Minor tweaks and updates

Hyperlinks

Sometimes you need to deploy a link to a website to users. Previously, in EISNet v1.6 and below, you could do this by creating a shortcut to iexplore.exe and pass it the website as the parameter. Whilst this works, it didn't necessarily give you the correct icon. Instead, it was the Internet Explorer 'e' logo.

64bit shortcuts

EISNet v1.7 now supports the use of links as shortcuts. This means, if you create a shortcut to a URL - regardless if it starts HTTP:// or simply bbc.co.uk, you will see the correct icon and more importantly, you can do this without the use of using iexplore.exe.

The final change for the new version has been to fix a rather annoying issue with 64bit operating systems. Well, it's not so much a problem with 64bit systems themselves, its the creating of shortcuts. Traditionally, the problem with this is that a 64bit Operating System has two Program Files folders. One is called just that - "Program Files" and the other is called "Program Files (x86)".  All 64bit software will get installed to Program Files and all 32bit software will be installed to the (x86) location. This presents a problem for network managers who have a mixture of 32bit and 64bit hardware across the site.

If, for example, you install a product that is 32bit (like Paint.Net for example) on a 32bit operating system, it will be installed to C:\Program Files. The same package however will install to C:\Program Files (x86) on a 64bit platform. Creating a shortcut to this can be problematic.

EISNet v1.7 now handles this with a little bit more intelligence. The shortcut you create will now ignore the Program Files location and decide which to use based on the operating system and product type. It works out which version is installed and creates the correct shortcut for you. Therefore, when you create the shortcut in Manager, you can enter either the 32 or 64bit version of the program files folder, and the correct one will be used when the user logs in.

Final testing

Tomorrow marks the final push for bugs as we complete our last bug sprint. A group of us will be pushing the software hard to squeeze as many bugs out of it as we can before final release. These bugs will then be fixed over the course of the coming weeks.

I will update during the day with our progress.