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Actual File Folders Changelog

What's new in Actual File Folders 1.15.0

Jun 26, 2023
  • Security: Now all Actual Tools runtime executables natively support the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security technologies provided by the system. That hardens the overall system security by preventing various exploit attacks.

New in Actual File Folders 1.14.7 (Jun 23, 2022)

  • Memory consumption and overall system load is slightly reduced.
  • In some rare cases multi-window applications might crash silently after closing and re-opening a window of the same type (e.g. separate message window in email client).
  • Compatibility is improved with custom cursors provided by Yolo Mouse.
  • In multi-window applications memory leaked after each cycle of closing a window and then opening two windows in a row.
  • Excel 2007+ hung after closing some of its standard dialogs: Protect Sheet, Conditional Formatting, Chart Data, etc.
  • Configuration: The Send to Tech Support feature did not recognize Windows 11 marking the sent configurations as Win10-built.

New in Actual File Folders 1.14.6 (Nov 23, 2021)

  • Some internal components are made more concurrency-friendly by removing redundant locks and eliminating bottlenecks that might cause a noticeable system slowdown on multi-core CPUs in some scenarios.
  • Internal consumption of memory and system resources is slightly reduced, some memory/resource leaks are fixed.
  • Window Actions, Hotkeys: Applying any manual alignment to a window via extra window menu command broke the correct functioning of the Quick Alignment Numpad hotkeys.
  • Window Actions: Applying a manual alignment with some horizontal or vertical position shift specified and then resizing the window by the Resize action did not retain the specified shift(s) making the window jump to a certain monitor border closely.
  • Window Actions: The "Display current window position" feature did not activate when a window was being resized either by its top-right or bottom-left corner.
  • Window Actions: Windows did not rolled up completely on a secondary monitor if its DPI resolution was less than primary's.
  • Window Actions, Mouse: The support is added for windows with a non-standard window frame to intercept clicks on a title bar, sizeable border, and standard Minimize/Maximize/Close buttons to invoke assigned mouse actions, as well as to prevent accidental window closing.
  • Window Actions: Now the Freeze mode can be toggled via "Options > Stay always-on-top" submenu in window's system menu.
  • Window Actions, Multiple Monitors: The Move to Monitor action now works more accurately in the "Keep aspect ratio" mode when moving a window between monitors with different both display and DPI resolutions (calculation of both the window location and size has been improved).
  • Window Actions, Mouse: The "Maximize horizontally/vertically" mouse actions work again in a "toggle" manner (i.e. restore the previous window size on a second click).
  • Window Actions: Smooth rolling up is improved.
  • Window Settings, Windows 7+: Another proper specific settings did not apply to a File Explorer window with some specific settings already applied when its caption changed after switching to a certain folder and the Explorer option "Display the full path in the title bar" was on.
  • Windows 11, Multiple Monitors, Window Actions: Applying the Move to Monitor action to maximized windows produced unwanted behavior and visual glitches. To prevent this, the "Enable compatibility mode for maximized windows" option now is enabled by default (see the "Window Settings > Global Options > Move to Monitor" panel).
  • Windows 10: Some improvements for UWP apps:
  • extra menu commands added by Actual Window Menu are finally available in the system window menu invoked by a title bar right click
  • mouse actions assigned to a title bar and standard title buttons now work as expected
  • the Quick Settings dialog now can be invoked by a title bar click (middle button by default)
  • Window Actions: Some fixes and improvements for the Monitor Selector dialog:
  • in the "Move to" mode, the dialog closes after releasing the left mouse button only if some real movement can be made, otherwise the dialog stays active
  • in the "Move to" mode, dragging the window preview thumbnail is improved
  • now drawing is faster due to removing some redundant operations
  • in UWP apps, the dialog did not activate after being invoked
  • title bar did not scaled properly to a current DPI resolution
  • in some cases, visual glitches might appear when drawing active dots in the "Move to" mode

New in Actual File Folders 1.14.5 (Feb 13, 2021)

  • Windows 10 Insider 64 build 21277+: The program crashed at startup.
  • Licensing: The evaluation period is prolonged by a third of its original duration for the update versions released after the Free Updates Subscription epiration date.
  • File Folders: Favorite Folders now support Unicode symbols.
  • An invalid memory operation could cause cascading errors in the Control Center at its startup if the "Collect usage statistics" option was enabled.
  • Some application windows (e.g. Directory Opus) stopped reacting on Control Center commands (like pausing/resuming or modifying the settings).

New in Actual File Folders 1.14.4 (Oct 10, 2020)

  • Internal security has been accurately revised and tightened to follow the
  • principle of least privilege (in particular, for kernel objects used for
  • inter-process communication).
  • Internal error handling has been revised and improved for better
  • interoperability with apps using .NET runtime (and probably some other
  • frameworks).
  • Internal handling of display-related information has been optimized to
  • reduce the overall delay after changing the desktop geometry (i.e.
  • attaching/detaching a monitor or changing a monitor resolution).
  • In some rare cases some apps might get hung after reapplying their window
  • settings or unloading Actual File Folders.

New in Actual File Folders 1.14.3 (Dec 27, 2019)

  • In some rare cases, running applications might crash randomly.
  • Some applications (Adobe products, TechSmith products, Parametric
  • Technologies products, and some others) got hung if two or more Actual Tools
  • programs were running at once (exiting all but one Actual Tools programs
  • made hung applications responsive back).
  • Title Buttons: Extra buttons might either get behind their host window's
  • title bar or get visible through other windows after minimizing and then
  • restoring windows via Aero Shake.
  • Text on buttons in the Evaluation dialog was garbled in some Asian languages
  • (Chinese, Japanese).

New in Actual File Folders 1.14.2 (Oct 29, 2019)

  • Numerous fixes of runtime internals to improve speed, robustness, and reliability.
  • Ability to update an existing license key is added: see the "Enter new license key" item either in the "Tools - License" Configuration window panel or in the Actual File Folders notification area icon's context menu.
  • Configuration: Now adding a new entry into the Favorite Folders list via title button immediately updates this list in the Configuration window.
  • Configuration: After adding a path into the Favorite Folders list via title button and then modifying it in the Configuration window, it was impossible to add that path via title button again.

New in Actual File Folders 1.14.1 (Jul 10, 2019)

  • Internal logic of global hook handlers is revised to improve the compatibility with the systems running on multi-core CPUs.

New in Actual File Folders 1.14.0 (May 16, 2019)

  • Microsoft Office 2013+: Application windows got frozen for a long time (up to several minutes) after locking the user session and then unlocking it back.
  • Configuration: Now configuration windows and dialogs correctly scale their content to a current DPI resolution, including on-the-fly scaling when dragging them between monitors with different DPI resolutions.

New in Actual File Folders 1.13.3 (Nov 29, 2018)

  • Windows 10 build 17763+:
  • System SmartScreen process ate up to 100% CPU resources when Actual File Folders was running.
  • Title Buttons, Windows 10:
  • Glyphs on extra buttons flipped in systems with right-to-left writing languages (Arabic, Hebrew, etc.).
  • Title Buttons:
  • Extra buttons did not update properly after toggling any of them on/off in the Aero visual theme in systems with right-to-left writing languages (Arabic, Hebrew, etc.).
  • Title Buttons, Windows 10 build 17763+: - extra buttons appeared in wrong place if any of secondary monitors was located in negative screen coordinates - glyphs on extra buttons blended with title bar in the Dark visual theme if the "Show color on title bar" system option was off
  • Title Buttons, Windows 10 Insider build 18267+: - glyphs on extra buttons blended with title bar if the "Show color on title bar" system option was off - extra buttons did not react on changing the system accent color

New in Actual File Folders 1.13.2 (Oct 13, 2018)

  • Windows Vista/7: Process dwm.exe crashed each time after unloading Actual File Folders Control Center.
  • Hotkeys: Hotkeys to invoke the Favorite/Recent Folder lists stopped working.
  • Configuration: In really high DPI resolutions (> 200%), caption of the first option in each group overlapped the group's title.

New in Actual File Folders 1.13.1 (Sep 27, 2018)

  • Windows 10: In some cases the Task View window might get broken when
  • Actual File Folders was set to load at system startup.
  • Configuration: Now all toobars respect the options of the "Toolbars" group
  • in the "Options - User Interface" panel.

New in Actual File Folders 1.13.0 (Aug 22, 2018)

  • Windows x64: The overall workload on a system has been reduced significantly, especially on multi-core CPUs.
  • Configuration: Windows are now properly scaled at startup to conform with the DPI resolution set for a monitor, which they are opening on.
  • File Folders: Now the Recent Folders list is updated more accurately and consistently.
  • File Folders: Sometimes empty entries might appear in the Recent Folders list.

New in Actual File Folders 1.12.2 (May 21, 2018)

  • Windows 10 Spring Creators Update: Metro/UWP apps crashed at startup when Actual File Folders was running
  • Windows 10 Spring Creators Update, Title Buttons: In some cases, extra buttons got invisible in some windows (like Settings applet)

New in Actual File Folders 1.12.1 (Apr 21, 2018)

  • File Folders: Hotkeys to invoke Favorite Folders and Recent Folders context
  • menus have been added (default key combinations Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F and
  • Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R, respectively).
  • File Folders: Items in the Favorite Folders and Recent Folders context menus
  • could not be selected with the Up/Down arrow keys.
  • Title Buttons, Windows 10: In some applications extra buttons looked and
  • located incorrectly when dragging an application window between monitors
  • with different DPI resolutions (from lower to higher).
  • Title Buttons, Windows 10 Spring Creators Update: In some applications
  • glyphs on extra buttons looked too large on monitors with high DPI
  • resolutions.
  • Windows x64: In some rare cases applications might crash.

New in Actual File Folders 1.12 (Mar 3, 2018)

  • Some applications (e.g. Malwarebytes) might hang at startup if Actual File Folders was running.

New in Actual File Folders 1.11.2 (Sep 28, 2017)

  • Windows 10 Creators Update: Metro (UWP) apps crashed at startup if Actual File Folders was running.

New in Actual File Folders 1.11.1 (Jul 27, 2017)

  • Windows 10: Some apps (like Visual Studio 2012 installer and components, or iTunes Helper) crashed when Actual File Folders was running.
  • Title Buttons: System window menu flickered constantly in Windows Explorer windows.

New in Actual File Folders 1.11 (Jun 21, 2017)

  • Some optimizations were made to increase the work speed.
  • Configuration: Captions on the Tools panels got cut in high DPI resolutions.

New in Actual File Folders 1.10.2 (Apr 19, 2017)

  • Title Buttons: Numerous Windows 10 compatibility fixes:
  • incorrect glyph color fixed with the enabled auto-selection of the main UI color
  • incorrect glyph color fixed in UWP apps in the recent builds of Windows 10 Insider Preview UltraEdit main window consumed CPU a lot with Actual File Folders running.
  • Configuration: In Windows 7+, web links always opened in Internet Explorer, not default web browser.

New in Actual File Folders 1.10.1 (Feb 21, 2017)

  • Localizaton: Arabic language is added.
  • Configuration: The ability is added to shift the title buttons (see the "Options - Title Buttons" panel).
  • File Folders: The width of the Recent Folders list is limited to 80 em units to prevent its too wide appearance (it may even exceed the screen area in some cases).
  • Updating: If the "New version is available" balloon notification was shown, right click on the Actual File Folders notification area icon started the installation instead of displaying icon's context menu.

New in Actual File Folders 1.10 (Feb 21, 2017)

  • Windows 10: Extra title buttons now look correct on windows with colored title bars and in the Dark visual theme.
  • Windows x64: Stability is greatly improved (there should be no more high CPU usage or app crashes at Actual File Folders startup).
  • Recent Folders list now gets updated more frequently: it's enough to switch from a folder window to any other window to make folder's current path first in the list of recents.
  • There was possible (of low probability, though) security breach when running Actual File Folders library from the %Temp% folder.
  • Configuration: Check box and radio button captions got cut in high DPI resolutions.

New in Actual File Folders 1.9 (Jul 31, 2016)

  • The CFL command line switch is expanded with the ability to specify an arbitrary folder where the configuration files should be stored ActualFileFoldersCenter.exe CFL ""
  • Overall stability is improved
  • Proper scaling in high DPI resolutions has been finally implemented for:
  • extra title buttons
  • Log window
  • Evaluation dialog has been restyled
  • Proper scaling in high DPI resolutions has been finally implemented for program dialogs (About, Register, Check for Updates, etc.)
  • Auto-detection of free space for extra title buttons worked incorrectly in high DPI resolutions for Windows Explorer and Microsoft Office windows
  • Some features stopped working in Skype windows after saving the Actual File Folders configuration
  • Windows 7+: Specific window settings with certain Window Caption criterion specified did not apply to Microsoft Management Console windows (Event Viewer, Task Scheduler, Disk Manager, etc.)
  • Intuit QuickBooks windows hung for a while after right clicking the extra title buttons

New in Actual File Folders 1.8.2 (Jul 31, 2016)

  • Configuration: Navigation pages now display a tooltip with the full caption text over their header if the caption text does not fit the header visible area.
  • Configuration: With large interface font size (either set manually in the User Interface settings or generated automatically because of a high screen DPI resolution), navigation page captions did not fit the headers.

New in Actual File Folders 1.8.1 (Jul 31, 2016)

  • Windows 10: False-positive SmartScreen warning about setup file corruption is finally remedied.

New in Actual File Folders 1.8 (Jul 31, 2016)

  • Configuration: Back/Forward buttons have been added into each Configuration window to provide the navigation through the user interface panels like in web browsers
  • Configuration: Undo/Redo commands now track the changes separately for each window

New in Actual File Folders 1.7 (Jul 31, 2016)

  • The navigation panel in the main Configuration window has been replaced.
  • Configuration: Ability is added to select all items in the lists with multi-selection allowed by pressing the Ctrl-A hotkey. As this key combination was reserved for adding a new item to a list, the New Item hotkey has been changed to Ctrl-N.
  • Configuration: Hotkey combinations for list operations have been unified for all list-editing panels:
  • Ins, Ctrl-N - add new item
  • Del, Ctrl-D - delete selected item
  • F5 - copy selected item
  • Ctrl-=, Ctrl-Num+ - enable all items (where available)
  • Ctrl--, Ctrl-Num- - disable all items (where available)
  • Ctrl-A - select all items (where available)
  • Configuration: Confirmation request for the Delete Item operation has been removed in all list-editing panels. If you accidentally removed the needed item - you can click the Undo button in the bottom-left corner of the main
  • Configuration window or press the Undo hotkey (Ctrl-Z by default).
  • Configuration: The flickering has been reduced significantly when resizing either the Configuration windows themselves or their internals.
  • Configuration: Now the Browse for Folder dialog remembers the last choice and restores it next time when adding new items to the Favorite Folders list.
  • In some cases, extra title buttons did not redraw in the Aero visual theme.
  • Installer: The uninstaller popped up interactive dialog requests even if it had been launched with /SILENT or /VERYSILENT command line option.
  • Configuration: Minimized windows did not restore on clicking the notification area icon or pressing the Configure hotkey.

New in Actual File Folders 1.6.1 (Nov 24, 2015)

  • Overall stability is improved.
  • Buttons on the "Tools - Control Center" panel are made more usable.

New in Actual File Folders 1.6 (Oct 8, 2015)

  • Now you can suspend/resume Actual File Folders via command line using the following syntax, respectively: ActualFileFoldersCenter.exe suspend / ActualFileFoldersCenter.exe resume
  • If Actual File Folders was installed into a trusted location (such as "Program Files" folder) using administrative privileges and then used under non-privileged user account, Actual File Folders update installer now warns that it must be run as administrator to update the installation in a trusted location.

New in Actual File Folders 1.5.3 (Sep 22, 2015)

  • On some combinations of video hardware and drivers Actual File Folders crashed at startup.

New in Actual File Folders 1.5.2 (Sep 5, 2015)

  • On some hardware configurations, Actual File Folders crashed at startup.

New in Actual File Folders 1.5.1 (Aug 27, 2015)

  • Windows 10: Numerous fixes for extra title buttons:
  • size was calculated incorrectly
  • used button glyphes were of improper color
  • Compact View window looked wrong
  • detecting free place for extra buttons worked wrong
  • Windows 7+: Recent Folders items that correspond to virtual folders (like Libraries or Control Panel entries) appeared empty.

New in Actual File Folders 1.5 (Aug 27, 2015)

  • Now you can use environment variables while specifying path for a Favorite Folders item.
  • Configuration window opened with a long delay if there were Recent Folders shortcuts to network shares and those shares were unavailable at the moment.

New in Actual File Folders 1.4 (Aug 27, 2015)

  • Automatic detection of free place for extra title bar buttons is added in:
  • Microsoft Office applications (since Office 2007);
  • Windows Explorer (since Windows 8).
  • This feature should prevent the overlapping of extra title bar buttons provided by Actual File Folders with standard controls available in a window (like standard buttons, browser tabs, New Tab button, etc.).
  • Automatic gradual Compact View is added for extra title bar buttons: now the buttons are getting hidden/shown 1-by-1 if there is not enough (or enough again) place in the title bar to show the full list of enabled extra buttons. When some buttons get hidden, the special Compact View butto automatically appears on the left of remained buttons: click on this button will display the currently hidden buttons.
  • Sometimes running programs might crash after unloading Actual File Folders.
  • The bug prevented NuSphere PhpEd 15 debugger from starting is fixed.
  • Magix products (Movie Edit, Music Maker) stopped responding during loading.

New in Actual File Folders 1.3 (Apr 16, 2015)

  • The overall support of high screen DPIs is improved.
  • Last used path is saved in the Configuration Backup/Restore dialogs.
  • Windows 8/8.1: Title buttons didn't change their color on mouse hovering.
  • Adding an item to the Favorite Folders list worked incorrectly in the Configuration window.

New in Actual File Folders 1.2.2 (Apr 16, 2015)

  • Windows disappeared after minimizing/restoring them on the taskbar button click.
  • If the compact view for title buttons was on, sometimes the popup toolbar appeared behind the main window.

New in Actual File Folders 1.2.1 (Oct 25, 2014)

  • Title buttons compact mode now works correctly in systems with right-to-left languages (like Arabic or Hebrew).
  • Title buttons in compact mode were positioned incorrectly in the following cases:
  • in Windows 7 and later with the Aero visual theme activated
  • with vertical shift applied
  • when maximizing/restoring a window where the compact mode was activated automatically (i.e. the window's title in normal state was too narrow to embrace the full list of buttons)

New in Actual File Folders 1.2 (Sep 23, 2014)

  • Compact mode for extra title buttons is now available: it displays the small narrow button instead of the full list of active buttons.
  • Click on this button expands the list of active buttons so they can be used as usual. Second click on this button or click somewhere else collapses the list of active buttons so they do not block the view (this can be especially useful in non-standard windows like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox).
  • The compact mode activates either automatically (when the extra buttons do not fit the title bar) or it can be set permanently for particular windows in the Window Settings options (see the "Title Buttons - Options" group).
  • In addition to a right click on extra title buttons, now you can hold the left mouse button on them for some time to invoke their extended abilities (like context menus or special dialogs).
  • Compatibility with Windows 8.1 Service Pack 1 has been improved.
  • Windows 8.1: A workaround for a system bug has been added to reduce the memory leaks in Windows Explorer when using the Favorite Folders and/or Recent Folders title button.
  • Downloaded setups of newer versions were installed automatically even if the automatic updates were disabled (which prevented the rolling back to any previous version if a newer version setup was available).
  • NuSphere PhpEd 12 crashed when trying to scroll the File Explorer view.
  • Unloading 1st Clock right after restoring from hibernation made Windows Explorer hung.
  • Canceling the download in the "Check for Updates" dialog caused an error.
  • Pressing Enter in the "Check for Updates" dialog after the download was started caused the restart of downloading.

New in Actual File Folders 1.1.4 (Apr 11, 2014)

  • German translation is revised.

New in Actual File Folders 1.1.3 (Mar 21, 2014)

  • Incompatibility with Mikrotik's Winbox windows is fixed.
  • Adobe Acrobat Standard X/XI crashed upon trying to start a new scan.

New in Actual File Folders 1.1.2 (Mar 6, 2014)

  • Additional title buttons are now compatible with Stardock WindowFX.
  • Compatiblity with Agnitum Outpost Security Suite is restored.
  • Opening the Favorite Folders context menu with many shortcuts to network folders is sped up.
  • Windows 8/8.1: Internet Explorer 11 closed immediately when running in Metro mode.
  • In some cases opening a new window of Internet Explorer 11 also opened additional unwanted IE window.
  • In some cases changing Actual File Folders language made some of additional title buttons and window menu commands disappear.

New in Actual File Folders 1.1.1 (Jan 31, 2014)

  • Sometimes running programs might crash after unloading Actual File Folders.

New in Actual File Folders 1.1 (Jan 31, 2014)

  • Now it is possible to specify the default location of configuration files via command line: run "ActualFileFoldersCenter.exe CFL 1|2|3|-", where
  • 1 - program installation folder
  • 2 - "Application Data" folder in the All Users user profile
  • 3 - "Application Data" folder in the current user profile (default)
  • - - remove the value from the Registry
  • Sending of collected usage statistics is added.
  • Check for Updates options are moved into separate panel in the Options page.
  • Now it is possible to open the Check for Updates options from the Check for Updates window.
  • Now it is possible to restore the lost registration code from the Registration dialog.
  • Windows 8/8.1: Running programs in "Windows XP/Vista compatibility" mode made them hung at startup.
  • Recent Folders title button did not work when selecting the disk root folder (like C:\, D:\, etc.).
  • Flash Player running in the Firefox Plugin Container consumed system resources constantly.
  • Google Chrome crashed when Actual File Folders tried to display tooltips for its title buttons.
  • Flickering of title buttons in MS PowerPoint 2010 windows is reduced.
  • Unloading 1st Clock made Windows Explorer hung.
  • Zoom screen sharing utility worked improperly when Actual File Folders was running.
  • Automatic update always downloaded the latest available setup file from the server no matter it was already downloaded or not.

New in Actual File Folders 1.0.1 (Jan 31, 2014)

  • After downloading the update, setup did not run after clicking on the tray balloon "Click here to install it right now" message if the "Load at startup" option was enabled.