PicBlock Version History (changelog)

Note: Certain anti-virus, chat, and parental control tools may conflict with PicBlock's operations. See http://www.picblock.com/support for more details and how to remedy.

Note: A predefined list of many pre-screened highly trafficked URLs has been copied to the PicBlock installation folder. You can optionally import this list into PicBlock from the URL Whitelist tab located in PicBlock's configuration options dialog if desired. The name of the list to import is called defaultsafelist.txt.

4.2.3 April 11, 2010
*Fixed LSP issue that prevented Google Chrome and Vista Mail from working
*Fixed LSP issue that prevented 32 bit browser from working in win64 OS
*Made further enhancements to porn detection engine

4.2.2 March 25, 2010
*Minor bug fixes
*Turned off file system filtering by default as on SOME systems (primarily Vista OS) certain programs (Windows Mail, sometimes MS Office) won't run or will crash when file system filtering is turned on. If you enable file system filtering you will need to reboot your computer. If all woks well then great. If not, turn file system filtering back off and report your experience to support@picblock.com. 

4.1.1 March 25, 2010
*This is the same as 4.2.2 but without the unblock subdomain feature, and therefore is more field proven than 4.2.2
*Minor bug fixes
*Turned off file system filtering by default as on SOME systems (primarily Vista OS) certain programs (Windows Mail, sometimes MS Office) won't run or will crash when file system filtering is turned on. If you enable file system filtering you will need to reboot your computer. If all woks well then great. If not, turn file system filtering back off and report your experience to support@picblock.com.

4.2 (beta) Jan 16, 2010
*Added ability to specify an IP or an IP range to be ignored by PicBlock's Layered Service Provider (very early in the process, increases 
performance). To use: In PicBlock's whitelist, added an IP or range as follows: 192.168.1.10-192.168.1.200 (no spaces, hypens supported). 
Useful for ignoring local lans.
*Added ability to include all sub-domains when unblocking (challenging) a blocked page. So if you unblock "msn.com", then any sub-domain 
off of msn.com won't be filtered. This is useful when you know that a particular website (and all it's pages throughout) are safe for 
viewing. You can toggle this feature in PicBlock's configuration page, Whitelist tab.
*Minor architectural improvements that impact performance

4.1 November (beta) 6 2009
*Modified installer to include necessary runtime files. This fixes the problem where a prompt would appear on some computers stating: "one or more components could not be loaded"
*Added support for Windows Administrator password vs. PicBlock managed admin password for protecting settings, unblock, etc.
*Fixed image filtering threshold bug introduced in 4.0 that caused a higher incidence of porn slipping through the filters
*Fixed a minor bug that caused certain settings to not be saved between sessions

4.0 September 6, 2009
*Added local file system filtering. Now any image file opened on your local system (such as thumbrive or My Pictures folder) will be filtered for objectionable content.
*Optimized facial filtering to reduce false positives
*Added toggle to enable/disable face detection
*Fixed multiple memory and resource handle leaks (two months to track down, hence the delay).
*Fixed a few potential problem areas detected by Boundschecker
*Enhanced tamper resistance measures 
*Enhanced uninstall logic to permit uninstall if logged in as administrator even if picblock is password protected

3.1 beta May 1, 2008
*Enhanced filtering engine by adding shape detection.

3.0.1 April 15, 2008 (Tax Day!)
*Rebuilt a dependant file, UserRightsDll.dll, that for some reason was flagging certain AV tools as having a virus, either Agent.hhf, Agent.FDWJ, or similar. I checked online at Jotti and Virus Total and while most AV tests came back positive, a few did show these virus signatures. This file hasn't change in some time, so I checked against earlier source code and those were identical, yet earlier builds of the file don't appear infected when checked against these online tools. So I replaced the current DLL with a prior version, which is now contained in the 3.0 installer (if you downloaded after 10:40 PM CST, April 15). I seriously doubt there was a virus, as I'm religious about keeping my system clean (AVG, Sysbot, don't visit the wrong kind of sites) so most likely it was a false positive; but to be safe I'm uploading a version that checks out 100% against the online tools. I've also re-checked all other PicBlock component files and verified that those are clean as well. I apologize if this situation has inconvenienced anyone.

3.0 January 8, 2008

*Added an Import, Export, and 'Add' feature to the URL Safelist (now called Whitelist) Manually add one or multiple URLs
*Added a new URL "Blacklist" which serves the purpose of blocking one or more URLs outright (no filtering done for those pages) Also supports Import, Export, Add, and Remove 
*Added a new keyword "Blacklist" which lets Import, Export, Add, or Remove words from the hard-coded keyword blacklist Note that the hard-coded word list is "hidden", ie; so words added by the user may be duplicates of words already present in the list Likewise words removed may not be on the list in the first place Read the help file for more info
*Added option to automatically check for updates once a month (only if the user has admin privileges)
*Added ability for PicBlock to filter out keywords URLs – extends keyword filtering to also filter URLs being processed
*Added option (in Security tab) to block ALL URLs except those find in the URL Whitelist (not documented in help file). 
*Added additional countermeasures for preventing non-privileged users from disabling PicBlock


2.0 final June 6, 2007

*Added support for command line switches for enterprise installations Contact support@cinchworkscom for instructions on use

2.0 beta 2 May 5, 2007

*Added toggle to hide splash on startup
*Fixed crash in keyword filter

2.0 beta April 27, 2007

*Added facial recognition (reduces false positives for portraits)
 

1.5 April 25, 2007
*Multiple improvements to keyword blocking 
*Support for additional languages added, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and more
*Made various performance improvements
*Made improvements to filtering logic when dealing with GIF files, sliver images, and skin tone detection routines (to reduce false positives)

1.5 beta April 5, 2007

*Added objectionable key word blocking Detects hundreds of sexually explict words in multiple languages

1.0.7 - Jan 16, 2007

*Added ability to block images from web pages over port 8080 in addition to the default port 80

1.0.6 - Nov 27, 2006

*Fixed internal bug that caused internet traffic to be blocked on non-http ports - UPDATE: This is still a problem under certain scenarios Will be fixed in the future

1.0.5 - Feb 1, 2006

*Fixed a problem where PicBlock would sometimes relaunch itself multiple times
*Fixed a broken setting - "Disallow Internet access if PicBlock isn't running"
*Fixed a crashing defect when visiting Yahoocom on occasion

1.0.4 - November 12, 2005

*Added prompt for PicBlock administrator password upon uninstall (if present) This frequently requested feature prevents unauthorized users from uninstalling PicBlock 
*Added ability for PicBlock to run under a restricted user account 
*Fixed crashing defect when launching PicBlock under a restricted user account

1.0.3 - August 16, 2005 (initial public release)