Biniware Run [DotNET launcher]

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smaragdus
Posts: 2120
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:24 am
Location: Aeaea

Biniware Run [DotNET launcher]

#1 Post by smaragdus »

Preamble
I have tested and used a huge number of launchers of all kinds (type-search-run, pop-up menus, category boxes, etc). Perhaps program launchers is the category I have most played with (together with hash tools). The ones I like and use most (which I have customized to my needs) are all abandoned now (ASuite, FSL Launcher, HotKeyz, Pretty Run, Quick Pop Menu, etc) but as they still work fine I do not need to switch to launchers still in development (adding stuff would be a time consuming task). Yet when I come across a new launcher which seems to be interesting I usually give it a try. Several days ago I stumbled upon a brand new tool- Biniware Run, I did a brief testing and I found it useful even though it is first public release (published on 2018-12-12). I expect that the program will get polished in future releases (I might suggest some improvements to the developer) yet I suppose that in its current state it might be beneficial to some users.

Synopsis
Biniware Run is a friendly, colorful and easy to use software which provides you fast access to your favorite website links, files and folders from one single place. Just drag and drop any website link, file or folder inside the colored circle from your desktop. You can easily access all you are interested in by using this handy software. You can define categories, move, sort, import, export or customize your shortcuts anytime. Instead of searching for bookmarks in different web browsers, files or folders through your computer, make your work and browsing easier with Biniware Run. And the best thing is that this software is portable. Even if there is an installer, this is just for an initial setup: folder creation, optional shortcuts, quick overview on how to use it. The installer will just extract one executable file and that's all. Want to get rid of it? Simple. Just delete the file.
Features
  • Easy to use and customizable user interface.
  • The shortcuts are displayed with their own icons.
  • Drag and drop support for website links, files and folders.
  • Shortcuts to .exe, .cmd, .bat files support parameters.
  • Shortcuts to .exe, .cmd, .bat, .msc files can be executed with administrative privileges.
  • Sorting, moving, importing and exporting of the shortcuts are supported.
  • The configuration is stored in XML format, making it easy to edit the file in any text editor.
  • This is a portable software. You can move and execute it from any folder from your computer.
  • Full support for standard user accounts. Elevated privileges are not required.
Registered Users Features
  • Custom image support. The user can choose a custom image to be used instead of the default colored circle. Supported formats: .ico, .gif, .png.
  • Special thank you mention in the About section of the software.
Links Downloads
Direct Download Link

Images

Biniware Run version 1.0.0.0 - context menu - configure (right click) (static image):

Image

Biniware Run version 1.0.0.0 - context menu - launch (left click) (static image):

Image

Biniware Run version 1.0.0.0 - context menu - launch (left click) (static image):

Image

Biniware Run version 1.0.0.0 - configuration window (animated image):

Image

Biniware Run version 1.0.0.0 - adding program (static image):

Image

Portability
Biniware Run can be easily made portable but unfortunately it is released as installer only and I failed to extract the installer trying various tools. Once installed the settings are saved in brun.cfg- if it exists in program folder it would be used, otherwise it would be created in AppData:

Code: Select all

C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Biniware\brun.cfg
However while portable the program is not stealth- even if used in portable mode an empty folder in AppData is left behind:

Code: Select all

C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Biniware
Instructions
  • Download the installer (BrunSetup.exe);
  • Run the installer (BrunSetup.exe);
  • Specify installation folder;
  • Uncheck the following boxes:
    • Create program shortcuts in Start Menu and Desktop for current user
    • Start automatically at current user logon
    • Screen
      Image
  • Open the installation folder;
  • Create an empty brun.cfg file;
  • Run the executable (brun.exe);
Requirements
  • Supported operating systems: Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.5 or a newer version.
License
Biniware Run is donationware.

Note
  • I consider Biniware Run (as of version 1.0.0.0) a fully functional program because the features unlocked after donaton (see Registered Users Features above) have no impact on program usability.
  • Biniware Run is written in C#.
  • Biniware Run is tiny- the installer is 130 KB, the executable is 158 KB.
  • Biniware Run is relatively light, under Windows 8 x64 it uses about 13 MB of RAM.
  • Biniware Run is stable- during my tests I did not encounter any problems or crashes.
  • For me adding categories is a bit tricky and unhandy (if I am not missing a simpler way to do that)- add a new shortcut, select a folder, delete path, enter name for the category.
  • The developer- Alexandru Dicu, is the author of the popular program Windows Firewall Control (mentioned here) which was sold to Malwarebytes this year.
Alternatives
A couple of programs with similar functionality:
Details
File details for Biniware Run version 1.0.0.0 (released on 2018-12-12):

==

Name: BrunSetup.exe
File Size: 132608 Byte(s) (129.50 KB)
Modified Date: 2018-12-12 16:04
Version: 1.0.0.0
MD5: b2ab5a371844a12101a934ada1f91727
SHA1: 0176c43a1cf7299fa01b25052ab38b225b8b6bd5
SHA256: efe8689df1839d813f95e9397ee0a6e9413f0f06d6530b2623fe4fa602b330a5
SHA384: ffc201658923c6fb3bf57bf7031debf29e40e7cd959edfae2f2904116ee2c920ab3ad11d0a9abca5c3230a3dd618ea7e
SHA512: 0f6f7c329ec0caa19ea401062b03ca4204558a20db2971d1e5c94e345ed8876632ff2350d702c3645a1022bd5b5f39b6a453ff935377761e8dbb3bcc7242f9f8

==

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smaragdus
Posts: 2120
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:24 am
Location: Aeaea

Re: Biniware Run 1.1.0.0

#2 Post by smaragdus »

Biniware Run at version, 1.1.0.0, changes:
What's new in version 1.1.0.0 (28.12.2018)

- New: The installer was updated to extract the software to 3 predefined locations from where it can be moved anywhere. The software uses now the same folder to save user settings instead of %AppData% folder and is fully portable.
- New: Added support for dropping files, folder and URLs also in the tree view control from the Configuration dialog.
- New: Added new property named StartIn for a shortcut which can be used to define the working directory of the file that is launched.
- New: The position and size of the Configuration window is now saved and restored. The same applies to the width of the tree view.
- New: In the Appearance tab a new 'Reset default appearance' button was added.
- New: Configuration window can stay always on top. This can be enabled or disabled from the Settings tab.
- New: The application has a new icon and identity.
- New: Shortcuts were added: middle mouse click on icon opens the Configuration window, while a shortcut is selected in the tree view, press Enter key to execute it and Delete key to remove it.
- Improved: The mechanism that moves the window back to the visible area of the screen was improved for multiple monitors use.
- Removed: Custom icon support was removed due to a bug with transparent icons.
Note that Biniware Run no longer creates an empty folder in AppData. Since custom icon support was removed now it is totally free. The only difference between the unregistered and the registered versions is the special thank you in the About section.

I contacted the developer asking several questions and I received an immediate and helpful response. It turned out that I missed a simpler and obvious way to to create categories (containers):
To create a category, just add some child nodes under your node.
The latest version (1.1.0.0 ) is a huge improvement over the initial release (1.0.0.0)- now the program is fully portable, more customizable and even easier to use.

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Midas
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Location: Sol3

Site exit (split from Biniware Run)

#3 Post by Midas »

[Moderator note: a reply to this post that turned into a discussion about forum inactivity were moved to a separate thread.]


---

Nice. 8)

Special
Posts: 219
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:22 am

Re: Biniware Run

#4 Post by Special »

If you ever want to talk to the dev, ask him for features or bug reporting or whatever, he's over at this forum. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads ... un.411208/

alexandrudicu
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:31 am

Re: Biniware Run

#5 Post by alexandrudicu »

Hello. Here is the latest update.

Biniware Run v.1.2.0.0

Change log:
- New: The following keyboard shortcuts are available in the Shortcuts tab:
Insert key -> Adds a new shortcut under the selected node. If there is no selection, a new shortcut is added on the root level.
Delete key -> Removes the selected node.
Enter key -> Executes the selected shortcut.
Shift + Up -> Moves the selected node up on the same level.
Shift + Down -> Moves the selected node down on the same level.
Shift + Left -> Moves the selected node from its parent one level up.
Shift + Right -> Moves the selected node under the node beneath it, if exists.
Ctrl + I -> Opens the import dialog.
Ctrl + E -> Opens the export dialog.
Ctrl + S -> Sorts ascending or descending the children nodes of the selected node. If there is no selection, the root level will be sorted.
- New: Right click in Configuration tree view now selects the node.
- New: Added configurable confirmation for deletion of shortcuts.
- New: Added configurable text wrapping for properties values.
- New: Added configurable option for displaying tooltips on desktop icon context menu.
- New: Added support for preventing the movement of the desktop icon.
- Fixed: Dropping an URL over an existing shortcut makes the program crash if the software can't connect to read the website title.
- Fixed: Removing a node from the tree view does move the selection but the new selection is not focused.

Download location: https://biniware.com/download/BrunSetup.exe
SHA1: 5eaab15b018ed7dd68c73a5e7bc7620249bfb30e
SHA256: 58a197f9e8b9163d1009ac15f08a413c023de7da45d59306892fc9f2a5850afe

Looking forward to read your feedback.

Thank you,
The developer

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webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
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Re: Biniware Run

#6 Post by webfork »

alexandrudicu wrote: Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:37 am Hello. Here is the latest update.
Great to see the update. The lack of a really solid launcher program has been (in my view) a real roadblock in portable freeware adoption. Having a program that isn't going to stop working with some odd Win10 update is a huge deal. The last really excellent program was ASuite, which has a fair number of bugs and has been out of development for some time now.

I should add that certainly PortableApps's launcher is great if you only have less than 20 programs, but I have had real trouble sorting/organizing anything with 40+ programs not specifically downloaded from PA.

Thanks and welcome to the forum. I should have some feedback for you in the coming month.

alexandrudicu
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:31 am

Re: Biniware Run

#7 Post by alexandrudicu »

Biniware Run v.1.3.0.0
This is very young software and new important features are added very fast. Please share your feedback and report any problem, suggest new features that you really see as being important, but missing. Thank you for your contribution.

Change log:
- New: Added configurable global keyboard shortcut Ctrl+` that will open the shortcuts context menu on mouse cursor location.
- New: Added configurable global keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1 that will open the Configuration window.
- New: Press and hold ALT key to display and configure keyboard shortcuts.
- New: Added support for using environment variables in Path and StartIn properties.
- New: For files located in the PATH environment variable, it is enough to use the file name for a shortcut. For example, the path can be just cmd.exe or notepad.exe
- New: Added the UAC shield icon overlay for the shortcuts which have 'Run as administrator' checked.

Download location: https://biniware.com/download/BrunSetup.exe
SHA1: 927f6e8cd31d909100e12c90c8d0c9d3b1aa7afb
SHA256: 86945dc31368f8ad381a1db35bc6e9af3d5fb91c371b289b65d2d02834ca5c33

Thank you,
The developer
ALT.png

Special
Posts: 219
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:22 am

Re: Biniware Run

#8 Post by Special »

Hi, welcome to the site/forums!

alexandrudicu
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:31 am

Re: Biniware Run

#9 Post by alexandrudicu »

Biniware Run v.1.4.0.0

Change log:
- New: Added support for importing HTML bookmarks which were exported from web browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Edge, etc.
- New: Added support for manual reordering the tree view nodes by drag and drop. When the dragged node is dropped, it will be inserted at the position and level where the drop occurs. To drag a node under another node which has no child nodes, press SHIFT key to add it as a child node instead of a brother node.
- New: Added right click context menu on tree view and tree view nodes.
- New: Added "Reload icons" in the tree view context menu, which will download all missing icons for all shortcuts to web sites.
- New: Added busy indicator in Configuration window to see when a background task is still processing.
- New: Added configurable setting to open the desktop icon context menu on double click instead of single click.
- New: Added option to auto close BRun after executing a shortcut.
- New: Added the configuration of global hot keys in the Settings tab.
- Fixed: Dropping a bookmarks folder from Firefox crashes the software.
- Fixed: Importing shortcuts to web sites will not download the web sites icons.
- Updated: The default global hot key to open the Configuration window is now 'Shift+`'.
- Removed: Pressing ALT key will not display the keyboard shortcuts anymore. Use right click context menu on the tree view and tree view nodes to see the associated keyboard shortcuts.
- Removed: Middle mouse click on the desktop icon opens the Configuration window.

Download location: https://biniware.com/download/BrunSetup.exe
SHA1: 0bed643d1a967d46d2d2775bb3bb5fa29479f235
SHA256: 885be0318ea625f71883a2da715197af66ff260b63d16f881e358bcda9c1546d

Looking forward to read your feedback.

Thank you,
Alexandru
Untitled.png

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webfork
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Re: Biniware Run

#10 Post by webfork »

alexandrudicu wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:16 am Looking forward to read your feedback.
My feedback is unfortunately limited and probably not very useful, but I had real difficulty with accessing programs via the floating icon. Maybe it's just my particular setup but it felt unwieldy and I couldn't make much headway. Any chance I could get you to enable something to run from the notification area?

alexandrudicu
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:31 am

Re: Biniware Run

#11 Post by alexandrudicu »

webfork wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:30 am
alexandrudicu wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:16 am Looking forward to read your feedback.
My feedback is unfortunately limited and probably not very useful, but I had real difficulty with accessing programs via the floating icon. Maybe it's just my particular setup but it felt unwieldy and I couldn't make much headway. Any chance I could get you to enable something to run from the notification area?
I created this as a drag and drop tool. You can't drag and drop new items in the notification area, therefore I can't put it in the system tray. You can set the opacity of the floating icon to 10% so that it won't stay in your way. The context menu can be opened anywhere the mouse cursor is located by using the global hot key.

alexandrudicu
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:31 am

Re: Biniware Run

#12 Post by alexandrudicu »

Biniware Run - New version available

Change log v.1.6.0.0:
- New: Added 'Updates' tab which can be used to check and download new updates directly from the user interface.
- New: Added multi language support. New translation files can be downloaded from the 'Updates' tab. A new language can be selected from the 'Settings' tab.
- New: The software has now an online user manual located at https://biniware.com/brunmanual . PDF version of the user manual is also available for download.
- Removed: The .chm user manual was discontinued.

Change log v.1.5.0.0:
- New: The software has now an offline user manual in .chm format.
- New: Check for updates button was added in the About tab.
- New: When executing a shortcut to a website, hold SHIFT key to choose the browser on which to open it.
- Fixed: Delete confirmation dialog is displayed when pressing the Delete key, even if there is no node selected.

Download location: https://biniware.com/download/BrunSetup.exe
SHA1: 67f5e9a395683c6c7cb840bd108ecff0b8af4512
SHA256: 985defbb31c6699dd1a3e093dbe2f6756850747033dcc1bbc1d5246d94ce8b51

Thank you,
Alexandru Dicu
Biniware.com and Biniware Run developer

Looking forward to your feedback.

alexandrudicu
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:31 am

Re: Biniware Run

#13 Post by alexandrudicu »

Biniware Run v.1.7.0.0

Change log:
- New: Added support for 'Cut', 'Copy' and 'Paste' operations in the tree view.
- New: Added search functionality in the Shortcuts tab.
- New: The tree view context menu has now 'Expand all' and 'Collapse all' menu items.
- New: The installer was updated to download always the latest version of the software from the website.
- Fixed: If there is no shortcut defined, an empty small context menu is still displayed.
- Fixed: Some controls do not use system colors when a high contrast theme is used.
- Fixed: Some controls do not have the content set when Narrator is used.

Download location: https://biniware.com/download/BrunSetup.exe
SHA1: aa16696d516518368c80fc302d7bb59b2bda92b3
SHA256: cb6c64d635860aa79c42509dab5986f885e256d2639fd371ed0a3c63a488ce4a

Thank you,
Alexandru Dicu
Biniware.com

Looking forward to your feedback.

billon
Posts: 843
Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2012 4:28 pm

Re: Biniware Run

#14 Post by billon »

alexandrudicu wrote: Thu Feb 07, 2019 6:30 am The installer was updated to download always the latest version of the software from the website,
Web-installer? Just fucking why?

alexandrudicu
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:31 am

Re: Biniware Run

#15 Post by alexandrudicu »

billon wrote: Thu Feb 07, 2019 12:34 pm Web-installer? Just fucking why?
I don't see any problem with this. The integrated updater also connects to the Internet to download an updated assembly. Why the installer can't do the same ? Anyway, once you have the software on your machine you don't need any installer since it can update itself.

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