Battery Monitor.NET

[+primortal Subscriber²]

great work Schmoove, just noticed one problem. I had the monitor set to stay on top. In IE (sp2) if I do a CTRL-F5 to refresh the page the battery monitory settings dialog box appears.

[Schmoove]

Ah! Sorry, I didn't realize the window had to be layered for that to work =/. Great job figuring that out - it took me a very long time to find how to do that. I'm looking forward to the next release!

Thanks for pointing me into the right direction. Indeed you have to add the value of WS_EX_LAYERED to it because the form I use is a layered window. If I used your solution it all worked fine, except for the bitmap of the monitor itself not showing up. So if you add WS_EX_LAYERED to WS_EX_TRANSPARENT you combine the best of both worlds :)

great work Schmoove, just noticed one problem. I had the monitor set to stay on top. In IE (sp2) if I do a CTRL-F5 to refresh the page the battery monitory settings dialog box appears.

Yes sorry, it wasn't really smart of me to choose CRTL+F5 and CTRL+F6. I changed it to Shift+F2 and Shift+F3 for the next release (unless someone has problems with that ofcourse, I don't know for sure if that interferes with an application).

[jaydacodemonkey]

Three more feature requests:

1. Show % inside the monitor. I have it showing remaining time below the monitor and it would be cool if it could show the percentage inside.

2. Different transparency levels for monitor and text.

3. Possibly allow resizing of the monitor.

I love this program! :D The built in IBM battery monitor is so UGLY!

[Schmoove]

Three more feature requests:

1. Show % inside the monitor. I have it showing remaining time below the monitor and it would be cool if it could show the percentage inside.

2. Different transparency levels for monitor and text.

3. Possibly allow resizing of the monitor.

I love this program! :D The built in IBM battery monitor is so UGLY!

1) Only possible if I extend the skin format. I might do that eventually sometime.

2) That is quite hard and would involve a lot of code being rewritten, so I'm not gonna do that.

3) Thought of that, but you will get ugly (unsharp, blurred) results. So if you want it bigger/smaller, make bigger/smaller skins.

[tmeg]

Hello,

first, this app is really good and usefull and it looks good, too :yes:

Second, choosing .NET is not a mistake and you should stick to it, it is the way to go and probably remaining "memory issues" (which are not that big) will hopefully one day be solved by MS until then it is not that a issue compared with the big advances in coding the .NET framework for the developer.

One quite major issue with the app: It does not work correctly with different resolution settings, I mean I use the big fonts setting (custom set to 150%, 144 DPI). These modern laptops have a quite high resolution display and setting this option ensures that the fonts are readable without using a magnifying glass ontop of the display ;) :D

So, I know it is a little bit more difficult to make sure that the app works with different display resolutions, but .NET makes a little bit more easy. So the problem is 1st, that the text displayed below the battery icon is cut off, please check some font measurement code/API that must be available and not be too hidden.

Second the option window does also do not look right. With the default settings the dialogs normally look good, too, with high DPI settings. If not, sometimes it helps to design them with higher dpi settings and then the look on lower DPI settings will not be perfect, but much better than the reverse effect. Eventually with a little bit testing you get good results for all cases. This all is a rather difficult thing, but this is essential and important for all applications.

About the 9,75 or 9.50 problem, I understand that, too. I does come from creating the inital settings file on a differenct PC. At the end I think this shows that the idea of using XML files here does not really cut it. Also I did not check where this setting file is stored. If it is stored in the application folder this means that the app will not work correctly with limited accounts or more general for multiple users. I currently think that it is best here to stick to the HKCU (current user) registry tree, this does solve the multi user problem and you can store real numbers in the registry, not only text. A quick fix (if there is this problem), would be to store or access the XML settings from the user-data directory. I think there is a API call or enumeration of such special folders information (e.g. where is the desktop, my documents, application data directory, ... ).

Perhaps this helps a little and we get a greet nice tool useabe in even more cases and for more users :woot: :D Keep the fun will developing it, because it is free, so it should help you, too :)

chris

[jaydacodemonkey]

When do you think the next version will be released? I'm excited.

[Schmoove]

When I finish the new skin I'm making for it.

[filter04]

i don't have a laptop, and haven't used the program, but Schmoove this program is very nice looking, and works well apparently.

(Y) big thumbs up man. congratulations.

[Banzai]

yeah 0.5 will install this tonight!!!

[+primortal Subscriber²]

I was looking to modify this battery meter theme, just don't have the time

http://www.aero-soft.com/board/index.php?showtopic=247

[Schmoove]

Updated to version 0.6. Here is the change log:

version 0.6

- Added "click through" option

- Updated the trayicons

- Changed keyboard shortcuts

- Added two new themes (Speedometer and Speedometer Small)

[jaydacodemonkey]

Awesome! Click through makes it so much more usable :) I love it.

2 more comments from me:

1. Do you think you could find some way to remove the program from the alt-tab window?

2. If I alt-tab to this program, then hit alt-F4, it closes. Then if I double click the tray icon, it throws a .NET error:

Cannot access a disposed object named "m".

Object name: "m".

Clearly thats just the obfuscated variable name, but I hope u can reproduce and fix that error.

LOVE THIS PROGRAM! Thank you.

[Hurmoth]

Keeps getting better and better!

[Ben_G]

Nice! i think ill install this when i get my laptop :D

[AshMan]

Wow! What a freaking cool application.

Thank you.

[SMeK Veteran]

sweet update

still wish it could be set to disappear when on mains power ;)

[Fonze]

sweet update

still wish it could be set to disappear when on mains power ;)

could you set the opacity to 0 when it is plugged in? that would make it dissapear or be atleast very faint

[Homer]

When my laptop comes back from repair *shakes fist at PCHell err PCWorld* this is definatly going to be on my list of things to do. Looks awsome, getting more awsome and it's just awsome. Keep up the great work man! :)

[Marshalus Veteran]

Wow, that makes me want a laptop just to use this program.

[AcdShdw]

Wow, that makes me want a laptop just to use this program.

lol i have about 7 laptops :whistle:

[SMeK Veteran]

could you set the opacity to 0 when it is plugged in? that would make it dissapear or be atleast very faint

i cant see that option :(

all the menus and the time left text is cut off :/

[Schmoove]

i cant see that option :(

all the menus and the time left text is cut off :/

the preferences window is resizable. You should be able to see it when you resize the window.

Why it f*cks up when you use higher DPI modes I don't know.... I use standard .NET forms, nothing fancy. So if that doesn't work... well what can I do??

[SMeK Veteran]

thank you :D

resized it

the end of the menu bar still goes over the edge of the screen, and stays there

but this is great :D

one slight problem with the alerts, when the alert pops up it takes the focus away from the window you are using, so if you are typing in a box, you have to click in the box to continue

anyway to solve this?

[Schmoove]

thank you :D

resized it

the end of the menu bar still goes over the edge of the screen, and stays there

but this is great :D

one slight problem with the alerts, when the alert pops up it takes the focus away from the window you are using, so if you are typing in a box, you have to click in the box to continue

anyway to solve this?

No, that's what an alert is for, to get your attention. I'm not going to change that.... sorry.

Awesome! Click through makes it so much more usable smile.gif I love it.

2 more comments from me:

1. Do you think you could find some way to remove the program from the alt-tab window?

2. If I alt-tab to this program, then hit alt-F4, it closes. Then if I double click the tray icon, it throws a .NET error:

Cannot access a disposed object named "m".

Object name: "m".

Clearly thats just the obfuscated variable name, but I hope u can reproduce and fix that error.

LOVE THIS PROGRAM! Thank you.

Will be fixed in the next version (already got it fixed in the latest build).

[AshMan]

What did you use to make this program?