vTask Revisions:  versions 1 - 6

Version 6.94   (November 2007) Fix:  Compiled EXE's would show a empty gray window if run on a PC that had vTask Studio installed and "Minimize During Run" set

Version 6.93   (October 2007) Fix:  "Goto Label" action would cause problems if Label destination was outside of the active IF block Fix:  "Goto Label" action would use skipped steps if they contained the same label name

Version 6.92   (October 2007) New Feature:  Added {COLOR_DEPTH} system variable (screen bits per pixel) Fix:  "Use Window" command with the "Bring Windows to Top" wouldn't work with Excel spreadsheets Fix:  Various internal activate window modifications (related to only activating main app windows, and not child windows) Fix:  Activate window option now shows additional internal details in Output window when Logging is turned on Fix:  16-bit color depth validations; extra details provided for RGB tolerance if necessary Fix:  Default to US English date/time format for unsupported international regions, allowing commands to still perform Fix:  Additional checks for regional date/time formatting in the "Wait for Date/Time" command

Version 6.91   (October 2007) New Feature:  "Variables Menu Extra Option" in Tools-Options New Feature:  Compile EXE now has capability for version numbers in "X.X.X.X" format New Feature:  "Clock Ticks to Text" action will include "x Days" in output format string if necessary Fix:  Fixed the lookup buttons for the "Use Window" command Fix:  Replaced {response} with {command_id} / {cmd_id} for consistency; {response} still supported for backward compatibility Fix:  Extra warning message when Recordings fail and UAC is turned on Fix:  Significantly increased performance for variables that use binary data (byte constants) Fix:  Updated Output window to show binary byte size instead of incorrect string length Fix:  Made the "Max Lines in Property Fields" more accurate, especially for in-line grid editing Fix:  Various updates to the Tools-Options in the General tab, including redesign and field validation Fix:  Minor fixes to "Delete File" command Fix:  Compile EXE: only major revision was being added, not minor revision Fix:  When using "IF Variable" action with logging turned on and a variable that started with "%s", vTask crashed due to parsing recursion

Version 6.90   (September 2007) New Feature:  Added {command} system variable, which contains text of chosen UI items such as "Cancel" and "Retry"; {cmd} can also be used New Feature:  Added "Use local settings for number formats" to Tools-Options Fix:  IF Text action would incorrectly match values if the first string was shorter than the second and a partial match Fix:  Compiled all previous changes and updates into updated help file Fix:  Re-ordered the User Input actions for a more logical sequence Fix:  Renamed "Script Variables" sub-menu to "vTask Variables" for clarity Fix:  General speed-up for the Use Window action, especially when finding child windows (like buttons) Fix:  Shortened minimum wait to dismiss File and Folder prompts on non-WinVista systems Fix:  Use Window action was showing magnifying glass lookup instead of mouse lookup for X,Y (coordinate) match types

Version 6.89   (September 2007) Fix:  SMTP mail could not be changed from the default server port Fix:  Progress/Status boxes will not be dismissed if the Always on Top option is chosen Fix:  Progress/Status boxes will be closed if the text contains only whitespace Fix:  Progress/Status boxes should not use display optimizations if it contains no text so that it can be closed

Version 6.88   (September 2007) Fix:  Removed "Self-Deleting Executable" from the compile options to avoid NOD32 false positives Fix:  Various internal changes to avoid NOD32 false positives Fix:  Due to the 6.87 binary upgrade, Loop variables such as {registry_loop} would cause problems when used with normal variables Fix:  Extra safety code in File-Save to avoid deleting a file in case of errors Fix:  Move to Window with the "Top Window" option was failing Fix:  Changed order of "Window Title" and "Window Handle" in abbreviated lookup list to match "Use Window" command Fix:  Removed editing capability for binary variables

Version 6.87   (September 2007) New Feature:  Added Binary capability to user variables (and variable watch window) New Feature:  Added Binary capability to Read File, Write File, and Create Variable actions New Feature:  Ability to directly enter binary (byte) codes in text via {\01}, {\FF}, etc. New Feature:  Added Prompt Type option to "Choose a File" action New Feature:  Rewritten "Control Panel" action which now provides access to multiple applications New Feature:  Rewritten "Custom Message Box" action Fix:  Corrections to programs not responding when playing Recordings Fix:  Run - Control Panel icon was using rundll32.exe's default document icon; now uses vTask Studio run icon Fix:  User variables are corrected for "%" and spaces when updated in properties (previously only checked at Save) Fix:  Run Program command icons now dynamically update when the EXE file is modified in properties Fix:  Image and Pixel locator commands return coordinates to the "Save Output" selection Fix:  User variable would have incorrect substitution when stored value matched beginning of another variable: "%a%a" would be incorrect if "%a" == "a" and "%aa" was also defined Fix:  Control+End/Home would not select a group if Shift was also pressed

Version 6.86   (September 2007) Fix:  Temporary fix version, which included various Recording changes

Version 6.85   (September 2007) New Feature:  Added "Generate Output even when window is closed" to Tools-Options-Reporting New Feature:  Major performance increase (5x faster) when Output is hidden and "Generate" option (mentioned above) is turned OFF New Feature:  10% performance increase for all types of runs New Feature:  Added "Clear Output window before each run" to Tools-Options-Reporting New Feature:  Added logical-NOT "!" operator support for single values, which allows inverting TRUE/FALSE status of number, such as: =!%foo New Feature:  Added Delete capability to Output window and right-click menu New Feature:  Added many new samples to the Welcome screen (File-New) New Feature:  Added new color result for "Failure but Ignore/Continue" to distinguish from normal Failure New Feature:  Redefined IF false checks to show "Failure but Continue" instead of Failure New Feature:  Added system colors to variable substitution, such as COLOR_BLUE = #FF0000 / 16711680 New Feature:  Window & Mouse actions: Replaced "Program Title" with "Window Title" since it was extended to better locate child windows (also moved data storage to ; backwards compatible) Fix:  Modified Wait actions to not suspend main run thread Fix:  Modifications to User Prompt message boxes to avoid invalid parent windows Fix:  Significantly increased speed of copying large entries from the Output window Fix:  Removed Output window limitations/truncation Fix:  Fixed issue where partial selection was not deleted in Output window when Del key pressed Fix:  If a "File Loop" action was stopped, memory for the file list would not be freed Fix:  Removed "Timeout" property from IF actions Fix:  Control+Home move to top of script, but did not select the row Fix:  Mouse movements were not parsing coordinate variables correctly Fix:  In-line grid editing updated for Functions and IF actions Fix:  Significant changes to the Format Number action when using "#,###.###", so that it now matches Excel's formatting

Version 6.84   (September 2007) Fix:  Redesign of the timeout implementation for User Prompt actions, for improved compatibility on Windows Vista Fix:  "Choose a File" and "Choose a Folder" actions now include the timeout option Fix:  Recordings show playback accuracy % in Output window, and attempt to improve based on PC's performance Fix:  "Wait for Pixel" was not using "Slow Scan" option if selected Fix:  Thousands separator was causing problems with Math Calculations Fix:  Adjusted Math evaluator to correctly handle country-specific number formatting Fix:  Compiled EXE's would freeze until timeout elapsed if Display Message preceded a "Wait for Mouse" action

Version 6.83   (September 2007) Fix:  Various fixes to Recording action (related to timing, keyboard typing, and memory management) Fix:  Added Event # to status bar during Recording playbacks Fix:  Removed "Playback Speed" option from Recordings since it wasn't accurate/consistent across different Windows platforms Fix:  Double semicolons in User Prompt lists no longer chop the list options Fix:  Format number function would incorrectly place thousands commas when preceded by 0's

Version 6.82   (September 2007) New Feature:  "Play Tone" action under System category New Feature:  "Choose a Drive" action under User Prompt category New Feature:  User Input actions include Read-Only option New Feature:  User Input actions include Courier Font option New Feature:  User Prompt "List" now selects the default list entry (if found) New Feature:  Linefeeds and tabs are stripped from User Prompt lists New Feature:  "Choose a Date" includes option for setting initial calendar mode (1x2, 2x3, etc) New Feature:  The last chosen User Variable is displayed in the primary lookup menu for quick access Fix:  Many fixes to the "User Prompt" actions, including thread synchronization and timeout option Fix:  Corrections to the memory management for "Recording" action Fix:  Removed size limitations from certain variable storage types Fix:  Increment Variable failure mode was not working Fix:  Main list text display for "IF Image" action changed to file Fix:  Main list text display for "Registry" actions changed to key Fix:  Changes to grid colors so that run result does not override Bookmark and Wait colors Fix:  Key Mappings would incorrectly override non-shift key with normal key if both were mapped Fix:  Removed size limitations from default values in "User Prompt" Fix:  "Run" action could crash with large command lines due to unchecked buffer length Fix:  "Get Window Text" was ignoring the "Selected Text" option when used for combo boxes Fix:  Redesigned the "Custom XML tags" that can appear at the beginning of a VXM file: now allows non-compliant XML tags Fix:  Fixed issue with 3 or more palettes/toolbars docked to the same location (stacked order could get mixed up) Fix:  Fixed magnifying glass bug when searching for windows if vTask Studio was maximized Fix:  User Prompt: Choose Date would disappear if focus was lost Fix:  Copy File action would always do recursive copy if any wildcards were included Fix:  Changed "IF Text" action Properties to multi-line edit field Fix:  Date/Time functions were not using today's (current) date for default values if none provided Fix:  Using "=123" for Create/Set variable assignment when no math operator is included removes the initial "=" and leaves numeric value (like Excel) Fix:  Increased the speed of the "Wait for Window" command Fix:  Indented comment lines would paint past edge of listview if indentation mode #3 chosen Fix:  When modifying Keyboard Mappings in Options, the list would scroll when modified Fix:  Major rewrite of user variable substitution processing due to obscure issue with arrays conflicting with variables that were subsets, but only if another user variable was used as the index pointer

Version 6.81   (August 2007) New Feature:  Favorite update: you can add any configured step from the grid to Favorites New Feature:  Time/Date functions will use current time if values left blank New Feature:  Periods "." are now permitted inside of variable names, such as "%file.name" and %file.size" New Feature:  Added "Window Lookup" tool icon in abbreviated window identification fields New Feature:  Added abbreviated window option to "Move Mouse to Window" and "Direct Window Entry" New Feature:  Abbreviated window searching will find child windows if it's in the active app; for all other scenarios, "Use Window" will find anything New Feature:  Window "Set Text" action includes "No Variable Expansion" option to allow windows and controls to include reserved names Fix:  "Add Favorite" now prompts before overwriting an existing Favorite Fix:  Removed "Customize" Favorites in favor of using configured step Properties Fix:  Additional minor modifications to Favorites implementation and help references Fix:  A few minor UI tweaks for WinVista (menu icons, shading elements) Fix:  Stop Recording key was not being set from mappings Fix:  Removed the "Return to vTask Studio when run completed" setting since "Minimize vTask Studio during run" accomplished the same thing, plus it's script-specific, not global Fix:  "Format Number" action now correctly works with integers that were originally floats, or had embedded text Fix:  Moved "{FailStep}" storage out of "UserVariables" area so it doesn't appear in Variables listing Fix:  Additional verifications that variable names are valid and conform to standards Fix:  The {tempfile} system variable no longer creates multiple files within a single script Fix:  "Use Window" with the "Activate" option would incorrectly select checkboxes and radio buttons Fix:  Compile EXE was using a "File-Open" dialog instead of a "File-Save" for output Fix:  Use of the pipe symbol "|" was not allowed inside of Favorites

Version 6.80   (August 2007) New Feature:  "Show Run Result" coloring in main grid New Feature:  Custom Keyboard Mappings in Tools-Options New Feature:  "Undo Enable" setting in Tools-Options New Feature:  Start typing on a Comment line to immediately enter into edit mode (if grid editing enabled, and comment is empty) New Feature:  "Rename Favorite" in right-mouse click menu New Feature:  Ability to have multiple Favorites of the same action (with different default Properties in each) Fix:  Changes to Output information for "IF Text" comparisons Fix:  IF blocks that included Skips caused problems with IF-ELSE Fix:  Breakpoints could not be put on ELSE steps Fix:  Move/Rename file would incorrectly handle destination if full path not provided (Win32 MoveFile issue) Fix:  Modified "File Loop" to operate with a snapshot list, rather than an open handle, to avoid problems if file list constantly changes Fix:  Compiled EXE's were not working with the "restart" option under Wait/Scheduling Fix:  Removed "Save Web Page HTML" action, and changed "Save Web Text" to "Get Web Text" to avoid conflicts with other actions Fix:  Enhanced "web text" parser (for saving HTML as text) Fix:  Removed all memory restrictions from "Web:Download" Fix:  Registry tree values would not be correctly checked by "IF Registry"

Version 6.76   (August 2007) New Feature:  "IF Text" action, including 13 check options New Feature:  "Contains" function now returns the 1-based position of the found string New Feature:  For all window actions, added title matching for quick window lookup (no need to call "Use Window") New Feature:  Added "Global" option for "Set Step Delay" action New Feature:  Double-clicking a new file will open the script in vTask Studio if it's already running (instead of a new instance) Fix:  Fixed "Use Window" activation functionality, which did not work with a certain proprietary (non-standard) program Fix:  Extended the "Find" functionality so that it locates data in more fields, such as Timeout and Options Fix:  Modified "Set Step Delay" to use either the <text> field or the <timeout> field (timeout is the new default, much more logical) Fix:  "Close Window" did not have access to the "Timeout" data field Fix:  Enhanced all window actions options for "Program Title" instead of "Exact App Title"; it can now match on partial app titles Fix:  Text Functions will show their parameters in the "Command Text" column in the main grid Fix:  Re-opening the same file would not identify it as an open file if quotes were used Fix:  Added XML parsing of reserved chars like < in the <options> and <value> fields

Version 6.75   (August 2007) New Feature:  Folder Loop action New Feature:  Create Favorites Group for saving a multiple-step block New Feature:  "Use Window" now returns the window handle in "Save Output" New Feature:  For all Window actions, new option added to allow access via window handles (instead of requiring "Use Window") New Feature:  Added {response} as a more intuitive synonym for {last_button} (both are supported) Fix:  "File Loop" with recursive option would not continue if no files were in the initial folder Fix:  The Output window will not repeatedly show the same value if it is the same as the last entry Fix:  Removed size limitation from custom properties in Favorites

Version 6.74   (August 2007) New Feature:  Play Sound Action  (under System group) New Feature:  IF Pixel Color Action  (good super-fast alternative to "IF Image") New Feature:  New Forum Section: "Script Exchange" New Feature:  "SQL Query" now allows user-defined row and column delimiters New Feature:  "SQL Query" uses cached login information to improve performance:  increase from 4 to 400 queries/second New Feature:  Get Text: "Selected Text" option New Feature:  Trim function: remove whitespace from "Front + End" Fix:  Keyboard access to start editing mode in main list now remembers most recent column Fix:  "No Formatting" option changed to "No Variable Expansion" for clarity (backwards compatible) Fix:  Enhanced "Is Folder" check to also check the current working directory in case path is incomplete or relative Fix:  Improved Output and error messages while running SQL queries

Version 6.73   (August 2007) New Feature:  New Data Actions: "Get Columns", "Get Tables", "Get Data Sources" New Feature:  New POP3 Options:  "To, From, Subject, Body, All Details, Size, Raw" New Feature:  "Refresh" command in Variables palette New Feature:  "FTP Download" and "Web Download" actions show file progress in the status bar New Feature:  Added {day1}, {month1}, {year1} system variables to provide dates without 0-prefix New Feature:  Added {monthdays} system variable New Feature:  Added variable support inside of DATA actions, including for Data Source name New Feature:  Keyboard can now be used to edit steps (hit Enter key) Fix:  FTP Download action could crash if source file was gigabytes in size Fix:  Performance fix: Variables palette will avoid automatically refreshing if it contains a large number of variables Fix:  Editing fields in the grid did not use the Tools-Options setting for size or cursor placement Fix:  Editing fields in the grid will not go below the bottom of the viewable area, accounting for scrollbars Fix:  It was possible to add new steps while a script was running Fix:  Various modifications to the "Run" action, with higher precedence going to shell document loading options Fix:  Corrections to the the "Run" action when opening documents whose associated programs require special switches for command-line loading Fix:  "SQL Query" action was not correctly using the "Max Rows" parameter Fix:  If the mouse was positioned over the Properties during startup, it would immediately active cell editing mode Fix:  Renaming of the "Contains" options under Functions for clarity (backwards compatible) Fix:  Enter key on main list row would not begin edit mode correctly Fix:  "Image Match" information is listed on first failure even if logging turned off Fix:  Added default 16-RGB pixel color tolerance for all "Image Match" settings to prevent tech support questions Fix:  Removed the border from around the "image preview" lookup in Properties Fix:  Major revisions to Properties box to handle docking and multiple step modifications

Version 6.72   (August 2007) Fix:  Doubled performance during runs when using Output and/or step tracking, due to new optimizations in refresh logic

Version 6.71   (August 2007) New Feature:  Multiple Step Editing New Feature:  Multiple File Open New Feature:  "Select All Steps that Contain" command in Edit menu New Feature:  File open/save intelligently retains your XML file formatting, in case you edit the script in a different editor New Feature:  Additional information in the "Run Completed" in the Output window New Feature:  "No Formatting" option added to "Write File" and "Create/Set Variable" actions Fix:  Significant performance optimizations, especially for variable-intensive scripts (NOTE: delete old variables for better performance) Fix:  Approximately 150% increase in execution speed (~4000 lines per second without highlighting on an average PC) Fix:  Docked palette close button fix Fix:  Increase in maximum limit of user-defined variables Fix:  Total elapsed run time is displayed even if script not successful Fix:  Correction to "Start Program" command when calling vTask VXM script that already has EXE in command line Fix:  Rewritten "Select All" with increased performance for large scripts

Version 6.70   (August 2007) New Feature:  ELSE IF Action New Feature:  "IF" options now display logic check in the main grid ("ELSE / IF / NOT / Checkpoint") New Feature:  Sort Function New Feature:  Added {\r}, {\n}, {\r\n}, {\t}, {space} system variables New Feature:  Added {memtotal}, {memfree} system variables New Feature:  Current Step and Total Steps added to the status bar New Feature:  Added "File Type Filter" to the "Choose a File" action New Feature:  "Favorites" added to right-click menu in main grid New Feature:  Added {failstep} system variable, which helps to check for failure in child scripts New Feature:  Extra warnings in Output for incorrect Property configurations during a run New Feature:  "Delete File" can now delete multiple files (by using semicolons to separate each file name) New Feature:  Added "Environment Variables" lookup in the Properties menu, also ability to turn on/off New Feature:  Moved "Favorites" to top position of popup menu to provide fast access Fix:  "Screen Message" action could skip last message if done in loop Fix:  "Set Run Repeats" action was restarting after a stop run command Fix:  "Display Image" now provides errors for incorrect configuration (such as no image) Fix:  Ability to call "Display Image" in a fast loop without collisions Fix:  Properties for "Display Image" would not correctly use file open lookup button Fix:  "Show Popup Menu" action could disappear without result if menu focus lost Fix:  Setting user variables on the command line did not work with "local" (non-global) storage types Fix:  Double-clicking a category header would insert a selected item in the Actions tree Fix:  Array variables might not contain correct value if array index was also a user variable: "%array[%index]" Fix:  Adding a Favorite with the "Add to Top/End" would not insert the custom properties Fix:  "Run From Here" now resets all run-time configuration the same as a normal "Run" Fix:  "IF File Exists" would incorrectly return TRUE when using wildcards *.* on an empty folder Fix:  "Delete File" would not work with file names that contained semicolons

Version 6.62   (July 2007) New Feature:  "Delete All Variables" option under Delete Variable (good for re-initializing all variables at start of script) New Feature:  "Trim Whitespace" from front/end added as option for Text Function: Trim New Feature:  "Start Windows Loop" includes option for child windows (controls) New Feature:  "Goto Label" can jump to step numbers with {STEP1} New Feature:  "Auto-Indent New Steps" in Tools-Options New Feature:  User Input: Multiple-Selection Listboxes New Feature:  "Export All Favorites" option in Favorites menu (right-click) Fix:  Variable arrays would store, but not correctly retrieve, arrays created when using loop variables Fix:  Requirements for XML formatting of VXM files made less strict Fix:  "Write to Output" correctly includes CRLF Fix:  "Minimize vTask Studio during run" was not restoring the IDE after run completion Fix:  Major changes to "Choose a File" code: memory safety, path corrections Fix:  "Choose a Folder" did not correctly set the initial directory Fix:  Changes to Favorites management (reordering entries could lose the custom data, newlines were exported incorrectly) Fix:  Maximum Favorites limit was not being handled correctly Fix:  Modified "Screen Message" action thread so that it can be called repeatedly during a fast loop Fix:  "Steps-Auto Indent" was incorrectly indenting disabled (skipped) steps

Version 6.61   (July 2007) New Feature:  "Write to Output" action New Feature:  "Write to Output" command also sends text string to PC's debugger window (if any) New Feature:  "File" type actions can now be edited directly in the main grid New Feature:  Creation/Modified/Access time information available in "Get File Info" New Feature:  The "Port" setting for POP3 email can be configured, or left blank for the default (110) Fix:  Separated "Wait for File" and "Wait for Folder" into distinct actions Fix:  Corrections to the "Wait for File/Folder" action: when "wait for change" is selected, and it doesn't exist initially Fix:  Corrections to the "Wait for File/Folder" action: sub-folder and sub-file checks for "Folder" waits Fix:  Modifications to the thread-critical section code of "Save Result" and system variable expansion Fix:  "Insert" action command now appends if no step selected in main list (instead of being inserted at the top)

Version 6.60   (July 2007) New Feature:  Completely rewritten Favorites New Feature:  Favorites can now be re-ordered by drag and drop New Feature:  Favorites can be customized with default Properties New Feature:  Favorites automatically expands when new items are dropped on it New Feature:  "Is Folder", "Is File" options under "Get File Info" New Feature:  "Comment Indent Mode" in Tools-Options-Colors New Feature:  Multiple files may be dropped on vTask Studio from Explorer, and each will open in a new tab New Feature:  Multi-part Logical Operators ||, && can now be used in the "IF Expression" action Fix:  A few internal fixes to string conversion routines Fix:  IF Expression could get confused with numeric values and parenthesis when separated by newlines Fix:  Use of the "File-Close" and "Close Window" command will avoid re-loading the same file when vTask Studio restarts

Version 6.59   (July 2007) Fix:  "File Loop" did not allow multiple embedded file loops of the same type Fix:  More performance optimizations: approximately 10% faster execution for loops

Version 6.58   (July 2007) New Feature:  "Parent/Child" key enumeration option for "Start Registry Loop" New Feature:  "Add New Variable" command in variables popup menu New Feature:  Delete key can be used to remove variables in Watch window New Feature:  "Check Email: POP3" can now return the count of all emails in the inbox Fix:  Changes to the checksum calculation for "Wait for File" action Fix:  Removed "Delete All 0 Variables" menu item if no variables are defined (and other minor Watch menu fixes) Fix:  Modifications to the internal enumeration of Registry keys, which affects the Watch window and "Start Registry Loop"

Version 6.57   (July 2007) New Feature:  "Start Registry Loop" action New Feature:  "IF Process is Running" action New Feature:  Access to Favorites list order New Feature:  "Goto Previous Bookmark" (hotkey Shift+F2) New Feature:  Bookmark search wrapping to start and end New Feature:  Significantly updated web Support and Samples options Fix:  Bookmark and "Wait" steps were conflicting with color codes Fix:  "Wait for File" could possibly not get initialized correctly in some situations

Version 6.56   (July 2007) New Feature:  Added 4-bit color depth (256 colors) version of icons, in addition to 32-bit ones, for those old school Win2000 PCs Fix:  Month Calendar display fixed on Windows 2000 platforms Fix:  Copy File would incorrectly try to create a destination folder if source included a full path Fix:  Updated Win32 API reference to match standardized names (without "A" or "W" suffix)

Version 6.55   (July 2007) New Feature:  IF Registry Key Exists Fix:  "Kill Process" was not correctly distinguishing between PID and EXE images Fix:  Minor changes to "Kill Process" functionality

Version 6.54   (July 2007) New Feature:  Process Loop added;   {process_loop} and {process_id_loop} system variables allow access to loop entries New Feature:  Recursive Searches now supported for File Copy, File Move, and File Delete New Feature:  Wildcards are now supported in File Copy, File Move, and File Delete (both single directory and full recursive) New Feature:  Move File now works as native move (instead of copy and delete), improving performance when destination is located on the same hard drive New Feature:  File Loop now supports full recursion New Feature:  "Kill Process" can now use process ID numbers, in addition to EXE descriptors Fix:  Yet more corrections to the TYPE command for extended-ASCII characters and international keyboards (I think we've got it this time) Fix:  {programfiles} system variable was conflicting with %PROGRAMFILES% environment variable Fix:  Thread collisions (deadlocks) were occurring between the "Wait for" commands and other threads Fix:  Minor corrections to the "Save Result to File" functionality Fix:  Minor fix for displaying correct value for File Action types in main list

Version 6.53   (June 2007) New Feature:  the Output window now supports all copy and cut editing options New Feature:  updated right-click menu in Output window Fix:  Additional corrections to the TYPE command for extended-ASCII characters Fix:  Added registry key for changing priority of background processing from IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS

Version 6.52   (June 2007) New Feature:  {lastbutton} user prompt return value Fix:  Additional checks for "Wait for File" command Fix:  Edited Properties would be lost if the focus was changed and the Properties window was docked Fix:  "Wait for Window" was erasing the Appear/Disappear option after being run Fix:  Extra debugging options added for the TYPE command (for international characters)

Version 6.51   (June 2007) New Feature:  User Variable Arrays, such as %foo[1], %foo[2] and %foo[%index] New Feature:  {win_class}, {win_id}, and {win_data} system variables added New Feature:  "Tray Icon Title" can be set in Properties New Feature:  "Check Internet Connection" now allows specific server check New Feature:  "IF Clipboard" now includes "Is Empty" and "Any Text" options New Feature:  Added "Environment Variable" as an option for "Save Result" New Feature:  Now allows single-part date/time calculations, such as {hour}, instead of needing a complete date string New Feature:  Support for internal translation for variables, which provides variable array support New Feature:  "Self-Deleting EXE" option for compile EXE New Feature:  Added extra variable information into Watch popup menu New Feature:  Added theme style to Actions popup menu Critical Fix:  "Type" command was not working with international keyboards and the {Keyboard} variables Critical Fix:  "Message Box" actions had a few issues, including not displaying when "Topmost" was selected and compiled into an EXE Critical Fix:  "Copy Folder" had problems with relative paths and network shares Fix:  "Environment Variables" now correctly override "User Variables", since Environment Variables have pre- and post-delimiters ("%PATH%") which would conflict with sub-part User Variables (such as "%p") Fix:  "Set text" was working in vTask Studio, but not from compiled EXEs Fix:  Double-clicking an action after moving palettes around would not add them to the script Fix:  Minor changes to Win32 API function call parsing ("-A" no longer needed on any function call names) Fix:  {month} worked correctly, but {month_name} had a math error Fix:  Removed the "MB" suffix from the "Get File Size" action so that it can be used in math calculations Fix:  File actions were incorrectly trying to manipulate UNC share path names Fix:  "Set File Association" did not translate variables; also added icon index selection Fix:  Minor change to allow saving of decompiled EXE's back into VXM's Fix:  Minor fix for pasting "Wait for File" options from XML code (backward compatibility caused problems) Fix:  Additional Output log entries when running "Wait for File", also now checks file size as backup (in addition to checksum) Fix:  Variable Watch window now correctly stays at the same selected row while updating values Fix:  "Daily Update Check" modified to not interfere with vTask Studio startup (shows confirmation in status bar) Fix:  A few extra safety overrides for Win32 API in External Functions (invalid parameter checks)

Version 6.50   (June 2007) New Feature:  Scheduling functionality New Feature:  Full support for Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit), including Recordings and User Interface New Feature:  Date and Time Functions:  "Date/Time Add", "Date/Time Difference", "Ticks 2 String", "Get Weekday" New Feature:  Added system variables {weeknum}, {dayofyear} New Feature:  "Get Text" and "Set Text" window action now support multiple entries for Listboxes and Combo Boxes New Feature:  Files: "Get File Info" action, which includes 18 separate options New Feature:  User Prompt: "Tray Icon" and "Choose Date" actions New Feature:  Compile EXE: "Single Instance" and "Windows icon" options New Feature:  Compile EXE: Command-Line interface now available (batch mode possible) New Feature:  "-s" command line switch (start at specified step) Fix:  Date strings such as "Monday" and "January" are now correctly translated into the local date format language Fix:  User Variables have spaces trimmed from front and back when VXM files are saved to avoid mismatches Fix:  Compiled EXE's now fully support CALL Script action for external uncompiled VXM files Fix:  Compile EXE would sometimes fail when accessing high-color icons from external EXE or DLL files Fix:  "Goto Label" now allows user variable names Fix:  "Save Output To" checks for valid return data Fix:  Many "User Prompt" fixes Fix:  Embedded sub-loops would not correctly parse system loop variables when read from another loop Fix:  Exchanged "{file_loop}" for {file_loop_base} and {file_loop_full} to avoid confusion Fix:  Updates to the "Run Single Step" functionality and performance Fix:  Corrected the in-line grid editing for several actions Fix:  Additional enhancements to Output error reporting Fix:  Reports: removed individual column customizations, since they were tied to a single XSLT template Fix:  The TYPE command now works for international characters, such as ó and ñ Fix:  Removal of the "IF Control Is Checked" action, since it lacked all the features of the "Use Window" command Fix:  Minor corrections to the Win32API external calls and parameter return values Fix:  "Set Environment Variable" now provides correct (and instant) functionality Fix:  Dozens of minor fixes and tweaks to the user interface

Version 6.23   (April 2007) "Contains" text function was returning an error if no match was found Updated release distribution using latest Service Pack 1 from Microsoft (version 14.00.50727.762) Removed support for undocumented functions such as abs() from Math Calculations due to partial implementation Double-clicking a step did not automatically open the Properties window Calling an external VXM script from within a compiled VXM EXE did not launch the script.

Version 6.22   (April 2007) "File Line Loop" was not freeing counter handles, which caused variables to not be accessible "Copy All" option added to Output right-click menu Removed support for "Window Z-Order" identification option, since it's too arbitrary and prone to tech support questions "EditGridFields" setting added to Options Context menu commands were not available if System Variables were visible during in-line grid editing Added automatic horizontal scrolling for in-line grid editing (along with size limits)

Version 6.21   (April 2007) Major Performance Optimizations: increase from an average of 80 steps/second to 5000 steps/second Performance enhancement: Output window is now a listbox instead of an edit control Performance enhancement: the Output, Status, Variables, and Main List windows avoid sequential updates Performance enhancement: certain settings are cached to avoid registry access during runs Performance enhancement: loops include additional optimizations to provide maximum speed Log settings were incorrectly saved (which also affected compiled .EXE's) Changes to initialization and warnings for Recordings Drag and drop in main list could generate error with large row counts "Scan Last Window" would use invalid coordinates if the window was minimized; default to whole screen Additional memory checks and safety additions Undo now available for changes made directly in the main grid Fixed false failure when "Use Window" did not require match data (such as with "Top Window" option) "Ignore" failure mode will not write to log unless "Write to Log" is specifically requested Change to UI and help text for option "Show System Variables in right-click menu" Editing fields directly in the main list would allow tab changes before saving Added continued support of deprecated in-line functions such as CALC, especially inside of compiled EXE's Ctrl+F4 now closes the current tab Disabled various step modification actions while script is running Added System Variables to popup menu for in-line grid editing Disabled menu commands while running scripts Various minor revisions to the logfile

Version 6.20   (March 2007) Window Identification Enhancements: Added default "Title" match option for new "Use Window" commands "Use Window" choices now listed in dropdown list, instead of a large array of checkboxes Bring to Front option for "Use Window" Use First if Multiple for "Use Window" Properties Enhancements: New Help section, which can be resized and does not draw inside of main list New Lookup buttons, located in a toolbar at top of Properties New embedded-field checkbox controls Checkboxes now correctly displayed when disabled Many other minor interface changes to Properties Other Modifications: Fix for crash on Terminal Server when updating status bar text Added modified file asterisk when changing checkbox options in Properties Renamed "Tool Tip Popup" to more generic "Screen Message" (backwards compatible) Added position (coordinate) options for "Screen Message" Properties, which allows you to place message anywhere on screen New "Centered" position option for "Screen Message" Multiple images can be put into a single "Image File" field (separated by semicolon ";") for any image search Fixed installation issue where multiple installs appeared in "Add or Remove Programs" Modified main list display where double "=" would show for the "Create/Set Variable" action Fixed problem with "snapshot" tools in Properties that would not re-show vTask Studio if another program got the focus Fix for loss-of-focus while using "snapshot" tools inside of Properties Added "As Fast As Possible" playback mode for recordings, which bypasses all timing code Changed registry setting from "RecordingSlowRatio" to "RecordingSpeedRatio" since it is used for all playback modes Many small modifications to Recording timing calculations, with a goal of more accurate playbacks "%parameter1" was not being correctly saved for Win32 API function calls if data was non-numeric Added date information to output logging Changed "Activate Window" command to "Use Window" since it does not always activate (backwards compatible) Added new Output window text to include more command text Output window text now shows translated variables Added "Timeout" value for all "IF" checks Fixed PING command to not freeze on invalid IP addresses Fix to inline calculations when result is 0 (substitution was not done) Minor change to inline calculations: equal sign must precede numbers and operators (not required for Math Calc) Minor fix for quick return during invalid image searches (such as using a file that's not an image) Removed "Cancel" button from various dialogs when no data modification is possible (such as "View XML") Removed "If Control Exists" in favor of a single "IF Window Exists" with "child" option Added Step # to title for error messages Added "OldVariableCompatibility" registry setting, to eventually phase out "%"-based system variables (around July 2007) Added common Windows constant definitions for Win32 API such as GWL_USERDATA "Initial Edit Mode" was not being correctly saved in Tools-Options Extended all loop variables to handle multiple embedded loops across multiple file tabs. This affects {file_loop}, {file_line_loop}, {window_loop}, {hwnd_loop}, and {data_loop} {hwnd_loop} system variable was being returned in binary instead of ASCII "Always Show System Variables" menu option was not being correctly verified Moved "Quick Check" and "IF NOT" options to sub-options, to avoid conflicts with other settings (backwards compatible) {AltDown} and similar system variables were being incorrectly returned from the menu selection [Comments] field can now be edited in-line right in the main grid (other columns may be added later) Drag and drop functionality in the main script list, including group step move A few minor tweaks to the Actions list drag and drop "Scan Last Window" was scanning whole screen when used in "Use Window" action (cause: last window was being reset at beginning of action) Recording icons were not displaying correctly "InitialEditMode" was initializing with the wrong setting Removed unused "Palettes\Properties\ShowToolbar" registry setting Another correction to main list display for "Set Variable" action Fixed situation with "IF Expression" when an equals sign appears in the text to be evaluated Removed ampersand "&" (underlined character) from evaluation during window title comparisons Help title color fix to avoid jagged edge during repaint Preview image tool now correctly handles multiple image files in a single field File Open for Image file actions now allow multiple file selection Added "Allow Multiple Files" option for "Choose File" action Added "Force Thread Activation" to "Use Window" command, to allow choice of activation method Adding "Keyboard" actions did not correctly set the default Failure Mode Windows loops did not work if compiled EXE was run from the desktop In-line grid editing did not handle copy and paste operations correctly "Close All Windows" was closing vTask Studio itself before other apps were closed "Use Window" with the "Activation" option was not always successful due to conflict with the "Force Thread" option Undefined user variables could cause crash when displayed in Output window Changed <sub_options> XML field in favor of <suboptions> for better compliance (this was a change only made during beta) Lookup buttons were not correctly drawing embedded checkboxes in Properties Embedded checkboxes in Properties were closing the field when system variables were pressed Auto-indent was not verifying "Quick Check" option Drag and drop steps was not resetting clipboard correctly "Find Text" and "Contains" text functions now correctly return failure or success depending on located text "Map Drive" action was not checking return value correctly and always failing "Map Drive" action needed quotes around share path for names that had spaces New high-color icons for internet actions New action: "IF Connected to Internet" New action: "Open Data Administrator" Multiple upgrades to the online forum Multiple changes to "Enable/Disable Screen Saver" to handle any intermediate scenario "Enable/Disable Screen Saver" can now handle calling it in any order, and multiple times, regardless of previous state "Enable Screen Saver" sets a default saver if nothing had ever been selected "Enable/Disable Screen Saver" internally calls SPI_SETSCREENSAVEACTIVE to better comply with Microsoft tech note for SCRNSAVE "IF Window" and "Wait for Window" actions now have full window search options Drop down list selections in Properties would lose their value if mouse was clicked outside list Added more support for quotes in file accessed inside of script steps Rather than have multiple options fields, all options are now consolidated into a single <options> - accomplished with updated Properties manager. ("<suboptions>" was only used during the beta phase) Included User's Guide in Adobe Acrobat Reader format (PDF) to allow printing of the manual

Version 6.13   (February 2007) Fix for crash if an image could not be found on screen when using combination of new fast method + masked images If the Fast Scan (direct video memory) method is not possible, vTask will use the "Slow Scan" method The "Pad Text" function would not work if the original variable was empty Increased max length of individual lines in {file_line_loop} from 256 bytes to a megabyte (files themselves have no limit)

Version 6.12   (February 2007) Instant Image Searches: includes direct screen buffer access and cached pixel colors arrays Due to instant image searches, "Optimized Scan" and "Show Scan" are no longer implemented/supported 16-bit color depth supported (in addition to 24-bit and 32-bit) "Set Run Repeats" was not working when used in compiled EXE's File-Properties no longer available if no file saved If "Wait for Exit" was used, running script a second time would return immediately if the app was still running "Quick Click" image capture option Added "Slow Pixel Method" to "Find Image" actions "Slow Pixel Method" is always the method used for "Find Pixel" action File open lookup button did not work if the current field data was not a filename {file_line_loop} was not returning data beyond 256 characters Added Failure Modes helpfile section Deprecated "Detailed" log level, since it wasn't used for anything since version 4 Masked images were not correctly being identified if the first pixel (0,0) was masked Default data result for "Ask" messages that timed-out was 1 instead of 0 Fixed "Set Step Delay" action "Status Popup" had a 0.2 second delay before displaying, also it did not re-use the same UI thread for multiple calls

Version 6.11   (February 2007) Image Scanning Updates: Added support for JPEG and GIF images as source and target for "Find Image" actions It is now possible to change any "Find Image" action to a Masked scan (without needing to create a new step) Speeded up the on-screen scanning for images Internal changes to memory buffers and pixel comparisons Corrected image matching action "Save Result" even if step fails Image preview now correctly fills out the entire file path if system variables such as "{filepath}" are used Automatic zoom if during preview (800%) if image is smaller than 32 x 32 pixels Added "Fuzzy Logic" image matching: you can set a percentage of matching pixels Small on-screen "pins" are now only shown when potential match is at least a significant portion of the whole image Changed UI from "Pixel Variation" to "Pixel Tolerance" (internal naming was "Tolerance") Switched from "Disable Optimizations" to "Optimized Scan" for consistency (backward compatibility maintained) "Wait for Image" action had 2 timeout fields showing Deprecated "Masked Image" actions - now stores this setting in Options (backward compatibility maintained) Updated Output window text for image scanning with better information Added Help section for matching ClearType text, plus additional testing Creation of a public Unit Test for image matching that runs through all scenarios Added "Snap to Position" for image-based mouse actions Added "Save Debug Trace on Fail" (mouse actions only) to help tech support investigate image matching problems Other Modifications: "IF" evaluation was not correctly populating the error text on failure "Open File" lookup button in Properties would not function properly if a filename followed on the command line If a step failed, error text could be from a different step if the error did not have special descriptions Capturing a region that was smaller than 1 pixel caused a crash Fixed bug in IF...ELSE...END IF processing when a Quick Check was embedded IF statements incorrectly allowed "Quick Check" for ELSE/END IF steps Added IF NOT option for IF statements The {filepath} system variable was inconsistent: on drive roots, it would have a backslash "\", but not inside of folders. It has been made consistent in all scenarios (does not end with a "\", like {windir} and {sysdir}) Changes to how variables are checked during the "IF Variable" action (supports uservars, sysvars, and envvars) Change to logfile file name: new default is to same location as vTask.EXE file, also now supports compiled EXE files on uninstalled machines

Version 6.10   (Compilation of all Beta revisions from Jan-Feb 2007): Beta-8: Corrected "==" operator so that it doesn't change to an assignment operator in IF Expression statements "Exact Title Match" option would not populate the magnifying glass title selection in Properties Properties lookup buttons are no longer covered by the vertical scrollbar Infinite recursion was possible if a variable had data that includes its own name The "infinite recursion" problem in the preceding point brought attention to an order-of-precedence bug in user variables, now rewritten Large performance increase as a side benefit to rewritten user variable management Due to rewritten user variables, they are now more "binary-capable" (but not yet specifically tested for this new ability) Inline math calcs [see 6.0 Beta-3 last item] now require an equals sign "=" to indicate that an calculation is desired to avoid conflicts (like Excel) User Variables lookup menu could cause a crash in certain circumstances due to sorting implementation error When using "Activate Window" + "Ignore" failure mode, if there are multiple windows, it simply chooses the first matching window File modification flag "*" was not being shown in the title bar and tab text Double clicking on a VXM file that contained a dash "-" was interpreted as a command line switch Variables palette wasn't refreshing when data was manually modified Beta-7: Due to conflicting options, only "Activate Window" is able to to identify and find windows; all other window commands must use Activate ahead of time "Quick Check" added to "IF" action to allow a single-step check, instead of a whole IF block Added "Scan only last window" for Find Image command Added "Disable Optimized Scan" for Find Image command (used to be available only globally) Added {vTask_hwnd} system variable Password is no longer shown in the Output window after the Login prompt Deprecated "Mouse - Move to Control" in favor of a single "Move to Window" action Added "Exact Title Match" for finding windows Beta-6: "CALL Script" action is terminated when the parent script is stopped, or if vTask Studio is closed (one level of CALL's supported) Fixed possible buffer overflow when finding windows with long titles Fixed problem when command line filename had a reserved switch inside of it, such as "-L" Minor fix to avoid showing the same error multiple times per second Reworked command-line parsing functionality due to multiple issues Fixed multiple problems with compiled EXE's: did not exit correctly on errors, and the "CALL SCRIPT" command was failing {login_username} fix {login_password} is now stored encrypted Moved {newline} and related system variables from "Script" into "System" section A few minor fixes to the Recording action properties (not minimizing/returning) Compiling EXE now allows selection of custom icon even when using compression Beta-5: "Check Expression": Math evaluations were not being done at the appropriate time in the comparison "Check Expression": Strings with preceding or trailing spaces would not compare properly "Check Expression": would crash if long strings were used Pad String: enhancement for single-character padding Installer raised errors when unable to set file associations; removed requirement Removed dangerous Registry delete functionality: will not delete key if the key is blank or contains only backslashes Some system variables were not being substituted with the new {Bracket} identifiers Updated the help file with the new {Bracket} identifiers Modification to allow an inline math calculation to start with "=" (like in Excel) Added full "Pause" and "Resume" functionality Stopped "IF" functionality from executing the last step if the user forgot to close the END IF statement Updated internal Run tracking facility that avoids problems when switching tabs during execution Executing script maintains correct selected row even if tab changes during run Right mouse click popup menu is no longer enabled while executing a script Added more appropriate message "Properties not available during Run" while script executes Relocated entire message loops for the actions "Show Image", "Status Popup" and "Tooltip" to asynchronous UI threads to avoid being blocked by main execution thread Due to asynchronous UI threads, "Show Image" and "Status Popup" only have "Display Error and Stop" failure mode Beta-4: Moved System Variables menu items into string table to avoid a problem with the local stack Changed single-letter time variables such as "%h" to "%hour" due to frequent conflicts with user variables (backwards compatibility maintained) Environment Variables selection menu now shows a portion of the actual data to make it easier to determine what each entry is Minor issue with copying "Clipboard Contains" action Changed seeding method and timing for Random numbers Random numbers range now allows any value, including very large values, negative numbers, and inverted ranges Added safety code to ensure that target variable can accommodate anything that results from Text Functions The New dialog radio buttons operated as a single group Minor fixes to the time-based system variables such as %hour Using the system variable lookup menu in Properties would move cursor to top of edit control if it was multiple lines Added "Initial Property Edit Mode" to Options Allowed negative values for "Default Return Code" Adjusted data/variable/registry method, which now is only limited by system memory (tested to 900 megabytes per variable) Fixes to the RIGHT and GET SUB TEXT functions Modified system variables menu to handle large environment variables which were overwriting buffers Added default handling for cases where system variables like "%window_x" are used without selecting a window first Multiple optimizations for running scripts faster Support for Data Type Casting on the result of math calculations (Min, Max, and Abs have been deprecated in favor of intrinsic functions) Two new Save Result types: "Display in Output" and "Display in Message" Encrypt / Decrypt had to be separated into distinct functions Fixed XOR encryption problem where a NULL would truncate the final string Added new "Bit Shift" encryption scheme, which guarantees that text remains ASCII after encryption Special handing for reading binary data from files into variables A few generalized enhancements that allow vTask to handle binary variable data better Fixed minor issue where menu colors would not be correct if no palettes were displayed Added "Delete Variable" action Variable updates are instantly shown in the View Variables Window Variable show changes to type (numeric, string) in the View Variables Window Added "IF Variable" evaluation action Added more examples to the help reference Added "Step x of x" to status bar New editing in the Variables Palette - you can manually modify and delete variables during a run Re-design of all the user input actions (due to various issues with dynamic template) Added "Multiple Lines" option for user input action Updates to the auto-refresh of the Variables Palette Fixed a minor display bug in Variables Palette that duplicated variable entries The Variables Palette now correctly shows items based on current tab if "Local Variables" is chosen Final column of the Variables Palette will expand to the size of its parent window and will auto-resize with it Fixed display bug that selected all rows if a run was started with nothing selected Fixed issue where the "Find Window" magnifying glass wouldn't restore main app window if the Properties Palette was docked Fixed problem with capturing screen region images: didn't allow inverted drag, and off by a few pixels Minor change to processing variables that are set on the command line If main vTask Studio window was maximized when closed, previous "restore" positioning would be lost Added position save functionality for all main app window changes Fixed issue with Login credentials not being correctly saved in Login User Prompt Major rewrite of registry features, which have better handling of binary data and allowed more command settings Added data type selection for Write Registry: REG_SZ, REG_DWORD, etc (Windows standards) Changes to how the Registry action returns data, especially non-textual values Changed all system variables to use the {Brackets} format (backwards compatibility maintained) Modification to substitution for {CLIPBOARD} system variable - now happens at the end of substitution (post sys vars) Fixed the mouse coordinate tool for "Mouse: Move Relative to Window" action Fixed RSS feed server code on forum Beta-3: Added "Report Text" options which allow you to set the report output information Removed %ccc and %xxx (which were causing problems) in favor of RandomNumber and RandomText functions; backward compatibility maintained Minor modifications to the Tools-Options layout Separated "Minimize" and "Restore" commands for Window Properties that used drop-down list options were incorrectly pre-selecting partial matches during modifications Changes to file loading: removal of error messages for blank XML files (might be a template) "Close All Windows" functionality did not correctly clean all internal file information Returned "%cmdline" back into system variables Modifications to window coordinates: some were exposed as 0-based, some as 1-based (now all are 1-based) Fixed issue where system assumed you wanted no mouse movement if the coordinates were 0, 0 Changed %window_wide and %window_hi to standardized %window_width and %window_height; backward compatibility maintained Added %vTask, %vTask_ver, and %totalsteps intrinsic script variables Corrected "Resize" action coordinates Fixed "revert to previously saved file" functionality Balloon popups and tray icon are now properly cleaned up when run thread terminates Added "Chop" function to complement Trim and ReplaceText Added "Contains" text function, including options for "Any", "Only", "Exact", and "Case Insensitive" Opening new files uses blank "Untitled" sheets if they are available Setting variables to a NULL value no longer deletes the variables, but stores a NULL value Low-level modification to memory allocation method while evaluating pre/post fix operators during Math Calculations Added support for "++" and "--" in math calculations (only for integers, and not preceding) Major modification: all actions now support inline calculations within text fields, such as "%foo=%fee+2". This only applies for basic MDAS "*/+-" calculations; anything more complex needs to use "Math Calc" action. Since this is occurring outside of the Math Calc function, the system includes intelligence to determine if it's an actual numeric evaluation or simply a string. Beta-2: Help window stayed on top of vTask Studio all the time End tag was not being correctly saved for Compile EXE Minor modifications to the help file Total rewrite for Undo functionality Correction in "Save Results to File" functionality for binary data "Delete File" action can now handle system, hidden, and read-only files "ELSE" statements were marked as errors on reports Removed extra internal step after editing Properties that required you to click twice in main list for new properties Added Port property to SMTP commands Added a few more output tracing messages for SMTP commands Changed "Minimize vTask Studio Window While Searching" to hiding instead of minimizing, which fixed about 3 problems Added "Add to Beginning" action tree menu (on right-mouse click) Fixed XOR functionality which had possibility to create an embedded null in a string, but still need to update Save Result functionality to support binary modes too Changed "IF Clipboard Equals" --> "IF Clipboard Contains" to better reflect the new options: Exact/Partial/Insensitive (backwards compatibility maintained)

Version 6.0 (January 2007): NEW FEATURES: PROPERTIES PALETTE: completely rewritten to provide access to data fields via list-driven property sheet MULTIPLE FILE CAPABILITY (FILE TABS) TEXT and MATH FUNCTIONS XML REPORTS Internal/External XML format for copying and pasting (copied steps can be pasted to other applications) Added "View XML" to main menu and popup right-click menu File load progress is reported during XML step formatting Customizable "Favorites" category in the Actions list Scheduling is run as a multiple-threaded background process Added WinVista support for the %winver variable Splash screen image now stored as internal JPEG Column ordering in main list is persistent (saved and reloaded between sessions) "Maximum size of Property fields" setting added to Options Property fields scroll with mouse wheel movement F-Function Keys and Number Keypad are separated into menus for system variables Support for Function Keys F13 - F24 Added the ability to set the initial folder location in the Open Folder function Added folder name tracking in the status field of the Open Folder function Many new notifications added to the Status Bar Created binary release version using latest "Microsoft 2006 Platform SDK R2" Added Options and Help to main toolbar Rewritten Undo editing, which is now unlimited (transactional architecture) Rewritten core menu functionality for memory considerations Icon images can now be extracted from .LNK shortcut files Available system memory appears in Help - About User Variables are now accessible via a quick lookup menu (inside of System Variables) Combined the <timeout>, <speed>, <bytes>, and <loops> XML fields into a single <qty> field (backwards compatibility with existing scripts maintained) Moved the "Save Result To" options from hexadecimal values like 0x400000 to the new <output> field (backwards compatibility with existing scripts maintained) Rearranged the <comment> field to the end of the XML record, and <onfail> as the second last field Currently open files inside of tabs can be reverted from previously saved version Deprecated binary <options> in a new design that move away from binary bit mask options, which are computationally efficient, but nearly impossible for users to modify in XML files Removed restriction that did not allow saving of empty files X, Y coordinates have been moved from two separate XML fields into a single field with the "X, Y" format for simplicity Renamed the "Simulate Keypress" action to "Type" The "Start Program" lookup button now shows program icons from the desktop, in addition to common programs "On Failure" handling is available to all actions Many actions that accessed "Save Output" can now save to all output types (File, Variable, Clipboard, etc) Popup tips added to certain controls in the Tools-Options window Major changes to internal memory allocation and management: increased performance and security New popup menu for Environment Variables Updated dialog font selection to use the most modern "MS Shell Dlg2", with alternative default fonts depending on the platform Asynchronous script execution and new Stop Run signaling Output window now show action-specific information during a run (rather than previous generic text) Major changes to Output window formatting and content "Single Step" execution now allows you to walk through a script - all state information is kept persistent (even inside of loops) Hexadecimal values (0xF, \0F) can be used in numeric data fields in XML files Bookmarks are provided in the vTask Studio IDE (under the "Edit" menu) "To add new steps..." hint when the main list is empty "Activate if Already Running" option for the Start Program action Windows can now be found and manipulated directly by their handles (HWND), in addition to their titles and data Added constant definitions for the GetSystemMetrics() API "Wait for Mouse Click" action "Wait for Mouse Move" action Completely rewritten "Select Menu" functionality, allowing many different methods for selecting items Improvements to the Variables watch window and its ability to dynamically refresh An increase in top execution speed from 200 per second (v5.15) to 1500 per second (v6.0) Many new additional features for "Find Image": Pixel RGB tolerance can be set to allow color variations A predefined rectangle can be provided to limit the search to a region of the screen On-line "scanning" progress can be shown that illustrates what is being compared The screen coordinates of located images can now be accessed as part of the action's output Additional performance enhancements to overall image comparison processing The CPU priority can be set for individual image search steps Rewritten core execution engine: Multi-threaded architecture Improved failure handling and retry functionality Asynchronous stop functionality Setup (Installation) Changes Added optional "Create Desktop Icon" to post-install steps during installation Setup: New high-color setup icon Setup: New high-color main image Setup: License agreement changed to RT format FIXES: Further refinements to the image matching action Modified "SendMessage Command" action name to "Post WM_COMMAND" (with backwards functionality) Reorganization of registry configuration settings; previous settings automatically ported over "View - Reset User Interface" now correctly resets the column order and widths Minor changes to child control placement inside of palettes Popup menu containing system variables now places the selection into the field correctly Copied steps can be transferred between separate sessions of vTask Studio Large numbers of XML reserved characters such as & could cause problems during open and save Modification to how "Recent Files" are re-opened Major performance enhancement to file load times: 10,000 records that used to load in 2 minutes now load in 3 seconds (when "MemoryAllocationChunk" set > 1000) Regression tests now use up to a 50,000 step script with half a million lines of XML code, as well as a 10 MB comment Forum searches on the Vista website were not finding older posts or moved threads; updated server scripts Various registry configurations were moved into separate branches for better organization (subcategories for palettes, etc) Minor changes to the Output window text updates Comments sections (blocks) with <!-- and --> are now correctly supported in XML files "Ctrl+Arrows" now scrolls list without moving selection (more closely follows Windows standards); "Alt+Arrows" moves lines Rewritten and simplified internal management for custom menus Shift + Mouse Wheel commands were causing problems with the Properties toolbox (docking manager) Changes made to the way that "Select Menu Item" functions It was possible to drag a docked palette around after click and holding the close button Window snapshots now work if the window text contains the new line character (\r\n) Screen Image Capture was appending to existing image files, instead of creating a new file Completely rewritten GetSubText functionality Ghost windows (highlighting) that appear when finding on screen windows are now correctly erased "Wait for Program to Exit" option modified to allow infinite wait if invalid or no timeout given Minor fix for shortened filename in Output window during the START action XML attributes have additional safety code to avoid possible overrun errors Browsing for folders allowed different step selection in the main list prior to saving the previous step "Max Wait" was not being correctly utilized during image searches Fixed bug with timeout for internal Ping command Added correction code for timing differences that occur playing back "Recordings" (now play more accurately) Rewritten and enhanced functionality for utilizing system Environment Strings (such as "%SystemRoot%") Fixed "Comments" lines (column-spanning) repaint on grid (no ghost images and less flashing) Fixed minor issue with COM library de-initialization on program shutdown Local user variables are now stored in separate branch instead of having instance tracking appended to variable name Major changes to script loading and running, especially with /R and /V switches and compiled EXE's Setting user variables on the command line now correctly map to Global or Local variables (especially when using /R and /V switches) Deprecated "Freeze" in favor of "Delay" (freeze was almost the same, but with less functionality) Minor improvements to the Progress bar that fills during a script run The Output window now accepts keyboard input, allowing copying, editing, and deleting the output information "Create/Set Variable" is able to perform math updates without requiring a CALC command: "%foo=%foo+5" Internal expression evaluation no longer defaults to integer checks: floating point takes precedence "Auto-Indent" functionality did not correctly indent skipped steps Steps have the capability to be skipped and breakpoint at the same time Step run status saved in hexadecimal format for easier editing Additional method retry for process searching (Start Program, Kill Process actions) Removed restrictions on activating main vTask Studio app window Keypresses while the main list had focus incorrectly select the top row item Failure mode enabled for "Goto Label" action Custom XML tags (such as formatting XSL stylesheets) are retained when VXM files are saved Correctly clears out keyboard buffer prior to performing a "Wait for Keypress" action "Find" functionality now works on all step fields Added "Timeout" capacity to image-based formats for Mouse actions (previously required separate "Wait for Image" step) Fixed issue with ODBC data connections not being correctly released The "%tempfile" system variable was not expanding correctly Data type confusion between signed and unsigned for timings may have caused problems with recording playback appearing frozen "FTP Downloads" did not prompt for login information like "Upload" Fixed multiple issues with POP3 mail downloads Additional window match logic: won't give an multiple find error if one of the windows is an exact match Updated SSL secure web server so images wouldn't appear as "insecure items" on the final purchase page

Version 5.15 (November 2006): FIXES: SQL queries were not returning all the rows when "Retrieve All Rows" was selected Logging SQL queries to a text file could cause errors if the SQL statement was over 256 bytes long "Run Program" action had problems with commands that were longer than MAX_PATH long A few minor fixes to the camera icon for grabbing snapshots of windows (highlight rectangle stayed visible)

Version 5.14 (October 2006): FIXES: Login credentials are now stored in %login_username and %login_password, to avoid conflicts with the System Variable %USERNAME% Stop key is now available while performing the image matching action Move Window action had X and Y values reversed Win32API "StrStrA()" function is overridden to evaluate both parameters as strings, even if they are numeric "Start File Line Loop" action was not correctly incrementing the loop variables Embedded quotes now work when used with text functions (use "'" and '"' as function parameters, depending on if you want a single quote or a double quote)

Version 5.13 (June 2006): NEW FEATURES: "Tools - Options - Run Options" now includes the ability to disable the system screen saver during runs Added the "Disable Screen Saver" and "Enable Screen Saver" actions FIXES: Added Output logging to Image Matching actions, so that internal comparison steps can be traced (use Detailed logging) Image Matching modifications to correctly optimize for screen space Updated help file documentation for Image Matching Last step in a script could not be "Delay" action (execution immediately stopped) Variables could not be used in the path or filename for calling a custom DLL

Version 5.12 (June 2006): NEW FEATURES: New Action: "IF Caps Lock is On" FIXES: Additional checks to ensure that the low-priority Image Matching comparison does not take too long Image Matching no longer performs comparisons that do not allow sufficient space on screen for full match DOS Environment Variables are given precedence over User Variables and System Variables Command-line arguments that set user variables will not be interpreted as a filename to be opened WHILE loops were always executing at least one iteration, even if initial evaluation was FALSE Batch file output to redirected files was going to the wrong directory All START PROGRAM commands now set the correct initial directory when the program is launched FTP commands can now use variables in the "Local File" option of Properties Added support for > and < operators in math calculations Changed evaluation precedence for system date/time variables (CALC function used to be performed prior to date/time variable expansion) Additional keyboard access (mnemonics) in the menu entries Various other minor menu modifications Uninstall was leaving temp window text files in the install folder; these are now removed

Version 5.11 (May 2006): FIXES: Various actions such as "Press Control/Button" were causing multiple radio buttons to remain checked The "Default VXM Action" option in the File tab was not correctly handling VXM double-clicks Jumping to a Label that was Step #1 did not execute correctly

Version 5.10 (May 2006): NEW FEATURES: [MAJOR ENHANCEMENT] Compile EXE has ability to package external files inside of the EXE [MAJOR ENHANCEMENT] Numeric expressions now support binary operators AND (&), OR (|), XOR (~), NOT (!), and Equality (=) Added pages to the Compile EXE option screen to handle more selections Added "Default Return Code" to the Options screen New feature to save "Return Code" from a Start action that includes "Wait for Exit" Added "%cmdline" system variable for command line text "Wait Indefinitely" allows a program to complete before continuing with the next step Added anti-spoofing technologies to website and installation files Added support for calling Win32 API "GetVolumeInformationA" Registry actions now have access to failure modes Reading Registry entries of type REG_MULTI_SZ now supported Variables can be either LOCAL or GLOBAL scope; help file provides descriptions Help Menu - "Check Web for Updates" vTask Studio can now be upgraded from main Vista web server while running Timed automatic check for new versions now available in Samples screen (Daily, Weekly, or Never) Added internet "Download" command "Status Popup" message will disappear if no message is provided FIXES: [MAJOR ENHANCEMENT] Variables can now be subsets of other variables (%foo, %foo1) and they will be interpreted correctly [MAJOR ENHANCEMENT] Expression evaluation with CALC rewritten Evaluate Expression was not correctly checking variables on both sides of the equivalency operator Additional code to avoid false errors when starting programs return 0 Modified error messages to display expanded text when variables are used There was an error with "Start and Wait for Program to Exit" - program would be started more than once "Launch Document" modification to allow spaces in document name if they weren't provided with the command Updated the System Text menu to correctly insert selections even if the current text contents are large Certain types of pathnames were being incorrectly created (internal: chop) POP3 / SMTP message retrieval was not correctly returning the message body Added better POP3 / SMTP mail tracking Embedding referenced files for Compiled EXE stores the same file only once, not multiple times Reading Registry entries could return an error even if it worked correctly Writing Registry entries that are numeric will now result in a REG_DWORD being written, instead of a string (REG_SZ) Text functions that contained parameters with embedded apostrophes were being incorrectly parsed Single-row results for SQL Queries will no longer have a CR+LF appended to the values Compiling EXE files with recordings would result in a duplicated event buffer being stored if the file was saved after compiling The Variable Watch window caused errors when reading large files into a variable Corrected warnings for file read/write failures "Wait for Window to Appear" now also searches for controls and non-app windows Setting a variable to an empty value will delete the variable as the help file states, instead of just leaving it blank The Variable Watch window is correctly updated when a variable is deleted The Variable Watch window is updated continuously, instead of only when a new value is set. This allows watching external variable modifications "Reset Variables between runs" now deletes variables upon exit as well as before running Significant internal changes and precision for floating-point calculations Numeric expressions are no longer confused by formulas that contain negative numbers Logfile name is correctly set when running a compiled EXE on a computer without vTask Studio installed Tools - Options settings for "Default Failure Mode" now store user choices for labels, variables, and retries Running a single step that had a failure and also used the "Ignore Failures" mode would continue to run the script SQL Queries were asking for a ridiculous amount of memory while retrieving results if the default Max Rows setting was used Fixed the "New Step" message font "FTP Send File" (PUT) would create a remote file larger than the original file if it was a small file Removed support for "Save Web Page Complete" since it wouldn't work with all websites (use "Download" instead) Fixed parsing for "Call Script" action, which now provides correct behavior when calling external vTask Studio VXM scripts Additional checks to avoid finding windows and controls that are actually child windows of the vTask Studio application (for example, control titles that appeared in the Properties palette) Login credentials for database queries can now use variables

Version 5.09 (February 2006): NEW FEATURES: "Set Environment Variable" in the System actions "Encrypt Variable" and "Decrypt Variable" in the System actions FIXES: Thread execution priority is lowered during screen image searches so it doesn't take all the CPU time New steps are inserted at the bottom of the file if it is dropped below all other steps, regardless of "Insert Before" setting

Version 5.08 (February 2006): NEW FEATURES: User variables can now be used with the "Goto Label" action New Compile EXE options: Version information Copyright Description Self-Deleting EXE FIXES: Recording playbacks would not work with right mouse clicks and other mouse actions in Microsoft Word 2003 Compile EXE with recordings were causing memory errors under certain circumstances vTask Studio would crash when {Up Arrow} keyboard item was chosen from the system text menu button Due to a menu conflict, the Start Program lookup menu items were not correctly entered

Version 5.07 (February 2006): NEW FEATURES: Added new options to Compile EXE: Remove embedded files More detailed error messages added to File actions Certain file types can be excluded from being embedded into Compiled EXE FIXES: "Superfluous failure modes no longer written to VXM file" enhancement from version 5.01 caused "Log" and "Screenshot" options to not be stored in XML if default mode was used

Version 5.06 (February 2006): NEW FEATURES: "Exit Run" now includes access to the "Return Code", and the help file provides examples of how to access this value from other processes All Environment Variables are now replaced inside of text strings (%PATH%, "%INCLUDE%, etc) Added support for media key codes such as "Volume Up", "Next Track", and "Browser Forward" (on Win 2000 and WinXP) "Set File Association" action All file types can be embedded into Compiled EXE's (previously only image files were supported) Embedded files for Compiled EXE's are extracted and their parent folders created during run time if they don't exist FIXES: "File Save" errors are now displayed with detailed information Updated icon to be more compatible with Windows 2000 Fixed problem when external DLL functions were being called twice if it had two parameters "Resize Window" action was inverting the X and Y values The Stop Playback key was not working for while compiled programs "Show Movement" option was being ignored for Mouse actions "Delete Registry" was not accessing the correct hive

Version 5.05 (January 2006): NEW FEATURES: In the variables palette, string variables are shown with a blue icon, and numeric entries with a green icon FIXES: System keys (ctrl, alt, shift) would not be reset properly if pressed without releasing before end of script "Load Previous File" was conflicting with shell "%1" Window commands wouldn't work with hidden windows Bitmapped buttons would not redraw the image correctly when disabled In the Properties palette, system text ("%windir") would be inserted into fields even if they were disabled "Simulate Keypress" was not getting the entire text through the keyboard buffer before the next step was executed

Version 5.04 (January 2006): NEW FEATURES: Added Failure mode selection to Mouse properties A few new high-color graphics List redraw enhancement for Windows XP FIXES: Double clicking in the Samples list without a valid selection caused an invalid filename to be loaded Changed setup program to put "Uninstall" at bottom of Start Group list (previously was first) Newline characters are no longer displayed as boxes in Comment lines "Mouse - Click on Image" wasn't working correctly Tools - Options screen now correctly centers when started, but doesn't reposition during tab changes Changes in how window images are saved when using snapshot tool in Properties

Version 5.03 (December 2005): NEW FEATURES: Scrollbars in selected Properties (Start, Window, Mouse, File, and Data), including support for mouse wheel The Output toolbox hides the horizontal scrollbar if it's not needed to allow for more text space FIXES: 'IF' Properties would not correctly resize first field Minor additions to default options Minor changes and additions to the user's guide Using the magnifying glass to find coordinates for Mouse actions, when the "Relative to Window" option is chosen, use the window below the cursor. Previously, you had to use an "Activate Window" command prior to using the tool. The Move Mouse action with "Relative to Window" would fail if there was no Active Window, now defaults to the top window Fixed the tabbing and hotkey (accelerators) in the Properties toolbox Unprintable characters are no longer displayed in the main list

Version 5.02 (December 2005): NEW FEATURES: "Wait for Keypress" The Output window now shows "Elapsed" time indicating the entire duration of the run FIXES: Tooltips (user messages) are displayed for one second if no timeout value is entered Changed some of the default options for new Mouse actions (such as "Stay at Current Position" for clicks) Safety checks for very large messages in Status Popup and registry commands

Version 5.01 (December 2005): NEW FEATURES: Comment lines are indented like normal steps "Indent All Columns" in Tools-Options New grid style: blank background (no row lines) Font selection for Output and Variables toolbox now available in Tools-Options FIXES: Using the magnifying glass to find windows, windows with negative coordinates would not be found correctly After Using the magnifying glass to find windows, the main vTask Studio window would not return if palette was docked The "Mouse" actions were updated in the Properties toolbox to enable/disable appropriate options correctly "Show Movement" option in Mouse action no longer conflicts with "Find Window" bit masks Superfluous failure modes no longer written to VXM file

Version 5.0 (December 2005): Rather than list the myriad of improvements over version 4.3, it's more accurate to say that vTask Studio was completely rewritten. This approach was necessary due to modifications to the internal memory management, which removed limitations inherent with the previous data structures. In addition to the enhancements, hundreds of fixes were made to the previous version. The main areas of enhancements were: XML text-editable file format Brand-new interface, with multiple dockable palettes for tools such as Actions List, Output, and Variable Watch No text limitations whatsoever - read a whole file into a variable, if you want Complex Math Expressions (including variables) In addition to BMP, compatible with advanced image formats: GIF, JPEG, ICO, CUR, WMF Automatically can capture & save window image files for use in other Actions New "Wait for Item" actions, which gives you more control over execution flow Advanced Compile EXE options, including "embed external files" and custom icon selection Multiple levels of undo Additional Failure Modes, including "Retry Step", as well as screen shots and logging Completely rewritten Flow commands, including IF...ELSE...END IF Office 97 / XP / 2003 user interface themes New internal memory validation and bounds checking Dozens of new Actions Rewritten help file Rewritten website, online ordering, and support forum Pricing remained the same!

Version 4.3 (March 2005): NEW ACTIONS: Internet: HTTP Post User Prompt: Progress Message Mouse: Move Relative ("Relative" coordinate option also available with all other mouse commands) Mouse: Move to Image Mouse: Save / Return to Position CHANGES: Updated "User Prompt" to use "No/Cancel" text as the failure mode in the format screen Put back in support for previous "Match Windows Details" using window title instead of parent window title for backward compatibility. New files will be correctly saved with the new functionality, and files created with previous versions will continue to work as before. New performance enhancements which prioritize speed instead of file size "Reset User Variables" no longer resets user variables in the original script when an external script is called "Save / Return Mouse Position" now works as its own command, instead of setting variables FIXES: Failure trying to CALL a VTP script from within another script that was compiled into an EXE User list was not appearing when compiled into an EXE "Run Single Step" was running the whole script if the first line was a "CALL Script" command Totally rewrote the "User: Status Message" functionality with a new window class, which fixed many issues with popup status messages (previous implementation tried to reuse a global class) "Browse for Folder" was updated from the old school method to the Windows shell version, since it has been supported on Win95 and greater "Update Variable" now shows the correct icon in the main list Pixel color sample was not being hidden in Format screen if options changed "Start Browser" now correctly launches the preferred browser instead of the first one "Open Web Page" was not saving output to a variable; removed options since POST now handles it "Save Web Page Complete" now updates HTML image "src=" path when server has relative path Certain number calculations with variables like "%var-1" were getting interpreted as dates under rare circumstances User Prompt response is now saved to a variable (when requested) even if they press Cancel/No (0). Previously, only failure options were activated and return value was not saved. Off-by-1 error created by optimizations in bitmap checks corrected

Version 4.2 (March 2005): NEW ACTIONS: LOOP: Data (Data-Driven Model) LOOP: Files TYPE: {AltDown}, {AltUp}, {CtrlDown}, etc START: Control Panel - System START: Control Panel - Power START: Device Manager Predefined Steps: "Saving Data on the Web" (beta) CHANGES: "Find Bitmap" now checks for fully qualified path Added more options to the Start action popup menu for programs Updated the Mouse double-click speed to use the Control Panel mouse settings Minor change to the file associations in "Tools - Options" Modified labels in "File - Folder Actions" to correctly read "Folder" Significant updates to the loop execution Removed the final vestiges of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE from settings to better function in a multi-user environment Activate Window via Details changed from "Title+Class+ID" to "Parent Title/Class/ID" for better matching Added "Suppress Logo at Startup" to the Options screen Modified "Open a Web Page" to allow POST strings and 0-byte returns Ability to save output from a web page to a variable (useful for POST) Removed support for the "%p", "%w", and "%k" system variables in favor of more descriptive names like "{clipboard}". This avoided confusion when using system and user variables. The old names had been undocumented for a number of versions. "Predefined Steps" are now correctly sorted according to file name FIXES: Fixed typing of '{' when used outside of a keycode like {A} Corrected Folder selection dialog (two dialogs used to appear) Grid list column positions are no longer saved after "Run Hidden" Fixed memory problem when using large bitmap matching Fixed "Set Variable" when used with a date - it was being interpreted as numeric division Changed how Loops are executed: if it evaluates to false on the first loop, execution goes immediately to the Next Loop

Version 4.1 (January 2005): NEW ACTIONS: USER PROMPT: Choose a Folder USER PROMPT: Login Screen Updated VTP document icons Minor fix for display problem with VTP document icons in Explorer Minor changes to binary output based on updates from Microsoft User variables are now saved in Registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to avoid access rights issues "/r" command switch was conflicting with Tools - Options selections Fixed error in internal expression checker which caused problems for "While" loops Updated "Activate Window" to correctly find the top-level popup windows before others ("tooltips_class32" was getting flagged as a popup and causing conflicts) Modified "Browse for Folder" dialog to use standard Win32 instead of OLE Added safety code to default to the top visible window in instances where the user didn't use "Activate Window" Updated the Format Action screen to have a "Save" button instead of "OK" (allows fast saves with "Alt + S") Fixed issue when using a combination of variables for offsets and "%r" Stop Byte in File actions Enhancements to Win32 Function calls: Automatically fixes names that would not be what you expect (CreateFile -> CreateFileA, etc) to avoid "not supported" error message Added automatic support for MessageBox and CreateFile constants (MB_OK, FILE_SHARE_READ, etc) "+" and "|" are allowed to combine integer constants: "MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION" Fixed situation where a comma embedded in a string when used as a parameter in Win32 calls would be incorrectly parsed

Version 4.0 (January 2005): NEW ACTIONS: TYPE: Text + System Keys: "text {enter}" WINDOW: Locate Window from Image MOUSE: Click on Image (in addition to coordinates) MOUSE: Click on Masked Image USER STATUS MESSAGE: Always on Top CHECKPOINT: Image Visible on Screen CHECKPOINT: Masked Image Visible CHECKPOINT: Pixel Visible on Screen SYSTEM: Registry Read / Write / Delete Predefined Steps Functions Uppercase Lowercase Replace Text Insert Text Get Sub Text Text Length Count Find Text Trim Send Command Message Call DLL Function Win32 API CHANGES: Changed the popup status messages from white to gray (button face system color) Significantly increased performance for displaying main list of actions Removed two internal data fields from main action structure Added "Reset User Variables" to Tools - Options Added text formatting drop-down menu to more actions Modified Recent File List to remove invalid file names Safety catch for new recordings: no test playback if nothing recorded Removed "Comment" name for comment text Modified all mouse actions to work with either screen/window/image coordinates Modified mouse drag and drop to be a single action that toggles (to allow alternate coordinate types) Added verification code for file locations embedded in a script file (bmp, call, text files, etc) so you don't have to include full path names Changed internal definition of Failure Mode: Ignore to 0 to better handle defaults Now possible to indent lines up to 16 levels deep Added "Custom Prompt" action for easier addition using Win32 API messages Added new status bar section which displays last variable update and loop iterations Updated MAPI email send to prompt for information if data not complete, based on testing with Thunderbird Additional syntax checks for conflicting variables Added option for disabling syntax check in Tools - Options Enhanced the performance of custom draw menus Output for compiling programs now around 70k (1k if simple User Messages) Changed the size of custom menus to match Office XP New high color icons and application graphics FIXES: Changed "No Optimizations" setting for compile .EXE (removed "Perform Full Optimizations") Minor update to the registry management Altered /R command line parameter to work correctly with other parameters Modified "%%" text format to correctly display "%" at run time, also added to popup menu Corrected equality evaluation for text strings in "Check Variable" Fixed Format labels for Checkpoint command Fixed broken help links in Options screen Now correctly expands filename for "Check If File/Folder Exists" Multiple step editing no longer sets failure options for actions that can't have any Copied & pasted recordings now correctly run the right recording (memory reset to 0 on paste always ran first recording) Popup menu selection in Format screen now inserts text where the cursor is located Modified File Read to go beyond 256 bytes Added "Only check for Failure" options when using Yes/No user prompts Removed Max Wait and User Prompt text options from "Choose a File" Added "Append" checkbox to File action to avoid confusion with the -1 byte offset Added "Required" checkbox to User Prompt action to avoid confusion with the 0 Max Wait Corrected match calcs on numbers when variables were used Changed "%q" variable to "%ticks" and also correctly updated it to return ticks, not seconds "Jump to Step" entries were not correctly displaying indents in main list Writing to files at byte offsets past end of file now works Concatenating strings with the "+" operator now works as expected "Wait for Exit" no longer hangs if the process wasn't started successfully "Go To Window" in very rare circumstances would return a non-usable window (such as a toolbar) or false match "Type: Via Clipboard" would send previous clipboard contents instead of requested text in certain apps Calling other VTP files no longer requires a complete path name Removed multiple warnings for opening unrecognized files Clicking a VTP file and choosing "Run" would fail if the Wizard was turned on

Version 3.0 (November 2004): NEW ACTIONS: Internet: HTTP, FTP, MAPI, SMTP, POP3, Ping Create, Copy, Rename, Delete Folder, Map Drive Logoff, Restart, Shutdown User Prompt: Status, Choose List, Choose File Block/Unblock User Input Mouse Save Position, Return System Menu Start Program: Run Hidden Keyboard: Accelerators Window: Focus, Get Text, Match Details, Failure if multiples found System: Label Markers, Update Variable, Video Display Mode, Screen & Window Capture Failure Modes: Labels, Silent, Variable, Restart, Snapshot Checkpoints: Clipboard, Window, Menu, File, Folder Fixed memory error in saving and loading files that contained Recording actions Added "Find" button to the running windows list in Tools Removed math calculations from fields where it didn't make sense, such as file names where a date with "-" could be used (2004-12-10 should not equal "1982") Moved all the FAQ topics into the main User's Guide Fixed transparency for Format Action custom buttons Fixed bug in Compile EXE where small library was used with more than one Type statement Added safety code in case the user forgets to add an Activate Window command before a step that needs an active window New Type formats available (See popup menu in Format Action screen) Removed support for Small Library since Medium Library is now down to 53k Improved Close Window: can close even hung applications Added MS-DOS commands as separate tree action A few minor tweaks to the compiler functions Action Tree saves state between sessions Fixed issue where "Auto Reload" would override command line Template logfile used for creating HTML output - allows modification of formatting "Add This Item" in treeview popup menu, fixed right click to auto-select Fixed bug where certain file types (such as .BMP) were not being run correctly due to formatting error for %1 parameters "Start Program" now looks in all PATH directories to run a file Added the ability to modify multiple steps at once Modified "Wait for Program to Exit" code File Write now correctly creates new subdirectories if they do not exist File actions show correct stop character in the Format screen Updated "+" expression to concatenate strings as expected Expanded previous error text explanations after failure

Version 2.2 (September 2004): NEW ACTIONS: Minimize All Windows Close All Windows Comment Exit Added "Actions" treeview palette New Format Action dialog box Embedded Loops are now permitted Added WHILE loops (previously done with Checkpoints) Fixed problem when Type or System Key command ended a script and speed > 7 (optimization error) Updated file association code to dynamically notify the Win32 shell Altered confirmation message to avoid double prompts for modified files Reworked the all command line switches, also added /S, /G, and %var=x Additional Options configurations: New standard property sheets layout "Reset Original Settings" button Ability to minimize vTask Studio during recording, playback, and window searching Choice of general or action-based icons Optimization setting for compiled .EXEs Returns to the previously visited tab New icons for all of the sub-options for each action Modified "Activate Window" behavior to give precedence to popups before controls Added tooltips to controls in the Format Command screen Completely rewrote the compiler functions; now supports Normal, Medium, Small, and Tiny library modes for optimized output from 1k - 100k New .VTP text file format. This resulted in files that are up to 30x smaller than the standard .VTP binary format. An added advantage is that the files are editable in Notepad and Excel. New popup menu list of all formatting options in the "Type" action Existing variables are listed in drop-down list in Format screen Changed pixel color option to Hex (web-based) instead of decimal Added formatting on/off switch for the "Type" command "Activate Window" automatically goes to the next field when a label is designated All new samples that better demonstrate various features Changed Help file format to Windows HTML Help

Version 2.1: New XP style interface: Office style-menus New XP style interface: New high color toolbar New XP style interface: About dialog box New XP style interface: New document type icons New XP style interface: Updated fonts for dialog boxes New XP style interface: Tabbed Options dialog Changed "Activate Window" to automatically search for both partial and exact titles (rewrote search procedures) Window search feature now hides main window and shows popup to facilitate search by not covering screen/windows Changed window search to return controls inside of other windows such as group boxes Revised a memory procedure to avoid problems when certain variables began a text string Updated idle status bar text Updated shortcut keys Removed Excel toolbar button; documented how to manually export Added maximize option to the "Running Windows" command File associations are set during the installation as well in the program options Fixed character terminator issue in "File Write" command New feature for choosing common applications in the "Start Program" command Added four different methods for text entry as options under the TYPE command Further optimized compiled .EXE size to below 90K (new optimizations coming - compiled .EXE will continue to shrink) Updated "Start Program" command to find full path for known document types (now handles MS Office passwords) Added playback optimizations for sequential TYPE and SYSTEM KEY commands when the speed is 8 or faster (also optimized log) Fixed bug that erased System Key when cancel was chosen while formatting command New safety catch in situations where script is stopped with the Shift, Alt, or Ctrl key down

Version 2.0: Removed old Wizard and images, which saved 200K in file size New Wizard samples to cover most vTask features Updated the .EXE stub for compiling standalone executables (further reduction in compiled .EXE size) Full user variable support Math calculations on numbers and variables Changed input method to use fixed dialog template instead of dynamic creation Changed the window search tool image from the mouse icon to a magnifying glass Updated Vista logo image for better 256 color depth and to save 5K Created new toolbar buttons with 256 colors depth Added mouse move only, with no button press, including incremental moves Added mouse dragging (press & hold left mouse button) Removed individual line logging (everything is logged at the file level) Many changes to the Tools - Options screen Moved data storage for Recordings and Pause Added line indenting and un-indent Multiple lines for command Comments Added HTML log output format; also changed log file layout Changed toolbar to include "View Log" and removed options button "Toggle Run Status" divided into "Set Breakpoint" and "Skip Step" Added better file version logic for opening newer and previous VRN files Loops are now done with "Start" and "Stop" instead of setting step numbers Added native format for Excel export through the clipboard "Automatically Reload Last File" feature in options New file format versions; better handling of unknown file types Changed play speed to file-based variable (assists with compiled .EXEs) Modified file format for data structure which produced a 17% size savings Changed max wait time and other fields to allow user variables It is now possible to assign variables new values, or increment/decrement them Auto-dismiss for user prompts added New Find dialog along with Find Again Fixed analog recording and playback for mouse wheel and Windows keys Added File read/write character delimiters Added File Copy as an option Modified window search tool to return class and ID information Redesigned User's Guide Added Keyboard Shortcuts lookup to Help menu New "Wait for Program to Exit" option for Start Program Removed Run Fast option, and replaced it with "Speed" configuration Added benchmarking features A very large number of minor fixes and tweaks

Version 1.1: Modified "Create Standalone .EXE" to generate a much smaller file size Modified the Help - Advanced Sample Cleared comment text from Pause and Recording commands Added "Match Exactly" to the "Activate Window" command Moved Create Standalone .EXE playback speed to the "Options" screen Added text descriptions to R/G/B colors in Verify Pixel Fixed problem if all commands are flagged to be skipped Modified method which ran commands in hidden mode Added "Database" command for running SQL queries Added "User Prompt" command for running SQL queries Updated "Checkpoint" command (and others) to accommodate the new "User Prompt" command Rewrote the dynamic Format Command dialog screen Screen update if user presses Ctrl+Esc while recording Updated interface to include Windows XP style and newer toolbars Added option for toolbar labels

Version 1.0: Original public release