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#16
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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 |
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#17
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How to Edit an xml file
On Tue, 14 May 2013 22:37:39 -0400, Stan Brown
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. Any text editor. Even Notepad should be able to do the job. Don't double-click the file. Open your editor of choice, and do File*» Open in the editor menu, or drag the file into the editor's client area. Apologies!! I thought I had updated, to the most recent posts in this newsgroup. You will note that my reply today was in response to a much earlier post. I have now read all of the subsequent posts. BTW: I did open the xml file with Notepad, as well the noted other two xml specific editors. Notepad did NOT give me any error messages and it DID open the file. Alas, there were NO identifiable entries displayed, such that I could edit the file. A non-technical person might call the display gibberish? As others have noted, there must be some encoding, that precludes viewing and editing. For certain I have no idea how to proceed, and edit that file. |
#18
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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 |
#19
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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) |
#20
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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 |
#21
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How to Edit an xml file
On Tue, 14 May 2013 11:07:43 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote: On Tue, 14 May 2013 12:58:21 -0400, SC Tom wrote: "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 :-) OK, try ROT13 next. :-) Sometimes, when I need extra super security, I use *DOUBLE* ROT13! The average person never even notices. -- Char Jackson |
#22
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How to Edit an xml file
On Fri, 17 May 2013 20:34:46 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:
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. ;-) I don't recall the earlier discussion, but I have to agree with your last remark anyway. Now if only my friends would agree that a story worth telling once is worth telling twice...or thrice...or... -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
#23
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How to Edit an xml file
On Fri, 17 May 2013 20:34:46 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 14 May 2013 11:07:43 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote: On Tue, 14 May 2013 12:58:21 -0400, SC Tom wrote: "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 :-) OK, try ROT13 next. :-) Sometimes, when I need extra super security, I use *DOUBLE* ROT13! The average person never even notices. A while back there was someone on some newsgroup (I forget who & which) whose sig file was "Contents protected by double ROT13". I loved it... But of course, I happen to have the app to decrypt it. -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
#24
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How to Edit an xml file
On Sat, 18 May 2013 15:56:57 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
A while back there was someone on some newsgroup (I forget who & which) whose sig file was "Contents protected by double ROT13". I loved it.. Isn't that a simple rotation still? Part of a 'ring' of operations or somesuch (rusty algebra). No serious crypto at all. |
#25
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How to Edit an xml file
mechanic wrote:
On Sat, 18 May 2013 15:56:57 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote: A while back there was someone on some newsgroup (I forget who & which) whose sig file was "Contents protected by double ROT13". I loved it.. Isn't that a simple rotation still? Part of a 'ring' of operations or somesuch (rusty algebra). No serious crypto at all. Saying you've used "Double ROT13" or "I ROT13ed it twice" is a joke? ROTting twice just outputs the plaintext. FYI, ROT13 isn't intended as crypto except for things like plot spoilers. -- Tciao for Now! John. |
#26
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How to Edit an xml file
On Sun, 19 May 2013 11:58:05 +0100, mechanic
wrote: On Sat, 18 May 2013 15:56:57 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote: A while back there was someone on some newsgroup (I forget who & which) whose sig file was "Contents protected by double ROT13". I loved it.. Isn't that a simple rotation still? Part of a 'ring' of operations or somesuch (rusty algebra). No serious crypto at all. I'm afraid that you missed his joke. Double ROT13 returns the text to what it started with, so there is no change and no protection at all. g |
#27
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How to Edit an xml file
On Sun, 19 May 2013 08:05:49 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:
On Sun, 19 May 2013 11:58:05 +0100, mechanic wrote: On Sat, 18 May 2013 15:56:57 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote: A while back there was someone on some newsgroup (I forget who & which) whose sig file was "Contents protected by double ROT13". I loved it.. Isn't that a simple rotation still? Part of a 'ring' of operations or somesuch (rusty algebra). No serious crypto at all. I'm afraid that you missed his joke. Double ROT13 returns the text to what it started with, so there is no change and no protection at all. g Ooops - I was thinking of the general case and forgot the specifics of ROT13. |
#28
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How to Edit an xml file
On Sun, 19 May 2013 20:27:21 +0100, mechanic wrote:
On Sun, 19 May 2013 08:05:49 -0700, Ken Blake wrote: On Sun, 19 May 2013 11:58:05 +0100, mechanic wrote: On Sat, 18 May 2013 15:56:57 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote: A while back there was someone on some newsgroup (I forget who & which) whose sig file was "Contents protected by double ROT13". I loved it.. Isn't that a simple rotation still? Part of a 'ring' of operations or somesuch (rusty algebra). No serious crypto at all. I'm afraid that you missed his joke. Double ROT13 returns the text to what it started with, so there is no change and no protection at all. g Ooops - I was thinking of the general case and forgot the specifics of ROT13. Well, if you don't mind too much, we had a bit of fun with your response. And as you well know, every one of us has done worse somewhere along the line :-) -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
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