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#1
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How to Edit an xml file
I have been playing Win 7, Free Cell for months. I always intended to
retry a given game until I won. On game 2710, I inadvertently accepted my First Loss. I now know that my Free Cell stats are stored in an xml file. How might I edit that file, to edit (delete) that one lose. While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. dave |
#2
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How to Edit an xml file
In Dave C
wrote: While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. An XML file is simply an ordinary text file with a peculiar structure, so any ordinary text editor will do, so long as you understand and don't destroy the XML strucure while editing it. -- St. Paul, MN |
#3
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How to Edit an xml file
On 5/13/2013 8:51 PM, Bert wrote:
In Dave C wrote: While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. An XML file is simply an ordinary text file with a peculiar structure, so any ordinary text editor will do, so long as you understand and don't destroy the XML strucure while editing it. Which provokes the suggestion to back it up before messing with it. -- Alias |
#4
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How to Edit an xml file
On Mon, 13 May 2013 14:30:43 -0400, Dave C wrote:
I have been playing Win 7, Free Cell for months. I always intended to retry a given game until I won. On game 2710, I inadvertently accepted my First Loss. I now know that my Free Cell stats are stored in an xml file. How might I edit that file, to edit (delete) that one lose. While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. dave There are free xml editors available that structure the file display for you, or you can just use a text editor, as Bert suggests. I was gong to link you to XML Notepad, but when I try to look for a link in its Help-About, it crashes :-) This is where a different part of the Help menu takes me: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/data/bb190600.aspx I give up. Just Google for XML editors or use your text editor. -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
#5
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How to Edit an xml file
On Mon, 13 May 2013 12:03:16 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Mon, 13 May 2013 14:30:43 -0400, Dave C wrote: I have been playing Win 7, Free Cell for months. I always intended to retry a given game until I won. On game 2710, I inadvertently accepted my First Loss. I now know that my Free Cell stats are stored in an xml file. How might I edit that file, to edit (delete) that one lose. While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. dave There are free xml editors available that structure the file display for you, or you can just use a text editor, as Bert suggests. I was gong to link you to XML Notepad, but when I try to look for a link in its Help-About, it crashes :-) This is where a different part of the Help menu takes me: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/data/bb190600.aspx I give up. Just Google for XML editors or use your text editor. I looked on the above (not very) user-friendly page and got this: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl...s.aspx?id=7973 I also have XML Explorer, which I can't fathom, so I can't recommend it. The MS program works if you don't try Help-About :-) -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
#6
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How to Edit an xml file
On Mon, 13 May 2013 14:30:43 -0400, "Dave C" wrote in article
... I have been playing Win 7, Free Cell for months. I always intended to retry a given game until I won. On game 2710, I inadvertently accepted my First Loss. I now know that my Free Cell stats are stored in an xml file. How might I edit that file, to edit (delete) that one lose. While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. dave As I understand it, Free Cell stats are stored in: C:\Users\your user name\Appdata\Local\Microsoft Games\Freecell\Freecellsettings.xml To edit it, all you need is notepad or any other text editor. Then, find the appropriate entry and modify it, then save. -- Zaphod Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, ya know? - Gag Halfrunt |
#7
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How to Edit an xml file
On Mon, 13 May 2013 15:03:55 -0400, Zaphod Beeblebrox
wrote: On Mon, 13 May 2013 14:30:43 -0400, "Dave C" wrote in article ... I have been playing Win 7, Free Cell for months. I always intended to retry a given game until I won. On game 2710, I inadvertently accepted my First Loss. I now know that my Free Cell stats are stored in an xml file. How might I edit that file, to edit (delete) that one lose. While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. dave As I understand it, Free Cell stats are stored in: C:\Users\your user name\Appdata\Local\Microsoft Games\Freecell\Freecellsettings.xml To edit it, all you need is notepad or any other text editor. Then, find the appropriate entry and modify it, then save. First, a Sincere Thank You, to the many responders. My question is FAR less important than most other requests on this board. Certainly I followed up on the various suggestions. I D/L'ed installed the XML Notepad 2007, as well as another XML editor (Altova XMLSpy 2013) I found on the net. Neither xml editor allows acces to that file. I have verified that the File Properties are not restricted from editing. Both editors give me two, most similar error messages: Sorry file c:\users\ ... \games \freecell \freecellsettings.xml cannot be opened. Can't load binary file c:\users\ ... \games \freecell \freecellsettings.xml Note: Above, I have truncated the the full file directory info. For sure I did locate the applicable Frrecell file. I sure would aprreciate further advice, as to how I can open and edit that Freecell file, in an xml editor. Thanks |
#8
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How to Edit an xml file
Dave C wrote:
On Mon, 13 May 2013 15:03:55 -0400, Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote: On Mon, 13 May 2013 14:30:43 -0400, "Dave C" wrote in article ... I have been playing Win 7, Free Cell for months. I always intended to retry a given game until I won. On game 2710, I inadvertently accepted my First Loss. I now know that my Free Cell stats are stored in an xml file. How might I edit that file, to edit (delete) that one lose. While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. dave As I understand it, Free Cell stats are stored in: C:\Users\your user name\Appdata\Local\Microsoft Games\Freecell\Freecellsettings.xml To edit it, all you need is notepad or any other text editor. Then, find the appropriate entry and modify it, then save. First, a Sincere Thank You, to the many responders. My question is FAR less important than most other requests on this board. Certainly I followed up on the various suggestions. I D/L'ed installed the XML Notepad 2007, as well as another XML editor (Altova XMLSpy 2013) I found on the net. Neither xml editor allows acces to that file. I have verified that the File Properties are not restricted from editing. Both editors give me two, most similar error messages: Sorry file c:\users\ ... \games \freecell \freecellsettings.xml cannot be opened. Can't load binary file c:\users\ ... \games \freecell \freecellsettings.xml Note: Above, I have truncated the the full file directory info. For sure I did locate the applicable Frrecell file. I sure would aprreciate further advice, as to how I can open and edit that Freecell file, in an xml editor. Thanks Arrgh! OK, I dug out the Windows 7 laptop, played a game of Freecell (don't know how, quit and accepted a loss). OK, brought the freecellsettings.xml back to my WinXP machine for analysis. Loaded it in a hex editor. It isn't an XML file that I can see. It is a two part file, consisting of a binary PNG at the front, followed by unicode text. Didn't anyone scroll to the end of the file ? Unicode text in Windows, uses two bytes per character. Snip the file, leaving hex 89 followed by the letters PNG. That's the beginning of a PNG file. This is what is contained in the PNG file I got as a result. This is magnified by a factor of four, for those with poor eyesight. It's actually 256x192. Now, why it was important to record this, I'll never know. http://imageshack.us/a/img541/4653/test3o.png There is a PNG spec here, if anyone is interested. http://www.w3.org/TR/PNG/ I left the text at the end of it (which is past the IEND segment of the PNG), as it doesn't hurt anything. In other words, with a hex editor, you snip until you find 137 80 78 71 13 10 26 10 decimal. 137 decimal is 89 hex. Capital P is 80 decimal. (search for "man ascii" in Google.) So splat PNG, four characters, is the header of a PNG file. Depending on your image editor, you don't need to precisely snip off the end, to see the PNG. The image loader will ignore input past the IEND thing. We need to remove the PNG file, then analyse the rest of it. The rest is in unicode. And Notepad should handle it. The end of the PNG is near IEND, followed by four other characters. OK, long story short, while keeping your eye on the IEND thing (which is near the end of the PNG), look for hex 0xFF, hex 0xFE, then unicode looking like .R.o.o.t. You want to keep the 0xFF and 0xFE preamble. Snip everything before that. Save that as test.xml say. Load in Wordpad. You will see Root Stats Version0/Version GamesPlayed1/GamesPlayed GamesWon0/GamesWon MaxWinStreakLength0/MaxWinStreakLength MaxLoseStreakLength1/MaxLoseStreakLength CurrStreakLength1/CurrStreakLength WonlastGamefalse/WonlastGame /Stats Options Version2/Version PlaySoundstrue/PlaySounds PlayAnimationstrue/PlayAnimations RandomAppearancefalse/RandomAppearance AutoLoadfalse/AutoLoad TurnOffTipsfalse/TurnOffTips AutoSaveGameOnExitfalse/AutoSaveGameOnExit FirstPlayfalse/FirstPlay CurrDeckSkin2/CurrDeckSkin CurrBackground0/CurrBackground /Options /Root This is actually unicode, so every character is represented by two bytes. The only question that remains, is whether the garbage between the end of the PNG IEND and the beginning of the 0xFF 0xFE unicode preamble, is a checksum or not. Hacking the rest of it, is left as a joyous exercise for the reader. So it's not "quantum cryptography", it's just obfuscation. Cut the file in two, edit the text trailer, reassemble. If it is protected by a checksum, there are some bytes between IENDxxxx and 0xFF 0xFE that I cannot account for. Make a backup of the file, before loading your hacked one. At the very end of the file, I see 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00 0x00, and you probably can't create that with a text editor. When reassembling the file and bolting it back together, check that the postamble is correct. I don't know why there is a Unicode zero down there. A text editor shows that character as a square. If saving out the file happens to remove it, you can put that back with the hex editor. Have fun, Paul |
#9
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How to Edit an xml file
On Wed, 15 May 2013 12:13:03 -0400, Paul wrote:
At the very end of the file, I see 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00 0x00, and you probably can't create that with a text editor. When reassembling the file and bolting it back together, check that the postamble is correct. I don't know why there is a Unicode zero down there. A text editor shows that character as a square. If saving out the file happens to remove it, you can put that back with the hex editor. I use this hex editor: http://mh-nexus.de/en/ And that was pretty good detective work, Paul! -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
#10
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How to Edit an xml file
On Wed, 15 May 2013 11:56:50 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote: On Wed, 15 May 2013 12:13:03 -0400, Paul wrote: At the very end of the file, I see 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00 0x00, and you probably can't create that with a text editor. When reassembling the file and bolting it back together, check that the postamble is correct. I don't know why there is a Unicode zero down there. A text editor shows that character as a square. If saving out the file happens to remove it, you can put that back with the hex editor. I use this hex editor: http://mh-nexus.de/en/ And that was pretty good detective work, Paul! Ahem, didn't we collectively discuss this very same topic a few months ago in this group? I clearly remember pointing out that the actual xml resides at the end of the file. Oh well, I guess if it's worth discovering, it's worth discovering again. ;-) -- Char Jackson |
#11
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How to Edit an xml file
"Dave C" wrote in message
... I have been playing Win 7, Free Cell for months. I always intended to retry a given game until I won. On game 2710, I inadvertently accepted my First Loss. I now know that my Free Cell stats are stored in an xml file. How might I edit that file, to edit (delete) that one lose. While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. dave If you successfully open, edit, and save a working copy of this file, let me know. I've tried XML Notepad 2007, FOXE, Notepad, Notepad++, Word, etc., and have yet to see one recognizable character in any of the MS Games XML files. I've never much thought about it before, but your post piqued my curiosity, just to see what's in it. Impressive streak :-) When I was working, I had a 2000+ winning streak after an early loss (played on break and at lunchtime only wink wink nudge nudge ), but not near what you have. -- SC Tom |
#12
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How to Edit an xml file
SC Tom wrote:
"Dave C" wrote in message ... I have been playing Win 7, Free Cell for months. I always intended to retry a given game until I won. On game 2710, I inadvertently accepted my First Loss. I now know that my Free Cell stats are stored in an xml file. How might I edit that file, to edit (delete) that one lose. While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. dave If you successfully open, edit, and save a working copy of this file, let me know. I've tried XML Notepad 2007, FOXE, Notepad, Notepad++, Word, etc., and have yet to see one recognizable character in any of the MS Games XML files. I've never much thought about it before, but your post piqued my curiosity, just to see what's in it. Impressive streak :-) When I was working, I had a 2000+ winning streak after an early loss (played on break and at lunchtime only wink wink nudge nudge ), but not near what you have. There's a little comedy here. While it is possible to use encryption on XML, apparently in one case, it was just BASE64 encoding. http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Encrypted-XML.aspx Paul |
#13
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How to Edit an xml file
"Paul" wrote in message ... SC Tom wrote: "Dave C" wrote in message ... I have been playing Win 7, Free Cell for months. I always intended to retry a given game until I won. On game 2710, I inadvertently accepted my First Loss. I now know that my Free Cell stats are stored in an xml file. How might I edit that file, to edit (delete) that one lose. While surely minor, compared to many the REAL problems discussed here, I am most annoyed at myself. I sure would appreciate any/all advice on how to edit that file. dave If you successfully open, edit, and save a working copy of this file, let me know. I've tried XML Notepad 2007, FOXE, Notepad, Notepad++, Word, etc., and have yet to see one recognizable character in any of the MS Games XML files. I've never much thought about it before, but your post piqued my curiosity, just to see what's in it. Impressive streak :-) When I was working, I had a 2000+ winning streak after an early loss (played on break and at lunchtime only wink wink nudge nudge ), but not near what you have. There's a little comedy here. While it is possible to use encryption on XML, apparently in one case, it was just BASE64 encoding. http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Encrypted-XML.aspx Paul I tried an on-line decoder and got this error: "The input is not a valid Base-64 string as it contains a non-base 64 character, more than two padding characters, or a non-white space character among the padding characters." Maybe that's not it :-) -- SC Tom |
#14
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How to Edit an xml file
SC Tom :
I tried an on-line decoder and got this error: "The input is not a valid Base-64 string as it contains a non-base 64 character, more than two padding characters, or a non-white space character among the padding characters." Doncha just *love* that sort of error message? Would it be so hard to say which of those three problems it is? -- Mike Barnes |
#15
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How to Edit an xml file
On Tue, 14 May 2013 18:58:19 +0100, Mike Barnes wrote:
SC Tom : I tried an on-line decoder and got this error: "The input is not a valid Base-64 string as it contains a non-base 64 character, more than two padding characters, or a non-white space character among the padding characters." Doncha just *love* that sort of error message? Would it be so hard to say which of those three problems it is? One could argue that it's better than *no* list of possible errors :-) -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
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