Zerene Stacker

This is an old revision of the document!

Zerene Stacker Beta Testing Downloads

Looking for an explanation of how our “beta channel” works? See HERE for an explanation.

Note: Because these beta versions are downloaded relatively few times, they are sometimes not recognized as known good software by anti-malware packages. You may have to override your anti-malware's behavior of refusing to run unrecognized software.

If you have other security concerns about the beta installers, please see How To Validate A Download.

Windows users: The current beta is built using a new code signing certificate that has not yet seen enough usage to be trusted by Microsoft. When you run the installer, you will probably be shown a dialog that says “Windows protected your PC”, and the only button says “Don't run”. But notice there is also a link in the upper left corner, saying “More info”. Click on “More info”, and you'll see “Publisher: Zerene Systems LLC”, and at the bottom of the dialog there's a new button “Run anyway”. Click on “Run anyway” to install the Zerene Stacker beta. (After enough uses, Microsoft will learn to trust this certificate and not require the workaround. Thank you for your assistance!)

Current beta is:

  • macOS (Intel cpu): ZS-MacOSX-SA-T2021-06-06-1947-beta.zip, downloads as a .zip file that automatically expands into an application bundle named ZereneStacker (.app).
    This is the recommended bundle for modern Intel Macs running macOS 10.14 or above. It is self-contained and includes its own Java 11 runtime environment.
    Length 45,919,638 bytes
    MD5 checksum 85aa130b4baeefb76aa31e82b78e317f
    SHA-1 checksum 275510bf09c39d3ecb6bf410c9dca10d592301e9
  • macOS (M-series ARM cpu): ZS-MacOSX-ARM-SA-T2021-06-06-1947-beta.zip, downloads as a .zip file that automatically expands into an application bundle named ZereneStacker (.app).
    This is the recommended bundle for modern Macs with ARM cpu (“Apple silicon”). It is self-contained and includes its own ARM-native Java 11 runtime environment. Rosetta is required for the launch program and a few helper programs – so macOS will report the package as “Intel” – but all the heavy computation runs ARM-native.
    Length 45,025,983 bytes
    MD5 checksum fe26b192930116b98cbef85e45ce5968
    SHA-1 checksum bb3022bbef3a5f9686d86feb5b45820cee3f7184
  • macOS (interim): ZS-MacOSXinterim-SA-T2021-06-06-1947-beta.zip, downloads as a .zip file that automatically expands into an application bundle named ZereneStacker (.app).
    This bundle is suitable for Macs running macOS 10.9 through 10.14. It is self-contained and includes its own Java runtime environment.
    Length 52,537,604 bytes
    MD5 checksum 7956f7f0bc0d64fe2c6183a4da87a837
    SHA-1 checksum e25427a5b171b15500288ea76c6fe59bd4200001
  • Mac OS X (old): ZS-MacOSXold-SA-T2021-06-06-1947-beta.zip, downloads as an application bundle named ZereneStacker (.app).
    This bundle is not self-contained. It requires a Java runtime environment installed by Apple, and will prompt for installation of Java if one is not already installed. It runs as 64-bit where the processor and operating system support it, and as 32-bit otherwise.
    Length 8,658,420 bytes
    MD5 checksum 36b41efa0bd6ca2802786f50d7f4223a
    SHA-1 checksum 50a95457b31eed2a7d3071a5ae670c3693ef5c0c

Note: On Macintosh and Linux, if you already have Zerene Stacker installed and are downloading a new version to update it, then you need to manually move the old version to trash, and move or rename the new version to replace it. Otherwise both versions will continue to be available, and you will run whichever one you happen to click on. For further information, see the FAQS on “Installing and Updating”. On Mac, when trashing out the old version, do NOT allow any third party uninstaller or cleanup applications like “AppCleaner” to run. In their enthusiasm to eliminate files that they think are not used, they're likely to also delete files you really do need, like your license key and Zerene Stacker configuration files.

Improvements

Compared to the previously announced T2021-05-31-1607-beta, this T2021-06-06-1947-beta incorporates several bug fixes and minor improvements:

  • User interface:
    • Improved progress bar handling when DMap caching.
    • Preferences dialog, added button in DMap Settings to set threshold mask color.
  • Bug fix:
    • Set color mask button did not work. (Bug introduced in T2021-05-31-1607-beta.)
  • Other:
    • Reduced access to Windows registry, may speed opening of Preferences dialog.


Compared to current full release T2021-05-05-1700, this beta adds one major new feature and several other improvements:

  • DMap speedup:
    • Options > Preferences > DMap Settings: “Cache DMap pass 1 info for faster work with multiple thresholds”
  • User interface
    • Allow copying text of labels, buttons, checkboxes, etc. to clipboard, using right-click context menu.
    • Provide concise diagnostic instead of generic “Uh-oh” when image files cannot be read.

Other changes include:

  • Code signing: use new certificate for beta builds on Windows.
  • Bug fixes in license management.


Please immediately inform support@zerenesystems.com if you encounter any difficulties or odd behavior with this beta version. Be sure to send a console log if appropriate – instructions for that are provided HERE.

A complete list of modifications can be read in the Modification History.

Immediately previous beta was:

stacker/softwaredownloads/currentbeta.1623037157.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021/06/07 03:39 by rjlittlefield
Copyright 2009-2024, Zerene Systems LLC, all rights reserved.