NetSwitcher V3.x Release Notes

Welcome to the NetSwitcher™ for Windows V3.x Release Notes Page

History

NetSwitcher V3.0 is an entirely new version of the original NetSwitcher software. The decision to start over again was based mainly on the proliferation of Windows versions from Microsoft. Since NetSwitcher needs to have intimate knowledge of the specific differences between not only Windows version, but also some installed options and updates, the old code base had become difficult to manage.

NetSwitcher was originally written in 1995 and targeted at the, then new, Windows 95 operating system. Since that time, support for Windows NT and later Windows 98 was added. In mid-1999, Microsoft began releasing beta copies of the upcoming Windows 2000 operating system. Since we expect that Windows 2000 will become quite popular, the need to support Windows 2000 became a priority for us.

Shortly after obtaining a beta copy of Windows 2000, we discovered what we had suspected based on reports from customers. NetSwitcher V2.x did not work with Windows 2000 at all. Microsoft had made significant changes to the way network settings are stored and it was quite unlike either Windows 9x or Windows NT 4.0. At this point, the decision was made to literally start over from scratch, and rebuild NetSwitcher from the ground up.

We also had a long list of requested enhancements and were struggling to fit all of the setup information into the single window format of the original NetSwitcher. While the single window was handy, there really were just too many settings to fit there and we had really already expanded beyond that with the buttons on the right-hand side of the dialog. We chose a tabbed dialog format that could be easily extended to support new features as time went by.

Release Status

NetSwitcher V3.0 is currently in open-beta and the latest release available for download on the web site is 3.0.19. Our plans are to continue parallel support for both the current release of NetSwitcher V2.x and the new NetSwitcher V3.x until V3.0 reaches full release status. This will not happen until we have been successful in getting 100% of the functionality in V2.x duplicated in V3.x and then follow that with an extensive beta testing period. Our plans are to support all Microsoft WIN32 workstation platforms with V3.0. Currently this includes, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Workstation 4.0, and Windows 2000 Professional. As it becomes available, we also plan to support Windows Millenium (or whatever it is eventually called). We do not plan to support Windows CE at this time. While there is no specific support for server versions like NT Server, in most cases NetSwitcher works properly on these configurations.

New features in V3.x include:

Telephone dialing location setup.
Support for Windows 2000 Professional (tested through RC3 Build 2183)
All network adapters saved/restored in a single setup.
AOL Instant Messenger® setup supported.
"Location Based" configuration paradigm vs. V2.x "network adapter" based setup.

Known problems with 3.0.16 are:

No ability to import existing V2.x nsw setup files.
No ability to export V3.x setups into an text file format.
No command line interface in V3.x.
Loaded setup may fail if the Windows version or network card installation has changed since the setup was originally saved.
Support for Netscape Navigator Mail is inoperative.
Support for Novell Client-32 is inoperative.
Folder sharing and network drive configuration is not functional.
Access control (Win9x only) is not functional.
No help information is currently written.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.19:

Added capability to disable the individual property sheets (Most are implemented at this point. A few are not.)
Novell Client setup completed. Should work with Win9x with the V3.1 Client software. NT4 with the V4.6 client and W2K with the V4.7 client software. Note that the V4.7 client is listed as BETA by Novell.
Added Manage Location Export capability for most setup pages. Others coming soon. Obviously, Import capability needs to go along with this.
Netscape Navigator setup completed except for Navigator Mail.
Detects a mismatch between saved setup adapter name and the current ones.
Added option to stack or not stack the property page tabs.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.20 (Release Date 12-Jan-2000):

Full capabilities for IMPORT and EXPORT to ASCII files completed. This is accessed via the "Manage Locations" function. Get there by RIGHT clicking the mouse where it says "Right Click Here", or by using the drop-down menu from the icon at the top left-hand corner of the window.
Added Location RENAME and COPY capabilities to the Manage Location function.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.22 (Release Date 07-Feb-2000):

Fixed problem with multiple DNS servers on NT/W2K.
Fixed problems with crashing on some systems where no modem or dialing properties were configured.
Verified compatibility with W2K "gold" release, build 2195.
Completed NetSwitcher "Extension" architecture. This permits adding support for new features independent of the tool itself. The only useful extension developed so far is one for Client Services for Netware (CSNW) which is the Microsoft provided Netware client for W2K. The extension itself is available for download here. The source code as an example, is here. The extension is implemented as a COM object and is access via the COM Automation interface (i.e. IDispatch).

Theoretically, such an extension could be written in any development tool that supports building a COM DLL. Visual Basic is an example of such an environment. An example of a VB extension is available here. This extension doesn't really do anything useful other than demonstrate how to create an extension in VB. (Please hold your criticism of the VB coding practices. I'm not a VB programmer but hopefully it demonstrates the principle.)

Release Notes for Version 3.0.23 (Release Date 23-Feb-2000):

Added capability to change NT Domain and Workgroup membership for Win2000. Please note, however, that to use this your user account must have "Add Computer to Domain" privilege on the NT Server. You may not have this privilege by default and will need to get it from your server administrator. There is no circumventing this as it is an NT Server security setting and is not controlled on the Windows 2000 client workstation. Please also note that it can take up to several minutes for the NT Server to process this request and modify the domain membership. Please be patient and don't attempt to kill NetSwitcher while this is running. Also note that your workstation must be able to connect with the domain controller in order to perform this operation. If your network uses only TCPIP, you may need to run NetSwitcher twice, once to change the TCPIP setup so that the NT Server is "visible" and a second time to change the domain membership.
Fixed a problem on W2K and NT where the timezone failed (and often caused NetSwitcher to crash) if the "Automatically adjust for daylight savings time" checkbox had been changed from it's default position.
Fixed a problem with WINS settings on Win95 WINSOCK 1.x systems where the both WINS servers were being set to the same value. Also fixed a related problem where the no WINS setup was not being applied correctly.
Fixed a problem where the WINSOCK version on WINSOCK 1.x systems was being displayed on the General Page as "WSANO...".

Release Notes for Version 3.0.24 (Release Date 29-Feb-2000):

The NetSwitcher V3 window was too large to display on some small screen portable computers. In this version, we put the window on a size reduction plan and tried to make things as small as possible without making it harder to use. The results look satisfactory for screens as small as 640x480 using the Windows SMALL fonts. At 800x600 and above, SMALL or LARGE fonts are satisfactory.
Added capability to switch between workgroup and NT Domain on NT Workstation 4.0 systems. This capability has the following caveats:

    - The user's account on the NT Server (i.e. the PDC) must have "Add Computer to Domain" privilege.

    - The user account on the NT Workstation must have administrative privilege.

    - The COMPUTER ACCOUNT must already exist on the PDC. If this Workstation has never joined this NT Domain before, it will need to be added on the server using the Server Manager or at the workstation using the network control panel.

    - The PDC must be available on the network when NT Domain is joined. If your network uses only TCPIP, you may need to run NetSwitcher twice, once to change the TCPIP settings and again to change the NT Domain.

    - The workstation must be rebooted after changing from one domain to another or switching from domain to workgroup or vice-versa. Otherwise, the data displayed in the NetSwitcher window will be invalid.

    - Currently, most error conditions are not reported and the operation just doesn't complete.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.25 (Release Date 11-Mar-2000):

Completed work on the Network Drives capability. This is on the Sharing tab in the user interface.
Added the Run Commands capability on the Extensions tab.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.26 (Unreleased):

No Notes.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.27 (Release Date 17-Mar-2000):

Modified the NT Domain joining for both NT4 and Windows 2000. In 2.0.24 and 25, there was no opportunity to enter a username and password for performing this operation on the NT Server. The problem here is that the domain join could then only happen if the local workstation credentials matched the NT Server credentials exactly. In most "real" networks, this is not the case. NetSwitcher will now prompt for the privileged account name and password when attempting to join an NT Domain.

Also note that the earlier restriction on NT 4.0 Workstation systems where the computer machine account needed to be manually added to the NT Server has been removed. This version will create a machine account for the NT Workstation when it is joined to the domain.
Made a first cut at a real help file. This includes both true help database access by clicking the HELP button on the NetSwitcher window as well as a context help for each control in every window. This is accessed by clicking the context help "?" at the top right of the main NetSwitcher window and then clicking the "?" cursor on the control in question. A popup help message will be displayed.
This version also has the capability to interact with a companion NetSwitcher Service on NT4 and Windows 2000 platforms. This permits running NetSwitcher from non-privileged accounts. Please contact me directly if you are interested in testing this new capability. Note that you MUST be able to login as Administrator on your NT Workstation or Windows 2000 Professional machine to install the service.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.28 (Release Date 22-Mar-2000):

Added additional information to the help file. I'd appreciate any comments on whether of not this is useful. What's unclear, anything missing, etc...
Added the load location from command line option. See the help file for details.
First release of the NetSwTray application. This is a mini-app which runs in the Windows system notification tray. I provides for loading of locations already defined. If new locations or manual setups are required, then run the full NetSwitcher application. To install this, just run it. It will ask you if you want it added to the list of programs to be run at logon.

There are a couple of issues with the 3.0.28 version of NetSwTray.exe:

- It currently will display a dialog box with the name of the location you have
just selected. I was using this for debugging purposes and forgot to remove it.
It doesn't cause any problems and will let you know you've selected a new setup

- On NT and Windows 2000 systems, it might fail to install itself as an autostart application
even though you said YES to the question about this. If this happens, it's due to a missing
registry key. Open REGEDIT and navigate to the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

Create a new key called "Run" here and then run NetSwTray.exe again.

- On Windows 2000 clients choosing a location that specifies a new NT Domain to
join can take a long time. This is the same as it is in the full NetSwitcher application
but currently there is no user feedback in NetSwTray that a long operation is occurring.
Eventually, there will be a progress dialog telling the user to be patient but in this
version, there is no feedback. Please be patient with this operation. In some cases
I've seen this take up to 5 minutes! I wish there was a solution to this but this is
a new Windows 2000 "feature". It takes just as long if you join an NT domain from the
Network Properties menu.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.29 (Release Date 27-Mar-2000):

Further additions to the Help file. Hopefully this version is getting close to a complete help file.
Currently applied location profile is now set and displayed on both the General page in the NetSwitcher GUI and in the popup menu in the NetSwTray application.
Fixed the querying of the administrative password when joining an NT Server domain. The should only me asked for when actually applying a new setup with a new domain to join.
Wired up the reboot logic to a dialog which prompts the user to reboot if NetSwitcher thinks a reboot is needed based on the changes made.
NetSwTray.exe "listens" for a shutdown or reboot and queries the user if a new setup should be loaded before completing the shutdown or reboot.
Added a "please wait for this to complete" dialog to the NetSwTray application when performing an operation that can take a long time.
Added an option to run NetSwitcher from the NetSwTray menu.
Disabled the ability to add or edit RunCommands or to install new NetSwitcher extension modules when NetSwitcher is running using the NetSwitcher Administrative Service. This is needed for security since a user could run NetSwitcher using the service, create a RunCommand like "CMD.EXE", and then click apply. The service would then create a privileged CMD.EXE shell for the user to exploit. The same is true with the extensions, although a bit more difficult. A user could create an extension, install it, and then use it to gain privileged access over the system.
First V3 release using the Installer.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.30 (Release Date 29-Mar-2000):

Local drive and folder sharing setup has been added in this release. WARNING! If you apply an older (i.e. < 3.0.30) using this version it will overwrite any existing shares you might have.
Fixed some issues with joining an NT Domain or Workgroup using NT4. In some cases an error, "Unable to update local security in order to join domain" was being displayed when users tried to use the Windows NT Network Control Panel to rejoin a domain. This version of NetSwitcher updates the local security when you leave a domain so that if you use the Network Control Panel to rejoin a domain, this error will not happen.
Fixed a problem where the NetSwTray application was popping up and asking to apply a new setup after it had just applied a new one. Now if NetSwTray initiates a reboot or shutdown, it will not catch its own activity.
Fixed a problem where an error was being reported in some cases where there were no IP addresses assigned to an adapter.

Release Notes for Version 3.0.31 (Release Date 03-Apr-2000):

This is NetSwitcher V3 Release Candidate 1. If testing continues to go well, we expect to release V3.0 "officially" shortly. Feature-wise, if it's not in this version, it not going be be in the initial release.
This version supports licensing. If you have an existing V2 installation and license, it will automatically recognize your license and use it. If you have a V2 license but it is not installed, you may enter that license and it will work. There is also a new V3 license key scheme that is mainly designed to make the license keys shorter and less cryptic.
For those setups from an NT4 or W2K workstation that require joining an NT Domain, this version will now offer to save the privileged account username and password for you to keep from having to reenter them every time you join the domain. These are saved using the NT security authority and are as secure as any other NT security information on your system.
NetSwTray will not offer to load a new setup when the interactive user logs off. Only shutdown and reboot are detected.
NetSwTray will not start a second copy of itself if a user double click on it's icon or chooses it from the Start Menu. Under some circumstances 2 copies were also getting started when one was running as a service and the other was being started interactively. Now, only one copy will start and run at a time.
Added a "don't tell me about this again" option to the "it doesn't look like you're an administrator" dialog box that gets displayed on startup. In some cases, NT reports that the interactive user is not an administrator even though he may be privileged.

Release Notes for Version 3.1.0 (Release Date 17-Apr-2000):

This is the official release of NetSwitcher V3. If you are using any of the BETA versions of V3 (i.e. the version is < 3.1.0) then please update to 3.1.0 now.
There was a problem with the license entry screen where a V2 license string was entered into the V3 license string field. This caused NetSwitcher to display "Invalid License" and it was then impossible to enter either a valid V3 license or the V2 license in the V2 license area.

Release Notes for Version 3.1.1 (Unreleased):

No notes.

Release Notes for Version 3.1.2 (Release Date 03-May-2000):

Added support for the Cisco (formerly Altiga Networks) VPN client software.
Corrected a problem on some systems where the NetSwTray application was not properly starting due to the use of a long pathname in the Run registry key. The symptoms were the opening of an Explorer window to the NetSwitcher install directory and the NetSwTray application was not starting.

Release Notes for Version 3.1.3 (Unreleased):

No notes.

Release Notes for Version 3.1.4 (Unreleased):

No notes.

Release Notes for Version 3.1.5 (Restricted release):

Modified the security settings when running using the NetSwitcher Administrative Service to prevent running of setups which are not owned by the administrator.
Fixed a problem with the support for the latest CheckPoint SecuRemote client for Windows 9x.
Fixed a problem in the licensing where invalid or incorrect entries in the license screen caused NetSwitcher to fail on subsequent operations.

Release Notes for Version 3.1.6 (Restricted release):

Fixed a problem where the Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator settings were not getting set under certain circumstances.

Release Notes for Version 3.1.7 (Restricted release):

Fixed a problem with the NetSwTray application where it would fail to set some options at shutdown/reboot on certain systems. (Mostly Win98)
Fixed a problem where NetSwTray would not detect a reboot or shutdown event on some Windows 2000 computers and therefore the user would not be queried for a new setup.
Fixed a number of issues having to do with Windows 2000. The most important of which was inhibiting the display of network cards that are not currently installed in the system and uniquely identifying multiple instances of the same network card.

Release Notes for Version 3.1.8 (8-22-2000):

V3.1.8 is the general release version of V3.1.7.

Release Notes for Version 3.2.0 (11-21-2000):

Removed the beep in the Tray application shutdown dialog. Some users found this annoying.
Fixed a problem on NT4 and Win2000 where the DHCP service was being stopped when it should have been left running.
Fixed a problem on NT4 with the Cisco VPN 5000 product. Reports indicate that the Cisco VPN 5000 for Windows 2000 (in beta at this point) works with this fix as well.
Corrected an issue with the Internet Explorer proxy settings where proxy servers which were specified using "http://host.domain.com" format were being improperly handled.
Added the missing "AutoConfig URL" setting to the Netscape Navigator tab.
Included a NetSwitcher V2 NSW file conversion utility. Access it here:
There was an issue with the amount of space allocated to the USERNAME for mounting remote drives on the Sharing tab. In many cases where the user was a part of an NT Domain, the combination of the domain name and the username was too long for the allotted 16 character limit. Note that setups saved with this new version will not be compatible with older versions of NetSwitcher. Older setups are automatically converted as they are read in.
Many users were not reading or understanding the "SYSTEM PRIVILEGE WARNING" dialog box. Some changes were made to the working of this to try and better describe the situation.
Added more details to the "DC Error" dialog box. As it was this was quite uninformative.
Verified functionality on Windows Me (Millenium Edition). Modified "DUN Version" display (on the General tab) to be aware of Windows Me version string. From NetSwitcher's point of view, Windows Me = Windows 98 SE.
Fixed a problem reported when the V3 license was a valid license but had an unexpected string on one of its fields. This caused NetSwitcher to crash unexpectedly.
Added support for switching email settings for Qualcomm Eudora 4.x.
Added support for switching email settings for Microsoft Outlook Express.
Updated much of the NetSwitcher HELP file. Please read it.
Added the -importsave command line switch to permit an import and save operation from the command line.

Release Notes for Version 3.2.1 (12-05-2000):

Corrected a problem on Windows 2000 systems where a shared folder name longer than 12 characters or a shared folder comment longer then 48 characters would cause NetSwitcher to crash, the stored profile to fail to be applied, or would cause the folder sharing feature to appear not to work. To maintain compatibility with earlier Windows versions and existing NetSwitcher setups, NetSwitcher will truncate shared folder names to 12 characters or comments to 48.
Fixed a license problem in V3.2.0 where there was some test code inadvertently left in that prevented a properly licensed copy of NetSwitcher from detecting the license.

Release Notes for Version 3.2.2 (04-02-2001):

Made changes to the NT DOMAIN join functions for Windows NT4. There were some circumstances where attempts to join the domain failed due to loss of synchronization in the secure channel.
Added a feature to the Eudora mail support to permit the user to specify where Eudora is installed. In V3.2.0 the expected location for Eudora was in Program Files\Qualcomm\Eudora Mail on either the C: drive or the Windows boot drive. If the Eudora settings were not found in either of these locations, the Eudora configuration was inhibited.
Added support for Microsoft Outlook in addition to the earlier support for Outlook Express.
Fixed a problem reported where the NT DOMAIN logon setting was not being detected properly on Windows 98 systems when the flag was stored as a REG_DWORD instead of the typical REG_BINARY type.
Fixed a problem where the DNS search order settings were not being restored on an IMPORT.
Fixed a problem where any mapped network drives were not being restored on Win2000 systems when the NetDriveUsername_xxx= field was blank.
Fixed the situation where NetSwitcher was setting all of the Outlook or Outlook Express email accounts other than the default to be not checked for new mail. Now all accounts other than the default are left as they were. The default is set to be checked.
Fixed a problem with the NetSwitcher Tray application on Windows NT4 systems. Often the system would not shutdown after applying a new NetSwitcher setup.
Fixed a problem on Windows 2000 Professional SP1 where a "phantom" network adapter was being displayed on the Network Adapter tab.
Added enhanced error reporting to the Windows 2000/NT DOMAIN/WORKGROUP section of the code. There are any number of issues which could prevent such an operation and the existing code just said that it failed, not why.
Added the ability to configure the "Wait for user input" time for the NetSwTray.EXE application. Prior to this the wait was set at 10 sec. By adding an entry to the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JWHANCE\NetSwitcher for Windows\NetSwII called NetSwTrayWait (this should be a DWORD value) the number of seconds to wait can be modified.
Modified NETSWTRAY.EXE to avoid setting the HungAppTimeout value to 12000 if it was already set to a value greater than 12000 (i.e. 12 sec.).
Modified the handling of the NT DOMAIN username on Windows 2000 systems. In a trusted domain setup it's possible that the username is from another domain that is trusted by the one being joined. NetSwitcher was pre-pending the to-be-joined domain to the username in an attempt to join the domain. In the case of a username from a trusted domain, this caused an error. Now NetSwitcher will not pre-pend the domain if the username is of the form "domain\user". In this case, it will just use the name as given.
Modified the logic in the saved setup loading code. There were many reasonable cases where NetSwitcher should have been able to make a reasonable determination about what saved network adapter state should be applied to what current network adapter in the system without displaying the "Associate Network Adapter" dialog box. Setups are now loaded or imported using the following rules:

a) If the name in the saved setup matches a current adapter, the setup is associated with that adapter.
b) If there is not a name match but there is only one network adapter in the system, the FIRST setup read is the one associated with that adapter.
c) Otherwise, saved adapter setups are read in order and associated with system network adapters in order until one or the other is exhausted.
Added the "-sequential_import" command line option to force the above behavior on an imported INI file.
Added the capability to handle shared folder names longer than 12 characters on Windows 2000 systems. Windows 2000 permits share names of up to 79 characters.
Added code to suppress modifications of any settings for the Nortel Extranet Client VPN on Windows 2000. NetSwitcher was seeing this device as having DHCP and was setting the Enable DHCP flag for it. This has the effect (on some systems or versions) of causing Windows 2000 to pause at the "Preparing Network Connections..." window for several minutes. NetSwitcher will also clear this flag any time it finds it set.
Fixed an issue where Windows 2000 systems which were a member of a domain would not always complete a join to another domain.

Release Notes for Version 3.2.3 (10-01-2001):

Added a new feature to permit configuration of a NetSwitcher defined SMTP server. This permits most email clients to send outgoing mail even when connected to different network with outgoing (i.e. SMTP) servers that will not relay mail. To use this feature (found on the Email Clients tab) you specify the IP address of the specific network's SMTP server. NetSwitcher will create an entry in the Windows HOSTS file called "nswsmtp" based on this. Now, any email client program (i.e. Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.) can be configured by the user to send outgoing mail to "nswsmtp". Since this hostname is defined in the Windows HOSTS file (which is always checked first) the outgoing mail can be re-routed using this method.
Added support for Outlook XP default email account selection.
Modified Outlook, Outlook Express, and Outlook XP to display all types of email accounts in the default selection list. Prior to this version only POP3 accounts were displayed and selectable.
Corrected an issue in the NETSWTRAY application where the first location displayed in the shutdown selection list was not selectable.
Added a warning dialog to the NT DOMAIN checkbox for Windows NT and Windows 2000 clients. Too many users were removing themselves from the domain without understanding what they were doing. In some cases they either did not have or didn't know they had a local computer account and effectively locked themselves out of their workstation. Note that a user who can do this could still do with without NetSwitcher (i.e. it doesn't give them any privilege that they didn't already have) but NetSwitcher seems to have made it too easy to make this mistake.
Fixed a problem in the reading of locally shared folders on Win95 systems where NetSwitcher would crash. This seems to be a defective Windows system call but there is not likely to be any Microsoft resolution at this point since Win95 is unsupportable from their point of view.
Added the ability to reconfigure the install time choice of Outlook versions. This is accessed via the NetSwitcher system menu:

This causes the display of a dialog which allows the selection of which Outlook version to use:
Fixed a problem where blank input was accepted in the Add IP, Add Gateway, and Add DNS dialogs and this caused invisible entries to appear in the display for these items. This really didn't cause any system problems but users were sometimes confused by then and having a blank one in the IP address field would prevent the selection of DHCP.
Added support for the new Microsoft ISA Server (Internet Security and Acceleration) client software. This is the successor to the Microsoft Proxy Server WINSOCK PROXY CLIENT (WSP). If NetSwitcher detects ISA Client installed, it will display the ISA tab rather than the WSP tab. If neither is found, then neither tab is displayed.
Made some slight changes to the NETSWTRAY tray popup menu to improve usability. The EXIT item was moved to the bottom of the menu and a check mark is displayed adjacent to the currently selected setup (if applicable).
Added capability to SAVE and RESTORE the SECURITY settings for shared folders on Windows NT and 2000 systems. In earlier versions anytime a shared folder was restored the system default security was applied.
Fixed an error in the Netscape Navigator code that caused a crash in some instances.
Modified the "Please select a new location..." popup dialog in the NetSwTray application to show it's buttons when displayed on a Windows XP system using the default screen settings and fonts. The slimmer and taller style of the XP desktop caused the buttons at the bottom of the dialog to be hidden.
Added an EDIT feature to the Network Adapter page to permit editing an existing IP address:
Fixed a problem in the Internet Explorer and Navigator settings where a too long BYPASS LIST (i.e. > 1024) could cause a crash. Also modified the code for the proxies to protect against a too long proxy server.
Fixed a problem where the Internet Explorer proxy settings would be interpreted incorrectly under certain circumstances. This manifested itself as blank values in the proxy fields or having the proxy URL or IP in the port box.
Added two new menu items to the NetSwTray menu. These are "Reboot Windows w/new setup" and "Shutdown Windows w/new setup". These appear at the bottom of the tray application popup menu:

These are mainly in response to the confusion many users were having over the behavior of Windows when initiating a reboot or shutdown via the Start Menu but choosing a new setup in NetSwitcher. Windows provides NO indication to running apps as to whether or not a shutdown or a reboot is about to happen. So NetSwitcher is in the "dark" so to speak about what comes next. So after receiving the request to load a new setup, NetSwitcher defaults to SHUTDOWN since that seems most likely.
Tested operation on Windows XP Build 2600 (which is reported to be the real manufacturing release) and made some changes to accommodate differences between Windows XP and Windows 2000. There were some changes in V3.2.3 made to support Windows XP RC1 and RC2 but these were removed since they were no longer needed with Build 2600.

Release Notes for Version 3.2.4 (03-08-2002):

Fixed a problem where the NETSWTRAY.EXE application was crashing on some systems when there were no setups saved.
Fixed a problem where the WINS settings were not being properly detected on Windows NT4 SP6a systems.
Fixed a problem where NetSwitcher V3.2.3 was hanging after APPLY on some Windows XP systems.
Windows XP Home Edition lacks the capability to join an NT DOMAIN. A check was added to determine if XP Home is the operating system and the NT DOMAIN and NT DOMAIN LOGON controls are disabled in that case.
Added support for Netscape Navigator V6.x.
Added support for 802.11b wireless network card SSID settings for most cards/vendors.
Added ability to control items which are started by Windows via the registry "Run" keys.
Disabled the LMHOSTS pathname control for NT4, W2K, and XP platforms. The path to the LMHOSTS file cannot be controlled on these platforms and this control, while enabled on those versions of Windows, was non-functional.
Added an additional warning for NT/2000/XP users who attempt to change the COMPUTERNAME or the NT DOMAIN name. Just as with the NT DOMAIN LOGON box, these can invalidate the user's computer account on the domain server and lock the user out. Now the WARNING dialog will be displayed if the user attempts to change any of these items when on a workstation that is an NT DOMAIN member computer.
Fixed an error in the HELP where it indicated that a reboot was not necessary after changing the IP address on Win98. A reboot is needed and the documentation was wrong.
Added a check for NO SAVED SETUPS and then prompt the user to save the CURRENT setup in case they mess things up and want to get back to where they started.
Removed support for old NetSwitcher V2 licenses. No V2 license has been issued since Feb 2001 and therefore any V2 license is expired.
Changed the terminology on the network adapter tab to more closely follow the "NetBIOS" enable/disable terms used on the Win2000/XP TCPIP protocol properties.
Added the ability to IMPORT, EXPORT, and DELETE multiple setups in one operation in the MANAGE LOCATIONS dialog box.
Added the ability to control the Universal Plug & Play services for Windows XP (and Win2000 that optionally have this installed). UPnP has been identified as a major security risk when used on an unprotected network. See Steve Gibson's excellent coverage of this at http://grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm.
Fixed a bug in the command line selection of a new profile to load where the Email Clients data was not being updated.
Added two new command line switches, -forceshutdown and -forcereboot. These are the same as -shutdown and -reboot except that they always will do the shutdown or reboot whether the setup change requires it or not.
Fixed a problem in the V3.2.4 BETA where perfectly acceptable "old" setups were being reported as incompatible when selected.
Updated the Client Services for Netware (CSNW) Extension to be compatible with the Windows XP Pro version of the Microsoft CSNW client.
Added a check for success/failure on each of the NetSwitcher tabs when the APPLY button is clicked. If any one of these fails the user is notified and a report is made available for debugging purposes.
Fixed a problem in the V3.2.4 BETA where a debugging dialog box might popup from the Netscape XP registry function on an error.
Fixed a problem in the V3.2.4 BETA where the STARTUP APPS was not working properly on Win2000 and XP. NetSwitcher was copying disabled items to the <regpath>\Run\Disabled key but W2K/XP seem to run everything in the <regpath>\Run key as well as all keys below. This caused items that NetSwitcher had "disabled" to still be run and many such apps re-create their Run entries if they run and their entry is not found in the Run registry. This made for duplicates appearing.
Fixed a problem reported where the Internet Explorer No Dial/Dial if.../Always Dial settings were not being properly detected in all situations.

Release Notes for Version 3.2.5 (06-01-2002):

Fixed a problem where Netscape Navigator 6 was not being recognized on all systems where it should have been.
Correct a version detection problem on Windows 98 First Edition and some Windows 95 systems where the NT DOMAIN logon checkbox was being disabled improperly.
Updated the HELP file which had a bad URL in it.
Fixed a problem in the NetSwitcher EXPORT/IMPORT function where the IMPORT would crash with certain INI files even though there was nothing wrong with them.
Modified the NetSwitcher installer to check the license status and warn the user if the new version being installed might not be properly licensed due to expiration.
Corrected an issue in the NT DOMAIN LOGON feature for NT4/2000/XP Pro where the error status was not being output.

Release Notes for Version 3.2.6 (09-15-2003):

Fixed a problem in Win9x/ME systems where the DISABLE PW CACHE checkbox was being defaulted to ON when applying a setup. This sometimes causes DUN and shared drive passwords to not be saved.
Added support for Mozilla 1.0 browser. Note that in the event that more than one "Netscape" browser is installed on the system, NetSwitcher will support only one of them. The priority is: Mozilla, Netscape 6, any other version in that order.
Added a "Force printer for all users" to the Default Printer setting under Windows NT/2000/XP in an attempt to help resolve some of the "default printer doesn't take" issues. In many cases, users are setting the default printer for one logon account but expecting it to be set for another. This setting will set the specified default printer for every user of the machine.
Added a check for a running copy of either Netscape Navigator or Mozilla after the APPLY is selected. Since both of these applications always WRITE their settings out when they exit, any changes NetSwitcher might make are lost when they exit. If a running copy of Netscape or Mozilla is found, the user is asked if he wants it closed or will close it himself.
Corrected a problem where the 802.11b SSID was not being properly set for some 3COM cards.
Fixed a problem where the DNS was not working on some systems when DHCP is used.
Added support for changing display resolution and color depth.
Added the ability to set the HOME PAGE for Internet Explorer.
Added the ability to set the HOME PAGE for Netscape Navigator and Mozilla.
Modified the behavior of the DISPLAY SETTINGS from an earlier V3.2.6 BETA to solve an issue where NetSwitcher would crash if the possible display modes had changed.
Changed the "are you an administrator" code to try to make a better determination of whether or not a user is a local administrator.
Fixed a problem where the TIME ZONE setting was being exported incorrectly in some cases.
Added a report to indicate which area had trouble in a SAVE failure occurred when attempting to save a setup.
Fixed a problem where NetSwitcher sometimes wrote duplicate entries into the saved setup for the Startup items list.
Made a change to the enumeration of available Dial-Up connections to detect all available connections on Win2000 and XP platforms.
Fixed a bug where an ADAPTER DUMP would happen when an IMPORTED setup file was applied that had fewer network adapters than are currently installed in the system.
Added support for submenus in the NetSwitcher tray application. See this link for documentation.
Added support for enabling/disabling the Windows XP FireWall feature.
Added support for enabling/disabling the ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) feature on Windows XP Pro and XP Home systems.
Fixed an error where the Internet Explorer "Automatically Detect Settings" was getting changed even though there was no setting for it in NetSwitcher.
Added support for the Internet Explorer "Automatically Detect Settings" setting in NetSwitcher.
In the TCPIP properties, the DNS searchlist is entered as a comma delimited list of domain names. Users are supposed to enter this list without and spaces but it's easy to accidentally add a space. Unfortunately, Windows does not accept the entire list if there are spaces in it so NetSwitcher was modified to strip any spaces out of the DNS list.
Made a change to support an updated CheckPoint SecuRemote VPN client. This was causing NetSwitcher to do an adapter "dump" due to a misconfiguration in the VPN client.
Changed the way remote drives are mapped when running on Win2000 and WinXP. A password is now able to be entered and optionally stored for use in connecting to the remote in the future. Even though WinXP Home cannot save passwords for remote drives, NetSwitcher will do it.
Added a "Don't show me this again..." checkbox to the Shutdown/Reboot/Ignore dialog in NetSwitcher.
Fixed a problem where the "Don't include..." checkbox was not being set/reset on the Startup Apps tab.
Added a check to report when an attempt to modify the Windows HOSTS file failed when using the SMTP Server Redirection feature on the Email Clients tab.
Changed the maximum number of network adapters supported in one system from 16 to 32. It seems that some people are actually using that many adapters.
Added support for controlling the Windows Messenger Service on NT/2000/XP. The SPAMMERS are using this to send (usually disgusting) popup messages to machines with the Messenger Service that are exposed on a broadband connection. Since there are legitimate uses for this service and some people need to have it on at different locations, NetSwitcher now controls this service.
Fixed an issue with the HOSTS file when the SMTP Server Redirection feature (on the Email Clients tab) was used and there were other HOSTS file entries in the file. On Win9x/ME there was no problem but W2K/XP seems to be more picky about the format of the entries here.
With respect to #24 above it seems that there are three distinct groups of users. 1) Those that were having trouble with the "old" way of mapping remote drives and find that the "new" method works 100%, 2) Those who didn't have trouble before but now are having trouble, and 3) Those that don't have any trouble at all. I, it seems, fall into the 3rd category and am unable to determine why users are having trouble with either the "old" or the "new" way of mapping drives. So I've decided to try and do the best for each group by making the "mode" user selectable. In the NetSwitcher SYSTEM menu there is now a system side setting to chose whether to use the "old" method (used in V3.2.5 and earlier) or the "new" method which is in V3.2.6 and later. The DEFAULT is "new" so if you are having trouble try changing this to "old" and see if things improve. The menu pick looks like:

Release Notes for Version 3.3.0 (07-16-2005):

Fixed a problem with IE settings when running under the NetSwitcher Admin Service.
Fixed a problem with Netscape and Mozilla settings when running under the NetSwitcher Admin Service.
Added support for editing the Windows HOST file in NetSwitcher setups.
Added support for FireFox 1.0 Web Browser.
Added the missing option "No Display Change" to the dropdown box for Display Resolution when a profile has been selected.
Added support the network adapter ENABLE/DISABLE hardware for Windows 2000 and XP. Previously this feature was only available for Windows 9x/ME.
Corrected an issue on 2000 and XP where an APPLY with no change in network adapter data would cause a DHCP release/renew when one was not needed. Didn't cause any system problems but took up a lot of time.
Added an "apply status" display window to show the progress of the apply.
Fixed a problem reported with multiple IP addresses on an adapter. Changes to IPs beyond the first were not seen by IPCONFIG (and therefore Windows) until a reboot. (Windows 2000 and XP only.)
Added support for the metric value in the gateway for a network adapter. The Add Gateway dialog box was modified as follows:

The Gateways listbox also now shows the metric for each of the gateways:
Added support for the interface metric setting under Windows 2000 and XP. The network adapters property page now includes controls to set this function:
Added capability to manage 802.11 wireless settings for Windows XP only. (No other windows version has the underlying API to support wireless settings.) A button to manage the 802.11 or WiFi settings will appear on each network adapter's tab. This button will be disabled if the platform is not XP, if the adapter is not a wireless adapter, or if the Windows Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC) service is running on the workstation. NetSwitcher can control WZC through an option on the System Menu:

Once WZC is stopped, the button will be enabled and will bring up the 802.11 wireless configuration dialog box.
Added the ability to EDIT the properties for a remote/network drive. Prior to this release there was only the ability to add or delete these.
Rolling out a new installer (NullSoft NSIS Scriptable Installer) to replace the old SetupFactory installer.

Release Notes for Version 3.3.1 (08-01-2005):

Fixed a problem with the installer uninstall. Uninstaller would remove all data including all stored setups even if user said no. Be sure to backup your profiles if you uninstall V3.3.0.
Fixed a reported issue where NetSwII.exe would hang forever when changing from DOMAIN to WORKGROUP or vice-versa.
Made a change to the NETSWTRAY.EXE application where there was a possibility that the profile selected from the popup menu would not be the one applied.

Release Notes for Version 3.3.3 (10-10-2005):

Fixed an issue where NetSwitcher would fail to start if there was an unexpected line in the Windows HOSTS file.

Release Notes for Version 3.3.4(10-18-2005):

Fixed an issue where NetSwitcher would crash @ EIP = 0x0044704C if the HOSTS file was missing or could not be opened.

Release Notes for Version 3.3.5 (03-13-2006):

Fixed detection issue for Netscape V8.X when it was installed new on a machine rather than upgrading from an older version of Netscape.
Fixed a problem where an error was reported when the FireFox configuration was not able to be opened.
Removed a warning message that should not have appeared in the progress log about the InterfaceMetric setting.

Release Notes for Version 3.3.6 (03-24-2006):

Experimental support for Windows Vista BUILD 5308.
Corrected an issue where a warning message was displayed when the SMTP Server redirection could not open the Windows HOSTS file for edit.
Added a Enable/Disable Feature dialog to permit users to completely disable various functions that they have no need for. Accessed through the system menu pick:

This displays the Enable/Disable Feature Dialog:
Removed a debugging dialog box that said "Not found" under certain circumstances.

Release Notes for Version 3.3.7 (06-05-2006):

Fixed an issue where NetSwitcher would crash if a network adapter had more IP addresses assigned than subnet masks. While this is an illegal condition, it should not cause a crash. NetSwitcher will now ignore any IP addresses that don't have an associated subnet mask.
In some cases the FireFox browser stores an absolute pathname to its setup file vs. the more common case of storing a relative pathname. NetSwitcher was assuming that the pathname was always relative and was reporting an "Error 3" when attempting to access the FireFox configuration file. Added a check to see if the pathname was absolute and used that pathname instead of building a relative path.
Added the 802.11 Wireless/WiFi feature to the Enable/Disable Features dialog.

Release Notes for Version 3.3.8 (11-10-2006):

FireFox 2.0 introduced a change in how its configuration is stored. This caused NetSwitcher to be unable to locate the setup and so it did not show a tab for FireFox. This version corrects that issue and works with FireFox 2.0.
Fixed a problem with IE support. NetSwitcher would crash or fail to display any tabs in the UI if the "Bypass local..." checkbox was set but the proxies were disabled.

Release Notes for Version 3.4.0 (01-01-2009):

Added support for Windows Vista operating system.

(Note: TBD means To Be Determined.)

Go to the NetSwitcher for Windows Home Page

This page was last updated on 28 March, 2009