Sentinel: Two Sentinel Problems

[RF23]

The new Sentinel version 3.00.00 downloaded & installed without issue.

However, two problems still persist with Sentinel.

Problem 1

It is not fully compliant with Microsoft's High Contrast Display, making programming impossible with Sentinel.

To confirm this, do the following:

Open Sentinel & in the left pane click on any national Database or one of your Favorite's Lists to get a drop down of content.

Then use the following Keyboard Shortcut:

High Contrast Toggle = Left Shift + Left Alt + Prt Screen

You will find that the background is now black but the font on both panes are also black so you cannot see any data, which makes programing impossible. This problem has been around for several years & I have complained about it before.

To return to your Normal screen format repeat the keyboard shortcut above, wait a couple of seconds and you will hear a sound & I think a dialog box appears (I think as it is in LOW contast format so I cannot even come close to reading it), but fortunately I can hit the "enter" key and it finishes the toggle. I usually will be trying some new color filters, special polarized reading glasses, & light changes to see if I can use any regular contast screens.

Problem 2

When Sentinel no longer required an Administrator password or permission to run, this decoupled or desynced any "Standard User" & "Adm User" Sentinels.

Therefore, If you make changes to Sentinel as a Standard User it will not be found in the Adm User Sentinel or vice-versa. You will have to write to your scanner ONLY as the user you were when you changed the programming in Sentinel.

Did Uniden warn us of this problem when they removed the need to have Adm privileges to run Sentinal?

 

[dave3825]

What os and mode are you running? I know some have suggested or had to install as an admin, but I never had issues nor did I need admin privilege's. Have it installed on multiple win 7, 10 and 11 pc's and never had an issue.

 

[phask]

High contrast displays Sentinel just fine for me. Using Win11 - latest updates on a Acer Viper V15. Latest version of Sentinel - FWIW

 

[RF23]

What os and mode are you running? I know some have suggested or had to install as an admin, but I never had issues nor did I need admin privilege's. Have it installed on multiple win 7, 10 and 11 pc's and never had an issue.

Thanks for the reply!

I have found this problem on Win 7 Pro, 10 Pro & 11 Pro 25H2 up todate & with Sentinel Ver. 3.00.01, just out. On seperate AMD & Intel computers.

If I am in "Standard User " Sentinel always required, an Admin password to open but if I was in "Adm User Mode" the "User Account Control" dialog box would pop-up asking for permission to run Sentinel. However, a few years ago that changed for the SDS/436 Sentinel, (the other Sentile for HP-1 touch screen models are still this way) it no longer asked for permission.

When you update Sentinel I think, the last page of questions, (in the lower left corner), is do you want this program to run for EVERYONE or JUST YOU. It defaults to everyone so if you have other USER accounts on your computer it will add a desktop Icon linked to the master ADM mode Sentinel. The Adm permission maintains that connection, so it does not matter what your USER Mode is since you really have only one versioin of this Sentinel.

Microsoft makes each USER Account separate from all others, unless you have the Adm connection.

 

[RF23]

High contrast displays Sentinel just fine for me. Using Win11 - latest updates on a Acer Viper V15. Latest version of Sentinel - FWIW

Thank you for trying to help!

Does this mean your background is deep-black, fonts are white & you can see the frequencies & other data?

In the left pane I can see the word DATABASE for the national data and all seven names of my Favorite's Lists, but if I expand them i see nothing, unless I click on where they should be with the mouse. i then see the data with a black font with a white background. The only exception is if I have AVOIDED them then they are in Red & all data can be seen, but not very well as this is low contrast.

This is true with Win 10 Pro or 11 Pro clean installs on either an AMD or a Intel computer. It is also true with the other Sentinel for the Home Patrol with the touch screen.

I was thinking about uninstalling & reinstalling Sentinel, but several people told me that Uniden actually erases the software & rewrites the whole thing. This is not an incremental update like Microsoft usually does. Of course, Uniden does not erase the Profiles, Databases, Favorites, Display settings & etc.

 

[crippledchicken]

Do you have a recent image backup on another drive? I keep a couple images backed up all the time incase my PC crashes. I use Macrium Reflect 7. I was able to duplicate the black background and unable to read everything also. My Win 11Pro is also fully updated from patch Tuesday.

 

[RF23]

Do you have a recent image backup on another drive? I keep a couple images backed up all the time incase my PC crashes. I use Macrium Reflect 7. I was able to duplicate the black background and unable to read everything also. My Win 11Pro is also fully updated from patch Tuesday.

Good to hear from you again!

Thanks for the information that you can confirm the same problem, this is very helpful.

Good idea about having an image of your system, but unfortunately, the problem is a couple of years old, so all my system images will show the problem. I know this since I did try it. Indded, I went to the bank a got an image that was 13 months old but it too had the same two problems.

I have heard a lot of good things about Macrium Reflect, are you aware that it is no longer free?

 

[crippledchicken]

You can still get Macrium 8 Free you just don't get updates for it anymore. I've had paid Macrium 7 that hasn't had any updates in years. It still does it's job though. Yeah, it's been a while since we talked. Have a Merry Christmas! Oh, Hasleo has a totally free program that works good also.

 

[Ubbe]

Therefore, If you make changes to Sentinel as a Standard User it will not be found in the Adm User Sentinel or vice-versa. You will have to write to your scanner ONLY as the user you were when you changed the programming in Sentinel.

I run into some similar issues after upgrading my old Sentinel to 3.0 as when I edit something it couldn't be saved and said I had no permission to that folder. Creating new objects using 3.0 and then saving was okay. So something new happened in 3.0 related to user permissions.

/Ubbe

 

[dave3825]

I don't use High Contrast but enabled it yesterday to see.

I got this at first. You can go into the settings shown in the lower right and change the background color to white and the data will display but then that messes up other things. I do not care for High Contrast and switched back. This was on Win 10 .



Change the background white.

 

[RF23]

Thank you for going to all this work to help!

I have been using it now for a few days and in some ways, it has helped me. Unfortunately, my problem is Glaucoma so white is bad. I cannot read my U.S. mail (without a special electronic reader) because of the white background overloads my optic nerve’s contrast capabilities so I cannot really see the black letter or numbers.

This is true for many elderly’s loss of vision as well. So, Microsoft’s high contrast is a black background with white letters.

I think Uniden will need to rewrite the Sentinel code to be more compliance with MS high contrast mode, other companies have recently done this but Uniden is introducing the SDS150 right now.

However, you have helped; thanks again.

 

[crippledchicken]

I hear ya on the Glaucoma, I've got that and Diabetes. Putting the eyedrops in every night is a pain. But, they said put them in or go blind! I said OK. LOL!