Third Beta of NirLauncher package is available to download
Notice: The latest version of NirLauncher package is now available at http://launcher.nirsoft.net/
Many people ask me to add 'Auto Update' feature that will automatically update the latest version of all NirSoft utilities and the NirLauncher itself. So I'll eventually add this feature in one way or another, but the first step is to create an official download page of NirLauncher package that will be updated with the latest utilities every week or every 2 weeks. I hope that the official download page will be available in the incoming weeks.
For now, there is a new Beta download of NirLauncher package, with the following changes:
- Fixed the missing icons problem in Windows 7/x64.
- Added packages menu to choose a package. A package can also be selected from accelerator keys (Ctrl+1 for the first package, Ctrl+2 for the second package, and so on...)
- Added status bar information.
- Fixed the crash problems that occurred in some utilities on Windows 7/Vista, when running NirLauncher as administrator. This problem occurred only because the executable of NirLauncher contains the word 'launch'. You can read more about this problem in this post.
Here's a small summary of the problem and the way that I solved it:- When any executable contains the word 'launch' (in my case, NirLauncher.exe), Windows Vista/7 automatically shim the application, which means that apphelp.dll and AcLayers.DLL are loaded into the process and replace the pointers to Windows API functions inside the export table.
- When NirLauncher run a utility, the utility is also shimmed, probably because child applications automatically get the same treatment like the parent application. However, if the utility requires elevation (To run as admin) while NirLauncher was executed without admin rights, the launched utility is not shimmed.
- Some of NirSoft utilities - 'Network Password Recovery', LSASecretsView, and LSASecretsDump use some code injection technique in order to extract the system data. These utilities use the API function addresses returned by GetProcAddress function to execute the desired code in a system process. But... when an application is shimmed, GetProcAddress function returns the addresses of the shim layer instead of the real kernel addresses. These wrong addresses caused the system process to crash immediately and restart the system after a minute.
- The easiest solution for this problem is to change the executable name of NirLauncher to something else, but this kind of solution is really ridiculous. Also, I cannot assure that Windows won't shim my application from any other reason.
- I also tried to add into the executable of NirLauncher and the other utilities a manifest which contains compatibility information. This manifest is a small XML which says to Windows OS: "This application is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7, so don't shim it".
Unfortunately, this solution simply didn't work. - The problem was finally solved by making changes in the problematic utilities (NetPass, LSASecretsView, and LSASecretsDump), so these utilities will work properly even when they are shimmed. When these utilities detect that they are shimmed, LdrGetProcedureAddress (in ntdll.dll) function is used to get the real address of GetProcAddress function inside the Windows kernel, and in this way, my utilities bypass the shim layer and get the real kernel addresses.
Update (December 1st, 2009): Fixed also the Shim issue in MessenPass and WirelessKeyView.
Download the third Beta of NirLauncher package with more than 100 utilities
Zip File Information: (to verify that the downloaded file is Ok)
MD5: c181e7e46d4acde6f6c9b12309eb85b8
SHA1: 580fcb82d057c8a3cef752124802026886956172
File Size: 6,908,394
Number of files in the Zip: 247
December 1st, 2009 at 2:03 am
Nir,
I had no idea that you were making a launcher like this - this is awesome.
One question (for now) were you aware that KLS Soft has their version of a tool that does both your utilities as well as System Utilities?
Just curious. I am trying out the package right now, having installed it to my Program Files using ZipInstaller, but I (think) I have already noticed something - you have some 64bit apps out there, but it does not seem that the Launcher actually makes of them - is this true, or am I way off base?
December 1st, 2009 at 3:03 am
Great!
Many thanks.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:30 am
Hi,
Your software is awesome, both the launcher and the utilities themselves.
I have a feature request, though. It would be nice to be able to launch the apps by hitting ENTER, not just double-clicking or pressing the Run button.
Thanks
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Re KLS Soft:
http://www.kls-soft.com/wscc/
"WSCC is only an interface,
you need to download and install the utilities separately.
Alternatively, WSCC can use the http protocol
to download and run the programs."
"The setup packages are downloaded from the author's website!"
"This edition of WSCC supports the following utility suites:
Windows Sysinternals Suite (including support for Sysinternals Live service)
NirSoft Utilities"
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Hi,
Your tools are amazing with WinXP. Unfortunately they will not work on my french Windows Vista SP2, I mean "Asterisk logger" and "MailPassView" can't bring back the passwords. Is there a known issue ?
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Forgot to add I use 32bits versions of Windows and forgot to say thank you
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Your launcher rulez! IMO it beats by far the concept of PortableApps.
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Gracias!!!
Esta genial.
December 5th, 2009 at 1:48 am
hi NirSofer,
thanks for all your important and useful tools! And more importantly making them free!!! Thanks a lot again!!
December 5th, 2009 at 1:52 am
And is there any way you could tell me, where u learned so much about windows? Coz after seeing you and Mark, I feel inspired...
Did u study from books? or ebooks? or tutorials? or website? Plz tell me... 
December 11th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I found a blog posting that might be helpful. It has more info about Windows 7, manifests, and application compatibility. I'd suggest to try adding a trustInfo section to the manifest and see if it works.
http://blogs.msdn.com/patricka/archive/2009/12/09/answers-to-several-application-manifest-mysteries-and-questions.aspx
December 12th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Your great product was detected as follows by Trend Office Scan:
"OfficeScan has detected one or more spyware/grayware on your computer.
For detailed information about the spyware/grayware, click the spyware/grayware name."
Can you please change the compiler options to avoid this error?
December 18th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Hello,
Very great work! Congratulations!
Idea for future versions:
Automatic Update to latest version, with option to manually enter update URL.
Regards.
December 20th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
@Gunnar: Those false positives are not a compiling issue (you may be thinking of compiled AutoHotKey scripts), but are due to the nature of some of Nir's apps: some antivirus/antispyware developers think password retrievers must mean spyware.
There's nothing Nir can do, but you can try asking the Trend Office developers to fix the issue.
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:27 am
Hi, your NirLauncher is awesome.
One thing I noticed: Is it normal that some tools are missing? I didn't find shman.exe in the package, maybe some other tools are missing. Is there anything special about why these tools aren't included?
Greetings
seraphim
January 14th, 2010 at 12:20 am
seraphim Says:
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:27 am
"Is it normal that some tools are missing?"
Yes it's normal. Read this: http://blog.nirsoft.net/2009/10/04/beta-version-of-nirlauncher-package-is-available-to-download/
January 24th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Could you add "Disable icons" option in launcher? When launcher starts it reads all icons from exe's, antivirus scans them and launcher slows down.
January 25th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Disregard my comment please! that was applicable to the second-last version. I see that 1.4 downloads just fine!
cheers
April 13th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Thank you for this excellent idea. We love many of your tools and greatly appreciate you releasing them to us the public!
December 22nd, 2010 at 2:58 am
Will you add an nlp file for foundstone tools? http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free-tools/index.aspx
I think it is acquired by mcafee recently, they have some great tools, my favourite is showin with which one can enable hidden windows and controls.