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NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

nirsoft.net

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Re: NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

#31

Post by CamperBob2 »

Const-me wrote: post #7
Retr0spectrum wrote: post #4

I love these tools, but my one "complaint" is that they're not open source. I often find myself searching "how to find X in Windows", and the answer is to run one of these tools. But what I really want to know is how the tool does it.

Why would you want source code for that? WinAPI is visible in dependency viewers. File system operations visible in process monitor. Same with registry access. WMI queries are visible in event viewer (simple setup is required). Network activity is visible in sniffers. Even when source code is available, these tools are both easier to use (reading source code can be very time consuming for large projects), and they gi…

Why would you want source code for that?

Imagine Breaking Bad, only with malware instead of drugs.

Nir Sofer has been around forever and has a great reputation in the Windows dev community, but^Wso he could do a lot of damage in a hurry if he wanted to.

Re: NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

#33

Post by CapacitorSet »

Const-me wrote: post #27
papermachete wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the thesis - releasing the source code costs nothing and the user can choose whether to look at it or not. They could've spent the time apologising for virus ""false alarms"" publishing the code instead. That way one can trivially look through it instead of wasting time on different analyzers.

> releasing the source code costs nothing When you release code, you need to do following. 1. Ensure it builds. Old software can only be built with old compilers, with old Windows SDK. Sometimes they also rely on old custom build tools. Other times builds requires manual steps. 2. Ensure you have not violated any copyrights or patents. The relevant laws are ridiculous these days, potentially, you can get in legal tro…

Arguably, point 2 is the only real concern about releasing the source code - 1 and 3 are optional responsibilities that people take to a varying degree, with "Works On My Machine (tm) - no documentation - here be dragons" being a valid (though in my opinion not very kind) option.

Re: NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

#34

Post by papermachete »

Const-me wrote: post #27
papermachete wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the thesis - releasing the source code costs nothing and the user can choose whether to look at it or not. They could've spent the time apologising for virus ""false alarms"" publishing the code instead. That way one can trivially look through it instead of wasting time on different analyzers.

> releasing the source code costs nothing When you release code, you need to do following. 1. Ensure it builds. Old software can only be built with old compilers, with old Windows SDK. Sometimes they also rely on old custom build tools. Other times builds requires manual steps. 2. Ensure you have not violated any copyrights or patents. The relevant laws are ridiculous these days, potentially, you can get in legal tro…

I only see a potential problem with No. 2. The rest seems like a non-issue. Nobody is forcing the creator to spend his time writing extra documentation or build instructions - just post it and let the community sort it through. Just as nobody is forcing people to sit and figure out the code - some are just interested in how the tool works and why AV software is really handing out ""false positives"". Personally, I just want to skim over it and see his style of writing and commenting.

Re: NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

#35

Post by Nextgrid »

da_chicken wrote: post #18
Nextgrid wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most other OSes have the functionality of these tools as built-ins. If anything it’s concerning to see that Windows still doesn’t include features out of the box.

First of all, not really. GNU doesn't do everything. It's important to remember that distros -- BSD or Linux -- are aggregations of software packages from many different developers, most of whom have no relationship to each other. Other operating systems including Android, Mac OS, and even iOS use these same open source tools, too, so they can't really be said to include these tools as a result of their own developme…

My comment was made from a user's point of view. I explicitly did not care about technicalities or who wrote what code. All I meant is that I can do things with an out-of-the-box Mac that require downloading third-party tools to do on Windows.

How Microsoft achieves that is their problem to figure out, whether they license these tools or reimplement their functionality, as long as the functionality is there out of the box. But I guess shoving ads (aka cancer) into the lock screen is higher on their list of priorities.

Re: NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

#36

Post by CJefferson »

papermachete wrote: post #34
Const-me wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> releasing the source code costs nothing When you release code, you need to do following. 1. Ensure it builds. Old software can only be built with old compilers, with old Windows SDK. Sometimes they also rely on old custom build tools. Other times builds requires manual steps. 2. Ensure you have not violated any copyrights or patents. The relevant laws are ridiculous these days, potentially, you can get in legal tro…

I only see a potential problem with No. 2. The rest seems like a non-issue. Nobody is forcing the creator to spend his time writing extra documentation or build instructions - just post it and let the community sort it through. Just as nobody is forcing people to sit and figure out the code - some are just interested in how the tool works and why AV software is really handing out ""false positives"". Personally, I ju…

I've had plenty of people swear at me because open source software I release won't build for them. It gets tiring and puts me in a bad mood all day.

Re: NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

#37

Post by mixmastamyk »

CJefferson wrote: post #36
papermachete wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only see a potential problem with No. 2. The rest seems like a non-issue. Nobody is forcing the creator to spend his time writing extra documentation or build instructions - just post it and let the community sort it through. Just as nobody is forcing people to sit and figure out the code - some are just interested in how the tool works and why AV software is really handing out ""false positives"". Personally, I ju…

I've had plenty of people swear at me because open source software I release won't build for them. It gets tiring and puts me in a bad mood all day.

So have some requirements and make sure it builds. File any other complaints in NUL.

Re: NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

#38

Post by mixmastamyk »

Const-me wrote: post #27
papermachete wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the thesis - releasing the source code costs nothing and the user can choose whether to look at it or not. They could've spent the time apologising for virus ""false alarms"" publishing the code instead. That way one can trivially look through it instead of wasting time on different analyzers.

> releasing the source code costs nothing When you release code, you need to do following. 1. Ensure it builds. Old software can only be built with old compilers, with old Windows SDK. Sometimes they also rely on old custom build tools. Other times builds requires manual steps. 2. Ensure you have not violated any copyrights or patents. The relevant laws are ridiculous these days, potentially, you can get in legal tro…

Copyright and patents while using the Win32 API?

Re: NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

#39

Post by Stratoscope »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #37
CJefferson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had plenty of people swear at me because open source software I release won't build for them. It gets tiring and puts me in a bad mood all day.

So have some requirements and make sure it builds. File any other complaints in NUL.

And then you get a reputation for ignoring your users.

Some days you just can't win.

Re: NirSoft, a collection of small and useful freeware utilities

#40

Post by sbr464 »

da_chicken wrote: post #19

The most useful tool I've seen from here is BlueScreenView ( https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html ). Blue screens on Windows aren't remotely as common as people think they are, but this tool will look at your dump file and can tell you very quickly what caused the error (typically, which driver). Back in the day this helped to identify a problem from the network driver that was affecting a certain subs…

For me, there was one that would transfer/edit the autocomplete files in Outlook, when formatting or transferring to a new computer, or fixing Exchange migration issues. Previously with IT client work (2002-2015 before cloud email took over) it was a godsend.
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