favorites.xml missing in vista

[bbbobbbo 0]

hello all, ive recently installed apex after having used revconnect for more than 5 years on XP, since revconnect would perform lousily on vista.

anyway, im loving apex now and guess ill not switch to any other dc client any soon now - good work, guys.

my question: where is the favorites.xml in vista?!

all past clients i used had favorites.xml somewhere, and strongdc had it in settings if i recall correctly - since apex is improved over strongdc, im presuming it should be in settings as well, but hey no, as a matter of fact, it is NOT AT ALL - searched any way possible whole apex directory in program files, nothing.

does apex store its favorite hublist other (unknown to me) way other than favorites.xml?

or is it just vista playing tricks on its part (User Account Control etc)...?

pls help as i find favorites.xml of extreme importance in backing my fav hubs up, should anything go wrong.

10x in advance

[Zlobomir 3]

I do not have Vista yet, but a quick-fix would be to copy somewhere the whole Apex install folder, w/o Hashindex and Hashdata, to save space. Then, starting from the new location, if you have your favorites, you actually have a back-up.

And I do not believe it's Vista account policy, since AFAIK Apex installer is not OS-depending regarding paths, but I may be wrong...

HTH

[bbbobbbo 0]

zlobomir thanks for the good advice, i will follow it precisely, and space is not an issue on my hdd.

however, im totally puzzled: where is the bl00dy favorites.xml file?!?!

and if it really is missing, how come whenever i open apex, fav hubs are all there?

for the record, i have saved more than 30 fav hubs, and apex remembers all of them - autoconnect also works for each and one of them, and i also have 2 instances where i modified the hubs properties (emulate dc in this hub) and still apex remembers all that data.

i am dying to sort all that out - 10x one more time, and when u have tested apex on vista ill appreciate further answers

[Lee 84]

Our development team does not have a Vista license to help test and code for it, so we cannot do this. Maybe Vista moves program-specific stuff to another location?

[bbbobbbo 0]

Our development team does not have a Vista license to help test and code for it, so we cannot do this.

fair enough, i understand that.

Maybe Vista moves program-specific stuff to another location?

thought of that myself, so that's why i searched the whole vista partition for fav.xml every way possible to no avail though.

mind you, before apex (after realising revconnect sucked) i had strongdc installed under vista, although it was not a proper installation (downloaded and unzipped some file from their site, and that was it: it unzipped the contents to an already functional folder - no installation, and on first run it automatically generated fav.xml file)

apex on the other hand performs real installation but no fav.xml - strange... so it either stores the fav hubs info deep in the registry, or embedded into other files in apex installation directory, or else i dont see how - u developers surely must know that better.

if the only storage for added fav hubs info is fav.xml, well it surely beats me how vista does it - but as zlobomir stated, it is not UAC-related, and as long as vista had previously found no issue with fav.xml in case of strongdc, why wouldnt it be the same for apex?

maybe someone in this forum who has vista and apex running under it can be so kind to help clear it out - for the fun of it if not otherwise

[Zlobomir 3]

Hm, make a copy of the install folder, as stated. Then, carefully watching in which folder you are, begin starting and closing Apex. You need only the exe and pdb to have it running, delete other files you suspect one by one at each start. Once Apex starts w/o Favs, you will know the file. If Apex always starts with Favs, we will think more... And if it does not start w/o Favs, forget my backing-up tip.

Our development team does not have a Vista license to help test and code for it, so we cannot do this. Maybe Vista moves program-specific stuff to another location?

I am sure that someone can ask a friend with a Vista licence to resolve this for us. :stuart:

[bbbobbbo 0]

so i followed zlobomir's advice and copied entire apex dir from program files to some other location.

surprise-surprise! though the new copy of apex dir was IDENTICAL to the original, when i started apex from within new copied folder it stared without my favs hubs, but with only 1 default fav hub: "Tech-Geeks Online - Official ApexDC++ Support Hub", and moreover, it starting the hashing process in the background from zero (as if i had just pointed to the shared directory and it started hashing it in the background the moment i clicked ok)

going back to the old original program fles apex directory, i started apex again from there and it ran just like before: my old 30+ fav hubs, old hashing info - everything fine.

so where is it keeping its fav and hashing info stored data? i guess its the registry thing, and only the files in the original installation dir are linked to the reg keys and stuff, and the moment u copy the files to some new location, those links to the registry are broken - sad thing afterall, for it means it copying / backing whole directory up will be totally useless :stuart:((

am i right or is it something iv been missing all the time? is there not a thing we can do to backup the info?

[Greg 0]

Well, the favorites are not stored in the registry, I know that much. The registry just has entries related to being able to handle magnet:, dchub://, and adc:// links... which can even be disabled. Very strange...

[bbbobbbo 0]

Well, the favorites are not stored in the registry, I know that much. The registry just has entries related to being able to handle magnet:, dchub://, and adc:// links... which can even be disabled. Very strange...

yup strange indeed as i was saying too.

im running vista rtm ultimate, and i guess im not the only person on the planet running apex under vista, and all the others under XP or whatever else.

so i am eager to hear from other vista users if they experience same issues as well, or not - 10x

[Seeker 0]

As a Vista user myself, i didnt actually bother to read this whole thread, because favorites.xml is in the appropriate (settings) folder.

Used new binary and setup installations.

SOLVED!

Edited January 19, 2007 by Seeker

[Crise 26]

hmmm why is there ApexDC.exe over at settings... seems like the installer needs bit fixing :stuart:

[Lee 84]

Seeker might have accidently placed it there.

[Zlobomir 3]

Seeker might have accidently placed it there.

No Lee, AFAIK another person has placed it there. :whistling: :stuart:

Hint: This is installer-specific, not Vista-specific. :P

[Seeker 0]

Seeker might have accidently placed it there.

no thats a new installation, didnt mess with anythiong, just added a new hub to favorites, opened the settings folder to see if favorites.xml is there, and thats it. no accidents :whistling:

[Crise 26]

Yeah installer is the faulty here... as now that i think of it, someone did mention this to me earlier as well (i have a feeling it was patrol but not entirely sure)

[bbbobbbo 0]

hmmm, now what can i say?

this is my scrrenshot and of course im not playing ridiculous jokes: im running vista rtm, and when i installed apex, the favorites.xml did not install in the settings directory (where it should have been in the 1st place)

on the first run, i added a few fav hubs and closed apex - fav.xml still not there, andas discussed above, still apex retains the info.

now that seeker showed us there were instances (in his case, eg) where fav.xml IS present, that can only mean it is there somewhere on my system too (and this explains why my apex still retains all added hubs info on subsequent runs) , and i bet it must be in the apex\settings folder, but why can i not see it?!?!

i tried searching for the stupid fie every way possible, went to folder options and checked "show hidden files" and "system-protected files" etc etc

is this a vista bug, or apex installer bug? i am really lost here :whistling:

seeker, u r running rtm, and ultimate like myself? anyway im losing interest in this topic as iv wasted enough time with it, BUT:

it should be ionteresting to know if this is vista-related bug to avoid further similar complications

[bbbobbbo 0]

ok, due to the fact that this whole issue is kinda driving me nuts, i reinstalled apex on a totally differnet partition - so still under the same vista, butinstead of standard c:\pro~files i pointed to g:\program files (an empty partition)

it installed correctly, and indeed after first run and after adding a few hubs to favs, i closed apex and checked the directory - there it was, the favorites.xml in all its glory.

??? what does that mean? in my opinion it means that this is DEFINITELY related to user account policy, or rather, to some vista security issues i dont grasp just as yet.

all i know is that the standard program files dir in vista (that is, on C: where vista itself is installed) always requires admin privileges whatever changes u want to make in there (eg delete, move, copy etc)

so i guess when apex tries to overwrite the (invisible lol) fav.xml there, vista wouldnt let it? then why apex remembers info? and y i cannot see the f***g file?

i see it on g: program files, but not on C: program files - im curios seeker do u have it on C:? aaargh, not that it b***y matters anylonger argh

[Zlobomir 3]

Yeah installer is the faulty here... as now that i think of it, someone did mention this to me earlier as well (i have a feeling it was patrol but not entirely sure)

I have the feeling it was me too, and I have the feeling that your responce was like "I will inform "X" if you haven't done it already".

Er, the thing is I did not informed "X", neither informed you about I didn't. :whistling:

[bbbobbbo 0]

now i also managed to workaround the backing issues which caused this whole thread in the 1st place:

i copied the fav.xml from g:program files to c: program files (UAC popped up immediately) with apex open all the time, for fear i might lose the old favs info, and i refreshed fav hubs in apex, then went to check the file: and it was there, this time reflecting all changes from old apex (it listed all the hubs) duh.

10x all for ur patience - what a bunch of bugs is this vista anyways, never figured out how M$ had the balls to name it RTM and officially shipped the crap

[Seeker 0]

ok, due to the fact that this whole issue is kinda driving me nuts, i reinstalled apex on a totally differnet partition - so still under the same vista, butinstead of standard c:\pro~files i pointed to g:\program files (an empty partition)

it installed correctly, and indeed after first run and after adding a few hubs to favs, i closed apex and checked the directory - there it was, the favorites.xml in all its glory.

??? what does that mean? in my opinion it means that this is DEFINITELY related to user account policy, or rather, to some vista security issues i dont grasp just as yet.

all i know is that the standard program files dir in vista (that is, on C: where vista itself is installed) always requires admin privileges whatever changes u want to make in there (eg delete, move, copy etc)

so i guess when apex tries to overwrite the (invisible lol) fav.xml there, vista wouldnt let it? then why apex remembers info? and y i cannot see the f***g file?

i see it on g: program files, but not on C: program files - im curios seeker do u have it on C:? aaargh, not that it b***y matters anylonger argh

ohh for crying out loud, stop posting such long posts on useless crap, its not a vista neither apex bug...

[Crise 26]

I have the feeling it was me too, and I have the feeling that your responce was like "I will inform "X" if you haven't done it already".

Er, the thing is I did not informed "X", neither informed you about I didn't. :whistling:

Thanks for refreshing my memory (it is good just way too short)

As for this topic the missing of "fav.xml" can't ApexDC's installer bug (as i have said that the installer should not install any settings/data files, because the client generates them on it's own, and it does this just fine)

The most likely culprit is vista (not saying if it's a bug or not... just that the root of the "problem" has something to do with how vista handles it's read/write permissions etc.)

[bbbobbbo 0]

ohh for crying out loud, stop posting such long posts on useless crap, its not a vista neither apex bug...

hey seeker thats like either calling me a liar or like i didnt know what i was doing all the time!

now this situation was real and its not the first nor the last of strange situation vista put me into.

u r a tester so y dont u resume ur comments on that? r u here to help, or what? n fr ur own info, i posted such "long useless crap" describing whole matter in hope i could help both apex developers and apex users. so y not go back to ur testing if u dont have anything helpful to say?