Version 5.30 of Resco File Explorer has been released – a review and brand new tips

http://www.resco.net/pocketpc/explorer/default.asp

If you don't know Resco File Explorer (which, incidentally, even won the Best Software Awards 2005 in the File Management category), you definitely should give it a test ride – you won't regret it. It's by far the best all-in-one program, as far as file and registry management functions are considered. (Its Today plug-in and FTP module aren't that good/featureful/reliable, though, compared to the alternatives.) In this article, I explain what has changed in this version. Even more importantly, I show you how you can greatly improve its functionality by relocating its brand new, "killer" feature, Recycle Bin, to a storage card. Please note that this article, as far as its review section is concerned, is not a step-by-step, all-in-one introduction to all the features of Resco but a comparative review to find out whether it's, money/effort-wise, worth upgrading to it if you already have a not-that-outdated older version (for example. 5.21/5.22). For all-in-one reviews (of older versions of) Resco, please read for example clintonfitch.com's review. (You may also want to Google for the expression "resco file explorer review" and follow the links from there.) First: what is really sad, as opposed to version 5.22, is that Resco no longer supports SH3/MIPS Pocket PC 2000 devices – the download page no longer has cab files meant for these platforms. (Why I want a PPC2k version, you may ask. The answer is simple: there is still a large userbase of, for example, the Casio Cassiopeia E-125 because of its excellent, really gamer-friendly hardware buttons/D-pad and the screen, which only current hi-end models like the Pocket Loox 720 or the iPAQ hx4700 could surpass, color rendition quality-wise.) (Note that I've tested the application on PPC2k2 - my iPAQ 3660 -; works flawlessly, as with on my other, newer Pocket PC's.) In the following, I elaborate on all the modules of Resco, improvements-wise. 1. Resco Updater The first thing I've noticed after I've installed the new version over 5.21 is a new icon in the Today plug-in - that of Resco Updater. This is an on-the-fly downloader like Dweller (see this article on Dweller and comparable techniques), but meant only for downloading Resco apps. It has been introduced in version 5.22; therefore, it'll only be news for pre-5.22 users. Much as it's pretty good to have to be able to always update the Resco applications on your PDA, even if you're on the go, I woulnd't say it's working flawlessly, though: as I've already said, I installed Resco over version 5.21 (not on a "clean" PPC). Much as the actual, installed version was, therefore, 5.30 on my PPC, Resco Updater, has always reported 5.21 being the current one, even after a forced reinstallation of 5.30: click for screenshot click for screenshot Furthermore, during the install of Resco Audio Recorder (which is one of the best audio recorder apps - see this huge roundup of all PPC audio recorder apps for more information), it (RUpdate.exe) got overwritten. You should pay particular attention to "RUpdate.exe is read only" messages during installs and should NEVER answer Yes in these dialogs. 2. The Today plug-in The Today plug-in is as bare-bone as in the previous version(s); for example, it still has no support for accessing settings applets (not even custom-defined ones), unlike more featureful plug-ins. (Please see this full-blown Today launcher roundup (alternatives: iPAQ HQ, AximSite, PPC Magazine, FirstLoox, BrightHand on this question). However, in my opinion, it's not a big problem because the undisputable strengths of this Today plug-in: - moderate dynamic RAM consumption (it consumes 620-680 kbytes, exactly the same as with version 5.21) – see one of the main advantages of this in this blog entry - doesn't mess with USB hosted, external drives - clear, pretty icons - VGA (in both native and standard SE modes) compliance have been retained. The only difference to version 5.21 is that it lacks the "Compact" icon set. (See the above-linked Today plug-in roundup for example screenshots of that icon set). This is why the installation CAB file size is considerably lower than with version 5.21: the new CAB file only contains two sets (a low-resolution and a high-resolution icon sets) of the same, "Default" icon sets. (These two sets are copied to the file system at first, but when the Today plug-in is first run, depending on your Pocket PC, the unnecessary one will be deleted and the remaining one, if necessary, will be renamed to the Default subdirectory under \Program Files\Resco\TodaySkins.) 3. Registry Editor The Registry Editor hasn't been changed, feature-wise (the install CAB file is about 1 kbytes bigger), not counting support for 240*240 screens and button-based operation. Not that it'd need much improvement (except for, for example, backward or binary search capabilities) - it's as excellent as before. Please see this registry editor roundup on comparing it to the alternatives if interested. 4. File Explorer The File Explorer itself, the focal point of the entire suite, has a brand new feature, "Recycle Bin". This is a long-awaited feature of Windows Mobile - the Object Store (the built-in, "static" RAM-based storage memory) of Windows Mobile is like Linux file systems in that you can't just undelete any deleted file, not even right after the deletion - unlike with NTFS or FAT, the traditional, well-known desktop file systems. A screenshot of the configuration screen, which is very similar to that of the desktop Windows: click for screenshot It also works the same way as the desktop Windows: Explorer moves the deleted files into a folder named ~Recycled in the root directory. Its contents are accessible and the filenames aren't modified unless there would be a name clash otherwise. As you can see in the above screenshot, you can even set the percentage of the RAM to be used for such purposes. Unfortunately, by default, you can't relocate \~Recycled from the precious and scarce RAM to a storage card; in addition to being unable to configure this inside the application, the Registry related to this module doesn't have any path info: click for screenshot I've examined whether this shortcoming can be cured with hexediting RFileShell.dll, which contains the \~Recycled path three times. I had success at this: the recycle bin, with some manual relocation, can be relocated to a storage card (but not to the Built-in Storage/File Store because they use just too long path names), assuming your PDA uses short storage card names (with at most 7 letters), which is the standard with current PDA's. That is, if your PDA refers to your SD/CF card as SD Card/CF Card, as on, for example, iPAQ's (or as SD-Card/CF-Card, as for example on Fujitsu-Siemens devices), then, you can relocate the Recycle Bin to a card into a one-letter subdirectory (but no more, because of the maximal length of the new path). This means this won't work with (mostly) older devices that, for example, use the name "Storage Card" instead of the short CF/SD Card form. For example, on my Fujitsu-Siemens PL720, I've decided to put the recycle bin on my CF card, into the directory named ~. Then, I changed the Unicode string "\~Recycled" at the (hexa) positions 2c288, 2c2aa and 2c348 to "\CF-Card\~" as can be seen on the following screenshots. The original (the strings starting at position 2c288 and 2c2aa highlighted): click for screenshot This is what I've changed them to: click for screenshot Finally, changing the path at position 2c348: click for screenshot Please read for example this article (relocating the SPP Today Plug-in DLL to the File Store) (alternatives: PPCT, AximSite, PPC Magazine, iPAQ HQ, BrightHand) on using a hexedit application to make these changes. Note that once you relocate the Recycle Bin, Resco FE will compute the usable disk space based on the storage card and not that of the RAM. Also, if you remove the memory card, you can still delete files, Resco won't crash and no bogus \CF-Card (see this blog entry on this problem plaguing, for example, Pocket Internet Explorer or Pocket Inbox/Messaging relocations) directories will be created. 5. FTP Finally, the FTP module. You may already have read my benchmark results (alternative here; upload speed measurements here, in my roundup of Pocket PC image viewer/editors) of the previous versions. Some 12-13 months ago, its download-to-storage-card speeds were absymal. I'll post the updated benchmark results, along with the new, vxFTP 1.2.0 results as soon as I manage to benchmark them reliably. Before I benchmark this module, though, you may yourself want to compare the download speeds to your storage card(s), as opposed to the main memory, particularly over a fast connection before starting to download high amounts of data on your PDA with the FTP module of Resco. 6. Bottom line I really recommend switching to this version – the Recycle Bin, particularly if you follow my tutorial and relocate it to a "unlimited", optimized (do read my tutorial on optimization) memory card, can be really useful. Furthermore, if you have a square screen device (the iPAQ hw6515, the forthcoming Treo 700w and some HTC models) and/or would you prefer navigating with hardware buttons, this app is the way to go. The same stands for internationalization – Resco FE is also shipped in a multilingual version.