X-Win32 8.2 - Release Notes

Contents

• Overview
• Improvements
  • 8.2
  • 8.1
  • 8.0
• Known Issues
• System Requirements
• Specific Fixes
• Release notes from version 8.1
• Release notes from version 8.0

Overview

X-Win32 8 is a complete reimplementation of the product, including an all new user interface, a new SSH implementation, and an all new technology layer for drawing and displaying graphics on the screen.

Improvements in X-Win32 8.2

• Upgraded Reparenting Window Manager
• Session autostart functionality implemented
• Sessions paths can now be any folder on the system
• SSH Agent Forwarding implemented
• Ad hoc session support
• Session Status Dialogs can now be hidden
• Local Settings are now stored in user's profile
• Truetype font support added
• .xw32 files have context sensitive right clicks
• New License monitor support for editing multiple licenses
• Version 8.2 is now Vista Compliant 
• Ability to send Left Alt, Right Alt, or both to remote host

Improvements in X-Win32 8.1

• Xdmcp Multicast allows specifying multiple host or broadcast addresses in Xdmcp sessions
• Command connection module for starting local commands (e.g. batch files)
• Rlogin connection module added
• Telnet connection module added
• QuickConnect added to allow new users quick access to a remote Unix/Linux desktop
• Global Password Updating added. This lets you update the login & password for all your sessions, for all sessions in a specific folder, or selected sessions on a particular host.
• PseudoColor Support for legacy applications was added
• StarNetSSH has been improved with Private Key Files and a PuTTY Key Agent so you can use private keys generated with PuTTY or OpenSSH

Improvements in X-Win32 8.0

• Performance Improvements
  • Many performance improvements have been made to make X-Win32 more usable on slow network connections and to lower the amount of network bandwidth consumed by the X11 graphics drawing operations. Some specific improvements are listed below.
  • Minimizing and restoring windows in Multiple window mode is instantaneous and does not cause any network traffic
  • Dragging another window on top of an X-Win32 window (in Multiple window mode) does not cause any network traffic or delay due to redrawing of the X-Win32 window
  • Alt-Tabbing between different applications, including multiple X-Win32 windows, is instantaneous and does not cause any network traffic
  • Moving an X-Win32 windows is instantaneous and does not cause any network traffic
  • Closing menus in X-Win32 windows does not cause the application to redraw itself, so it is instantaneous and does not cause much network traffic
• Translations
  • User interface translations are available as follows:
    • Afrikaans (af), Arabic (ar), Chinese - Simplified (zh_CN), Chinese - Traditional (zh_TW), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), Finnish (fi), French (fr), German (de), Greek (el), Hebrew (he), Hindi (hi), Hungarian (hu), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko),Norwegian (no), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Thai (th), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk), Vietnamese (vi)
• The installer supports a slightly smaller set of languages than the user interface of X-Win32:
  • Chinese - Simplified (zh_CN), Chinese - Traditional (zh_TW), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), Finnish (fi), French (fr), German (de), Greek (el), Hungarian (hu), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Norwegian (no), Polish (pl), Portuguese (pt), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Spanish (es), Swedish (sv), Thai (th), and Turkish (tr)
• Languages not supported by the installer, but supported by X-Win32 proper are:
  • Afrikaans (af), Arabic (ar), Hebrew (he), Hindi (hi), Ukrainian (uk), Vietnamese (vi)
• X-Win32 automatically runs in the language that Windows is using at the time that X-Win32 or X-Config is started; the language used during installation has no bearing on what language X-Win32 runs in.
• IPv6
  • Internet Protocol version 6 is now supported
  • IPv6 addresses/hostnames may be used for:
    • StarNetSSH, rexec, rsh, and Xdmcp sessions
    • The Display Address - Override field on the Network form of X-Config
    • X Font Server addresses on X-Config's Font form
    • The Display Address - Automatic mode sets the correct IPv6 address in the @DISPLAY@ and @MYIP@ command variables for use in your sessions
• StarNetSSH Sessions
• Greatly improved stability (StarNetSSH was responsible for a large portion of crashes in 7.1 and earlier)
• Support for Keyboard Interactive (SSH2) and Challenge Response (SSH1) authentication mechanisms - Used for both password authentication (and for changing your password), as well as secure key authentication systems
• Continued support for Kerberos authentication when the MIT Kerberos for Windows product is installed
• Modularized to allow the offloading of encryption and compression processing to an additional CPU, a hyper threaded CPU, or a dual core CPU - Can provide greatly improved performance compared to 7.1 and earlier on certain systems
• Compression is enabled by default
• SSH2 keepalives are sent every 5 minutes during periods of inactivity to keep connections across firewalls and network address translation devices from being closed
• X11 forwarding now correctly uses Xauth cookies to minimize authentication problems
• Ability to specify an alternate port number for the SSH server right on the session editing form
• In the unlikely event of a crash in StarNetSSH, only the affected session’s application will exit; X-Win32 will continue running other StarNetSSH, and other, sessions that are open
• Features StarNet’s own SSH technology layer, which makes it easier for us to fix reported problems and to provide tighter integration with the rest of the product (as opposed to using PuTTY)
• All Session Types
• Added the Automatic display address mode, which sets @MYIP@ to the local address that was used to contact the remote machine - This eliminates the need to constantly select a different display address in X-Config, resulting in fewer session connection problems
• Changed session command variables to use the @variable@ syntax instead of $variable - This makes it easier to run remote commands that access the $DISPLAY environment variable (the session command variable is now called @DISPLAY@); for example ‘set $DISPLAY=@DISPLAY@ ; echo “My display is $DISPLAY” ’
• Added connection status dialogs with graphics to show the progression of the connection, plus a log window to show warnings and errors specific to that connection - This makes it much easier to diagnose session connection problems and to see output from the remote command
• Xdmcp Sessions
• Broadcast sessions feature an entirely new chooser window that provides better feedback on how many responses have been collected
• Graphics Display Improvements
• RENDER extension has been added - Provides smooth graphics and text for remote applications that support it
• All new technology layer that is not susceptible to the same problems as the old technology layer (e.g. context menus coming up with black text on a black background)
• Input (Keyboard and Mouse) Improvements
• XKEYBOARD extension has been added
• Increased automatic detection and support for non-US English keyboards (117 keyboards are automatically detected, up from 27)
• Screen Shots (Copy From Rectangle/Window)
• The Screen Shot tool has been completely reimplemented
• No longer constrained to copying just X-Win32 windows
• Can copy from a Rectangle, from a selected Window, or the entire Screen
• Shows a preview of the image before further processing
• Allows the image to be saved as a PNG (up to 10 times smaller than a BMP), copied to the clipboard, or printed
• X-Config
• All settings and sessions are now stored in human readable (and programmatically modifiable) XML files, instead of the Windows registry - Long in demand from users, this makes it easier to copy settings from one machine to another, or to modify settings in a large deployment with automated tools
• Hovering the mouse pointer over a session on the Sessions form shows a Tool Tip with the session settings
• New Icon View has been added that opens each settings form in its own window; Tabbed View is still available
• Tabbed View now has an icon on each tab to help visually identify the category
• X-Config forms are now all resizable, preventing frustrating problems when the forms were too small at high resolution
• The position and size of each window is remembered, allowing a more custom feel
• The Xauth cookie can now be saved to a file, offering tighter security for local X11 applications or remote applications being started with rexec/rsh (if you save the file on a shared drive)
• X-Config’s Security form is easier to understand - Previously, when the Xhost list was empty it meant that all X11 applications would be allowed to connect if the Access Control mechanism was turned off; now, you must explicitly select Allow all host addresses for this to happen, in addition, you can completely disable this mechanism by selecting Only allow these host addresses and not adding any hosts to the list (in this case, the list will show a single entry that says No hosts allowed)
• The Network form renames the Proxy display address option to Override to indicate that this feature applies to more than just cases where a NAT or proxy system is in use (e.g. when you want to manually specify one of several addresses that your machine is using)
• The Network form shows the TCP Port that corresponds to the Base Display Number to provide better information for you when opening ports in your firewall (although we recommend that you instead use StarNetSSH and leave your firewall fully enabled)
• Help
  • All new Help file for X-Win32 8 (English only in 8.0.2038 and later, will be translated later)
  • What's This help in X-Config (translated to all languages)
• General
• The Allow by Prompt security mechanism (formerly Access Control) no longer freezes the processing of other applications under X-Win32 while the prompt is displayed - This eliminates problems when a long job was started under X-Win32, then a spurious connection attempt was made, causing the long job to stop processing until the Access Control dialog was dismissed (this lead to a big disappointment on Monday morning when a user returned to the office to find that the long job was not finished)
• We have added graphics throughout the program to illustrate what is happening and to help distinguish between different options
• Each session type (e.g. Xdmcp Broadcast/Query/Indirect, StarNetSSH, Rexec, and Rsh) now has its own icon to help distinguish between session in X-Config and in the Notification Area icon’s menu (i.e. the system tray icon’s menu)

Known Issues

• XKB error when starting a gnome desktop session on certain verisons of Linux.  A workaround for this error can be found here
• On Certain versions of Windows the AltGr button is not sent to the remote host.
• Logout is slow on certain systems using XDMCP

System Requirements

• Windows 2000 SP3, Windows XP, Windows 2003, and Vista are supported

Specific Fixes

Cases Fixed in X-Win32 8.2 General Release

Originally released on 2007-06-01

• Build 8.2.12XX - Release 2007-08-XX
  • Fixed a mouse scrolling issue when minimizing the window
• Build 8.2.1207 - Release 2007-07-23
  • Fixed a directory does not exist licensing error
• Build 8.2.1204 - Release 2007-07-10
• Updated Help File
• Fixed a bug where the window becomes unresponsive after minimizing and maximizing the window
• Floating licensing port changed so that it does not interfere with XDMCP 
• Build 8.2.1200 - Release 2007-06-26
• Fixed a crash when resizing the window in single window mode.
• Flash Reregister Fix
• Updated copyright year
• X-Win32 no longer exits when removing last valid license.  Instead it reverts to 30 minute demo mode.
• Attempted fix at CreateWindow crash which would occasionally cause X-Win32 to crash at unexpected times
• Release Notes Logo changed
• RANDR (resize extension) implemented.  Single Window mode can now be resized.
• XServer.config changes are only applied when necessary
• Build 8.2.1191 - Release 2007-06-22
• The installed XServer.config is made writable before creating the installer
• Added missing font path elements for AIX, CDE, and HPUX fontsets
• Support  > Licenses menu item now works more than once
• SSH sessions with input banners no longer freeze the session
• Licenses that are no longer valid are now ignored
• Text processing is no longer done on the standard streams of ssh processes
• Wizard linux xterm path changed to standardize it with most distributions
• Licenses as now stored locally in Application Data by default
• Host key verification given when connecting to a host  for the first time
• Instance logins and password are saved past server resets
• SSH module connection properly closes
• Fixed "Command Line Argument too long" error
• Default X-Win32 window title is now more descriptive
• Fixed server crash if "Sessions" folder could not be created
• Process no longer crashes when using SSH if remote sshd daemon is not running
• StarNetSSH renamed to SSH
• Added font support for Mathematica
• Fixed early exit with "Last Session Terminate" enabled