Robo Form 6.7.9 available

Was in vacation for like a month, so excuse my lack of updates. Anyway, meanwhile Robo Form was updated to version 6.7.9. If you want to donwload the new update, follow these links (direct downloads): Robo Form 6.7.9 | Pass 2 Go 6.7.9

Changes in version 6.7.8:

• Renamed Pass 2 Go to Robo Form 2 Go, due to a trademark conflict.


• Fix interaction with Basic Auth dialogs in non-EN Windows.

Changes in version 6.7.9:

• Speed up Robo Form by turning on more optimizations.


• Add ability to define argument Prompt for argument entry dialog.


• Fix AutoFill Without Asking for BasicAuth, many matching passcards case.

Robo Form 6.7.7 released

A new Robo Form update, version 6.7.7. Kind of have that feeling that Robo Form 7 is on its way. Anyway, for those that want to update here are direct links: Robo Form 6.7.7 | Pass 2 Go 6.7.7

Changes in version 6.7.7:

• Speed up passcard cache operation, especially for slow drives. Can't say I had speed problems with the passcards, but it's sure nice to hear that these operations are now faster. I think those that will feel the effects of this change are the ones having hundreds of passcards. Try clicking the Login button when you have around 500 passcards and you'll see the difference in loading speed.


• Introduce 1-step SearchCards in addition to 3-step SearchCards. New feature, new improvements to it. Basically the 1-step SearchCards are searches where the query is embedded into the URL. So instead of going to the search engine, entering the word and pressing enter (like the 3-step SearchCards do), this 1-step will automatically show the results.
  
  


• Make SearchCard download work in Firefox. Well they now fixed the page where you can download more SearchCards (see the above image for the link) to work in FireFox too.


• Integrate Adapter installer with Robo Form installer, deprecate Universal Adapter Installer. Last (but not least) change. Before version 6.7.7 you would have had to download separately an Universal Adapter if you wanted to make it work in FireFox too. Now this is not needed as the normal setup for Robo Form contains the adapter for FireFox and other browsers included. You just have to check the option to Install Adapter that allows Robo Form to work in Netscape and Mozilla
  
  

These are the changes in the new version of Robo Form. Nice update I would say, especially the fact that now you don't have to download 2 setups to have it working on FireFox and IE too.

Robo Form 6.7.6 released

Yes, no 6.7.5 version, but they released 6.7.6 directly. Anyway, if you want to download and install the new version use one of these links: Robo Form 6.7.6 | Pass 2 Go 6.7.6

So what's new in this version? Well, they've added a new feature called SearchCards. Basically, these are passcards for search engines. I'll explain this later.
Changes in Robo Form 6.7.6:

1. Make AutoSave work in AJAX login pages. Robo Form has an option to AutoSave the login details you enter (or the forms you fill in) when you click the Submit button of that page. However, for Robo Form 6.7.4 or previous, this feature was not working on webpages that used AJAX powered logins. These logins are special since a Submit button is not present, and practically when you enter the username/password the verification is done without moving away from that page (kind of like the Flash logins - that by the way are not supported by Robo Form). If you didn't understand anything just visit this page and type anything in the login demo created there (it's AJAX based).
   
   


2. Implement EXE installer for Pass2Go-U3. U3 is a company that sells a type of USB having a launchpad that gives you access to several applications. You can think of it as an USB toolbox. Robo Form has a special version for the U3 type of USBs too, and now it can be installed using an executable, not a proprietary format as it was before. So they simplified the installation process of this U3 version. More on U3 and Robo Form you can read here.


3. SearchCards were added to run passcard-based searches. I left this option the last one, as it is the most important one. SearchCards automate not only 1-step searches (where search argument is embedded into URL) but also 3-step searches where navigation to search page, typing query and clicking Submit is required. You can download some custom SearchCards from the official Robo Form website. Note that these work only with the latest version of Robo Form. Thing is that once a search is done, that will be saved as a SearchCard, and for future searches you will only have to click on that SearchCard as you do with the Robo Form logins (passcards).
   
   

I'll look more into the new feature added and post eventually a tutorial on how to create those SearchCards plus some good uses.

Norton Password Manager, used to create partitions?

I was making a list of password managers to make a comparison between them (Robo Form included too, normally) and I stopped a little to look at the Norton Password Manager (that I didn't hear much about until now). First thing that striked me was that it's still version 2004 (released somewhere in 2003) but that doesn't stop them from selling it for $39.95. I said ok, maybe it has some nice features. So I clicked for details and I was searching for some screenshots. I've seen one at the end of the features page, as you can see below:





You don't see anything unusual yet? Well this is the surprise I had when I clicked on the screenshot to enlarge it:





Yes, this screenshot is similar to the Windows Disk Management tool. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe this is one of the features in Norton Password Manager, to manage disk partitions ;), but I seriously doubt it. Now, could this be only a webmaster mistake? Because if it's not, it raises serious doubts on how they support this product's development.

Robo Form 6.7.4 released

Yep, new version of Robo Form released today. Some improvements for Pass 2 Go too. Anyway here is the release news from their site:

• Improve protection against keyloggers. For those that don't know, a keylogger is a program that captures the keys you press and stores them. That's not something you would want hidden on your system tray, but if you're at an Internet Cafe it might be wise to be careful. Robo Form seems to help you here by using a mouse based keyboard for master passwords.


• Cache passcard URLs in file (not in registry) to speed up Pass 2 Go startup. It's good that they don't add information to the registry now with Pass 2 Go.


• Store Most Recently Used in file, to preserve them between Pass 2 Go invocations.


• Add option to show tooltip that tells what to enter for Turing passcards. Couldn't find this. Anyway, a turing passcard is called that login where beside entering your username and password you also have to enter a verification number.


• Make Robo Form work correctly with the latest Yahoo toolbar. No need for comment here, except "why oh why you would use the yahoo toolbar?"

If you want to update to the latest version, use one of these links to do so:
Robo Form 6.7.4 or of Pass 2 Go 6.7.4

Internet Explorer 7 with Robo Form toolbar

I installed today Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 just to see how Robo Form integrates into it, and I must say that it integrates quite well.

It took a while to get IE7 installed as I kept getting an error like:
Internet Explorer 7 could not be installed. You must restart your system to confirm that any changes to your system are undone. After restarting, follow the "Internet Explorer Troubleshooting" shortcut on your desktop to get more information. Of course that after stopping Windows Defender (the anti-spyware I use) it worked installing it, even without following their registry fix guide.

First look on IE7 beta 2 with Robo Form toolbar installed:



Yes, those shinny buttons of IE7 are the first thing you observe. Next the useful multi-tabbed option. Last but not least you can see the way Robo Form toolbar integrates with IE7's design. If you hover on a button you can also see the explanation in the lower bar of IE7. Nice and also working well (referring to stability).

Of course that being a beta version there is still a lot of work to do. First of all, IE7 went to about 41Mb of memory usage with only 2 tabs opened, while Maxthon with 3 tabs was only at 12Mb of memory.



Ok, that being said I think IE7 will be recovering very fast the ground lost due to FireFox. If they fix those memory leaks they might even get me to stop using Maxthon and switch to IE7, who knows. Anyway, I'll end up saying that I also like a particular feature called Quick Tabs, where you see a preview of all the tabs opened (might be good if the pages would be functional in the preview window).



I tested this using Robo Form 6.7.3 (latest version) don't know if previous versions work as well as this one. If you want to update to the latest version, use one of these links to do so: Robo Form 6.7.3 or of Pass 2 Go 6.7.3

Robo Form System Error

Yes, no hero is perfect. Before updating to Robo Form 6.7.3, I've had a first Access Violation. Of course it didn't affect anything, I only had to restart Maxthon and Robo Form started to work again.
How did the error look like? Well there's a screenshot below, where you can read the report:
"This is an internal error report. Please click Yes and it will be sent to RoboForm server. No personal information wil be sent, only the technical data to help us fix this bug. If auto send fails, email file _rf.log from your temporary folder to ask (at) roboform.com. You can see where your temp folder is by typing %TEMP% into Address bar of IE browser."
So just like Microsoft, it asks you if you want to send an error report to roboform.com, with details about the error. Good thinking from them, as it doesn't require more effort from your side.



Now, it's interesting what dlls are reported in there as affected. The problem I think it's because of the theme that Robo Form loads and uses to integrate in the browser. Because one of the dlls affected is uxtheme.dll. Among others, uxtheme.dll is the file used by Windows XP to manage the windows styles. When you first install Windows, it comes with a few predefined themes, and Microsoft locked their UXTheme.dll to prevent you from adding additional themes. That's why I think Robo Form cracked this time, as somehow they got around the uxtheme.dll and Windows didn't like that.

Ok, enough speculation for now. Found an error, submitted a report, restarted the browser and everything went back to normal. I still recommend Robo Form as it's the best password manager out there, and if you don't have it installed you should do so by using one of these links: Robo Form 6.7.3 | Pass 2 Go 6.7.3 (it's the portable version of Robo Form, that you can install on a USB drive)

Robo Form 6.7.3 released

Yap, new version released. Robo Form 6.7.3 changes:

• Mouse-based keyboard for entering Master Password to fight keyloggers. Now this seems strange to me, as I've just installed Robo Form and when going to the Security tab the same old window for entering the Master Password is shown - and typing using the normal keyboard works. In my opinion there should have been an image-based keyboard that would allow you to click on the desired letter/digit. Maybe it's something in the technology used, so that they trick keyloggers.


• Improve integration with Windows Vista. This doesn't need additional description, if you have the latest Windows Vista Beta 2 installed, you have better usage of Robo Form.


• Aff Suffix to Name in form filler. Again something that I only guess what it does. Thing is this, if you're affiliate for Robo Form (like I am) you can have your customized links, that look something like "www.roboform.com/?affid=spuby. The aff sufix is spuby in this case. I think that when someone installs Robo Form from an affiliate link, the first window that appears has in the Name section the affiliate id suffix.

If you want to update to the latest version, use one of these links to do so:
Robo Form 6.7.3 or of Pass 2 Go 6.7.3

Robo Form 6.7.1 and 6.7.2

Yes, I know, these updates have been released more than two weeks ago and I'm posting just now. I was lazy, what can I say. Robo Form 6.7.2 is the latest version and it added only some changes for the Pass2Go (portable Robo Form), more specifically: "Add more options to Portable.ini file to better control Pass2Go startup". Note that the Pass2Go program is designed to be installed and use on an USB drive (you can install it onto a fixed drive too, but that wouldn't help you in any way, if you don't want to have it on an USB just stick with Robo Form).

Robo Form 6.7.1 brought some changes too:

• Fixed phone and social security number format in Australian identity. Actually in the Australian identity they changed only the Phone format, as the Australians don't have SSNs ;). The Social Security Number format change was done in the US identity. Here is a small screen on the phone format change (sort of before/after):
  
  


• Clone Instance and Copy/Paste Instance commands in Identitiy Editor. Yes, these options are now available for identities too. You can right-click an identity and using the Clone function you can add an exact copy (except that its name would be different to avoid overwriting).
  
  


• Improve import of Contacts from Outlook. Now I've tested the import from Outlook option before version 6.7.1 and also after it, but there are no changes in the process so I assume they improved the speed of the conversion.

Now, if you want to update to the latest version, use one of these links to do so:
Robo Form 6.7.2 or of Pass 2 Go 6.7.2

Robo Form + Maxthon = Web Productivity

If you're using the Internet for more than verifying your email, then you need first of all a good browser. More than that, if you're using other services that require you to login, then you need some help in remembering the passwords too. I use a great combination, Maxthon with Robo Form, to help me with my daily Internet tasks. Of course that Robo Form works with many other browsers, but I like Maxthon better. I've tested Robo Form in combination with FireFox, Avant browser and Internet Explorer 6 too, but there are some features in Maxthon that place it above the others. These are few of them (note that some of these features are present in the other mentioned browsers):

• First of all there is the tabbed browsing. You can have multiple pages opened in the same window, but under different tabs. This is a feature in FireFox too, but in Maxthon the difference is that when you double-click on the browsing bar, a new tab opens.
  
  


• Super drag-and-drop feature. This is really a killer one. You can select a word, then drag it with the mouse and drop it somewhere else in the page (doesn't matter where) as a new page will open and that word will be searched on the default search engine. Or you can drag and drop a link in the same page, and it will be opened in a new tab. This is really cool and trust me that is the kind of feature that you cannot live without once you've used to it. Also, while dragging a word or link, you can hold the Ctrl button to save that in a file.
  
  


• You can type a word in the Address bar and when you press enter the default search engine will open and show you the results for your typed word.
  
  


• Of course that it supports the Robo Form plug-in, and that the Robo Form toolbar integrates in Maxthon perfectly.
  
  

Now these are only a few features of Maxthon, you can read the whole list here: Maxthon Feature Tour I've mentioned only the ones that I use most.

Regarding Robo Form, I've covered the list of must-have features in a previous post: Robo Form Tips and Tricks

Now you don't have to take my word for this. Just install Maxthon and Robo Form and see for yourself if you like the features that I mentioned.

Download Robo Form from here: Robo Form 6.7.0
Download Maxthon from here: Maxthon 1.5.3