bizzel Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 (edited) It's been a while... I was hoping to make this announcement earlier but it's been a busy university term and so I delayed until now. EduSweep 2.5 will be ready for release in early May if all goes to plan but, before that can happen, I need a crack team of beta testers ready to bend and break the new version before everyone else! Beta testing involves running the software on non-critical data for about 1 - 3 weeks and simply reporting any oddities and suggesting improvements. You don't need to be a developer and you won't have to touch a line of code. If you're interested then post a reply here or drop me a PM. I expect to start beta testing in around 3 weeks - that's late March. For the rest of you this becomes a preview post showcasing the new features you can expect. So what's new? Lots is new and, thankfully, lots is not new. Keeping the user interface similar to 2.2 should mean that there's not too much to learn when upgrading. Many of the improvements are under the hood but there are a couple worth noting that you'll see day to day. http://www.paulbeesley.com/uploads/edugeek/newtask.PNG The task workflow has been overhauled so that creating signatures should be a thing of the past (although they're still there if you want them). You can now add file extensions, keywords and specific files that you want detected without having to create signatures so you can define more precisely what it is you're searching for. The screenshot above shows the revised New Task window as well as a new method for adding paths - just type or paste a path and EduSweep will check its validity in real-time as you type. It's smart enough to let you add network paths when the host is offline as well. Then just hit enter to add it to your task. You can also now drag and drop folders from Windows Explorer and this new capability extends across the whole application. http://www.paulbeesley.com/uploads/edugeek/clamav.PNG Next up, ClamAV support. Probably the best free, open-source antivirus product and you can harness it within the application to scan targeted directories at the same time as your regular EduSweep scans. Or, if you prefer, EduSweep will virus scan only the files that get detected by a regular EduSweep scan. No need to worry about managing it either, the definition updates are handled by EduSweep's Online Update tool and there's no real-time scanner to slow down your system or interfere with existing antivirus software. That's the best type of AV - the type that's only there when you tell it to be! http://www.paulbeesley.com/uploads/edugeek/scan.PNG Here's a scan in progress - notice how quickly the scan started? Near-instant startup times. You can expect that as standard now, however large the directory tree is that you're scanning. I think that was the most frequent feature request I had so it's great to have that solved for this new release. http://www.paulbeesley.com/uploads/edugeek/settings.PNG Speaking of scanning, these options above are now applied per-task rather than globally. That's nice but even nicer is proper, algorithmic Flash detection to get those Flash files that are embedded in Office documents. Not as much of a problem as they were perhaps but still, it's nice to know they can't hide any more! http://www.paulbeesley.com/uploads/edugeek/quarantine.PNG Nothing huge here, just a nice little feature to have. The settings window now contains purge buttons so you can clear out your quarantine and report directories and see how much space they're using in your roaming profile. The Full Monty - All Changes Since v2.2 Additions: • ClamAV integration allows you to scan for viruses as part of your routine sweeps • Proper heuristic detection of embedded flash games in Office documents • The file inspector can now run as a standalone application from the Start Menu or command prompt • The signature creator is now a part of the main application • Drag and drop support for easier adding of folders to a task • As-you-type validity checking on manually-entered paths Improvements: • Support for a wider variety of proxy server configurations • Revised results browser makes sifting through files easier • Redesigned task creation interface supports greater task granularity • File inspector scan time has been reduced by up to 90% on very large files • Near-instant task startup, even on huge directory trees • Resource conservation mode can now be set per-task • Improved logging of errors and warnings to help with future releases • The quarantine folder and the reports directory can be emptied from the settings pane • A full set of definitions is installed to your profile, removing the need for an initial update • 10% faster scanning performance (feels like much more with the new instant startup) Fixes: • Crash when working with very large directory trees • Crash when closing the file inspector during a scan • Crash with ‘BadImageFormatException’ when starting task on Windows Vista and 7 • Crash when encountering invalid characters in a file extension or keyword • Potential crash when checking for updates • Files are removed from the results list on delete even if the delete operation failed • Poor resizing of list column headers renders some text unreadable • Network path might be erroneously marked as unavailable • Files may be missed while scanning folders with empty subfolders • Incorrect rendering of some user interface components • Some incorrect dialog text when quarantining files • Misc bug fixes on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 • Resolve GPL incompatibility by using SharpZipLib in place of DotNetZip Edited March 31, 2011 by bizzel 1
bizzel Posted April 1, 2011 Author Posted April 1, 2011 *Gentle lunchtime bump* I posted this far too late yesterday to get noticed!
Wils86 Posted April 23, 2011 Posted April 23, 2011 I'd love to be a beta tester, your previous versions made me the most hated man in school. No games were left and detentions were served
AngryTechnician Posted April 23, 2011 Posted April 23, 2011 Ooh, count me in too if you still need testers, I must have missed this as I was busy packing up the office for the refurb!
bizzel Posted May 31, 2011 Author Posted May 31, 2011 Sorry for the delay, had some finals to take care of so development was on hiatus for a few weeks. AngryTechnician and Wils86, I'll PM you both once I have an installer put together. You can run the beta in parallel with your existing installation of 2.2 if you like.
bizzel Posted June 12, 2011 Author Posted June 12, 2011 Another update on this. EduSweep is more or less ready to go but in order to get antivirus integration into this release I had to write my own .NET binding to ClamAV (a separate project here: ClamAV# - Paul Beesley) and that still has a few bugs to iron out before it's good to go. I have all summer to work on the project. It won't take that long to finish of course, but I don't plan to rush it when I have plenty of time available.
bizzel Posted June 13, 2011 Author Posted June 13, 2011 By all means. The more the merrier! I'll PM you when the beta is available.
Wils86 Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 No worries I had a feeling you were busy. Thanks for offering us the chance to beta test for you. Loved the original versions as you know so looking forward to this.
bizzel Posted June 22, 2011 Author Posted June 22, 2011 (edited) I just have a few automated tests to run before I can make the beta available. I have to put my virtual machines back together again on this machine (just moved everything over to SSDs! ) so I'll leave it as a project for the weekend. Should have some PMs to send out on Monday. Edited June 22, 2011 by bizzel
bizzel Posted July 4, 2011 Author Posted July 4, 2011 Beta 1 is out now. You should have received a private message if you expressed interest in testing it, drop me a line if you wanted to but haven't received anything.
bizzel Posted July 5, 2011 Author Posted July 5, 2011 Just thought I'd post a screenshot from today's release.
bizzel Posted August 12, 2011 Author Posted August 12, 2011 Beta 2 is now being pushed out to all testers. If you're on the beta team then you should receive a PM from me soon with the download link. Here's what's changed in the new beta: Added CRC32, MD5 and SHA1 hashing (File Inspector) Support for virus scanning within RAR files Changed Bumped ClamAV# to nightly build 130711 (Does this cause missing MSVCRT8.0 errors for you? I want to hear if it does!) Now shipping the latest ClamAV and TrID signatures Lazy loading of some files improves startup speed Fixed Opening the Report Manager does not show the first report by default The "More Information" button on the File Inspector doesn't do anything No signatures are installed until Software Update is run Cannot add extensions or keywords to a task from the toolbar buttons (only the Quick Add box works) I plan to have a release candidate build after this and that should clear up any lingering issues (most of which are interface glitches). I'll pick up the pace for that so expect the RC to drop in a week or so.
ASW1980 Posted September 2, 2011 Posted September 2, 2011 Ive been using 2 for a while now and I would be interested in testing the new beta version
featured_spectre Posted September 24, 2011 Posted September 24, 2011 As would I if that is at all possible
bizzel Posted September 25, 2011 Author Posted September 25, 2011 I'm pretty much ready to release the final version any day now. The only reason it's fallen behind schedule is that I started a new job a couple of weeks back and have just been getting settled in. I'll post an announcement when it all gets released.
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