UPDATED: 9/014/2004

1) Logoff, Shutdown, Restart, Lock Workstation, Suspend, Hibernate, and Switch Users.
2) You can select which buttons you want to use and they will fit themselves as needed.
3) You can submit feedback to me through the About section of the Properties Dialog.
4) Multiple languages are now supported: So far it's just English and German (Deutsch).
5) New in this version is support for SKINNING the buttons. So, now you can create your own images. Any questions on how to do this... email me. As part of doing this I took out the "Icon Size" section and instead created 3 skin sets.
6) The tooltip is currently gone. This is part of moving away from the .NET controls and using the button control provided in the SDK (which better supports skinning). Unfortunately using this button loses the ability to do the tooltip... until I figure out a work around.
7) It also now properly shuts down AND powers off which was a problem on Windows 2000 and PROBABLY on all Windows 9x versions.

Installation:
1) DSShutdown now "properly" uses the DSPackage support and should install smoothly. Please let me know if it does not.

**** Attachment has been removed. You can download the latest version from the main site now.

This one gets my thumbs up.

Yeah, I agree. This works very nicely. Good job!

Bump for new version.

Hi! The new version is great! Thank you very much.

There is a rendering problem in the new version of the plugin:
I have auto-hide enabled, and everytime I show the bar (by rolling the mouse to the edge) during the "slide" animation the panel has a large height, but when the animation ends it is normal again.

Hope this helped.

-GoMa

Yup. I can fix that pretty easily... and I will, right after the next release of the SDK unless you guys find it too annoying. There are a couple of other areas that could be improved in the drawing as well so I'll take a closer look. My work machine is quite a bit faster than my personal machine so the draw problems are a little more obvious here. Thanks for the feedback!

I'm having a problem with the updated Shutdown Plugin. It seems that if I set the panel to have a title bar, and then collapse the panel, when I start DS, the panel doesn't show its contents (but is present) and the title bar has by default been removed. Any ideas? If I put the title bar on, and close DS, it disappears when I reopen and the only way to recover from this bug is to check the show panel title option each time I open DS.

I'll take a look into that. I hide the title by default... figured it took up too much space. I can certainly take that out. I do have one final version planned once the next version of the SDK comes out which I think is going to be relatively soon. If it's bothering you alot, let me know and I'll post a fix for it much sooner.

I'd appreciate the functionality in the future, but I can live without collapsing it for now, as you have added the feature of confirming every click. I collapsed it so I didn't shut down by mistake, but this works well for now. Thanks.

About the drawing problem:
I don't want to sound picky but it is quite annoying (the bug which causes the panel to be tall when it's hidden or animated), because I have a command-line panel below it, and if I press Win+Q the panel's text field appears on the very bottom of the screen.

Anyhow, thank you for this great panel, it's excellent.

-GoMa

This works well, but i use a program to set timed shutdowns. Basically you choose the time and date you want the comptuer to turn off, and it does it for you. Any thoughts on doing something like this?

Shouldn't be very difficult. You'd just use the timer object to check the time. Your program, however, probably uses the Task Scheduler service which is a bit easier but uses a little more overhead. Do you have any idea? What's the program?

I thought this was just me, but I've installed it to the other machines I have and I've noticed that the CPU usage increases by 30% when you have the panel added. As soon as you remove it from DS, it goes back to the norm.

If my plug-in is the only one you load (from a 3rd party) then the load is from the loading of the .NET framework.

So the framework will constantly draw that much CPU cycles for it to run?

Hmmm. I'm not certain. I don't see this on my PC at all. To be candid, the SystemUptime plugin might be a bit intensive, but the Shutdown plugin is nothing but a series of buttons with pictures on them with code behind them. The timer is even turned off right after startup. So, I can't really imagine that my panel in particular is causing what you're seeing. It's the simplest plugin I've written by far. I also can't reproduce what you're seeing either. On this PC, watching CPU utilization, I sit at 0~1% while sitting idle... and it kicks up to about 4% when the slideshow rolls the next picture into view. With the panel or without shows no difference for me.

If your PC is a bit older then maybe the hit of .NET is larger, but I assure you there is almost nothing going on in that panel until you click a button on it... unless you are regularly changing the width of DS (in which case the buttons move themselves around).

Personally, I would have dismissed it when I noticed it on my work computer:
Athlon 1600
1 Gig of PC2700 DDR RAM
Win 2K SP4 on a 7200RPM Drive at 133.
CPU idles at 4% with DS

Then when I noticed it on my personal machine at home:
Athlon 2500 XP
1 Gig of PC2700 DDR RAM
WinXP Pro SP1 on a 7200RPM Drive at 133
CPU idles at 1% with DS

Then I noticed it on my wife's machine which is exactly the same as mine but with an Athlon 2000 XP.

It's the weirdest thing. At first I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but literally as soon as I added it...the CPU processes went up. As soon as I removed it, it went back to normal. I thought I had done something weird with my work computer so I even rebooted a couple of times. I'm going to do some more research on this though.

In my case all is all right, and much more, with this plugin I haven't the authorization problems I had with the shutdown default system of DS. Many thanks mattisking

I just added the Shutdown Panel and I haven't noticed the CPU usage go up like that. I am also using the Clipboard Panel, so I know I am using something else with the .Net framework. My CPU is idling around 8%. (XP Pro Pack 1, 256mb RAM, Mobile 1.8 Ghz)

Coult69

ok this is what i noticd with regards to the system shutdown plugin

1> my sidebar cpu usage hovers around 7% - 9% with the plugin, but its about 1% - 2% without it.

2> sidebar refreashes itself constantly with the shutdown plugin. it might show in some skins, it might now show in others, but you can see the slidebar flashing every second. this would explain the high cpu usage.

3> I would like to see the following buttons added to the plugin. Standby, Undock, Switch User, Abort.

Dell Latitude C840
P4-M @ 2.4 GHz
512 Mb RAM
64Mb Video Card
Windows XP Pro sp1
DS-66

I think that maybe this is because of the quick launch panel - try placing the shutdown panel below any quick launch panel.

-GoMa

In each case, they were the last panel to the bottom...definitely below any toolbar panel. I'll probably have more time this weekend to really put it to the test and see if I can pinpoint what the deal is.

Standby: Is this different than Hibernate or Suspend?
Undock: I'm not certain what this is.
Switch User: I've been trying to figure out how to support this.
Abort: I'm not certain what this is.

This thread should answer most of your question.

when a laptop computer is connected to a docking station, then the undoc option becomes active. otherwise it is not. im not sure what the syntax is for that, you might want to ask around to see if anyone else besides me has their laptop docked.

you can also try and implement the delays and stuff that is mentioned in the above thread. right now, a toolbar with all the system buttons configured according to the above thread is far more versatile and stable compared to the plugin.

Hi, is it possible to change the buttons for your own? Or is this a feature that could be added?

If you are referring to skinning, the answer is currently no. However, this will be implemented in the next major revision (and for all my other plugins as well).

The latest version has initial support for "skinning" this panel. Please let me know what you think.

How can we make the choice between the three skins ?

This is kinda ugly and for that I'm sorry... I spent a while last night trying to learn the skinning functions in the DS SDK and eventually worked it out. It "appears" that skinning follows these rules (for external plugin developers):

1) You define ALL skins for your plugin in your .dsskin file and then in your dsplugin file you list them in the skins section. You can see this for yourself by looking inside these files.
2) If there is a skin defined in your .dsskin file that matches (by name) the skin you are using for DS that skin will be used. If not, then the default used is always "blue".

So, if you want to change the default skin, go into the dsskin file and rename the one you want defaulted to either "blue" or the name of the DS skin you are currently using.

This is the first time I've tried incorporating the built-in support for skinning in the DS SDK so I could be slightly off... but I don't think so. Once I verify all this with KDam I will probably add a new Property option to add skin settings and/or override which of the selected skins is the default "blue". For now, do as I described and it should work for you.

There are also a couple rules I didn't mention (it was late):
1) If you define your own skin (use whatever graphics you want for the buttons) they must currently all be the exact same dimensions. I'll look at changing this if people want it.
2) You must define ALL the buttons, even if you don't use them all. So, for instance, if you only want to use the Shutdown button, then change the image for that button and then leave the default values for the others. It will technically WORK supplying all the values in the skin... but it will crash internally (and get caught in the background... you won't see it) but the crash takes a few seconds to get handled so this will slow the startup of DS.

Hi all,

I downloaded this plugin, unzipped to the DS file but can't seem to find it as a panel option. I've read about 'regasm' but that has me more confused.

A little help anyone?

Thanks, Scott

In order for this panel to appear you need to register it in the computer using regasm. Its very simple, and only takes 3 steps to finish. Below are instructions for you.

1. Open the Command Prompt and enter the following commands.
2. cd c:\Program Files\Desktop Sidebar\"
3. c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\regasm.exe dsshutdown.dll

Once you restart DS the Panel will show in the Add Panels window.

~acommonjo

Hi,

I opened the DS command line and entered your code. It came back with a google search. I opened a DOS prompt and from both c:\ and c:\windows the error was the same....."Too many parameters - Files\Desktop"

argh.

Thanks again, Scott

Open the actual DOS Command Prompt. You can usually find it at START->Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt.

~acommonjo

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I have no DOS prompt in 'accessories', just a quick launch DOS button and the DS command line. Obviously, this is not my forte but appreciate your help.

Scott

Ok, then in the type cmd in the Start->Run Window or DS Command Line. That should open the DOS Command Prompt that I am refering to.

~acommonjo

Do this then:

1) Hit the Start button.
2) Choose Run.
3) type "cmd" (without the quotes) and hit enter
4) now, if your machine is setup like most with all defaults type this in (assuming you unzipped the ZIP appropriately):
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\regasm.exe "C:\Program Files\Desktop Sidebar\dsshutdown.dll"

That should be it provided you unzipped the file appropriately.

Make your life easier:
Download that file,extract it to the DS directory and click on the file install.reg.It will ask you something-click O.K.Restart your DS and I hope it'll work.

OK, i was able to complete the 1st line but from C:\Program Files \Desktop Sidebar the error is "the system can not find the path specified"

After 4 attempts no less.

Sorry for this but thanks.

Scott

vvv, I downloaded and unzipped to the right file. I can click on and see the individual icons but still have no panel choice on how to use it. have Rebooted too.

Thanks, Scott

Ok, I think I have a simple answer for you. I have made a batch file that will do the regasm for you. All you need to do is save the attached file to a location you can find it at and run it. It will open the Command Prompt and conduct the regasm command. When you restart DS the program "should" (knock on wood) appear in the Add Panel window.

~acommonjo

what directory did you install DS to?

Have you clicked on Install.reg file in my zip file?I think that acommonjo did something the same but you must click on it.

OK, in my DS Folder, i clicked on dsshutdown.zip, these are the files:

Download the file from my post unzip it and click install.reg.

hscottm - Do you actually have the .NET Framework 1.1 installed? It is required.

-GoMa

Here's a weird thing.. under XP. I click the shutdown button and for some reason is does everything - but stops at "It's now safe to turn off your computer" .. Using the normal shutdown under XP and it turns my computer right off like normal..

Any reason/fix for this?

Wow... No, I have absolutely no idea. It works fine on my box, but that's Windows for you. What version of Windows are you using?

Underneath the covers, machines that are capable of actually turning off when shutdown is performed are configured that way... the motherboard gets a signal that it's time to turn everything off. Maybe your configuration or version of Windows handles this a little differently? Unfortunately I doubt there's anything I can do... but I will look into it. Let me know about your machine configuration and Windows version.

I need help. I've downloaded dsshutdown to the DS folder. However, it does not seem to function. Can anyone help me figure out what I'm doing wrong? Further, if I delete dsshutdown, I continue to get the same error message when I run DS. This is the message: CANNOT LOAD PLUGIN DSSHUTDOWN. INVALID PROGRID: DSSHUTDOWN. PLUGIN UNKNOWN ERROR: 800401f3.

I'm new to this, so any instructions will have to be extremely simplistic so that I'll be able to follow them. Sorry.

If I can't get dsshutdown to run, I'd be happy to just eliminate the error message upon running DS.

Thanks for any advice you might have.

-Aaron

Did you download the zip file or the dspackage file?

I downloaded the zip file, and unzipped to the ds folder.