Alternative for Sidewalker

Hi,

I would like to know if I there are any alternatives to Sidewalker.

Any other compatible software that could do the job?

Thanks,
S

 

Why the question? What is Sidewalker not doing that you would want it to do?

 

Oh I'm quite sure I would be satisfied with Sidewalker if I could install it. Seems there is a conflict with something or some other software.

Whenever I try to install the version from my Driver CD (1.43.0.3) it goes through all the extracting but then I get the following message:
"You can not install this version into your system".

And I don't really feel like starting from scratch again just to get this software to work.

I didn't install it to start with because I couldn't figure out what this software was doing so I went on and installed everything else and then when I tried to install it... not working.

 

Are you using XP w/SP2? Have you gone to Windows Update and downloaded all of the appropriate updates and patches?

If no, then be sure you update to SP2 and download the updates and patches and try loading Sidewalker again.

If your answers are yes, then a better solution would be to call your dealer's tech support for help.

 

Thanks Donald,

I do have XP Pro w/SP2 and have gone through all updates except the malware software updates.

I have also called my dealer's tech support already. So far we have not been able to solve the problem.

I was hoping for some alternative solution perhaps.

 

when that happened to me, what i had to do was install all HEL80 drivers in the correct order: from top to bottom...

 

I will try that.

 

Seems to be working now. Thanks.

 

I love it when a plan comes together!

 

I just bought a new mouse (Logitech MX518) and a software came with it (Logitech SetPoint 2.3 for WindowsXP).

I installed the software it was working fine, but my Sidewalker hot buttons were not working anymore.

I uninstalled the software and my Sidewalker hot buttons were working again.

Has this been happening to anyone? Any ideas if/how this can be fixed?

Thanks.

 

I have the same mouse and drivers, but the the buttons are working perfectly here?

 

I'm with paladin44 on this... But, in any event.... (I can't answer for sure until my hel80 arrives), any program that can identify the keycode when the buttons are pressed will work. Perhaps write your own if you want a little challenge? I tend to rewrite these types of utilities myself just to remove overhead from gui's and whatnot.

As long as the special keys are being driven directly from the bios, you shouldn't have a problem making any program bind to them.

 

Ah well, I should probably reinstall everything from scratch but that won't happen until Christmas. Thanks TC03.

*

If I could only write programs Pyro9219! But truly I have no qualms using Sidewalker. I was just trying to fix some compatibility issue between my Sidewalker and Setpoint.

 

I dont suppose you have tried using another version of setpoint? There honestly isn't any reason I can think of why the two applications should conflict with each other since they shouldn't be binding to the same keycodes.

 

What does sidewalker do anyways? I have it installed on my computer, but have no idea what it does! Anyone care to tell me ...

 

sidewalker is a program for assigning custom actions to the extra buttons on the laptop -- the ones marked "1" and "2".

It's a bit limited in what you can do with it. You're pretty much limited to launching a single executable file (or document?) -- if I was into using such extra buttons, I'd find or learn to write a program that would allow more power... things like command line arguments, or multiple executables.

 

A simple cheat... you could write scripts to do these things, and then point the application at those...

Simple batch script support is built into windows.
Python could be even better depending on what you want to do.

 

That's a good idea....VBScript would be an easy and quick way to accomplish whatever

Thanks for telling me what sidewalker's does.

 

i thought of that, but then you have a buncha dos windows flying all over, and you have to store them somewhere... it's a less pretty workaround, is all. kinda cool though, i suppose.

 

Take it a step farther and write form based applications, hide the form? Then no dos windows.... You could hide the tray icons and everything if you really wanted it. Just make sure to not use a .net language, otherwise you pretty little 20K applet would be more like 26mb :]

I'll take a look, if I dont like sidewalker, I'll write something decent and share it.

 

If you feel like sharing the source as well, that'd be doubly great. I'm definately interested in seeing how such a program would tick.

 

Source code too eh? Wouldn't you be more impressed if I just said something about it being made with elvin magic? (keebler)

 

mmmm... elfey binary fudge striped cookies...

 

Hmm... ok, I've used Sidewalker.... what exactly are you folks wanting it do that it doesn't? Seems like it does exactly what it was made to do in a reasonable efficient manner.

 

I'd like to open a folder with those buttons. I don't think that's possible now with Sidewalker?

 

A list!
1. launch a program with arguments.
2. open folders. (already mentioned)
3. open documents (does it do this already? haven't got it installed.)
4. some kind of macro support would be neat, though only really the first two make me feel that it was missing features...

personally, you don't need to worry about me too much. if it itches badly enough, i'll figure out how to scratch it.

 

If I was wanting to be VERY lazy *cough* I'd just point sidewalker to a launching utility that is small and to the point...

Might check fileforum.com for some nice toys for that..

 

I think l33t_c0w already submitted a shortcut for the folders. Maybe the same thing works for the documents?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=69266

 

Marty! You're not thinkinggggg fourth dimensionally!

Thats a great way for home users to get around the limitation, but there are many business's that block batch files from being run by the user account.. Batch files are the only form on scripting included with windows, so that kinda kills the idea...

That, and some people dont like the way batch files execute stuff..

I was moreso thinking an application picker where you could press a key and have it popup a tiny custom list of things to do... An example is the application thing of the logitech software uses..

 

i have made some progress in this topic and i hope that somebody will be interested
key press events of those two keys could be caught with SetWindowsHookEx() function.
i want second button to turn off display, so i wrote code only for this, however it can be easily extended if anyone has time for this.

sources in attachement, executable here: http://mpk.ovh.org/files/altsidewalker_bin.zip

 

Pascal huh? I've not seen that in a while.. don't suppose you want to do a rewrite in java eh? I'm feeling lazy!

Good work though... I honestly forgot about this since I've basically all but stopped trying to use those buttons.

 

This program has the same conflict that SideWalker has with SetPoint. Is this issue still unresolved or has someone come up with a workaround? I'd love to actually put these buttons to use while retaining my mouse's settings...

 

pyro9219: java? naah. it runs in the background, so it should be as light as possible. virtual machine isn't
i've tried to port it to c++, but compiler is complaining about event handler arguments, so i abandoned that idea.

kappa.squared: well, this application does not block handling events by any other applications. from what i discovered dissasembling original sidewalker - it also does not.
so you can blame only Logitech software (i think that it misses CallNextHookEx() in some conditions)

 

Good work either way Empeka

Java doesn't have to run as a huge VM if you are careful with your code, and know how to setup your project for minimal footprint. I've got a few projects that run < 7mb without to much fuss (Java "mustang" has made many huge improvements in footprint and performance).

You planning to "complete" your application with a small GUI or config file or something? I haven't messed with Pascal in years but I don't remember a GUI toolkit unless you used Delphi (Which is basically the same language but more for VB type developers). Maybe wxWindows has been ported?

 

code published here is Delphi code - quite efficient when it comes to deal with small projects
btw, i finally managed to write working code in c++
(devcpp project attached).

yes, i'm thinking of completing it (if time will allow).
i'll share my results here

 

Very cool! +Rep for effort!

 

here you go
http://mpk.ovh.org/files/CSWalkerAlt_setup.exe (07-07-29)

 

Very well done! Hopefully Logitech "fixes" SetPoint at some point... lulz

 

first update released
-fixed some issues in communication between daemon and config-app
-fixed problem when newly created windows were not displayed in foreground

link the same as above