Preferences

Preferences Dialog

The main Preferences Dialog has been changed from using a Tree structure to a flat list with expandable categories. There have been lots of changes to the pages in Preferences – many have been merged, or deleted altogether, and several new categories have been added in an attempt to make it easier to navigate. As always, the Preferences Filter is the best way of locating a specific page or option.

The Preferences Dialog now remembers which categories were expanded and which were collapsed when closes, and restores these the next time it is invoked. You can press – (minus) in the category list to collapse the current category – pressing – again collapses all categories (similar to the Folder Tree). Pressing + (plus) expands a category, and pressing * (asterisk) expands all categories.

Advanced Options

• dos_automap_unc_paths  enables automatic mapping of UNC paths for DOS functions. Currently this is only used by the CLI DOSPROMPT command but may be expanded to other functions in the future.
• flatview_folder_filters enables the use of folder filters in Flat View mode (disabled by default as this usually causes more confusion than anything)
• go_up_always_back makes the Go UP command always behave as if the BACK argument were also specified
• def_func_cd_sourcedir controls whether functions that don’t set a specific current directory should use the current source directory or C:\Windows\System32 as an initial current directory. In Vista/Windows 7 it is safer to use C:\Windows\System32 as a default current directory as this is not writeable by non-elevated programs. This is the same behaviour as Explorer.
• max_thumbnail_size lets you set the maximum allowed thumbnail size (up to 4096 x 4096). Note that setting larger thumbnails will affect memory usage and the size of the thumbnail cache.
• progress_smoothing controls the display of progress bars in Vista and Windows 7. Smoothly animated progress bars are more visually attractive but lag behind the “real” progress and so do not provide a completely accurate progress indication.
• copy_buffer_size lets you configure the buffer size used for file copying.
• tiff_assume_alpha forces alpha channel support for TIFF images with have a fourth channel but don’t explicitly mark it as an alpha channel.
• win7_show_sharing_overlays lets you prevent Opus from showing overlay icons for shared folders in Windows 7 (in previous versions of Windows the overlay is provided by Windows itself and Opus does not control this)
• setwallpaper_file lets you configure the filename (and optionally the path) used by the Set As Wallpaper command in Opus. If you specify only a filename the file will be stored in your documents folder, you can specify a full path to override this. In Vista and Windows 7 you can also specify this file with a .jpg suffix to have the file stored as a JPEG rather than a BMP. When storing as a JPEG the quality can also be specified (e.g. wallpaper.jpg,80 to specify a JPEG at 80% quality).
• name_group_high_pri_chars lets you specify characters that "high-priority" filenames begin with, in order to have those files grouped at the top of the list when grouping by name.

Sound Preferences

• The Navigation Click, Menu Command and Menu Pop-Up sounds are now configured through the Sounds page in Preferences and respect the global Enable Sounds checkbox.
• Where applicable, sound events now pick up default sounds from Windows. All sounds are still off by default but now you don’t have to hunt for wav files to turn some of them on.
• Sound events which pick up defaults from Windows will now play the default sound if they are enabled but the specified wav file cannot be found.

Miscellaneous Preferences

• There is a new Preferences page that lets you configure the Find-as-you-Type field. You can specify the keys that invoke different modes of the FAYT field, and configure the colors used for each mode.
• There is also a page for the Filter Bar that lets you configure its activation key and other settings.
• Thumbnail Preferences has a new option to hide overlayed File type icons if the thumbnail image is too small.
• Layouts and Styles can now be set as hidden meaning they aren't listed or shown in toolbars or menus, and can only be accessed via raw commands.
• There is a new option in the Deleting Files Preferences page to skip the initial confirmation dialog when deleting to the recycle bin. With this option, the initial confirmation dialog will only be shown when the delete is not to the recycle bin (i.e. not undoable).
• There is a new option in the Folder Tabs Preferences to display all tabs (not just those that don’t fit on screen) in the overflow popup menu.
• The Startup page under Launching Opus lets you configure Opus to automatically run a User-defined command on startup.

Hotkeys

In the Customize dialog, the Keys tab now allows you to turn hotkeys on or off individually – useful if you want to temporarily disable a hotkey without deleting it.

Hotkeys can now be defined for the “media keys” (special keys like “play”, “pause”, etc on some modern keyboards). Opus 9 used hard-coded functions for several media keys like “back” and “forwards” – these are now defined in the Keys section.

Improved Color Picker

Hue/Saturation/Luminosity controls show the colors you’ll get by clicking on them (rather than generic spreads). Small adjustments to them or the Red/Green/Blue sliders can be made using the mouse-wheel or cursor keys.

Left-click the RGB numbers to toggle between hex and decimal notations. Right-click (or Ctrl-C) to copy the displayed values to the clipboard. Drag the dropper to copy colors from the screen. The area around the mouse will be magnified to help you accurately find the right pixel. Use the mouse-wheel while dragging to change zoom levels.

The color-picker avoids obscuring other color buttons so you can easily copy their colors. In the grid of preset and custom colors, right-click a custom color to replace it with the current one. Shift+Space performs the same action. Hover over colors for their numeric RGB values. When you edit a color the previous version of it is shown below the current one for comparison. Select the previous color to revert to it.