Shareaza

After using Shareaza for many years, I decided today to install version 2.5.5.0 on my new computer running Win 7. Everything went very smoothly and I was dl'ing in no time. I decided to change some settings and remembered that, in previous versions, you had to restart Shareaza for changes to take effect. When I restarted Shareaza, my transfers page was suddenly completely empty even though the folder for incomplete dl's showed the files in there. Could you please tell me how to proceed? Is this a bug? Also, I searched but couldn't find any suggested or recommended settings for the best way to enjoy 2.5.5.0. Many thanks.

try closing shareaza, changing the name or location of your incompletes folder, open shareaza and close it again, and then change it back and restart shareaza to see if you can get it to recognize the files again

Thanks Cyko_01 for your suggestion. This is weird. After switching the location of the Incomplete folder a couple of times, the dl's finally showed up in the transfer page, even if the path for the incomplete files folder in settings is the wrong one!!! Furthermore, since I was dl'ing 4 test files, I had 4 .part files and 4 .sd files in the incomplete folder. I cancelled 3 dl's and when I looked again in that folder, 3 .part files were gone [1 remained] but all the .sd files were still there even after I refreshed it!!! And all of that is happening while the path shown is still the wrong one. A search revealed that there was only 1 incomplete folder.

I actually changed the Incompletes to another place myself. I think the issue was (IIRC) that in recent Windows applications are supposed to put their temporary data into a special directory (AppData) and Microsoft in its infinite wisdom decided to protect this data by making the directories hidden and in general restricting access to them. The fact that the actual path to the directory is replaced in the Windows Explorer by a localized version does not help either. If I sound bitter, you can blame it on the hours I wasted before finding the correct place to copy my application profiles over when upgrading from XP to W7...

Anyway, with Shareaza the issue was inability to upload the partials because files would fail to open for upload, downloading data into them worked just fine... Maybe a "security" feature?

Hi Ailurophobe, I agree with you wholeheartedly. As a tech and an IT trainer with many years experience, it is embarrassing but I also got stuck a few times with that Win7. I personally think that MS inserted a little too much security and protection. It's like having a security guard in front of your property who is a little too strict to the point that he even prevents your guests from attending your wedding
Actually, what I have done to make my life easy with Shareaza is going back to basics. I installed it in the D:\ drive [D:\Shareaza] and inserted 2 folders [Incomplete and Downloads]. No more hunting up and down I might as well add that I am very impressed with that latest 2.5.5.0 version, especially the smooth opening of ports.

Have such updates been reported by more than one user? Because if this is the case, maybe we should relocate the default incompletes folder location for Win7 and above...

if I am not mistaken shareaza already forces a multi-user installation on vista and win7 which should set the default folders to the appropriate locations automatically

Well, during the installation in Win7, Shareaza gives you a message to the effect that the folders [don't remember if Incomplete or Downloads or both] should be placed in the Users/AppData folder because they will be "scanned for malware as part of Windows protective system"!!??

Another problem that cropped up when the dl completed was a "file error" message in the status column, even though there was a solid green line on the bottom of the progress bar. I then chose the option "Assume the file is 100% complete and reverify". The file was re-verified but the "File error" was still there. I then got another message on the status bar near the clock saying that Shareaza was rehashing the file before transferring it. This was followed by a message that the completed file could not be transferred to Downloads. I then realized that the folder in Users/AppData, as well as a new Download folder under Shareaza was assigned a "Read Only" attribute. I then cut corner by simply manually changing the attributes, transferring the completed downloaded file from the Incomplete folder to the Downloads folder, renaming it and changing the extension to .avi .

I guess the programmers have to take into account the "Super ultra" protection of WIN 7 and insert a modification of the attribute of the Downloads folder, wherever it will be placed, just prior to the actual transfer. By the way, even though I was running Win as Administrator, the system still gave me a message that I should contact the Administrator before changing the attributes

Yes, that is User Access Control for you. I just disabled it entirely, the added security it gives is valuable and I kind of understand what Microsoft is trying to do but... it just doesn't quite work. W7 is much better than Vista, but it still puts up enough confirmation dialogs to make people simply click thru them without reading. They do stop worms from doing some things to your machine unattended but... I have some legit programs that need to be able to do stuff unattended and UAC lacks the "remember this choice" option that every anti-virus and firewall worth having has had for years. Which makes it a nice idea with totally useless implementation.

yes, shareaza should really check for write permissions whenever the incompletes and downloads folder locations are set/changed and alert the user.

cyko_01, there is a hitch at the end portion of the app after the completion of the downloads. If the attribute of the Downloads folder are "READ ONLY", Shareaza gives some message that it cannot continue with the transfer from Incomplete and it stops. Period. The user then has no choice but to finish the job manually and I think this would lead to a lot of requests for help. I think it would be easier for users, who obviously have various degrees of Windows knowledge, if the programmers could place at that stage a message asking you to modify the attribs so it can complete the transfer, sort of like what Firefox does when it is updating [Close this or that app so I can continue].