*** STANFORD DESKTOP TOOLS RELEASE NOTES *** --------------------------------------------- 14 December 2007 Stanford Desktop Tools 2.0.2 (Windows and Macintosh) --------------------------------------------- * Numerous performance enhancements, especially noticeable on the Macintosh, have been introduced. SDT 2.0 represents a nearly complete overhaul of its predecessor, SDT 1.3, though no essential functionality has been removed, only improved. * More Essential Stanford Software is now available through SDT, including WebAuth-protected software that must be downloaded via a web browser. * Kerberos for Windows is now a separate item in the application subscription list, and is no longer bundled with SDT itself. The SDT installer no longer removes PC-Leland, which must now be replaced by running the separate Kerberos for Windows installer. * The Kerberos for Macintosh configuration tool is now a separate item in the application subscription list, and is no longer bundled with SDT itself, though the SDT installer will remove MacLeland and configure Mac OS X's native MIT Kerberos software for use at Stanford. * The user interface has been completely redesigned and much improved: User preferences have been moved from the main subscriptions window to a new preferences window. Program subscriptions are now managed through the updates tab in the preferences window. There are new icons to represent application installation status, application urgency, and Stanford Desktop Tools activity (downloading, installing, etc.). An icon legend has been added to the Help menu. * New menu items to view program activity and installation logs have been added. * A new menu item has been added so users can report bugs directly to the developers (Help + Report a Bug...). * There is a preferences option to enable verbose logging. * Users can now select alert sounds for critical and non-critical updates. * A fourth subscription channel has been added (Alpha, Beta, and Beta 2 channels are available, in addition to the Production channel seen by most users). The Beta 2 channel is intended to be used by a larger group of volunteer testers whose status as Beta 2 members will be enforced by BigFix. * SDT will now detect the presence of local installers and use them if they are available and at the most current version as specified by the master XML configuration file. This will permit the offline use of SDT as a program installer located on a CD or other disk image. * A Cancel button has been added to the Subscriptions window so that when a download starts a user may abort the download if desired. * SDT now reports the real-time status of installer download progress (number of bytes downloaded and percent completed). * Timeout problems for large file downloads on slow links have been fixed. * On the Mac, unexpected termination errors on program exit have been fixed. * Improvements in Windows notification area icons and balloon messages have been introduced. * Consistent shortcuts/keyboard accelerators were added to all menu items. * All text messages have been reviewed and updated. * XML Tags, processing and sdthelper functions have been added to support WebAuth functionality when it is ready. In the near future SDT should be able to download WebAuth-protected files without the mediation of a web browser by using Kerberos GSSAPI and SPNEGO protocols, even on Windows machines not joined to a domain. * Support for minimum SDT version and maximum SDT version limitations has been added. * Support for Windows platform limiters has been added (64-bit or 32-bit). * Windows notification area and Mac OS X dock icons now appear more quickly when SDT is loading. * A setup wizard has been added for the initial installation of or upgrade to SDT 2.0. * Mac application searches are much faster. * Day of the week and "Any Day" options have been added to the schedule preferences. * Internal data is now cached to avoid unnecessary disk and network I/O. * SDT now checks for network or server connectivity problems before attempting to download installers or components, and informs the user of any such problems. * There is a known issue for Mac users who have their home directory on a partition other than the system partition. For those users SDT cannot successfully upgrade OpenAFS 1.4.x (where x < 5) and OpenAFS 1.4.5. --------------------------------------------- 22 May 2007 Stanford Desktop Tools 1.3.5 (Windows) [no new release for the Macintosh] --------------------------------------------- * Stanford Desktop Tools now includes Kerberos for Windows 3.2.0. Notable improvements to Kerberos for Windows include: Seamless cross-realm single sign-on: Users who authenticate to the Stanford Windows Infrastructure, or whose local Windows account name and password match their SUNet ID, can now obtain Kerberos credentials in Stanford's MIT Kerberos realm automatically at logon. Support for Windows Vista. Simplified default views of the logon prompt and Kerberos credentials status window. The GUI logon prompt should more reliably present itself in front of other application windows when invoked, and it will also display a task bar button. Left-clicking the Network Identity Manager notification area icon will now bring up the logon prompt rather than the credentials status window by default. * Stanford Desktop Tools now optionally uses an assistant application (sdthelper.exe) for the download and installation of provided software. This design improvement allows SDT to "self-update" more reliably by virtue of redundant functionality differently implemented in more than one executable, also allowing more flexible control of installation parameters. * Stanford Desktop Tools can now provide access to restricted site-licensed software using the default web browser and WebAuth. This capability is not presently utilized. * Stanford Desktop Tools can now deploy "ad hoc" installations, such as an update to a single configuration file, that once installed will no longer show in the main window's list of available software. * Brief text descriptions of each available installation or update are displayed in a new scroll box in Stanford Desktop Tools' main window. * Handling of version numbers for provided software is improved. For example, if the installed version of a given application is newer than the latest version available for download, the application will not be shown as requiring an update. Multiple version numbers for combined installations, such as Stanford Desktop Tools and Kerberos for Windows, are now written and interpreted in a consistent way. * Support for Windows Vista is complete, including all necessary prompts for privilege elevation when software is installed. * Manual checks for software updates now reset the schedule timer so that the next scheduled check will occur at the user-defined interval (one day, one week, or one month). * Stanford Desktop Tools will now compare the actual file size of software to be downloaded to the file size given in its configuration file. File size is used to determine whether or not a download is complete. Previously, an error in the file size given by the configuration file would cause installations to fail unnecessarily after download. * Source code has been heavily refactored since the last release, and a number of minor bugs have been fixed, including bugs in the Macintosh edition of Stanford Desktop Tools, which will become available when version 1.3.6 for both platforms is released. --------------------------------------------- 29 March 2007 Stanford Desktop Tools 1.3.4 (Windows) and Stanford Desktop Tools 1.3.3 (Macintosh) --------------------------------------------- * Stanford Desktop Tools now includes the same krb5.conf file used by all campus hosts, whereas in the past this file had been customized for Windows and Mac OS. * Kerberos for Windows 3.1.1 is now installed. * Stanford Desktop Tools for the Macintosh now supports a left-click on the dock icon, which will open the main Software Update preferences window. * A bug in Stanford Desktop Tools for the Macintosh, which caused certain installation operations to fail, has been corrected. --------------------------------------------- Stanford Desktop Tools 1.3.3 (Windows) and Stanford Desktop Tools 1.3.2 (Macintosh) --------------------------------------------- * New "Upgrade Only" feature: Stanford Desktop Tools for both the Macintosh and Windows now offers updates for certain applications only if they have already been installed by the user. (The one current example of such an application is OpenAFS.) This option is not at present user-configurable. * 64-bit and non-English (localized) versions of Windows are now supported. * Stanford Desktop Tools for Windows now installs the final release version of MIT Kerberos for Windows 3.1, including Network Idendity Manager 1.1.8 as well as updates to a few Kerberos support libraries. * Stanford Desktop Tools may now be configured to recognize a "maximum" OS version on which it may be installed, as it already recognizes a minimum OS version (currently Windows 2000 and MacOS X 10.4). "Maximum OS" is not user-configurable. * Stanford Desktop Tools for the Macintosh now exclusively provides a Kerberos 5 Stanford realm configuration file, and no longer supports the Kerberos 4 authentication protocol. This had already been the case for the Windows version of Stanford Desktop Tools. * The Windows Stanford Desktop Tools installer now directs users of Oracle calendar client software version 9.0.4 to the download page for the 10.1 version of the client should they wish to upgrade their calendar software to a level that's compatible with Kerberos for Windows 3.1, installed by Stanford Desktop Tools. * The Windows Stanford Desktop Tools installer now removes all previous versions of Kerberos for Windows before installing the currently distributed version. * The installer for MacOS X 10.4 now provides a version of Stanford Desktop Tools that will run natively on Intel-based Macintoshes as well as PowerPC hardware ("universal binary"). * Various minor bug fixes.