Multiboot ISO Maker Alpha 1 Released, Public download available Options

[mkisogui]

Hi everyone,

Multiboot ISO Maker is finally available for public download.

Multiboot ISO Maker (freeware) is an unrestrained graphical front end for mkisofs for Windows and a multiboot ISO creator. It supports all mkisofs options and it is aimed at people who know what mkisofs is and what is not. It is unrestrained because it supports all mkisofs options without any limits and you are not restrained to the bundled version of mkisofs. Multiboot ISO Maker works by placing all mkisofs options in a check list. You can activate and deactivate any mkisofs option by clicking on the item in the list.

Activated mkisofs options are bold so you can distinguish which option is active and which is not. On the right there is a filter box that lets you do a search for mkisofs options in real time. With every option there is associated help text (help text will change) that corresponds to each mkisofs option. The help text appears as a hint/balloon as soon as you hover with mouse over an option. All of options are organized in ascending order.

When you are ready to build the project all you have to do is press the "Build" button on the toolbar. You can also click on the Config File tab to add menu entries to your config file. Multiboot ISO Maker supports multiple projects so you are not restrained to one project. If you've used mkisofs before, you will find Multiboot ISO Maker as a very convenient tool (well I do )

Screenshots:
http://techopinion.net/images/mbim_alpha_04_001.png

This is a very early alpha release and although while testing this latest version, I did not find any errors, no software is error free. If you find something wrong, it would not have been done intentionally.


Please always, *always* back up your boot loader config file before using this alpha release. A few days back, I lost (blanked it out) my main GRUb4DOS configuration file (menu.lst) due to a bug. The error is now fixed but still, just make a back up copy.

Please do not replace the bundled mkisofs.exe yet. Although it is possible, there are a few gothchas and should there be an error, it would be hard to track down if you replace the bundeled version. For now, for testing purposes please use the one included and then I will give clear instructions how to replace mkisofs.exe with your own version and what you need to do.

**Update**

Latest version is Alpha 4 Build 001: Download: http://techopinion.net/downloads/mbim_alpha_04_R01.zip




This post has been edited by mkisogui: Nov 8 2009, 07:30 AM

[mkisogui]

Alpha 1 Build 005 Released

Changes:

- Small bug fix
- Added a toolbar button "Select ISO with Explorer"

Alpha 2 released: http://techopinion.net/downloads/mbim-alpha-2.zip

This post has been edited by mkisogui: Nov 2 2009, 11:12 PM

[mkisogui]

Alpha 3:

A lot of GUI touch ups + the following improvements:

+ The activated options are not only bold now + highlighted too! Color shaded orange to white
+ Existing open projects are now detected
+ While fixing the search filter as per request, I detected a few bugs which would lead the search to misbehave. This is now fixed.

Alpha 3 screenshot with all of the new features including the highlighted active options: http://techopinion.net/images/mbim-alpha-3.png

Download: http://techopinion.net/downloads/mbim-alpha-3.zip


Cheers,

This post has been edited by mkisogui: Nov 5 2009, 04:23 AM

[mkisogui]

vAlpha_03_05 has been released. I took my time with this one but some of the issues reported required a lot of troubleshooting.

There is a good news and bad news.

The GOOD news:

# Issue with the project explorer has been fixed - clicking on a project works with multiple projects open
# White text on bright background when used with XP classic mode has been fixed
# Search filter's option clicking has been fixed (search is case sensitive, I will add an option to change this)
# The GUI now looks as intended to look even if you use XP classic skin except for the hints popup

BAD News:

There seems to be a problem with the way the check boxes are drawn on the screen when one is using a classic skin regardless if this is XP, Vista or Windows 7. When you move the mouse over a check box, you get the balloon popup hint telling you what the option does. However the text in the hint does not look as intended and the major one is when the hint hides while it is displayed over an actual "check box", the check box does not redraw itself and it will become dark blue, half-drawn or the whole area the hint was covering will not draw correctly. This does *not* happen when you use the skin mode of XP for example Luna. It only happens when you use classic mode. So far I have failed to find a solution for this problem and I am not sure which direction I should go to. I have a few options:

- Option 1: Ignore the problem as most people will be using a non classic mode (I'd like to think so)

- Option 2: Instead of showing the hint over the item where the mouse is, show it somewhere else such a corner edge or add a special text area where the help text will be shown when you move the mouse over an item

- Option 3: Replace the check list box with a more advanced excel/access like grid but this will require an enormous amount of coding as I will have to change *everything*

Download: http://techopinion.net/downloads/mbim_alpha_03_R05.zip

Cheers,

This post has been edited by mkisogui: Nov 7 2009, 05:00 PM

[ghoster]

It's nice working. I'll try

[mkisogui]

Latest version is Alpha 4 Build 001:

Big changes / Refined GUI. Please test this latest version thanks.

http://techopinion.net/images/mbim_alpha_04_001.png
Download: http://techopinion.net/downloads/mbim_alpha_04_R01.zip

[mkisogui]

Alpha 05 Build 2 Released. Changes are:

- Added an ability to set a custom editor to view your config file. You can add as many editors as you want and you just pick the one you want from the list of editors. You can also remove editors.
- Added a new toolbar button "View Config". This will launch your project's boot loader config file.
- Finally! You can now resize the columns. The settings (just like the rest of the settings) are stored in the INI file so if you mess something up, just get a fresh version of the INI file.
- Made the check boxes more interactive. when you move the mouse over them, they slightly change color + when you click on them, it feels more like a button. It acts more realistic, in other words, it feels more alive.
- Relocated the "Build Project" button to the right
- Shortened the text description of the buttons

This version no longer touches your config file in any way. It just launches it using the editor of your choice. All of the editing + saving code has been commented out. I still recommend you to have a back up copy even though.

Screenshots of new features:

http://techopinion.net/images/alpha05-02-s1.png (The new toolbar button)
http://techopinion.net/images/alpha05-02-s2.png (Adding Editors)

Download: http://techopinion.net/downloads/mbim_alpha_05_R02.zip

A thing to keep an eye on: When you run a macro, after the macro checks/unchecks the options, the project settings are not getting saved. I will fix this.

As usual, feedback is welcome.

Cheers,

[mkisogui]

Latest release is: Alpha 6:

- Activated options are now "highlighted" and not just checked. This makes it *a lot* easier to identify which options are active and which are not. This is really good. I have been testing and experimenting this for hours and it is finally working the way I meant it to

- Remember the classic mode drawing problems? Well I did not just sit down doing nothing. I emailed the company that made this component, 3 days later I get an email "Problem has been traced and fixed!", a day later, a new version was released and problem is indeed fixed! Thanks to this, the balloon hints are back (however on XP classic they don't look nice).

- Relocated the "Active Options" to the left as well as "Filter Search" but "Filter Search" is now in a separate tab.

- The above relocation changes extensively made conditions to enlarge the grid that holds all of the MKISOFS options so now the Excel-like grid is a lot bigger.

- Many other misc bug fixes

http://techopinion.net/images/alpha6-01.png
http://techopinion.net/images/alpha6-01_2.png


Dowlnoad: http://techopinion.net/downloads/mbim_alpha_06_R01.zip

This post has been edited by mkisogui: Nov 14 2009, 12:47 AM

[mkisogui]

Alpha 07 Build 01 is out:


- Added: "Highlight Text" in grid. A little toolbar on the bottom with a text box that lets you highlight text in the grid. Similar to Maxthon's "text highlighter" except that this one's blue.
- Added: When a check box on the grid is activated or deactivated, if the same check box appears in the Filter / Search List, it will also be activated or deactivated. I missed this one.
- Added: When macros are run and settings are applied, the project is now saved.

# Bugfix: Building custom project produced incorrect message when build was successful
# Bugfix: When Filter / Search List tab was activated, the search box was not automatically focused
# Bugix: When clicking on an open project, the "State" heading in the grid was being set to "N"

Screenshot: http://www.techopinion.net/images/alpha7-01.png
Download: http://www.techopinion.net/downloads/mbim_alpha_07_R01.zip

Have big plans with this macro system. I intend to give you control over Windows and execute external Windows commands and even tell MBIM to start the build based on a condition etc....So the idea is, create a macro, run the macro and the macro/script would set up everything and even build the project.

If you see something that doesn't look quite right, simply post your question.

Feedback is welcome,

Cheers

This post has been edited by mkisogui: Nov 16 2009, 05:44 AM