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[Double]

Uh, true I do, yeah. Ok will wait for your fix then, keep up the magic work!

 

[Kanokare]

Hm. I seem to be idling for games I already have cards for or games I don't own on my account like Day of Defeat Source. It might be detecting one of my family shared accounts.

Edit: Yup it's detecting my family shared account and isn't asking me to log in when I start it.

 

[jshackles]

This new version of Idle Master has been insanely popular. It's been available for 64 hours now and it's had 10,522 downloads from this site. This number doesn't count the downloads done by the auto-updating mechanism, it only counts the number of clicks on the "Download now" button on the site.

That's pretty insane: that's like one download every 22 seconds - sustained over 64 hours time.

I'm still working on fixing up some bugs and I've released a few new updates today that fix a few bugs. Users with custom DPI settings should be able to use the program correctly now. Idle Master should also detect any network issues (whether it's your internet that's down or Steam that's down) and should retry every 60 seconds until it can reach Steam if there's an issue.

Within the next few days it should be updated to work with Steam Family View, and hopefully I'll be able to track down the bug that's making user's counters go negative when idling is complete.

 

[Detruire]

Is there some trick to switching users? Logging out seems to work, but when I try to log back in the browser window briefly opens (showing my profile) before the client shows as signed in again.

 

[jshackles]

Is there some trick to switching users? Logging out seems to work, but when I try to log back in the browser window briefly opens (showing my profile) before the client shows as signed in again.

You can clear your cookies in Internet Explorer and that should resolve the issue. In the future, if you know you're going to be switching between accounts, be sure not to check the "Remember me on this computer" box on the login page.

 

[Detruire]

You can clear your cookies in Internet Explorer and that should resolve the issue. In the future, if you know you're going to be switching between accounts, be sure not to check the "Remember me on this computer" box on the login page.

Easier said than done.

I've logged in (then had to clear cookies) three times as a test, and the checkbox hasn't shown once.

 

[Adventis]

This new version of Idle Master has been insanely popular. It's been available for 64 hours now and it's had 10,522 downloads from this site. This number doesn't count the downloads done by the auto-updating mechanism, it only counts the number of clicks on the "Download now" button on the site.

That's pretty insane: that's like one download every 22 seconds - sustained over 64 hours time.

I'm still working on fixing up some bugs and I've released a few new updates today that fix a few bugs. Users with custom DPI settings should be able to use the program correctly now. Idle Master should also detect any network issues (whether it's your internet that's down or Steam that's down) and should retry every 60 seconds until it can reach Steam if there's an issue.

Within the next few days it should be updated to work with Steam Family View, and hopefully I'll be able to track down the bug that's making user's counters go negative when idling is complete.

Thanks based jshackles, I've been following IdleMaster since the early days and I've just gotta say that this is a fantastic update to an already awesome app.

Just got a couple of questions though. How do you know when IdleMaster updates itself? Is there some kind of notification or dialog box you can check?
Also why does my window cut off halfway like so when it starts idling a game?

 

[jshackles]

Easier said than done.

I've logged in (then had to clear cookies) three times as a test, and the checkbox hasn't shown once.

That's... pretty strange. So there's no checkbox, but it's obviously saving your cookie information anyway? That's very bizarre.

One of the features I have kicking around in my head is a menu that will let you configure multiple "profiles" for Idle Master. Setting up a profile will prompt you to log in to Steam, and will save the details of that account. Then when you want to switch from one account to another, you'll simply change profiles and it'll remember everything without you needing to sign in each time. That's going to take a lot of work though, it's not something that will be ready any time soon.

Thanks based jshackles, I've been following IdleMaster since the early days and I've just gotta say that this is a fantastic update to an already awesome app.

Just got a couple of questions though. How do you know when IdleMaster updates itself? Is there some kind of notification or dialog box you can check?
Also why does my window cut off halfway like so when it starts idling a game?

Judging from your screenshot, the window being screwed up is basically because you don't have the latest version of Idle Master. Idle Master will check once per day (in the background) to make sure it's up to date. You can "force" the update by going to www.steamidlemaster.com and re-downloading and re-running the setup file.

 

[Adventis]

Judging from your screenshot, the window being screwed up is basically because you don't have the latest version of Idle Master. Idle Master will check once per day (in the background) to make sure it's up to date. You can "force" the update by going to www.steamidlemaster.com and re-downloading and re-running the setup file.

Thanks, I've gone and forced an update like you suggested and that seems to have fixed the problem. =]

 

[SteveO409]

Is it possible to assign a game to idle in?

 

[FiveElementNinja]

Idle Master keeps crashing with a 404 error. I even tried the old Python version and it does the same. As far as I know I have the latest version.

Here's the exception being thrown:

************** Exception Text **************
System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.
at System.Net.WebClient.OpenRead(Uri address)
at System.Net.WebClient.OpenRead(String address)
at System.Windows.Forms.PictureBox.Load()
at System.Windows.Forms.PictureBox.Load(String url)
at IdleMaster.frmMain.startIdle(String appid)
at IdleMaster.frmMain.<tmrReadyToGo_Tick>d__1e.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.AsyncMethodBuilderCore.<ThrowAsync>b__0(Object state)

 

[jshackles]

Idle Master keeps crashing with a 404 error. I even tried the old Python version and it does the same. As far as I know I have the latest version.

Here's the exception being thrown:

Thanks for the heads up!

It looks like this is happening when it's trying to find the image banner for a particular game when one doesn't exist. I'll add this to the bug list I'm building and see if I can't figure out what's going on with it. If you can determine the appid of the game that's failing (based on the badges page and your sorting options) you could try to add that game to your blacklist for now and that should fix the issue.

 

[FiveElementNinja]

Thanks for the heads up!

It looks like this is happening when it's trying to find the image banner for a particular game when one doesn't exist. I'll add this to the bug list I'm building and see if I can't figure out what's going on with it. If you can determine the appid of the game that's failing (based on the badges page and your sorting options) you could try to add that game to your blacklist for now and that should fix the issue.

Ah, ok cool. It looks like it was the Holiday Sale badge causing the issue. I blacklisted that appid (335590) and Idle Master is working again. Thanks!

 

[jshackles]

Ah, ok cool. It looks like it was the Holiday Sale badge causing the issue. I blacklisted that appid (335590) and Idle Master is working again. Thanks!

A program like Idle Master sure brings out Steam's weird bugs...

Out of curiosity, does your badges page show that you have available card drops for the Holiday Sale badge?

 

[FiveElementNinja]

A program like Idle Master sure brings out Steam's weird bugs...

Out of curiosity, does your badges page show that you have available card drops for the Holiday Sale badge?

Yeah, it says I have 7 drops remaining. That's what got me thinking that perhaps that was the problem.

 

[chixdiggit]

Here is a video tutorial that chixdiggit put together of the old version: http://youtu.be/WC1S5dgyTdw
Hopefully someone can make a video tutorial of the new version soon!

Great work! Here is a new video: New Steam Idle Master
The last video got 40,000 views. I doubt the new version will get much attention as the new Idle Master is so much easier to set up. Great job.

 

[jshackles]

Great work! Here is a new video: New Steam Idle Master
The last video got 40,000 views. I doubt the new version will get much attention as the new Idle Master is so much easier to set up. Great job.

Thanks! I've updated the OP with your new video, great job. If anyone on your Youtube channel comes up with a question you can't answer, let me know.

 

[Cizeta-Moroder]

I'm not on the latest version, but I'm curious as to whether idling free to play titles is or will be supported.

 

[santi_yo]

Thank you so much, jshackles , for this wonderful tool. And thanks chixdiggit for the video(s).

Count me in.

 

[jshackles]

I'm not on the latest version, but I'm curious as to whether idling free to play titles is or will be supported.

Idle Master will idle free to play games just fine, but it will only do so if you have available card drops. You can earn card drops in F2P games by making in-store purchases ($9 = 1 card).

 

[Cizeta-Moroder]

Idle Master will idle free to play games just fine, but it will only do so if you have available card drops. You can earn card drops in F2P games by making in-store purchases ($9 = 1 card).

Thanks. I didn't know how F2P card drops work in the first place, was just casually looking for easy money

 

[jshackles]

I just released a small update to Idle Master 0.7 which adds support for users with Steam Family View enabled on their account. If you have Steam Family View enabled, you will now be prompted to enter your PIN number after signing in. The program will save your cookie information, so you'll only need to enter your PIN number once, when signing in.

 

[Double]

Nice!

 

[chixdiggit]

Couple of people are posting the following in the comments of the video:

I run the setup, but I get "Application cannot be started. Contact the application vendor."&#65279;

Any ideas?

 

[Parsnip]

Couple of people are posting the following in the comments of the video:

I run the setup, but I get "Application cannot be started. Contact the application vendor."&#65279;

Any ideas?

While I'm not an expert, I seem to remember seeing that specific error in the past with another application, I think it might be .NET/ClickOnce related.
Might be worth a shot to reinstall .NET and/or delete "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\" and trying again.

Safer would be to wait jshackles to comment though, maybe he has a solution that doesn't involve deleting stuff.

 

[chixdiggit]

While I'm not an expert, I seem to remember seeing that specific error in the past with another application, I think it might be .NET/ClickOnce related.
Might be worth a shot to reinstall .NET and/or delete "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\" and trying again.

Safer would be to wait jshackles to comment though, maybe he has a solution that doesn't involve deleting stuff.

Thanks as any input is appreciated.

Also wondering what version of windows this works with. Vista? 32 bit?

Also a problem of: "still cannot login into my acct. I just loops back into the little window. please help me"

 

[jshackles]

Also wondering what version of windows this works with. Vista? 32 bit?

The new version of Idle Master should work with any OS that's compatible with the .NET Framework 4.5 (either 32 or 64 bit should work fine). This includes Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2012.

As Parsnip says, most of the time re-installing the .NET Framework (see link above) will fix these issues. Some people's computers have security settings that don't allow programs with self-signed software certificates like Idle Master does to install. This is usually a setting in the Windows Smartscreen program that's built into Windows 8.

Also a problem of: "still cannot login into my acct. I just loops back into the little window. please help me"

Typically this means that the user's cookie data wasn't saved properly. I'm working on updating the app to provide the user with more feedback when this happens. Make sure you have the latest version, as Idle Master will only update itself once every day. Last night I released an update that lets Idle Master work with accounts that have Steam Family View turned on. If you have the older version and Steam Family View turned on, it can cause this.


I hope this helps.

 

[Krystof Koreni]

Hmm. It looks like that latest update is prompting Avira Antivirus to block access, citing detection of "HEUR/APC (Cloud)".

HEUR/APC (Cloud) is a heuristic detection routine designed to detect common malware characteristics. Avira AntiVirus recognizes unknown malware proactively. It is based on a file analysis within the Avira Protection Cloud infrastructure.

In the unlikely occurrence of a false positive we would kindly ask for your help and send the file to our virus lab using the quarantine functionality of AntiVirus.

There is a contact form at https://analysis.avira.com/en/submit. Happy to upload the executable, but seeing as there's space for contact details on the form maybe you'd prefer to handle it, jshackles?

 

[jshackles]

Hmm. It looks like that latest update is prompting Avira Antivirus to block access, citing detection of "HEUR/APC (Cloud)".

There is a contact form at https://analysis.avira.com/en/submit. Happy to upload the executable, but seeing as there's space for contact details on the form maybe you'd prefer to handle it, jshackles?

Thanks for the heads up. It was definitely a false positive as I've submitted the files and URL to them, and they've reported back

The file 'setup.exe' has been determined to be 'CLEAN'. Our analysts did not discover any malicious content.

A lot of these antivirus companies do things like check the URL of the site an exe file is downloaded from and run a whois to see when it was registered. Because steamidlemaster.com is a new domain that's only about 10 days old at this point, it looks suspicious enough for their software to alert you. Obviously this is something that will get better as time goes on and as more people download Idle Master.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Do I need to download the latest version? I'm reading conflicting posts.

 

[L.O.R.D]

thanks for the new version

so ,if i singed in my steam account using this program , it will lock mu account from the market for 1 week ?

 

[jshackles]

Do I need to download the latest version? I'm reading conflicting posts.

The latest version is the one being actively developed, and it will keep itself updated automatically. It's also a lot easier to set up. The only thing the old version does better (for now) is that it allows you to sort your idling by average card prices, but that's something that will be added in the next release.

If you have any problems with it I'm more than happy to help in any way I can. Of course if you have the old version up and running and want to keep using that, you're free to do so.

so ,if i singed in my steam account using this program , it will lock mu account from the market for 1 week ?

Steamguard should just lock the new "device", not the account. So you won't be able to use the market from within Idle Master (it's not really possible to do that anyway) but you should still have access to the market through the Steam client or through your browser just like normal.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Jay Shackles, change your avatar back right this instant.

 

[texhnolyze]

Can I still idle a game if it doesn't have a card drop anymore?

 

[Deques]

Can I still idle a game if it doesn't have a card drop anymore?

Why would you want to idle games that have no card drops left?

 

[texhnolyze]

Why would you want to idle games that have no card drops left?

To ramp up my play time.

 

[Parsnip]

To ramp up my play time.

That's nuts, and I don't know if you can force idlemaster to idle a specific game, but you can still use steam achievement manager to idle specific games.

Aka, the old method we used for idling before idlemaster, those were dark times.

 

[chixdiggit]

To ramp up my play time.

Please stop, it's against Steam rules. You are ruining a good thing.

 

[Cels]

is there a a way to use this without increasing play time?

if not oh well

 

[Gvaz]

I can't find a thread for it, but the firefox steam enhanced extentsion seems to crash my browser, very frequently.

 

[jshackles]

is there a a way to use this without increasing play time?

if not oh well

Unfortunately play time is what causes cards to drop. So the only way for cards to drop is to increase your play time.

I can't find a thread for it, but the firefox steam enhanced extentsion seems to crash my browser, very frequently.

Enhanced Steam thread

Spoiler

(also, this is known to happen with the Firefox Beta)

 

[texhnolyze]

That's nuts, and I don't know if you can force idlemaster to idle a specific game, but you can still use steam achievement manager to idle specific games.

Aka, the old method we used for idling before idlemaster, those were dark times.

Please stop, it's against Steam rules. You are ruining a good thing.

I see, it's a forbidden thing.
I haven't use Steam much despite my Steam account age (3 years), and I thought I could get some playtime for my account. Ok then, sorry for that.

 

[Deques]

I see, it's a forbidden thing.
I haven't use Steam much despite my Steam account age (3 years), and I thought I could get some playtime for my account. Ok then, sorry for that.

I don't see the reason why you would want to increase your playtime without playing the games (except for idling cards). Having a three years old account with little playtime is fine. Do you want to show your friends that you put a lot of your time into gaming?

 

[Vargavinter]

is there a a way to use this without increasing play time?

if not oh well

Personally i use Raptr to keep track on playtime on games.

 

[Krystof Koreni]

Thanks for the heads up. It was definitely a false positive as I've submitted the files and URL to them, and they've reported back


A lot of these antivirus companies do things like check the URL of the site an exe file is downloaded from and run a whois to see when it was registered. Because steamidlemaster.com is a new domain that's only about 10 days old at this point, it looks suspicious enough for their software to alert you. Obviously this is something that will get better as time goes on and as more people download Idle Master.

Thanks J, figured it was something along those lines! Whatever method they're using hasn't quite caught up with the speed at which Idle Master updates itself but as you say, that may well come with time.

 

[Double]

I can't for the life of me find out how to add Idle Master to my Avira exceptions, ahhhh! Help, please

 

[Wis]

Hi jshackles,

Thanks for your awesome work.
I'd like to ask if there is a way to let Idle Master continue running in background when switching user on Win7.
It usually stays open but ceases to obtain cards, and when I go back to the user that has it running I have to restart it and sign in again.
I tried to clear the cookies and I'm having the no "remember me" checkbox issue.

Is it a normal behaviour?

Thank you very much.

 

[Easy_D]

Is IdleMaster borked or something? Or did all my luck circle down the drain? Been idling for 3 hours and not a single card drop .

 

[flowsnake]

Is IdleMaster borked or something? Or did all my luck circle down the drain? Been idling for 3 hours and not a single card drop .

I believe games don't drop cards at the same rate. Try another one?

 

[martino]

What happen if i run mutiple instance of this program ? is there risk ?