Setup Actions, native controls and a little Windows 7 nostalgia

One day old, years in the making 😄

Flyoobe 3.0 may only be about a day old, but believe me: it did not appear overnight. The ideas, experiments, deleted code and questionable coffee decisions behind it are considerably older

The original Flyoobe had plenty of personality. It was colourful, flexible and sometimes a little chaotic but that was also part of its charm. With version 3.0, I did not want to reproduce every old page and feature one by one. I wanted to bring back what made the original fun while giving it a smaller, clearer and much more reliable core

The result already surpasses the old version by miles. It is lighter, easier to understand, easier to maintain and now far more expandable than before. At the same time, a few familiar ideas are finding their way home again only this time with cleaner boundaries and considerably fewer opportunities for me to regret them six months later

The first release has made me more motivated than ever to take Flyoobe to the next level. Apparently the best way to move forward was to look back for a moment, borrow a little Windows 7 charm and remember why I started building this app in the first place

This release also brings the original spelling back home: Flyoobe. Not FlyOOBE, not an acronym that looks as if it is shouting at you, just Flyoobe. Or Fly-oh-bee, if you want to make the little bee happy

Setup Actions, native controls and a little Windows 7 nostalgia

I originally wanted Flyoobe to stay small and focused. Then Setup Actions happened

Setup Actions

Setup Actions turn Flyoobe into an expandable post-install toolbox without turning the application itself into a giant collection of hard-coded features

• [Added] Support for local PowerShell-based Setup Actions
• [Added] Dynamic action choices, drop-down menus and optional input fields
• [Added] Live script output instead of making users stare at a frozen window and hope for the best
• [Added] Recipe-safe actions that can be exported and executed as part of a recipe
• [Added] An action importer and direct access to the local Actions folder
• [Added] Setup Preflight for a quick check before making changes
• [Added] Documentation for writing and sharing custom actions
• [Changed] Setup Actions are isolated from the Flyoobe core and can be disabled completely
• [Changed] Actions now use their own folders and metadata instead of relying on loose scripts
• [Changed] Script execution and live output are handled by a smaller, dedicated runner
• [Fixed] PowerShell progress messages no longer appear as unreadable CLIXML
• [Fixed] Script output now appears while an action is running instead of only after it has finished
• [Fixed] The Setup Actions designer can be opened normally again
• [Fixed] Duplicate power-plan actions were removed in favour of one action with a proper selector
• [Removed] Unused helper code and old compatibility paths that were no longer needed by the new core

In other words: I added a door without rebuilding the entire house around every person who might eventually walk through it.

A more familiar interface

After finishing the new core, I still felt that the interface was missing some character. So I borrowed a little from what is probably my and quite possibly everyones favourite era of Windows UI

The new interface takes inspiration from Windows 7:

• [Added] A lightweight Explorer-style navigation bar with Back, Forward and breadcrumbs
• [Added] Filled breadcrumb separators inspired by the Windows 7 Explorer
• [Added] A subtle Windows 7-style blue-to-green accent
• [Added] Native scrollbars on pages that genuinely need additional space
• [Changed] The dense overview table was replaced with simple expandable native groups
• [Changed] Matching recommendations stay collapsed while items needing attention remain visible
• [Changed] Page headings, white content areas and grey command footers now follow the classic Windows layout more closely
• [Changed] The main content fills one bordered client area instead of floating inside several nested panels
• [Changed] Navigation is now shared by the main window, so individual pages no longer need their own Back buttons
• [Changed] The bottom command area now runs cleanly from left to right
• [Changed] Everything continues to use standard Windows controls, so no custom skins and no owner-drawn imitation controls
• [Fixed] Buttons and fields are no longer clipped when the window becomes too small
• [Fixed] Unnecessary scrollbars no longer appear on responsive pages such as the Overview
• [Fixed] The Settings button remains visible instead of disappearing beyond the right edge
• [Fixed] Several inconsistent margins, headers, footers and page layouts were cleaned up

The older I get, the more I appreciate old software. Apparently nostalgia is just usability after it has passed a sufficiently long code review

Flyoobe still looks like a modern utility, but it now carries a little of the clarity, colour and friendliness that made Windows 7 feel so effortless.

More changes

• [Added] Support for additional Flyoobe*.ini rule databases placed in the Data folder
• [Added] A dedicated database section in Settings showing every loaded database and its number of entries
• [Changed] The application name is now consistently written as Flyoobe
• [Changed] The About page now includes the unofficially official pronunciation: Fly-oh-bee
• [Changed] Service classes and core components received clearer, more personal documentation
• [Changed] Setup Actions, recipes and rule databases remain separate from the core wherever possible
• [Fixed] Various dead code, redundant paths and unnecessary complexity were removed
• [Fixed] Debug and Release builds now complete without warnings or errors

Optional Setup Actions download

Setup Actions are provided as an optional release asset, so the main Flyoobe download stays small and focused.

To install them:

1. Download the Actions asset from the release page
2. Extract the included Actions folder into Flyoobe’s Data folder
3. Open Flyoobe and go to Settings > Advanced
4. Enable Setup Actions
5. Close Settings to load the newly installed actions

The resulting folder structure should look like this

Flyoobe
└── Data
    └── Actions
        ├── Create restore point
        ├── Explorer tweaks
        ├── Setup preflight
        └── ...