A problem using "Action with mouse click"

[Peter Appleton]

I am experiencing inexplicable behaviour using PTE AV Studio 10.0.14 running under Windows 11. N.B. I am using 10.0.14 at the request of Igor whilst the team investigate a different problem I encountered using 10.5.7.

I use shortcut files (xxx.lnk) as the targets of all my "Run Application or Open File..." actions. I have discovered that the number of characters in the name of the shortcut can lead to different results. I have created a small project that demonstrates this (see attached).

The project comprises one slide having a rectangle object as the background and two text objects. Each text object is set to use "Run Application or Open File..." as the action to be performed on mouse click. Each text object is paired with its own shortcut file (a short one having an 11-character name, and a long one having a 19-character name). The short one was created by copying the 19-character shortcut and then editing its name down to 11 characters. Both shortcuts point to the same Word document file.

When the application is run, the 11-character shortcut correctly launches Microsoft Word and opens the target document. The 19-character shortcut tries to open a web page with a name in the form of www.shortcut.com (where shortcut is the 19 characters of the name of the actual shortcut).

I first discovered this problem when making some changes to the "workbench" application for my research into the alum industry of north-east Yorkshire. The application is a PTE-generated .EXE file having 5 slides. Each slide has several text objects, each object is a clickable link, via a shortcut, to a file or folder. The problem described above occurs only on Slide 1 of 5, where it affects every clickable text object. None of the text objects on slides 2-5 show any problem.

It should be noted that on slides 2-5 there are shortcuts in use that range from 8 characters up to 30 characters for their names, and none of these exhibit any problems. It should also be noted that all files reside in OneDrive and are synchronized across my Windows 11 Lenovo mini-tower system and my Windows 10 Microsoft Surface Pro system. When I execute the self-same "workbench" application on the Windows 10 system, there are no problems whatsoever on any text objects on any of the slides. The fault occurs only on the Windows 11 system. The Windows 10 system has PTE Deluxe 9.0.22 installed.

I would like to upgrade the Surface Pro to Windows 11 and replace PTE 9 with PTE AV Studio. However, I am unwilling to do so whilst this, and other problems, remain unresolved. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who uses PTE AV Studio on Windows 11 and who can re-create this problem scenario on their system.

Alum-new3_Mar21-2022_14-22-00.zip

[jkb]

Hi Peter, I am using Windows 10, but was speaking to someone last week who uses Windows 11 & he said that Windows Defender does not like .exe files & will throw them out.
So he has to disable Windows Defender.

I have also found that PTE does like any strange characters in a file name, so I always rename everything to just have standard characters, numbers and hyphens.

Why are you using a link to a Shortcut rather than to the actual file itself?

Jill

 

 

[Peter Appleton]

47 minutes ago, jkb said:

Why are you using a link to a Shortcut rather than to the actual file itself?

If I could remember why I did it, I might be able to answer you. I built the first of my research "workbenches" using PTE back in 2011. There must have been a good reason back then but I'm blowed if I can now recall what it was. Ever since, I've worked on the basis of: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

In any case, I'm not convinced the technique is at fault here. Why should it affect only Slide 1 in a 5-slide sequence? Why do other shortcuts having names of 8 through 30 characters all work fine? Why do five other "workbench" applications not have this problem?

 

[Peter Appleton]

1 hour ago, jkb said:

he said that Windows Defender does not like .exe files & will throw them out.
So he has to disable Windows Defender.

The Microsoft "nanny state" strikes again! I don't use Windows Defender. I have a different program doing that job.

Added...

Anyone buying a new computer that runs Windows 11 must keep in mind that Microsoft assume the user is a complete novice. They have set out to make computers as easy to set up and use as possible. A computer is not your tool to do what it wants to do. It should be your tool to do what you want it to!

[Peter Appleton]

58 minutes ago, jkb said:

I have also found that PTE does like any strange characters in a file name, so I always rename everything to just have standard characters, numbers and hyphens.

In the project that I attached to my original post, there are no files seen by PTE. The background is a Rectangle object, there are just the three Text objects. The two shortcuts on the Text objects have names containing only upper and lower case alphabetics and numerics. The target of those shortcuts has a path that includes only: a drive letter; a colon; backward slashes as separators; folder hierarchy names that have only upper and lower alphas, numerics, space and hyphens; and a filename that also has only upper and lower alphas, numerics, space and hyphens.