLLs able of testing files actually exist? For .NET?
• For now, it is often necessary to uninstall previous version before installing new version. This is related to version numbers.
• ...

Support ideas

• Video tutorial(s)?
• Adding some screenshots here
• ...