PrefsOverload is a full-featured tool for managing the Preferences Folder, which contains your various "Preference Files". Preference Files are those files in which applications store their settings and other informations. After System 7, all these files have been enclosed in the "Preferences Folder". Preferences are important files, but sometimes they can turn out to be completely unnecessary. This can occur, for example, when their mother application doesn't exist--or no longer exists--on your computer. Over time the Preferences Folder will slowly grow and may become filled with files created by trashed demo applications, or applications used for a short time only or not used at all. The trouble is that all these unused or unusable files still continue to take up valuable disk space!
Another problem is that sometimes an application may fail to start-up because it happens to have a Preference File that has become damaged, or "corrupted". In such a case you will need to delete this file, after which the application will create a fresh Preference File and will run as it did before the problem occurred.
PrefsOverload is designed to resolve both problems. It can browse the Preferences Folder, allowing you to detect unnecessary preferences files, thanks to the information it gives you. Or it can display a list of probably unnecessary or damaged Preferences Files, allowing you to delete them or to put them into the trash. Also PrefsOverload allows you to search for specific Preference Files, by their type/creator or their creation/modification date and so on…
System Requirements
To run correctly, PrefsOverload 3.5 needs the following:
- 68k o PowerMac running Mac OS 7.6.1 or later
or
- PowerMac running MacOS X 10.0 or later
Version History
•Version 3.5.2 - January 25th, 2002
-- Now you can launch preference files with BBEdit too.
-- Now you can disable DogCow sound playing when finishing scanning.
-- New menu icons.
-- Now menu icons works on MacOS X too.
-- Now "View Contents" windows display file icon in the title bar.
•Version 3.5.1 - January 19th, 2002
-- Now folders are displayed correctly with a disclosure triangle after ordering lists.
-- Now PrefsOverload asks before viewing contents of files larger than 1 MB.
•Version 3.5 - December 21st, 2001
-- Parts of the source code has been totally rewritten, improving stability and speed.
-- Prefs database has been extended
-- Full PDF Help included
-- Preferences Menu now works correctly under MacOS X
-- Now the app remembers window position
-- Minor interface improvements
•Version 3.5PR2 - December 8th, 2001
-- Classic and Carbon releases included
-- Now you can view XML files (such as .plist files) using PropertyListEditor
-- Now you can exclude Apple preference files from scanning
-- Now you can exclude .plist files from scanning
-- Now you can exclude non-preference files from scanning
-- Now System menus are displayed correctly in English
-- "Reveal in Finder" now works on MacOS X too
-- Preferences Dialog has been redrawn
-- Better Aqua look & feel
-- New Icon
•Version 3.5PR1 - November 11th, 2001
-- Now PrefsOverload is a Carbon application and run on MacOS X
-- Interface adjustments to fit in Aqua.
•Version 3.1.1 - September 28th, 2001
-- Fixed interface redrawing when main window is resized
•Version 3.1 - September 24th, 2001
-- Scanning engine is up to 50% faster compared to version 3.0
-- Main menu screen was redrawn
-- PDF Help file included instead of the old HTML one.
•Version 3.0 - September 10th, 2001
-- Out of beta, then without expiration date.
-- Full HTML help included.
-- Fixed some balloon help errors.
-- Replaced finish sound with "Moof!"
•Version 3.0b5 - August 28th, 2001
-- PrefsOverload uses FileIcon plug-in instead of GetFinderIcon Plug-in to get files icons. This should fix the error 2 & 3 bugs of the previous version.
-- From this version, PrefsOverload's beta releases have an expiration date, to avoid that people use old beta releases instead of the final one.
-- After registering the program, you can subscribe to the Zik's mailing list directly from the program.
•Version 3.0b4 - August 24th, 2001
-- Now PrefsOverload is a FAT application, so you can run it either on 68k than PPC machines.
-- Some menu shortcuts were changed.
-- Future versions of PrefsOverload will mantain the same settings of the previous version.
•Version 3.0b3 - July 14th, 2001
-- Fixed bug that caused type 1 and 3 errors when using the application
-- Now you can add files to the exclusion list directly via menu or typing command-E
-- Now you can decide what type of files have to be considered damaged directly from the preferences dialog
•Version 3.0b2 - July 12th, 2001
-- Fixed some cosmetic bugs
-- Now menu items work properly in "Find Damaged Prefs" mode
-- Now "Delete File" command work just fine in "Find Damaged Prefs" mode
•Version 3.0b1 - June 30th, 2001
-- Now PrefsOverload can perform searchs for damaged Preference Files
-- PrefsOverload can manage non-standard preference folder, this mean, for example, that you can use PrefsOverload on your MacOS X Preferences Folder
-- Now scan processes are completely multithreading by default
-- Now file lists can be ordered also in the "Browse Preferences Folder" mode
•Version 2.5 - November 22nd, 2000
-- File lists in Find Unnecessary Preferences & Find Preference Fils mode can be ordered
-- Search by Size implemented in Find Preference Files mode
-- Error Report added, allowing users to report PrefsOverload rating errors to the author
-- Better Drag & Drop support
-- Menus with icons
-- Bugs fixed
-- Many other improvements
•Version 2.0.1 - September 12th, 2000
-- This version is PPC only, and weights 700kb less.
-- Mother Application search engine was rewritten.
-- Now PrefsOverload can delete folders.
-- Dragging an item onto the Browse Preferences Mode now puts it into the Preferences Folder.
•Version 2.0 - September 8th, 2000
-- "Find Preference Files" mode added, allowing user to search for specific preference files.
-- The Rating Engine was totally rewritten. Now it's more accurate and contains a small database of preference files which makes it more accurate.
-- Now you can view contents of files directly from PrefsOverload.
-- Double-clicking an item now displays the file contents, if it is a folder opens it.
-- Now you can exclude files or folders from being scanned.
-- The "File Info" window was updated, now it displays and allows to change the file type/creator and visible/locked flags.
-- PrefsOverload counts Preferences Files in "Find Unnecessary Preferences" mode
-- Now PrefsOverload displays a progression dialog if opening a folder takes a long time.
-- All "useless" occurrences were replaced with "unnecessary"
-- "Preferences…" menu item now is disabled during scanning.
•Version 1.0 - July 21st, 2000
- Now PrefsOverload requires MacOS 8.5 or later (in previous beta releases I said it requires System 7.5 or later, but many users told me they got an error 1010 when they started it up on MacOS 8.1 or previous versions).
- Online Help has finally been implemented.
•Version 1.0b2 - July 10th, 2000
- Now the "Find useless Preferences" mode allows multiple selections.
- Useless prefs detection is improved.
- ColorSync profiles, Extensions Manager preferences are no longer considered useless.
- Memory Management is improved (needed RAM decreases by 6 MB…).
- Menu Shortcuts were modified.
- Double-clicking an item now reveals it in the finder instead of opening the info window.
- Now the "Delete Item" menu item works in the "Find Useless Prefs" mode.
- Now PrefsOverload says how much space was saved after deleting files.
•Version 1.0b1 - July 4th, 2000
- Now Prefsoverload hides its window if you're using another task. This speeds-up multithreading scanning.
- Now "Reveal in Finder" menu item works.
- Balloon help works on all items in the main window and also in the "Info" window.
- About dialog now contains legal stuff and copyright notices about externals, icons and plug-ins used in the development of PrefsOverload (I'm preparing for the final release…).
- The software displays the "Made with REALbasic™" logo.
•Version 1.0a2 - June 30th, 2000
- Items size now is shown in kilobytes.
- "Continue" and "Quit" buttons in the welcome screen have been replaced by two buttons which start scanning in one of the two working modes.
- The Preference File now has the same creator as the application.
- Now "Delete" buttons work.
- Now the listbox is disabled while performing a multithreading scanning in the "Scan Preferences Folder" mode.
- Fixed bug that caused the application to crash when quitting during a multithreading scanning in the "Scan Preferences Folder" mode.
- Now the "PrefsCleaner Help" menu item works, but will be enabled only if PrefsOverload is running under MacOS 8.0 or higher.
- The "quit" AppleEvent is enabled. (When you restart the computer the Finder quits PrefsOverload.)
- "Reveal in Finder" item added to "File" menu.
- Now PrefsOverload distinguishes files with "RSED" creator and the true ResEdit preferences file.
•Version 1.0a1 - June 20th, 2000
- First Public Release.
Shareware Notice
PrefsOverload is Shareware! If you like it, please read the "How To Register" file and buy it for $15 only! Registering allows to delete files and deletes the shareware reminder at startup, and also you will freely upgrade to any future version of PrefsOverload.
Please support shareware!
Zik Newsletter
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