Solved Windows 7 Gif Viewer Works perfectly

[corgano]

If you know what you'redoing, you can disable UAC. To uninstall, just run the installer again and it should ask you to uninstal it.

I havn't been able to make windows give me a UAC warning, so I havn't come up with a way to fix it :/

 

[pandarabbi]

Links dead?

Hey, I went to the goofwear.com/windows/, but when I click the download links, I get this error:

Error in downloadcountfile on line 3.
./downloads/Windows 7 Gif Viewer.exe is already defined.

What does this mean? :/

 

[goofwear]

I just say my youtube comment about the error I then logged into my site and fixed the error. Thank you for informing me. I would not have known otherwise

 

[goofwear]

I also want to thank every one for the positive input and support with the this project. I also apologize for not responding in such a long time

 

[ksdixon]

Is there a reason as to why an animated gif that plays at normal speed in IE is slow in your program, in regular or slideshow view mode?

 

[corgano]

That would be the image viewer itself - It's copied from windows XP, and runs with GDI+, so speeds may differ
Although, I'd find it more likely IE is playing it the wrong speed and windows picture and fax viewer plays it correctly, but I can't really be sure. Shouldn't be that big of an issue though

 

[Jarmezrocks]

Hey guys,


Here is a revamp of Corgano's installer.

This installer will detect a previous botched install of this application and rather than repair it it will remove the old installation if installed in C:\ or C:\Windows\Gif\. If the installer detects that you are patching a previous version of it's self (made by me) and you have installed it say in C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows7GifViewer\ Then it will prompt the user to remove the existing install. So to un-install this application just run the installer again and choose the existing location and the installer will remove all files as well as any registry entries reverting your Windows 7 to its former state.

Changes or additions by me compared to Corgano's installer include:

1. I dislike being forced to install an application somewhere, and like to be given at least some choice in the matter rather than being forced to install in the root of the system drive (which is not best practice) or within Windows directory (which also is not ideal) I would rather give users have a choice where they would like to install this application.

2. I disliked that I had to do further steps to get the app running besides what the installer did standard; I always needed to make small registry adjustments, changing locations in the registry etc etc. If I was to install on someone else's PC my REG file always needed to be adjusted for the location and user name.

3. Correctly added the rundll32.exe in compatability mode for Windows XP Service Pack 3. Note: No more need to right click the exe and run in Windows XP mode. The installer does all of this for you

4. Fixed spelling mistakes in the code, but drastically changed the script.... so I most likely have added some additional spelling mistakes.

Direct download installer -> Windows7GifViewer.exe
Direct download installer(no admin rights required) -> Windows7GifViewer-NoUAC.exe

Source code (written also in AutoIT) -> Windows7GifViewer.au3

If you have any troubles just re-run the installer again. For example if it keeps detecting a previous install but does not remove it when prompted try removing and then re-running the installer an additional time to try cleanly remove it. Lastly try run as administrator.

I strongly suggest users install in the traditional location of C:\Program Files (x86)\ or C:\Program Files\

 

[corgano]

Cool to see there's still interest. Ima take a look at your code, been forever since I worked on this, why not now?
When you upload source please include any required images with your script

I'm going to (finally) add some of the features people wanted. Would love to work on this with you, fond of github?

EDIT:
what is the purpose of this line? Wouldn't it make the PATH variable longer each time it's run? O.O
EnvSet("path", EnvGet("path") & ";" & @ScriptDir)

 

[Jarmezrocks]

Cool to see there's still interest. Ima take a look at your code, been forever since I worked on this, why not now?
When you upload source please include any required images with your script

I'm going to (finally) add some of the features people wanted. Would love to work on this with you, fond of github?

EDIT:
what is the purpose of this line? Wouldn't it make the PATH variable longer each time it's run? O.O
EnvSet("path", EnvGet("path") & ";" & @ScriptDir)

Hey mate,

I think I messaged you ages ago when I was having a laugh at your comments in your script lol. Yeah well I popped on here the other week and noticed that there was a post in this thread the day before. So I figured that there must still be interest in here?

Yeah I am on github. I will add you if you like and upload the code for us to share and anyone else who would like to join in. I have seen some of your AutoIT stuff and can honestly say you are streets ahead of me with AutoIT, but I am a good student

That line is part of the snippet I borrowed for the the splash screen display....which you don't have lol. I will upload the images for you too. Sorry about that. I figured most people are interested in the executable. Its only geeks like us that want the source
I need to do this for the other remaining resource loads at compile time. I just had issues with the FileInstall function myself (n00b-ness kicked in! Yes I am guilty) I forgot I had it referenced twice in my code when I was debugging and could not compile my script and NFI why?
The concept from what I can gather is so that when developers want to share code (say via github) that they don't need to have the project installed in the exact same path as each other in order to compile. Basically it always allows the resources to reside in the same directory as the script no matter where the script is located on the machine and not needing to reference the full path to the resources.
Obviously FileInstall command needs a full path. So to alleviate this we move the environment forward to the script directory so the path is always @scriptdir. That is how I interpret it anyway? You'd probably have to ask broodplank from XDA developer forums exactly how his code works exactly? I borrowed it from a project (windows app for reverse engineering android) we were working on briefly.

Issues that I have with this gif viewer at the moment are two registry entries that the install script just plain ignores?
Details:
1. The path for the dll for the icon associated with .gif files is always missing 1 slash in particular....but maintains all the other slashes in the path? Eg. C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows7GifViewer\shimgvw.dll always ends up being -
C:\Program Files (x86) Windows7GifViewer\shimgvw.dll
............Notice here ^ there is a slash missing? Every time I check the registry after install that particular slash is missing?

2. Right click context menu for .gif files never writes the default value? I don't think I have it in the code that I have uploaded here but it should have the default "open" value of Open with Windows 7 Gif Viewer however it doesn't, it also ignores creating a secondary string value "Icon" with the value of "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows7GifViewer\shimgvw.dll,0". Note: the value of 0 is always given when assigning the first icon inside of a dll regardless if it is actually the number 1 icon...AFAIK icon registry values for a group of icons is always icon minus 1 or icon value -1 which can be written as either 0 or -1 for the icon of 1 and for dlls with only one icon or executables no references value is needed, just an address to the dll, exe or icon it's self is sufficient.

My only way around these issues that I have found so far is to write the code to create a reg file FileWriteLine into a text file; change its extension to .reg. silently install the reg file and then delete the reg file yeah go on tell me that is a shocking idea and I will agree lol. So for now I just uploaded this for people to use till I find out what is causing the issues with these registry issues? Feel free to pose some different solutions...I'm all ears

 

[Jarmezrocks]

I have uploaded all of my sources to github

https://github.com/Jarmezrocks/Windows7GifViewer/

 

[corgano]

Working on adding multiple file types, and a more (or less) proper installer. Still keeping the one click install capability though. If we have it open multiple file types, is the Windows 7 Gif Viewer name appropriate or should we pick something more generic? (Like Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or Win XP Pic Viewer? We could append 'for Windows version' to the latter)

I'll look into that registry issue though. That's very odd :/ there must be a way

Edit: Look into autoit macros. @scriptdir&"/file" will always lead to file in the same dir as the script
I would avoid setting environment vars at all costs really, and especially without checking to see if it's set already. Slap the guy who made that

 

[Jarmezrocks]

Working on adding multiple file types, and a more (or less) proper installer. Still keeping the one click install capability though. If we have it open multiple file types, is the Windows 7 Gif Viewer name appropriate or should we pick somthing more generic? (Like Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or Win XP Pic Viewer? We could append 'for Windows version' to the latter)

I'll look into that registry issue though. That's very odd :/ there must be a way

Well my installer kinda does all of that already It is pretty much a proper installer now as it stands. Everything works as it should, just those minor registry issues. You may see some things in my code that could do with some work so go for it if you can see a better way?
It is *sort of* based on your old code, but sort of not.
Have a look at it and try to install it for your self?

As for the name of this, I guess it should be up to the original developer to chime in here? I called it Windows 7 Gif viewer for myself because naturally that is what it is. It was designed to work on Windows 7 for that reason. Introducing any sort of Windows XP like naming may end up confusing people and it gaining less adoption by unknowing users maybe? And although it is based off the Windows XP scanning and fax viewer there is already a Windows 7 scanning and fax viewer (albeit its not installed by default and is hidden in 'Turn on Windows features') it no longer has any of the functionality of it's predecessor of which it was based in XP, and the naming of which at the time was rather ambiguous if you ask me....and well.......it is a Gif viewer only and aimed at Windows 7 users that soon discover that they lack this feature by default. I guess aiming higher for Windows 8 users should be considered, and maybe incorporated into the name, but I haven't gone as far as to test it on Windows 8? Given 8's stupidly built system not allowing for true administrator rights and a rather botched .Net installation, I wouldn't feel so certain about placing any sort of numeric digit around the number 8 until we could guarantee that a standard Windows 8 user can install this without issue???

I have commented notes into the code in places, keep in mind it was still a very rough throw together job. Some other thinks I noted also were once the installer detected any previous botched installs (which it does pretty well) and it removes it, the FileDelete and DirRemove functions only worked approximately half the time or sometimes less. FileDelete on the directory level removed the files inside the directory but not the directory it's self...which is not surprising, but DirRemove should delete the whole directory and it doesn't do sh!t? Occassionally I would do FileDelete then DirRemove and it would work....but not always, so good ol command prompt del /Q command always works a treat That being said don't be at all surprised at my "hack" like code lol I only do what has worked on my Windows 7 x64 ultimate machine.

 

[grits]

@corgano & Jarmezrocks, there are at 4 different threads pertaining to 'gif viewer, XP Pic Viewer, etc., & I guess I picked the wrong one to post my question to. I posted in "animated gifs and windows photo viewer" about 2 weeks ago. Could you possibly look at my question there & give me a reply, please?

Thank you.

 

[corgano]

I have commented notes into the code in places, keep in mind it was still a very rough throw together job. Some other thinks I noted also were once the installer detected any previous botched installs (which it does pretty well) and it removes it, the FileDelete and DirRemove functions only worked approximately half the time or sometimes less. FileDelete on the directory level removed the files inside the directory but not the directory it's self...which is not surprising, but DirRemove should delete the whole directory and it doesn't do sh!t? Occassionally I would do FileDelete then DirRemove and it would work....but not always, so good ol command prompt del /Q command always works a treat That being said don't be at all surprised at my "hack" like code lol I only do what has worked on my Windows 7 x64 ultimate machine.

I've looked at your code, and am basically writing a gui for it, cleaning code, and moving things like cleaning old installs, uninstalling, installing, etc to their own functions.

As for the name, users will be able to install it for multiple file types. This means they could have it only open .png and .jpg files, and I fear with a title like "Windows 7 Gif viewer" would appear silly if it doesn't open gifs
A lot of the people using this are people who also used XP, and considering that "Windows (XP's) Picture and Fax Viewer" is what it is it feels a little dishonest to call it anything else. Mind that, the name is a little long an ambiguous. maybe something like "Windows Picture and Gif Viewer" Is more appropriate? (similar wording to original, includes keyword Gif, doesn't imply Gif-exclusivity)

You can take a look at what I work out and see if you like it. I'll upload later today

EDIT: forgot why i quoted that bit. Looking at the autoit forum, filedelete and dirremove are designed not to delete files with the system attribute, as a sort of safety mesure. I've updated the code to account for this, so hopefully we won't need the dos bits. I'm working on some of the code at work, and some at home... so I can't update git quite yet. Check your Gmail

@corgano & Jarmezrocks, there are at 4 different threads pertaining to 'gif viewer, XP Pic Viewer, etc., & I guess I picked the wrong one to post my question to. I posted in "animated gifs and windows photo viewer" about 2 weeks ago. Could you possibly look at my question there & give me a reply, please?

Thank you.

Not sure what you were taking about though to be honest

 

[grits]

I don't really understand all that you & Jarmezrocks are talking about but would guess that 'maybe' it might be what I need so will just wait 'til you're done with it.

 

[Jarmezrocks]

I don't really understand all that you & Jarmezrocks are talking about but would guess that 'maybe' it might be what I need so will just wait 'til you're done with it.

No need to wait Its complete!

As far as I can tell it is 100% working as it should.....for Windows 7 64Bit anyway. I am yet to test 32Bit?

Download Installer -> Windows_7_GifViewer.exe
Download Installer (no admin rights) ->Windows_7_GifViewerNo-UAC.exe

Source code (written also in AutoIT) -> Windows7GifViewer.au3

 

[Jarmezrocks]

Ok guys...those of you (if any) that were wanting this with out admin rights...hate to disappoint but thats going to be near impossible :huh: I tested it tonight on my mum's computer and I totally forgot about the fact that even running in comparability mode triggers UAC rights, the fact that this requires Windows XP S3 compat mode to run on anything higher than XP means that not triggering UAC is out of the question.
You have to drop the warning level down to "do not warn at all" in order for it to run looking anything like a stock program. Bugger.
I guess its alright for those of us that run as a standard user (I am considering it - as inconvenient as what it seems it IS much safer) *could* potentially run UAC off but I am not sure if that will trigger password input every time you open a gif? that would be a right royal pain in the a#*%.

corgano, what new features did you want to add? maybe there is still some work to be done. But it effectively does what I want it to to and that is install anywhere I want and assign the correct context menu icons and correct file icon association, so I am happy.
Check out my code man! haha holy crap I had to hack around that a fair bit. Maybe I am just not up to speed with when comes to apostrophes and quote marks?? :huh:.....you will understand how confusing it was when you see the code LOL. Kinda taught me a lot this exercise, and I figured out where I had gone wrong with some other projects that I abandoned that I now might like to revive again :-D Peace

 

[grits]

So you're saying to "not" use the 2nd link in post #96?
Sorry I didn't reply sooner, also had a reply from corgano in the other thread. Too bad these 2 threads can't be combined.
My 2 cents on name: Windows 7 Gif & Pic Viewer.

 

[Hormp]

When I navigate through images in a folder this program does it by alphabetical order rather than what I've got my image folder set to... which is "date modified". This one thing pretty much makes the program useless IMO. I'm curious as to why it's doing it too since I remember Windows XP navigating through images just fine with date modified as the folder type.

Also, it was a bit fiddly to make registry files to associate this program with .jpg and .png.

If it's possible to correct those two issues I'd be a happy clam and this program would be a godsend.

 

[eqagunn]

Jarmezrocks and corgano, thank you so much for this. I have been looking for a way to get Windows Picture and Fax Viewer since I started to use Vista and realized I can't view GIF files the normal way anymore. I'm on Windows 8.1 now and I still want it!

I totally support the name "Windows (XP's) Picture and Fax Viewer", but since it's too long, the best would be "Picture and Fax Viewer". It can't be any better than that, because as you said, that is exactly what it is. Also, I hate "Windows 7 Gif Viewer" because this is for Vista/7/8, and it supports other file formats beside GIF.

As for making it UAC independent, it doesn't affect me because I always have it off. But having in mind others don't, this sure should be implemented if you manage to find a way to do so.

EDIT:
I have installed it and it works great. One thing I noticed, in Open With menu, it's being called Photo Gallery Viewer and it doesn't have a proper icon.