BC3 and integration with Directory Opus

[DorothyFan1]

My concern about the upcoming upgrade to BC2 involves BC3 possibly breaking smooth integration with Directory Opus. Currently BC2 works beautifully with Directory Opus.

I even have a button designed to automatically open separate directory folders with a quick mouse click. You can't get more integrated than this with the current BC2 version. My fear is...the upgrade to BC3 will ruin this.

I don't have the BC3 beta and have no plans to try it as I'm afraid it would screw my registry settings while I currently have BC2 installed (legally licensed). Nevertheless...I hope BC3 developers can appreciate my concerns here. I haven't heard anyone on this forum or any other forum within the BC2 community mention this issue with Directory Opus.

If you even need to know what Directory Opus is at this point...may I suggest you take a long vacation. To put it succintly...it is the Ferrari of all file managers on the Windows market. It's simply the best there is. No questions asked. So this query about BC3 possibly breaking the current integration with Directory Opus is aimed at anyone who is familiar with Directory Opus and is currently building the BC3 beta and knows what I'm talking about.

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC3 Beta installs as a seperate program, and can be used alongside BC2. We are considering an overlap of the shell extension at a later date, but have not implemented it yet.

[Stumpii]

My concern about the upcoming upgrade to BC2 involves BC3 possibly breaking smooth integration with Directory Opus. Currently BC2 works beautifully with Directory Opus.

I even have a button designed to automatically open separate directory folders with a quick mouse click. You can't get more integrated than this with the current BC2 version. My fear is...the upgrade to BC3 will ruin this.

I don't have the BC3 beta and have no plans to try it as I'm afraid it would screw my registry settings while I currently have BC2 installed (legally licensed). Nevertheless...I hope BC3 developers can appreciate my concerns here. I haven't heard anyone on this forum or any other forum within the BC2 community mention this issue with Directory Opus.

If you even need to know what Directory Opus is at this point...may I suggest you take a long vacation. To put it succintly...it is the Ferrari of all file managers on the Windows market. It's simply the best there is. No questions asked. So this query about BC3 possibly breaking the current integration with Directory Opus is aimed at anyone who is familiar with Directory Opus and is currently building the BC3 beta and knows what I'm talking about.

Is there a particular problem you are referring to? I am running BC2 and BC3 together and am using DOpus. I have 4 buttons on a toolbar: Compare Folders with BC2, compare files with BC2, compare folders with BC3 and compare files with BC3. All work very happily together.

[Michael Bulgrien]

I don't have the BC3 beta and have no plans to try it as I'm afraid it would screw my registry settings while I currently have BC2 installed (legally licensed).

Have no fear. I've been running the BC3 beta concurrently with BC2 since 2006 (early private beta days). BC3 has never interfered with my BC2 installation.

[DorothyFan1]

Hello,

BC3 Beta installs as a seperate program, and can be used alongside BC2. We are considering an overlap of the shell extension at a later date, but have not implemented it yet.

This is the million dollar question...when the upgrade is official...will it allow the option to keep the BC2 shell separate...or is this being taken away. You hit it on the nail about my concerns...but I still want to know when the upgrade is available in July that I'll have the option of keeping BC2 "separate" or is there no choice in the upgrade path?

This is the key question right now. When you say later date...are you referring to the final code when it's released in July or are you talking about a much later upgrade than the one being released in July? If you're talking about the code being offered in early July...then I think we should know before hand whether or not to get this upgrade based on the whole BC3 shell implementation.

I would seriously hope you offer an installation option that allows the user to decide whether or not to keep the BC2 shell intact when BC3 does the installation. Something along the path of "We have detected BC2 on your computer. Would you like to upgrade your copy?" If the answer is no...it should install in a separate directory below BC2. This way we can test the final code without touching the BC2 implementation. If we have the option and we choose "yes"..then it's our own fault for choosing to upgrade BC2 with the new shell which may or may *not* break the current Directory Opus integration.

[Zoë]

The only overlap between the two versions is the menu items that we add to Explorer's right click menu ("Select for Compare", "Compare") when you have a file(s) or folder(s) selected. Currently both programs can add their menu items to to the menu, so you'll have duplicates. When the official 3.0 release is done only one will be able to add its items to the menu, but you can choose whether that's BC2 or BC3.

The program directories, settings, start menu items, etc, are all completely separate and will stay that way. You can have both versions installed right now and will be able to continue to do so going forward. If you install BC3 right now any additional integration you have in Directory Opus will continue to use BC2 until you manually change the paths to point to BC3 instead.

Basically, if you install BC3 and tell it not to add itself to the right-click menu it won't interact with BC2 at all.

[DorothyFan1]

So you're saying the official version of BC3 won't offer the ability to upgrade the BC2 installation in the same directory in place? You'll have to install BC3 in a separate directory anyway?

[Zoë]

You can install in the same directory, but there's no benefit. The filenames in BC2 had the version number in them (BC2.exe, BC2.chm); the filenames in BC3 don't (BComp.com, BCompare.exe, BCompare.chm). With that change we can support inplace upgrades for future releases.

We've also integrated all of the plugins we offered in BC2 directly into the main BC3 product, so the separate files for those aren't needed anymore.

[DorothyFan1]

You can install in the same directory, but there's no benefit. The filenames in BC2 had the version number in them (BC2.exe, BC2.chm); the filenames in BC3 don't (BComp.com, BCompare.exe, BCompare.chm). With that change we can support inplace upgrades for future releases.

We've also integrated all of the plugins we offered in BC2 directly into the main BC3 product, so the separate files for those aren't needed anymore.

In other words...this integration applies to "future" versions of BC...not from BC2 to BC3. So this means it's impossible to install BC3 over the BC2 directory. BC3 would have to be installed in its own directory anyway.

[Michael Bulgrien]

So this means it's impossible to install BC3 over the BC2 directory. BC3 would have to be installed in its own directory anyway.

No. It is not impossible to install BC3 in the BC2 directory. Neither is it true that BC3 has to be installed in its own directory. They can be installed in the same directory because they don't share any file names...it just doesn't make much sense to do so.

[DorothyFan1]

Then how would one go about uninstalling BC2 if one puts BC3 in the same directory?!

[Aaron]

By running the Uninstaller.

BC3 is intended to be installed in its own folder. Unless you have strong reasons for doing so, I would recommend keeping them seperate. If you would like, you may go into more detail why you are considering installing to the same folder (not the default location, or another unique folder).

As a major version update to our version 2 (which launched in 2002), this is less a "patch" or "update" and more like a upgrade, new program that behaves similarly to the old one.

BC3 is currently in a public beta testing phase. While this means it is freely available to try currently, if you are apprehensive about beta testing our software, then you may want to wait until we do a final release. If you do decide to test it, you can post/email any questions you have or problems you run into.

[DorothyFan1]

After June 30th...what is the date for the official release? I purchased my license to BC2 just a month ago...so I'm curious about this and how to "request" getting the free upgrade to BC3 Standard?

[Tim]

Our target for the full 3.0 release is July 31st. June 30th is the date for the new pricing, but we can actually fulfill BC3 orders and upgrades now. You are welcome to email me at [email protected] with your BC2 serial number and I'll get your BC3 license key to you.

For those who are anxious to buy a license or upgrade, let me know (by email) and I can provide an ordering link that works.

[DorothyFan1]

Our target for the full 3.0 release is July 31st. June 30th is the date for the new pricing, but we can actually fulfill BC3 orders and upgrades now. You are welcome to email me at [email protected] with your BC2 serial number and I'll get your BC3 license key to you.

For those who are anxious to buy a license or upgrade, let me know (by email) and I can provide an ordering link that works.

Done.