If you do not use Chrome, you can still continue to use beta 1.  If you do use Chrome, I’d highly suggest immediately downloading beta 2.

Many, many of you have correctly pointed out that Chrome seems to foul up 7stacks.  I could be way off, but I believe the reason is because of a bug inside Google Chrome.  Yes, I realize that given the odds-on choice of who screwed up: tiny, insect-like me, or massive, behemoth Google, usually the egregious party will be me.  But I honestly do think that Chrome is doing something wrong.  If you don’t care for highly geeky explanations, you’re under no obligation to read the following…

Warning: Science Content — In the 7stacks preferences, there is an option to make the show/hide behavior to mimic OS X’s; that is: click the icon once to show the stack, click it again to hide it.  In Windows, clicking the stack icon again has the effect of running a 2nd copy of that stack.  So, in order to accomplish the trick of mimicking OSX, that stack’s 2nd copy (Stack #2) checks to see if another copy is running (Stack #1).  If it is, Stack #2 sends a message to Stack #1, telling Stack #1 to close, then Stack #2 closes itself.  Basically, when a stack pops up, it asks, “Are there any other stacks out there?”

Each of these stacks are what Windows calls a “process”.  And the act of these processes communicating w/ one another is a programming technique called inter-process communication, or “IPC” for short.

The easiest, and most efficient method of IPC within Windows is the use of a built-in message, WM_COPYDATA.  It allows processes to fire off a message that will be received by other processes that are looking for these messages to come along.  But, for some reason, when Chrome is running, all WM_COPYDATA messages being intercepted, and not being passed on as they should.

In effect, when it asks “Are there any other stacks out there?”  It should either hear a “Yes!” from another stack, or it should receive all “No”s from the other processes.  Instead, Chrome eats the message and says nothing, and 7stacks sits there and waits until it hears a reply.  This is why clicking the stack does nothing.

Its also entirely possible that this is not a bug in Chrome; it could’ve been designed this way.  The only reason I could imagine why is for security purposes.  I guess it could be theoretically possible to stuff data into other processes using WM_COPYDATA, but there’s no way to do this as far as I know.  Again, the chances that Google is smarter than me is pretty high.

At any rate, beta 2 handles IPC a different way: by the use of timers and semaphores.  Think of it as two spies leaving messages for one another at a dead-drop site, and each one checking that site at a set interval.  In this case, that interval is 10 milliseconds.  This method still accomplishes the goal, without running afoul of Chrome.

Computer Science lesson over…

If anyone finds any more bugs, send a tech support email.  I may not reply to every email, but I do read every email.  Thanks for your continued support of 7stacks.

Second, I will be posting Speedy Shopper 2.0 later this week, about July 1.  I’ve been working hard to finish squashing the few remaining bugs, and have been testing it thoroughly.

I will be posting Speedy Shopper 2.0 ASAP, as well as continuing work on 7stacks in my spare time.  I am also going to be working on some iPhone/Android apps (which is where the future is, let’s be honest).

One quick note about Popup Calendar.  A recent screwup by me caused an old version of Popup Calendar (3.5) to be posted on the site, instead of the current version (3.53).  If you download Popup Calendar, you will now get the new version.  Sorry about the confusion.

If you like and use 7stacks, Speedy Shopper, Popup Calendar, or Popup Calendar Lite, we’d love it if you sent us your testimonial about it. Whatever feature(s) you like most… Whether it saved you time, money, just looked cool, or whatever!

Either send me a @ reply on twitter, or send me an email. If you send an email, we will only use your first name and last initial, and your hometown if you’d like to include it (i.e. “Derek M., Charlotte NC”). If you tweet me, I’ll use your twitter handle (with a link), and hopefully send some followers your way.

And, thanks to all our loyal customers and fans out there!

Story time: Because Microsoft made some last minute changes to Windows 7, a sizable portion of users found that v1.2 wouldn’t work with the final Win7 release version. When you’d launch a stack, 7stacks would just sit there, never displaying a window. The reason for this is still unknown. When I upgrade to the final release Win 7 this weekend, I’ll see if I can investigate more.

Meanwhile, when reports of this error started surfacing, I was already in the middle of this v1.5 rewrite. However, this rewrite was meant to be a long-term replacement to v1.2. I figured it probably wouldn’t be ready for at least several more months. Then, when everyone’s 7stacks started crapping out, and tests showed that an early alpha release of v1.5 worked, I had to put my chips “all in” on v1.5. And since Windows 7 was coming out Oct. 22, I had to publish v1.5 by then.

However, I had many features planned for v1.5, including many great suggestions from y’all. But, there was simply no way to implement them in the time allotted. So, about 2 weeks ago, staring at a deadline I hadn’t sweated so much over since my Senior Thesis back in college, I decided that my goal should be to release a beta of v1.5 that could at least do the same things v1.2 can do. This way, those of you who were having problems, can now use 7stacks again.

And, although not much has changed on the surface, many changes have been made on the inside. First, you should notice that beta 1 loads faster than v1.2. Speed is a big priority for v1.5, and I will be making many enhancements to try to get it going as fast as possible. Improving the look is also a huge priority. For a list of complete changes coming to v1.5, click here.

So, download the beta, and tell me what you think. Enjoy!

The development of 7stacks has hit a series of major snags, that will force me to regroup and rethink. Most of it revolves around 64-bit incompatibilites. 64-bit is now becoming more mainstream, and the development environment that I use to create my apps, Delphi, still compiles 32-bit apps only. For 95% of the apps out there, like Speedy Shopper, this isn’t a problem.

However, when your 32-bit app tries to interface with the Windows shell, like 7stacks does, very odd things begin happening. 64-bit Windows essentially “lies” to 32-bit apps (regarding things like file locations and administrator access), essentially sandboxing the app. So basically, 7stacks 1.5 will not be able to access “virtual” folders, like the Control Panel, Games Explorer, Recycle Bin, etc. I’ve tried everything I can to “hack” around this, but it is just not possible.

For the first time in years, I’ve hit a wall with zero chance of getting over it.

So, instead of doing further damage to my head, I will be forced to cut that feature out for now. I will finish what I have, and release a beta this weekend. That way, new Win7 users can at least have a working version. Future enhancements will have to wait, until I can translate 7stacks into something more modern, like Visual C#.

The sad thing is, I used to be a big Delphi (and Pascal) fan. But Delphi has been left to stagnate for years and years, now leaving developers like me in the lurch. I want to develop modern apps, and you all want modern apps, but I just can’t make them in Delphi any more.

Because v1.2 is so broken for RTM users, I will make v1.5 a public beta. I am furiously trying to complete it, and I hope to have a beta ready within a week or two.

I apologize if you’ve had any problems with v1.2. Rest assured that I would not knowingly release software so broken.

Microsoft does have the right to change their product prior to release. But, I just wish they hadn’t changed something so fundamental at the last minute. Oh well.

Thank you for your patience.

It’s funny how much it’s spread like wildfire. In total, my announcement of 7stacks was one, single, solitary message board post I made here on the forums at SevenForums.com (a Windows 7 board). From there, it was picked up on a couple of blogs, and from there, DownloadSquad and Lifehacker saw it. That’s pretty amazing, IMO.

The people at SevenForums have been great in helping be quash the initial bugs, and I released v1.1 just a few days after 1.0. I will also be releasing v1.2 by the end of this week. It will include several fixes, including:

• Fixing Stacks pointing to a drive (i.e. “C:”) not working correctly
• Fixing Stacks of network devices not sorting file/folder names alphabetically
• Adding multiple monitor support
• Fixing “Browse subfolders within the stack” option being ignored in Menus
• Fixing large menus not appearing in the correct location if the mouse is moving
• Fixing very large menus (i.e. 5000+ items) causing program to freeze.

So, if you’re having one of the above problems, please know that I will fix the problem ASAP. And if you’re having a problem that’s not listed above, feel free to contact us and let us know what’s happening.

And, by the way .. if you like and use 7stacks, it would mean a great deal if you could donate $5 USD. David and I have been working hard to bring this software to you, and a small donation would really go a long way to help us make more stuff like 7stacks.

And, speaking of that .. we’ve got another free app “Windows 7″ app coming out ASAP (maybe in a week or two). Stay tuned!

Note added 7/2: Several people had complained about some unusual slowdowns when displaying items. Yea, my bad. One out of place letter can really ruin your day. Stack display times should nearly instantaneous now.

First, the update is to Speedy Shopper 2.0. Circumstances beyond my control have caused me to have a severe delay in the development of this. But Beta 1 has been used by about a dozen beta testers for a while now, and no one seems to be having problems. So I plan on releasing a final beta within the next 2 weeks. The final version still has to have documentation written for it (and yes, that’s taking a lot longer than expected). And since a couple people have asked .. No, I won’t release a final version without proper documentation (help files, tutorials, etc.), because its unprofessional, IMO. If you take the time to use my software, the least I should do is help you learn about it.

The 2 new apps will be not be shareware apps .. they will be free, donationware apps. They are not complex enough to warrant registration codes and locking everything down. Instead, I am trying an experiment. If you like either app, and use it, you can PayPal a donation to us. If you don’t want to donate, feel free to use the app anyway.

I can’t really say much about these apps, other than they are Windows 7-specific, and are inspired by OS X. They come from my own experience with using the 7 beta and RC. They take advantage of 7′s new features to further the user interface of 7. I use them both every day, and they make using 7 much easier.

The first app will be out within a day or so. The release schedule for it has been bumped up a few days, since LifeHacker has shown a series of similar apps to mine recently (I thought I was the only one working on this, but I guess I was wrong). Mine has been in development for only about 6 weeks, and is still (brag mode on) superior to them in many ways (brag mode off). I also expect a Hive Five of these apps to appear at any time, and my name needs to be in that hat.

The second app will be out within a few weeks later. It’s going to need a little more development, but it’s just awesome. Personally, I haven’t seen anything like this app, and could potentially spawn a whole new category of similar apps for 7. We’ll see…