Are you tired to remember which disk the particular file is on? Advanced Disk Catalog (ADC) is an award-winning easy-to-use 32-bit cataloguing program for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP and 2003. Its Explorer-like interface allows for convenient cataloguing of data on various media types, e.g., hard disk drives (even via networks), floppy diskettes, optical disc, ZIP and JAZ disks, and so forth.
ADC allows you to carry out the following:
• ADC has a convenient and easy to use user interface;
• organise volumes, folders, and files into categories;
• add comments to each file, folder, and disk etc;
• browse inside ZIP, ARJ, RAR, CAB, ARC, ACE, LZH, TAR and JAR archives, including non-self-extracting and self-extracting archives;
• import descriptions from files, e.g., files.bbs, index.txt, description etc – customisable;
• extract descriptions from archives files, e.g., file_id.diz;
• extract descriptions from executable modules, e.g., .exe, .dll, etc;
• extract descriptions from WAV, MP3, WMA, and OGG Vorbis files, e.g., ID3 tags etc;
• extract information about audio CDs from freedb.org, an Internet CD database;
• extract descriptions from HTML and Adobe Acrobat PDF files;
• extract descriptions from Microsoft Office files, e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Visio;
• search for files, folder, disc or disks using filename, file path or personal comments, e.g., wildcards or confining search parameters by date, size, and category;
• search for files within archives;
• update volume information including network volumes, e.g., augmenting previous comments, and categories;
• compare catalogues for variations, e.g., new or deleted files, altered files etc;
• generate customisable and exportable reports, e.g., MS Excel;
• search for duplicate files;
• delete folders or files from a catalogue;
• hide files in a catalogue, and much more;
• unlimited number of ADC databases (.cat) and its automated duplicate (.bak) can be created;
• databases and categories can be merged or exported into one of four currently supported external formats e.g., CSV-files (comma-separated values) for MS Excel, DBF-files for MS Access or any DBF-compatible software, SQL-files for MS SQL or My SQL database (for web publishing), and XML-files – (common HTML extension files format).
Due to the fact that ADC does not make use of a database engine, the core of ADC’s versatility, results in it being extremely fast and compact.
On the left side, you can see the disks and folders in your database, organized as a tree. The right window displays the contents of the folder currently selected (active) in the left window. ADC saves information about each file and folder: the name, the full path, file size and date. The files in the right window can be sorted by file name, date, size, comment or category – just click the appropriate column header. If you’ll click on the same column again, the items will be sorted in the reverse order; the small image on the header caption shows the sort direction. By the way, all ADC windows organized as a list with the columns allow such sorting.
You can create as many databases as you want with ADC. To create the new database, just use the File|New menu item. If you already have the database opened and it was modified since the last save operation, you’ll be prompted to save.
Just note that though the File|New command is always available, sometimes it does nothing – for example, when you’ve started ADC for the first time and no database is loaded or created yet (and the program caption is Advanced Disk Catalog - untitled). It happens because ADC always not an MDI application and have only one window for the database. And even if you haven’t loaded the database (yet) and ADC window is empty, you can add disks, edit categories etc; you’ll be able to save your work later, after some changes will be made.
To save your database, just use the File|Save menu item. If you’d like to save the database with another (new) name, use File|Save As.
To open the existing database, use File|Open.
Please note that ADC always creates a backup copy of the database you’re saving (if it already exists). “Normal” ADC files have cat extension; the backup copy has the same name, but bak extension. So, if something wrong happens when saving the file (e.g. not enough space on disk or whatever else) and you’re not able to open it, there is a chance to rename bak file to cat and use it again. If ADC fails to create a backup (e.g. if there is enough free space on your hard disk), it warns you about that, and you may choose not to save the file in this case.
f you’d like to merge two or more of your databases, there is an easy way to do this. Just open one of them (any), and use File|Import|Database menu item. You’ll be prompted for the file name, and all information from this database will be imported to the current one.
You can also import the categories from another ADC database file using the File|Import|Categories menu item – from other catalogs (*.cat); and from plain text files (*.txt), where each line contains one category name.
Starting from version 1.50 ADC can export its internal database into some external formats (please refer to the next chapter for more details), but previously implemented feature to export the file/folder descriptions is still here. It allows to extract your own (or added automatically during disk scan) comments into the files like index.txt or files.bbs
. Just select ”File | Export | Descriptions” menu item (please note that it is available only if some disk is selected in the left panel); ADC will prompt you for the file name, and after confirmation all the descriptions (for the files and folders on a given disk) will be exported. The program will create/update the description files in appropriate folders on that disk (of course, the disk should not be read-only or write-protected). That feature might be useful, for example, if you are going to more some folders or files to the other location and re-scan them later in ADC, but don't want to loose the descriptions you've already added. When you will scan that disk again (with the description files already exported), we'd recommend you to setup ADC so it will extract the descriptions only from these files, but not from other sources (such as archives, sound files, MS Office documents, other description files etc).
Starting from version 1.50 ADC can export its internal database into some external formats (enhancing standard reports feature). Just select ”File | Export | Database…” menu item (please note that it is available only if the current database contains at least one disk); ADC will prompt you for the file name, and after confirmation all the descriptions (for the files and folders on a given disk) will be exported.
Currently four external database formats are supported (you have to select one):
CSV-files (comma-separated values) - may be useful for further import into MS Excel,
DBF-files - may be useful for further import into MS Access or any DBF-compatible software,
SQL-files - may be useful for further import into MS SQL or My SQL database (for web publishing),
XML-files - common HTML extension files format.
You can select either single Volume (Disk) or all disks stored in current ADC database file to be exported.
You can also select either single Category or all categories for export.
In Objects field you can select what data you want to export – files only, folders only, or both files and folders.
On the Export fields panel you can select fields of ADC database to be included in resulting file, please note that you should select at least one field for export operation to be proceed! You can use Check all, Uncheck all or Invert all buttons to apply the appropriate action on the fields selection.
Then you have to select Output file name – you can either enter the filename manually (please take into account what the current directory is) or use Browse button.
On the Comments panel you can select how you want to store Comments field in the resulting file. Comments text field can be stored either As is (please note that in some case it may cause problems with import of the resulting file), or Removing line-breaks (CR/LF chars will be skipped to convert multi-string text into single line), or Keeping first line only (only text until first CR/LF will be stored). You can also set the Comment field size (in chars) – this value can not be longer than 4096 (text longer than the entered value will be skipped). Of course these options will take effect only if the Comment field is chosen for exporting.
If the option Skip item with empty Comments is enabled – only files (or/and folders) with non-empty description will be exported (this option will take effect even if the Comment field is not chosen to be exported).
The option Store Comment as MEMO is available if the DBF file is selected as target type. If this option is selected – the comment text will be stored as MEMO field in additional file with the same name as DBF file and extension “.FPT” – this will require a less of total size and can avoid some problems with further importing in MS Access application.
As the final step you have to click on the Export button to perform operation using selected options (you can repeat this as many times as you need – for example changing fields for each disk or category), to close Export dialog click on the appropriate button (please note that fields selection will be stored for further use).
To add the new disk, go to Edit|Add volume menu or just press the Insert key.
From the combo box (which will list all the disks in your system, including network ones), select the disk you want to add and press OK. ADC will scan this disk and add the information about all files and folders on it to your current database.
Please note that ADC uses the disk serial number for disk identification. Most of the disks already have the serial numbers (the disk formatting utilities almost always set them); however, the factory pre-formatted disks often don’t. If the disk you’re adding has no serial number, ADC always tries to set it (to some random value), if the appropriate option is set. We recommend you to unprotect your disks before Add and Update operations – this will really simplify further updates. ADC can change the serial number of removable disks only (as floppies, Iomega ZIP etc.), however.
ADC also checks if the disk with the same serial number (and of the same type: floppy, CD-ROM etc.) is already listed in the database (for the case if you’ve added it some time ago but forgot about that). If it is so, it asks would you like to update this disk, or scan it again and add as a new record. If your database contains a few disks with the same serial number, the following window will be displayed
From here, you can select Add to add just inserted disk as a new one, or update one of the given disks; you have to highlight the appropriate one and press Update for that, or just double-click on it.
During the disk scan, ADC will display the small window. This window will display the directories scanned and allow you to cancel the process. We strongly recommend you to restart ADC after interrupting the disk scan; otherwise, the program may not work properly.
After the disk is successfully scanned and added to the database, ADC displays the information about it.
If you want to remove the disk from your database, just select it and use the Edit|Delete volume menu item (or press the Delete key). You’ll need to confirm your selection.
If the files and/or folders on the disk, which is listed in your database, have been changed, you may wish to update this information. Insert the disk you want to update and select the Edit|Update volume from the menu. If the path to this disk has been changed (e.g. first time you’ve used the ‘A’ floppy, and now it is ‘B’), the same dialog as for Edit|Add volume will appear
If this disk will have another serial number than listed in ADC database, you’ll be warned about that.
If you’ve added some comments to the folders or files from this disk in the database (and/or assigned the categories), you may also wish to save them; check the Keep info on disk add/update option for that. Saving the comments and categories will increase the operation time, however.
If you want to terminate the disk update process – feel free to do so, it is safe. Before updating the disk, the program saves old disk content, and if the scan is terminated, the old content is restored.
The most frequently used menu item (available for disks, folders and files) is Properties. Using it, you can view the details of the selected object, change its name (disks only), enter some comments and assign the categories. Edit comments command works as a “subset” of Properties – it allows to view and change comments only.
Explorer menu item opens the Windows Explorer (or other shell like Windows Commander – see options) and goes to the specified folder. Open item open the selected file in Windows Explorer with the associated application. For example, if you’ve selected the Word document, the Microsoft Word will start and load this file. Of course, the appropriate disk (with the folder you want to browse or with the file you want to open) should be available in the system – if it is removable, be sure to insert it prior to this operation.
Also, there are some items specific to the disk, folder and file.
For the disk, you have Update volume, Delete volume, Change root and Scan for viruses items. Change root allows you to change the default root path for the selected disk – it is useful, for example, if you’ve added an additional device for the system and so the drive numbering was changed.
For the folder and file, there are Copy to… and Delete items. The first one allows you to copy the selected file(s) or folder from the catalogued media (say, CD-ROM) to any folder of your choice; you’ll be prompted to insert the source disk (if it is not there already) and to select the target folder. Warning: the copy operation is implemented using the Windows Explorer interface and doesn’t check the available disk space. The second one – Delete – deletes the selected folder (with all subfolders) or file from your database (not from the physical disk).
For the file (or group of files), there is the Hide command. It works a little bit similar to Delete, but the serious difference is: the information about hidden files is still stored in the database – these files are just not visible (neither in main window, nor in search, duplicates and other windows).
For the disk and folder, there is the Scan for viruses item (available only if the antivirus program is set in Options dialog), which allows you to scan the selected folder or disk with your favorite anti-virus program; and Special submenu, which contain Hide files, Unhide files and Delete files items. When you select one of these submenu items, the following dialog is displayed:
After you’ll select the mask and press OK, the program will search the selected disk or folder and hide/unhide/delete all files matching the mask. In the case of Delete, the files will be deleted from the database only (exactly as for the Delete command from the top-level menu for folders).
Please note that there is no Undo command for Delete – so, your changes will be permanent. However, if you’ll update the disk, which contains the hidden files, they will remain hidden. As for the deleted items, they’ll reappear again, so delete the files (or folders) only on the disks, which are read-only (as CD-ROMs) or don’t need to be updated.
These commands – Delete and Hide – could help you to keep the database as small as possible; the Search results will be also more convenient.
Also, if the file you’ve selected is an archive, the Archive menu item will be available in the popup menu. Use it to get the contents of the archive. See File properties for details.
You can get the disk properties dialog using the Edit|Properties menu item, or from the Properties item in the popup menu
The detailed information about your disk is there: disk serial number; disk root path; drive type (floppy, hard disk, CD-ROM or removable); the date and time when you’ve added (or updated) this disk; total and available disk space; and the number of files and folders on this disk.
You can assign the name to the disk – it’ll be visible in left ADC window. By default, it is just the volume label (if there is one), or “Disk X” string (where ‘X’ is the drive letter).
To assign the category to your disks, select the appropriate one from the combo box (you can use the button on the right to edit categories list).
Feel free to add any comments to the disk by entering them in the window at the bottom. Typically, the comments briefly describe the disk contents (as on the picture above).
After you’ll close this dialog, if you’ve changed the disk category, you’ll be prompted would you like to assign the new category to all folders on files on this disk.
You can open the folder properties dialog similar to disk properties dialog: from the main or popup menu:
It displays the folder name, full path, number of files (including those in sub-folders) and sub-folders, and the total folder size. The field In root displays information how many files and folders in this folders not including the sub-folders, and how much space they take. As for the disk, you can assign the category to the folder, as well as add any comments (they'll be visible in right ADC window when you'll select the parent folder in the directory tree.
Here is the file name (LFN), location, file size, creation date, category and comments. The window caption displays the file type (“WinZip File” here, as for files with “zip” extension), and the small icon associated with this file type. In addition, there is a Don’t change the comment on disk update option; currently, it works for archives only. If it is checked, the comment for the given file (archive) will remain the same after updating the disk; otherwise, it will be updated (i.e. the program will try to get the new description from file comment of file_id.diz) only if the archive size or creation date/time has been changed.
Also, if the given file is an archive, the Archive button will be enabled – press it to get the archive contents:
For each file in archive, this dialog displays the file name (with full path, if it was compressed with a path), file date and size. Click on the column header to sort the files by name, date or size.
If you’ve selected more than one file and pressed Properties item in context menu, the dialog will be different:
It shows the location of specified files and the total size; you’re able to change the category of all selected files and assign some comments to them from here.
Sometimes you need to find a particular file or folder on your disks. It is very easy with ADC – use the Tools|Search menu item
To make the query, enter the file name (or part of filename) in What window; wildcards can be used (‘?’ for any single character, ‘*’ for one or more characters). You can limit your search with file date and size; check the box Match case for case-sensitive search; use the Exact match option to find the files (folders) with the name exactly as you typed (otherwise, the ‘*’ will be added to the head and to the tail of your search string – so, it’ll be search for the sub-string). You can also search only for files/folders of a particular category.
If you search in comments (Where option), ADC also looks for the specified text in disk names and serial numbers. Using the ‘*’ mask (just the star), you can find all items with comments. Using the ‘ ‘ (just the space), all items without comments will be found.
To start searching, press the Search button; files/folders will be displayed immediately as they found. The status bar will display the total number of items found. During the search, Close button is not available, and Search button is replaced with Cancel (to terminate the search).
If the Search in compressed files option is enabled, ADC will also look in compressed files. If something will be found, the Name field will display the name of the file from archive, and the Location field will show you the full path to the compressed file.
You can also limit your search by Date – to find only those file which have been modified during last few days, months or years, or between two dates. If you use the Between option, you can leave the first and/or second field blank; the “magic” date (January 1, 1980) will be used as a starting date, and the current date as an upper limit. Please note that the year number can contain one, two or four (but not three!) digits; if it is from 0 to 37 (inclusive) – 2000 will be added, giving a year from 2000 to 2037 as a result. If the year number is from 38 to 99, then 1900 will be added (and so you’ll get a value from 1938 to 1999).
From this window, you’re able to generate the report, which will contain information of all found files (in common CSV data format): just press the Save button. The following fields are included into search report: file (or folder) name, disk name, location (path), size, date and time, category, type and comment (if the appropriate option is enabled in General Settings dialog).
The right mouse button is also usable in the search window. Select the file you’re interested in and right-click: you’ll see the same menu as in main window, but with Locate item: by, selecting it, you’ll switch to the main window, and the current selection will move to this file. The same action is performed when you double-click on the file.
If you want to get the list of your disks/files/folders in your database as a hard copy, use the reporting features of ADC. Select the Tools|Reports menu item:
Currently, there are two types of report you can select from: Quick report: all files (sorted) and Custom report.
For the first one, the report will contain the sorted list of files (for selected disk or for all disks; for all categories or just for one selected); it will include the disk and folder where each file is located (comma-separated, to allow import in programs like Microsoft Excel):
Filename,Diskname,Location,Size,Date
Just as an example: to open this file in Microsoft Excel, you can use Text Import Wizard. Just set the following parameters:
Original Data Type: Delimited
Start Import at Row: 6 (to ignore ADC header included in the report)
File Origin: Windows (ANSI)
Delimiters: Comma
Column Data Format: General (for all columns)
After importing, you’ll need to change the format of the last column: set the Category to Date, and adjust the Type according to your system locale settings.
For the second – custom – report, the customization is available. You can also select the disk and category; but in addition, the report may include information about any combination of disks, folders and files – just check the appropriate box. Usually, just the file/folder name is printed, or you may wish to include the Location field and Comments.
Then, select the file name to be used as output (type yourself or browse using standard Windows dialog; if the extension is not given, txt is assumed), and press the Report button. When the report will be generated, you’ll be able to open it (with Windows Notepad, WordPad or other program associated with text files) or print.
If you would like to find out does your database contain duplicated files, use the Tools|Duplicates menu item. ADC will scan the database and display the following window:
The title displays how many files are listed more than once; the complete list is in the upper part of the window. When you select the item (file) you’re interested in, the lower part of the window displays the detailed information about each files with this name (disk, location, date, size, comment and category); the upper-right corner shows the number of those files.
By default the files are listed as duplicated if the name of two or more files are the same only. There are “Match size” and “Match date” checkboxes at bottom-right corner of window for advanced duplicates searching. If you toggle the “Match size” checkbox ON the files will be listed as duplicated if the size of files are the same too. When the “Match date” checkbox is turned ON the files will be listed as duplicated if the date of files are the same. After setting “Match size”/“Match date” options click on the “Re-scan” button in order to changes take effect. If no files will be found to be duplicates with chosen options the appropriate message box will be displayed.
From this window, you’re able to generate the report, which will contain information of all duplicated files: just press the Save button.
If you’ll double-click on any file listed in this window, ADC will locate this file in the database. The same feature implemented through pop-up menu appearing when you click the right mouse button on the file: just select Locate menu item.
If you want to compare your scanned disk (from the database) with an actual (physical disk) to see the differences, select Tools|Compare menu item. The following dialog will be displayed:
The first combo box allows you to select the disk from your current database, which has been already scanned; the second one lists all available disks in the system. After you’ll make your selections, ADC will scan the disk and detect which files have been changed (date or time) since the last scan, which ones have been deleted, and what’s new:
You can select with combo box what type of files (new, deleted since last scan, or changed) to see, there is a number of files of each type displayed. The files of chosen type will be displayed in list window. The information to display is: full file name (including path), file size and date of last change. From this window, you’re able to generate the report, which will contain information of all files (added, deleted and changed): just press the Save button.
To fine-tune ADC user interface and configure some facilities, use the setup dialog displayed on selecting the Options|Setup menu item (General tab):
Use the Auto-open last database option to allow ADC open (on start-up) the last database you have been working with during the last session. This is very convenient when you have just one database.
If the Save layout option is set, ADC saves its layout on exit and restores it on start-up: main window size, position and the size of columns in right (list) window, as well as the layout of Search and other windows (as Database information).
If the Display associated icons option is selected, ADC displays the small icon associated with the file in the right (list) window, according to its type. However, when it is selected, the refresh speed of the ADC window slows down.
By checking the Move to next file in properties option, you can configure ADC not to close the File properties dialog on pressing the OK button, but move to the next file in list instead.
Remember open/save path option allows ADC to keep the location, from where you opened your last database, as well as the location of your last-saved file. If the option is set, the open/save dialog will initially show this last directory (you’ll be able to change it, of course :-).
If the Search in compressed files option is enabled, ADC will also look in compressed files.
You can also enable Save comments in search results option in order to include comment field in search report. For more details regarding the two above-mentioned options you can also refer to Search topic.
The Sounds option allows you to configure ADC to enable/disable playing sounds on some events (e.g. when displaying the informative/warning/error messages; at the end of the search operation etc.).
Old-style toolbar option turns program toolbar in standard non-flat view.
If the Create database backup on save option is selected (recommended!), the program will always create the backup of your database before the save operation.
If the Minimize to tray option is set, the ADC window will disappear from Windows desktop when clicking the minimize button; the small icon (the same as on ADC caption) in the system tray (just near the system clock) will be created, though. Simply click on it (with any mouse button), and the program will be restored.
When No logo at startup option is enabled, the program doesn’t show the logo when it starts.
Gradient caption fill is enabled by default on Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 systems, because Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP have such feature built-in. However, you may wish to turn this option off if you have any compatibility problems with ADC and software like Talisman or WindowBlinds.
Using the Auto-save database when idle option, you can tune ADC to save your database when the system is idle during some period. This period (in minutes, from 1 to 60) can be set in the small window at the right. The database will be saved with the current name; if there is no one yet, the name will be AUTOSAVE.CAT.
If you’d like to use another program instead of Windows Explorer (to open files from ADC window), select this program in the Program to use instead of explorer field (not just the name, but the complete file name with the full path); use the button on right to find the required executable. If this field is empty, ADC uses Windows Explorer (default). You can also use this option to customise the “look and feel” of Explorer window; we’d recommend you to set “explorer.exe /n, /e,” here.
You can also setup the external anti-virus program to use with ADC (we would recommend you to use the AntiViral Toolkit Pro by Eugene Kaspersky – definitely the best one available). Just fill the Anti-virus program field (use the button near it to select a full path), and now you’ve got an additional menu item in context menu (appearing when you click the right mouse button on the disk or folder in the left pane of ADC main window) – Scan for viruses. On selecting this item, the antivirus program will be executed for the given disk or folder; if the required disk is not inserted (if it is removable), or not mapped (if it is remote), you’ll see the notification telling you what disk to insert/map.
Use the Double-click on file option to configure ADC how to handle the mouse double-click: open this file (run if it is executable or load into the associated program), or show its properties.
Count folder sizes option enables displaying for each folder total size of files located inside this folder (when this option is disabled – word “folder” is displayed in “Size” field in all dialogs.
If Count sub-folders option is enabled – the size of each folder will include not only total size of all internal files but total size of all internal folders too.
Show size in KB(MB) option enables displaying size of files not in bytes (by default) but in Kbytes (1024 bytes) or Mbytes (1024 Kbytes) or even in Gbytes (1024 Mbytes) depending on the actual size – so the size of the file as big as 1 234 567 890 bytes will be displayed like: “1,23 GB”.
The Scan tab on Options dialog allows you to configure how ADC will scan the disk:
The Keep info on disk update (comments/categories) option allows you to save the existing comments and categories when updating the disk.
Enabling Scan in background option will force ADC to work at the lowest priority, using CPU only when it is in idle state. Scan process will be significally slower, but it will not disturb any other applications running at the same time.
Change/set disk serial number when needed (if possible) option stands for simplifying disk updates. See Adding the disk section for details.
If Analyse compressed files option is set, ADC will browse inside archives like ZIP, ARJ etc. Enabling Analyse SFX archives allows you to browse inside self-extracting executables, too. See the next page for details.
You may also wish to enable Extract file descriptions from archives option – with it, ADC will try to extract “file_id.diz” files from archives and use them as descriptions. The Extract comments from archives option, when selected, will allow ADC to use the archive comment as a description.
Using the Ignore hidden files and folders option, you can exclude some files and folders (e.g. your private ones) from the database: just set the “Hidden” attribute for them before the disk will be scanned.
If Eject removable media after scan option is is enabled, the program will eject the disk from the drive after scan operation. Important note: the “standard” eject command is not supported by some devices. So, you may experience some problems if this option is enabled.
If the last option – Extract CDDB (freedb) info for Audio CDs – is enabled, and the dist being scanned is audio CD, ADC will try to connect to Internet CD database (see freedb.org for details) to get artist/album/track information. If you’re connected through proxy server or would like to change the default connection timeout, press Setup freedb button:
Here, you can select the following:
• freedb server. The address of the server CD database could be found on. Default value is freedb.freedb.org; pless [...] button at the right to get the list of available servers (they’ll be written into the drop-down box).
• freedb script. The location of CD query script on the server. Default value is /~cddb/cddb.cgi, and it is not recommended to change it (until we’ll ask you to do that).
• Timeout. Server timeout. Default value is 10 (seconds); increase it if you have a slow connection.
• Proxy. How do you connect to the Internet: directly, or through proxy server. The program can use Microsoft Internet Explorer settings (just reads them from your system), or you can select your own ones.
• Debug mode. If that option is enabled, ADC creates file freedb.log in the root of drive C, and writes some useful information into it during database requests. It may really help in the situation if the program doesn’t extract proper information for some CDs from your collection, while you’re sure that it should. So if you get any troubles with freedb feature, just enable that option, scan a few disks, and send that (log) file to us.
Using the options dialog (see the User Interface and Scan options and Archives sections), you can configure ADC to get it working with the compressed files (ZIP, ARJ, RAR, ARC, CAB, ACE, LZH, TAR and JAR types are supported now).
Selecting the Analyse compressed files option will allow you to view the compressed file contents (see the File properties section for details). If you also want to browse inside the self-extracting executables, just enable the Analyse SFX archives. If the Search in compressed files option is set, you’ll be able to search for files in archives.
Please note that selecting the options Analyse compressed files, Analyse SFX archives and Extract file descriptions from archives will dramatically increase the disk scan time! With those options disabled, ADC can scan one-gigabyte hard drive in seconds, but when they’re enabled (and especially if some archives appears to be corrupted), the scan time may achieve 5 or even 10 minutes (depending on the speed of your system). Guess yourself how much time is required to understand is the particular executable file actually a self-extracting archive or not… However, the disk update operation will be still fast even with these options are enabled: ADC is smart enough not to analyse the same archive twice (if this archive is really the same, i.e. the file name, size and creation date/time match), and not to add the description if it is already there. So, you have to wait only once, when adding the disk for the first time.
Yes, ADC can speak on your own language!
Open the Language tab in Options dialog. Using the drop-down box, select the language file to be used (usually the name of this file is equal to the name of the language, and the extension is ini). When the selection will be made, you’ll see the “true” name of this language at the right (as on the picture below).
If your language is not listed here you can create the required file yourself. It is quite simple: just use the english.ini (located in ADC program directory) as a template; translate all words and sentences from English to the language of your choice. The file has to be saved with the name yourlanguage.ini (e.g. esperanto.ini).
Just three notes. First, don’t translate the first line in english.ini – [Message]. This is the “standard” header which should not be changed; the second line contains the name of the language (e.g. “Language=Esperanto”). Second, try to keep the sentences as short as they appear in english version – otherwise, they probably will not fit in the dialog boxes; in some cases, the program may even crash if some messages will be too long. And the last: don’t change the things like %s, %d or 0x%08X – these are the format specifiers.
By the way, don’t forget to inform us that you’ve made a new international version – we’ll include this file into the next version of ADC. If you’ll contact us prior to starting the translation (to be sure that you’re the onliest person who is doing this work), you can get the free registration!
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