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WinSwitch

WinSwitch - 3.0

enhanced replacement for Fast User Switching

All Time: (4.8)
Version 3.0: (5.0)
Selected Version: 3.0
Release Date: 2005-03-09
License: Freeware
Downloads (version 3.0): 2,551
Downloads (all versions): 27,174
Price: Donationware

Information Related to Version:

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Product Description:

Apple did a superb job with its new Fast User Switching feature in Panther (Mac OS X 10.3), but for users with long names, the associated menu item is a terrible waste of precious Menu Bar real estate.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could access the feature through a compact, icon-sized Menu Bar icon? WinSwitch does exactly that, closely matching the performance and style of the Apple-provided menu, but without all the bulk. In fact, it even corrects some problems with Apple's menu by eliminating certain "daemon" users which shouldn't show up in the list, and by improving the alignment of user icons in the menu. WinSwitch gives you rapid access to the Accounts preference pane, and is completely customizable, allowing you to choose from six different menu bar styles: Standard icon, User picture, Full username, Short username, First name only, and Initials. You can also optionally display the root user, define a hot key to take you back to the login window, and adjust the size of your user pictures both in the menu bar and inside the menu itself. For power users, WinSwitch can automatically run applications and scripts of your choosing whenever you switch in or switch out.

What's new in this version:

  • Additional checking on selecting "Preferences" menu item to ensure that the WinSwitchHelper background application is running.
  • For increased security, additional checking on Switch-In Items and Switch-Out Items prior to launching. Items will only be launched if both they and the containing folder are owned by the current user and the permissions are set so that only the current user has write privileges. If these conditions are not met, WinSwitch logs a warning to the console. (Note that by default, Mac OS X does create new folders and items with appropriate permissions.)
  • Fixed bug where user picture size in the menu would not appear at the default size when first run.
  • Fixed bug where the option to include the root user in the menu was inverted (in other words, turning the option off actually turned it on and vice versa).
  • Eliminated harmless console warning at startup, "Could not find image named `bezelClose'".
  • Fixed crash that would occur on systems with faulty accounts in the NetInfo database (bug #68).
  • Corrected alignment error in preferences window.
  • New Turkish localization by Alphan Gunaydin.
  • Updates to the Japanese localization by Yuzuru Shiraiwa.
  • Updates to the Norwegian localization by Sjur Nᅢᄌrstebᅢᄌ Moshagen.
  • Updates to the Dutch localization by Joost Kroon.
  • Updates to the French localization by Fabrice Laurens.
  • Updates to the Swedish localization by Christoffer Araskog.
  • Updates to the Danish localization by Jesper Juul Keller.
  • Updates to the Spanish localization by Wincent Colaiuta.
  • WinSwitchHelper application updated, and bumped version number to 3.0 to match WinSwitch's version number.
  • WOBezel framework updated to version 1.1.
  • WOHotKey framework updated to version 1.1.
  • WODebug framework updated to version 1.1.
  • Tightened up source code in some places to improve readability.

Changes included in this version from the beta release:

  • Adjustable user icon size inside the body of the menu itself (not just in the menu bar).
  • Norwegian localization by Sjur Nᅢᄌrstebᅢᄌ Moshagen, and Finnish localization by Lauri Vanajas; note that due to the number of new interface elements in this version the localizations have not yet been updated.
  • Changes to "Activate WinSwitch" script to make it more tolerant of errors reported by the system.
  • Work around bug in the Apple frameworks that could cause WinSwitch to die if any user pictures had multiple (NSImageRep) representations.
  • Minor optimizations in bundle- and notification-handling code.
  • Tightened up the code in some places to make the source shorter and more readable.
  • Promoted "First name only" and "Initials only" to user-visible preferences (no longer accessible only from the command line), with live updating of menu bar if the username is edited in the Accounts preference pane.
  • "Initials only" method now considers period, comma and space to be word boundary markers; this means that users names like "John P.T. Smith" will now correctly abbreviate to "JPTS".
  • Stricter filtering of items in the "Switch-In Items" and "Switch-Out Items" folders; any filename beginning with a period is ignored (previously only .DS_Store files were explicitly ignored).
  • New bundled background helper application efficiently monitors for addition of Apple version of Fast User Switching menu and displays a notification bezel telling the user of how to remove it.
  • Basic hot-key support: a customizable key combination (Control-Alt-Delete by default) takes user to loginwindow.
  • Preferences window provides quick access to all WinSwitch options, a help button, and buttons to access the "Switch-In Items" and "Switch-Out Items" in the Finder.
  • Uses WODebug framework to provide crash-catching and diagnostic capabilities.

Operating System Requirements:

This product is designed to run on the following operating systems:

  • Mac OS X 10.3

Additional Requirements:

  • Mac OS X 10.3 or later

Screenshots:

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Your Installed Versions:


 

Feedback Summary:

Version 3.0:
Overall Rating: (5.0) Features: (5.0) Support: (5.0)
Ease of Use: (4.7) Quality / Stability: (5.0) Price: (5.0)
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WinSwitch Usage Tipdid not work in leopard - Version: 3.2, 1/8/2009 05:30PM PST

j-fessler-junk
2009-01-08
tried to install in leopard 10.5.5 without success. macbook pro.
got this error message:

/Users/Shared/Activate\ WinSwitch.command ; exit;
Deactivating menu extra with identifier "com.apple.menuextra.appleuser" ... Success.
Deactivating menu extra with identifier "net.sourceforge.menucracker" ... Success.
Deactivating menu extra with identifier "com.wincent.WinSwitch" ... Success.
Activating menu extra with bundle path "/Library/Menu Extras/WinSwitch.menu" after item number -1 ... Failure.
Error: fatal error while adding bundle "/Library/Menu Extras/WinSwitch.menu" aborting processing
Activating menu extra with bundle path "/Library/Menu Extras/WinSwitch.menu" after item number -1 ... Failure.
Error: fatal error while adding bundle "/Library/Menu Extras/WinSwitch.menu" aborting processing
logout
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WinSwitch CommentaryWinswitch on Intel - Version: 3.1, 2/17/2006 09:46AM PST

(1 of 1 users found this comment useful)

rimshot4za
Although the developer has said Winswitch is compatible with Intel based Macs under Rosetta, it doesn't work.

Downloaded and installed yesterday on a new 20" 2Ghz Intel iMac. Winswitch failed to activate itself.
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WinSwitch CommentaryWIll not load at startup in Tiger - Version: 3.1, 5/8/2005 01:29PM PST

(0 of 2 users found this comment useful)

ebernet
Although 3.1 works fine if you manually load WinSwitch.menu, it will not persist through restarts and must be loaded each time in Tiger. I hope a fix is soon coming.
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