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vmPing Changelog

What's new in vmPing 1.3.23

Apr 14, 2022
  • Fix: Force software rendering. This should fix high GPU usage on some video cards. 6d39400
  • Fix: Loading a favorite on startup was not using the column count for the favorite. 619d722
  • Fix: Scroll indicator icon would unnecessarily display when the window was resized to small dimensions. c412495
  • The position and size of the status history window is now remembered rather than resetting each time it's opened. d411095
  • Switch to using SnapToDevicePixels on the main window. Previously, the pixel width for the black borders between probes would sometimes vary when the window was resized. The borders should now always be consistent. 45b23de
  • Removed gaps when hovering mouse between menu buttons (Add Host, Columns, Start/Stop All). Removed gap from right edge of main menu button. 6f51eb7
  • Some of the menu headers have been renamed on the options screen. 531abb1

New in vmPing 1.3.21 (Mar 10, 2022)

  • f you scroll up in a ping window, automatic scrolling pauses. Automatic scrolling resumes when you scroll back to the bottom. While scrolled up, a small visual indicator appears in the bottom right corner of the ping window.
  • Added always on top option. This feature existed in early versions, and now it's back. Found under Options -> Display.
  • Added minimize to tray and exit to tray options. Found under Options -> Display. At the moment, the tray icon doesn't do anything to indicate status. It's just a plain icon.
  • When logging status changes to a text file, aliases are now included.
  • Lots of minor visual changes:
  • On status change alerts, the text for DOWN and UP is now all lowercase down and up.
  • On popup alerts, an arrow symbol replaces the word "is". For example 127.0.0.1 is down becomes 127.0.0.1 🠖 down
  • All references to Popup Notifications have been renamed to Popup Alerts (to be consistent with email alerts and audio alerts).
  • Custom styling on the main dropdown menu. Added icons to most menu items.
  • Minor style changes and icons added to the alias and favorites windows.

New in vmPing 1.3.20 (Mar 10, 2022)

  • If you scroll up in a ping window, automatic scrolling pauses. Automatic scrolling resumes when you scroll back to the bottom. While scrolled up, a small visual indicator appears in the bottom right corner of the ping window.
  • Added always on top option. This feature existed in early versions, and now it's back. Found under Options -> Display.
  • Added minimize to tray and exit to tray options. Found under Options -> Display. At the moment, the tray icon doesn't do anything to indicate status. It's just a plain icon.
  • When logging status changes to a text file, aliases are now included.
  • Lots of minor visual changes:
  • On status change alerts, the text for DOWN and UP is now all lowercase down and up.
  • On popup alerts, an arrow symbol replaces the word "is". For example 127.0.0.1 is down becomes 127.0.0.1 🠖 down
  • All references to Popup Notifications have been renamed to Popup Alerts (to be consistent with email alerts and audio alerts).
  • Custom styling on the main dropdown menu. Added icons to most menu items.
  • Minor style changes and icons added to the alias and favorites windows.

New in vmPing 1.3.19 (Mar 3, 2022)

  • The Status History window now has the ability to export. When exporting, you have three delimiter options: comma (CSV), tab, or space.
  • The Status History window has a new, cleaner look with a custom window border.
  • Added a clear button to the filter box on the Status History window.
  • Auto-scrolling now pauses while clicking (and holding) the scrollbar within each probe window. The ability to completely toggle auto-scrolling is planned.
  • Various minor visual style updates.

New in vmPing 1.3.18 (Sep 9, 2021)

  • Fix for crashes and performance issues. Issue #70 and Issue #72. Ping output text is no longer selectable. Selectable text was added in version 1.3.15 and this has been causing problems. I will look for another way to reintroduce selectable text in a later version. For now, you can click the icon to open a probe in a separate window and the separate window has selectable text.
  • Popup notification window now scales its size to match its contents. Issue #67.
  • Add option to enable SSL/TLS for email notifications. Issue #73.

New in vmPing 1.3.17 (Jul 7, 2021)

  • Fix: Windows XP/7 would crash when opening the Status History window. This was due to an incompatible reference added in 1.3.16.
  • Status History window now has filters. Type in the box to filter by name or address. The different status types are filterable as well: ups, downs, starts, and stops.
  • When a system error is encountered while pinging (example: network interface disabled in Windows), vmPing will mark as lost and continue ping attempts. Previously, the pinging would stop entirely.
  • Code signed! I purchased a 3-year certificate with your contributions. The pre-compiled binary on this release and all future releases should be code signed. This will get rid of Windows Smart Screen warnings, untrusted publisher errors, and false flagging by antivirus vendors that alert on unsigned executables. You might still see Smart Screen warnings for now since it's reputation-based and this is a brand new cert.

New in vmPing 1.3.16 (Jul 1, 2021)

  • Fix: Command line arguments now take precedence over your startup configuration.
  • Fix: When changing the title of a favorite, you are now given a warning if the new title already exists.
  • The text in each probe window is now selectable. Right-click or CTRL-C to copy. Scrolling is paused while text is selected. Select text from left to right. Selecting text from right to left will not work properly while the probe is active.
  • Probe starts and stops are now recorded to the Status History window.
  • New Status History window. The data is now displayed as a sortable grid. Filtering and additional options will be included in the next release.
  • Keyboard shortcut, F12, opens the Status History window.
  • Custom, slimmer, scroll bar style for the probe windows.
  • The blinking animation on the stats line when a response is recorded is now much more subtle.
  • Stats previously only updated when a response was received or lost. Stats now also update each time a probe is sent.
  • Keyboard shortcuts for buttons on the Manage Aliases and Manage Favorites windows.
  • Minor style changes to look of the Manage Aliases and Manage Favorites windows.
  • Minor style changes to most Windows controls (tab items, drop down boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, text boxes, buttons, etc). Styles should now be more consistent throughout the application.

New in vmPing 1.3.15 (Mar 18, 2021)

  • Startup mode. You can now configure how vmPing starts. Choose between a blank window (this is the normal, default mode), show the list input window, or load a favorite. For the blank window, you can also set the number of blank probes and initial column count. You will find startup mode settings on the General tab in the Options window. Don't forget to select Save as vmPing defaults to make your settings persist.
  • When you open the list input window, it now pre-populates with the addresses of the current pings.
  • Forced uppercase has been removed from all text boxes.
  • Dates and times should now display formatted according to your set region in Windows.

New in vmPing 1.3.14 (Mar 10, 2021)

  • Portable mode. Previously, your configuration file had to be stored at %LocalAppData%vmPingvmPing.xml. The configuration file includes all favorites, aliases, and default settings for the application. Now vmPing.xml can reside in the same folder as the application, making everything easily portable. Additionally for new users, a simple prompt is displayed if you do anything that would require saving an initial config file. The prompt informs of config file creation, and gives an opportunity to select portable mode if you want your config file created alongside vmPing.exe.
  • There's a whole new look to the traceroute window. Check it out. An MTR feature isn't there yet, but should follow in a future release.

New in vmPing 1.3.12 (Mar 5, 2021)

  • New multi-address input. Access using the keyboard shortcut F2 or by clicking the option in vmPing's menu. This displays a window with a multi-line textbox. Type your target addresses one per line or comma-separated, click OK, and vmPing populates with your targets and immediately begins pinging. So simple. If you have a text file containing addresses, just drag and drop it onto the window.
  • Column count can now be set to anything (within the limits). Previously the column count could never be set higher than the number of probes. This has always annoyed me. Now you can choose any column count and it'll stick. An example would be: Two probes. Set column count to four. vmPing displays two columns since there's only two probes. But as you add more probes, new columns will be made until the four column count is satisfied.
  • Improved drag & drop re-ordering of probes. This was a little buggy when first introduced in v1.3.9, but should now perform well. Usage: Hovering your mouse over a probe displays the usual probe title bar. Click and hold in the title bar area, then drag to the desired new location, and release.
  • Loading a favorite sets the application title bar to the title of the favorite.
  • On the Create New Favorite Set window, you can now drag & drop a text file right onto the list of addresses.
  • Minor UI style changes on the Manage Aliases and Manage Favorites window.

New in vmPing 1.3.11 (Mar 2, 2021)

  • The recent drag & drop feature was causing issues. Please update to this version if you downloaded 1.3.9-10. The drag & drop functionality is still there, but you must click and drag on the bar that appears across the top of each probe window.

New in vmPing 1.3.10 (Mar 1, 2021)

  • Drag & drop reordering. Click and hold anywhere on a probe, then drag to the desired new location, and release.
  • Full control over creating and editing favorite sets. When creating or editing a favorite, you are now given a large multi-line textbox for entering hosts within the favorite. Hosts in the textbox can be one per line, comma-separated, or any combination of new lines and commas.
  • Numerous minor UI changes, including:
  • Edit alias button is disabled and grayed out if no host name is entered.
  • Subtle placeholder text in textbox if no host name is entered.
  • Short animation on popup notification window when it first appears.
  • Removed the system animation for context menus in the menu bar, because sometimes the animation would appear to flicker.
  • Most image files have been replaced by vector graphics. Not a visible change, though some icons have changed slightly.

New in vmPing 1.3.9 (Feb 28, 2021)

  • Drag & drop reordering. Click and hold anywhere on a probe, then drag to the desired new location, and release.
  • Full control over creating and editing favorite sets. When creating or editing a favorite, you are now given a large multi-line textbox for entering hosts within the favorite. Hosts in the textbox can be one per line, comma-separated, or any combination of new lines and commas.
  • Numerous minor UI changes, including:
  • Edit alias button is disabled and grayed out if no host name is entered.
  • Subtle placeholder text in textbox if no host name is entered.
  • Short animation on popup notification window when it first appears.
  • Removed the system animation for context menus in the menu bar, because sometimes the animation would appear to flicker.
  • Most image files have been replaced by vector graphics. Not a visible change, though some icons have changed slightly.

New in vmPing 1.3.8 (Feb 24, 2021)

  • New options window. The options window was given a minor makeover and now uses a vertical tab layout. This allows room for additional option screens in the future.
  • New Notifications tab in the options window for configuring popup notifications. You can now save a default popup notification setting.
  • New feature to auto-dismiss popup notifications. This is currently configured through the Notifications tab in the options window.
  • New feature to play a sound when a host comes up (previously you could only play sounds when a host went down).
  • If you have an alias set for a host, the alias is now shown in popup notifications and email alerts.
  • Bug fix: TCP port pings to IPv6 targets now work. If pinging a port on an IPv6 address, wrap the address in brackets, such as [::1]:443 where ::1 is the target IPv6 address and 443 is the target TCP port.

New in vmPing 1.3.4 (Apr 22, 2020)

  • Bug fix: A crash would occur if popup notifications were set to display only when minimized and a host status change occurred.

New in vmPing 1.3.3 (Dec 5, 2019)

  • Improved handling of loading hosts from a text file to account for empty lines and comments. Thanks @larntz for adding this feature!
  • Added a Test button to the Email Alerts tab so that you can validate and test email alerting. Thanks @bodagetta for the suggestion.
  • Added a Test button to the Audio Alerts tab that plays the audio file you've selected.
  • Added simple informational text to the Email Alerts and Audio Alerts tabs.
  • Bug fix: Logging status changes would fail if multiple hosts changed status at the same time. This has been corrected. Thanks @Sola1991 for the bug report.
  • Bug fix: When setting a default configuration that includes email alerts with authentication, the config write would fail. This has been corrected. Thanks @WNDNCG for the bug report.
  • Bug fix: Aliases would not show when loading hosts from the command line or after selecting a favorite set. This has been corrected. Thanks @MeatyFresh for the bug report.
  • Bug fix: Added error checking to audio alert playback.

New in vmPing 1.3.2 (Jun 6, 2019)

  • New option to trigger playing a sound when a host goes down. The setting is found under the Audio Alerts tab on the options window. Thanks @larntz for adding this feature!
  • Bug fix: Using the log file feature would not work on IPv6 hosts or hosts doing a TCP port ping due to invalid characters in the file name that was being generated. This is now checked and logging will work in those situations.

New in vmPing 1.3.1 (Apr 16, 2019)

  • New traceroute probe! In the hostname box, type 'T/name_or_ip' and it'll perform a traceroute right in a probe window. This feature will become more apparent in a future release, and additional probe types are planned. Eventually, the old separate traceroute window will go away.
  • New option to log status changes to a text file. This option only writes to the log when a host goes down or up. The output is in a tab delimited format that is suitable for Excel or database imports. Note: vmPing does not lock the file, so logging will fail if the file is opened by Excel and vmPing tries to write to the file.
  • Fix for vmPing no longer reading hostnames from the command line.
  • New command line option to specify a file containing a list of hostnames. One host per line. The file is read at startup and vmPing immediately begins pinging each host. Remember to use quotes if your file path contains spaces. Usage: 'vmPing.exe <path_to_file>'
  • Darkened the default color for DNS and traceroute probes. This is not yet customizable.
  • The control bar that appears when you hover over a probe window is now darker (50% black with 50% transparency). The icons are now darker and the highlight style was changed to accommodate the new colors.
  • Re-styled the custom dialog window so it's wider and uses a smaller font.
  • Extra tooltips explaining the options under Options -> Log Output.

New in vmPing 1.3.0 (Apr 12, 2019)

  • The project now targets .NET 4.5. It previously targeted .NET 4.0.
  • New DNS probe! In the hostname box, type 'D/name_or_ip' and it will perform a DNS lookup. This feature is fairly hidden at the moment, but will become more apparent in a future release. Additional probe types are planned.
  • Renamed 'Change Log' to 'Status History'.
  • Most dialog boxes have been converted to custom dialog boxes.
  • Added an error icon to custom dialog boxes when displaying error-type messages.
  • Options -> Advanced -> Don't fragment: This control is now a checkbox and it now includes an information popup that explains the option.
  • Don't fragment option now defaults to off.
  • The generic background logo in each probe window no longer re-appears after stopping a probe.

New in vmPing 1.2.15 (Mar 20, 2019)

  • Added the ability to customize the colors. Most colors within that application can now be set to your liking. To access: open the application options and then select the Layout tab.

New in vmPing 1.2.12 (Dec 20, 2018)

  • Added advanced ICMP options:
  • Set a custom time to live value.
  • Option to set / unset the "don't fragment" flag in the packet.
  • Set ICMP message size.
  • Set custom ICMP message data.

New in vmPing 1.2.11 (Dec 19, 2018)

  • The options window now has a checkbox for saving your vmPing settings to disk.
  • TCP port ping intervals can now go below 4 seconds and is tied to your ping interval setting.
  • If you downloaded v1.2.10, this releases fixes improper writing of SMTP credentials to the config file.

New in vmPing 1.2.9 (Sep 7, 2018)

  • You can now rename existing aliases and create new aliases directly from the alias management window.
  • You can now rename favorites from the favorites management window.
  • When you select a favorite from the favorites management window, it now displays the hosts that are in the selected entry.
  • When saving a new favorite set, the dialog window now displays the hosts that will be saved in your set.
  • When saving a new favorite set, if you haven't entered any hosts names, you will now get an error.

New in vmPing 1.2.8 (Sep 6, 2018)

  • Re-designed the options window, dialog popups, and the alias/favorites management windows. Everything has a more consistent look. No more fixed and unmovable dialog windows. Email alerts and logging options are now found in the options window.
  • When renaming an alias, if you set a blank name for the title, it deletes the alias entry rather than creating a blank alias.
  • Bug fix: A crash would occur if you started a ping and then stopped it before any probes were sent - such as during DNS resolution. (Thanks @ichantio)

New in vmPing 1.2.7 (Aug 24, 2018)

  • The keyboard focus feature that was supposedly added to the previous version is now working.

New in vmPing 1.2.6 (Aug 24, 2018)

  • Aliases can now be managed from the main drop down menu.
  • Keyboard focus now automatically shifts each time you add a new host monitor window.

New in vmPing 1.2.5 (Jul 20, 2018)

  • Aliases are now persistent and are saved to your local vmPing configuration file.
  • New configuration file - %LocalAppData%vmPingvmPing.xml - Old configuration files are automatically upgraded to the new format. The new configuration file supports favorites, aliases, and any other settings that would need to be saved in the future.
  • After stopping a ping, basic statistics are added to the output window. This is similar to command line ping utilities.
  • There's a new button on the popup notification window that'll take you to the full status history window.
  • If the status change history window is open, the popup notification window won't appear. It didn't make sense to have both.

New in vmPing 1.2.2 (Jul 13, 2018)

  • New window for viewing a history of status changes (when a host goes down or up again) - To access: Click the arrow/menu icon in the top right and select 'Change Log'.

New in vmPing 1.2.1 (Jul 12, 2018)

  • New option for aliases - Display a custom title for each ping window. To use: Hover over an active ping monitor to display the icon row. Click the pencil icon and enter an alias.

New in vmPing 1.2.0 (Jul 12, 2018)

  • New isolated views - Open any ping monitor in it's own dedicated window. To access: Hover over an active ping monitor to display the icon row. The icon row currently consists of an 'X' (close) button and a 'rectangle' (isolated view) button.

New in vmPing 1.1.15 (Jul 11, 2018)

  • Added SMTP authentication options for email alerts (Contributed by @Nirad)
  • Latency for TCP 'pings' are now displayed. The value, in milliseconds, is the total time taken to establish and close a TCP connection on the given port.

New in vmPing 1.1.14 (Jan 25, 2018)

  • When pinging a hostname and no response is received, the resolved IP address is now printed at the top of the output.

New in vmPing 1.1.13 (Oct 26, 2017)

  • Visual change: There is no longer a gap between each host monitor. They are now separated only by a 2px border.
  • Visual change: When a ping is in progress, a glyph appears next to the hostname indicating whether the host is up, down, or indeterminate.
  • Other minor visual changes.

New in vmPing 1.1.12 (Oct 25, 2017)

  • Added an alerts threshold option. Popup notifications and email alerts are not triggered until the specified number of consecutive pings are lost. This helps avoid notifications for occasional lost packets. The setting is configured through the options window (F10 or select from the drop-down menu). The default value is two.
  • Additional error handling and improved reporting of errors.
  • The options window (F10) is now displayed as its own separate window.
  • The help window (F1) is now displayed as its own separate window.

New in vmPing 1.1.11 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Fixed parsing of command line arguments. The application wasn't properly parsing values supplied by -i and -w on the command line.

New in vmPing 1.1.10 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • The interval between TCP port pings is now tied to the global probe interval setting. Previously, the probe interval was only being applied to ICMP pings. The minimum interval for TCP probes is currently locked at four seconds, but any setting greater than that will be applied.

New in vmPing 1.1.9 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Popup notifications no longer steal focus.
  • Click a popup notification to bring the main vmPing window into focus.
  • Fixed an issue where after selecting a favorite, the application would continue to ping old hostnames that were active prior to selecting the favorite.
  • Fixed an issue where traceroute would sometimes return 'Invalid hostname' for IP addresses.
  • Fixed an issue where 'Stop / Start All' would not properly update after closing the last active ping.

New in vmPing 1.1.8 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • TCP port pings now timeout after 3 seconds rather than 20 seconds.
  • Fixed an issue with TCP port pings where unreachable ports would trigger multiple notifications.
  • Minor visual changes to main window.

New in vmPing 1.1.7 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Fix menu bar cutoff issue on Windows 7.

New in vmPing 1.1.6 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Visual improvements to popup notifications.
  • Popup notifications now default to on.

New in vmPing 1.1.5 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Added popup notifications. When a host changes status (from up to down or from down to up), a notification will appear in the lower right corner of your screen. By default, this is only enabled when the application is minimized. You can use the main drop down menu and select Popup Notifications to change when the notification appears: Always, When Minimized, or Never.

New in vmPing 1.1.4 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Performance improvements: The application should be less laggy when a lot of concurrent pings are running.
  • Minor visual changes: Rounded and thicker borders for each host monitor.
  • Fixed an issue where logging to a text file and performing a TCP 'port ping' would cause the application to crash.

New in vmPing 1.1.3 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Minor performance improvements.

New in vmPing 1.1.2 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Favorites support:
  • All of the favorites features are accessed from the 'Favorites' menu which you can find by clicking the dropdown icon in the top right.
  • Usage is easy. Once you've entered your hostnames and column count: select 'Add to Favorites', pick a title for your favorite, click 'Save', and you're set! The title you picked will then show up on the Favorites menu and can be recalled at any time.
  • To delete a favorite, select 'Manage Favorites' from the Favorites menu.

New in vmPing 1.0.1 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Fixed an issue when launching multiple instances from within the app.