Using the installconfig.properties file

Omniscope installs an optional installconfig.properties file containing advanced settings.  Normally, you do not need to make any changes to this file.  It is used to customise installations in advanced ways or to add diagnostics or fault-finding settings.

Corporate administrators may wish to use this file to tailor their rollout of Omniscope and to support a centralised Java VM. This file is used to re-direct Omniscope to use 64-bit Java installs, and to specify corporate font folders to be available to Omniscope users. This file may also be used to assist in diagnosing problems starting or using the software (see below).

Editing the file

The installconfig.properties file contains plain text, editable by Notepad.  It is located within the installation folder, in one of the following locations, depending on your operating system and installation options:

• C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Visokio Omniscope app   (AppData is hidden, so you may need to reveal hidden files first in Explorer options)
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Visokio Omniscope
• C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope

Within the file, comments are prefixed with a space and # symbol. See the description of all available properties in the example file, below.  Uncommented properties must have no leading space nor #.

# This is the installation configuration file.
# This is used to configure initial startup of the application.
#
# All properties are optional, and if defined, each line must not contain redundant whitespace
# To enable/disable a property, remove/add the # sign (# means comment)

# This is an optional manually-specified Java VM installation folder.
# It should contain bin\javaw.exe, and should be Java version 5+
# JVM_DIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.5.0_14

# This is an optional manually-specified max memory cap for the Java VM, an integer specifying the
# megabytes to allow the JVM.  Must be at least 64.
# If unspecified, 75% of physical RAM will be used as the cap.
# MAX_MEMORY_MB=300

# Optional property specifying additional space-separated JVM options.  Default is blank.
# Example which enables "heap dump on out of memory", which generates files such as 
# "java_pid4972.hprof" in the program folder, for submitting to Visokio for analysis
# (requires Java 1.5.0_07+ or Java 6):
# ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError

# Optional property which if true causes output to be redirected to
# "Visokio_output_log.txt" in My Documents
# LOG_TO_MY_DOCUMENTS=true

# Optional property which, if true, disables the default heap tuning parameters
# which at time of writing are -Xms64M -XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=20 -XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=30
# DISABLE_DEFAULT_HEAP_OPTIONS=true

Changing Java used by Omniscope

Omniscope includes its own copy of Java, which has been selected to work correctly with Omniscope, and which means your system does not have any Java-related requirements. 

In rare cases when fault-finding, you may be asked to use a different version of Java. You can specify a specific version of Java to use with Omniscope by editing installconfig.properties file's JVM_DIR property. Uncomment (by removing "#" at the start, and removing any leading spaces) JVM_DIR, and then specify the location of the Java installation folder, such as "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6".

Adding JVM arguments

For advanced users, Java and Omniscope can be customised using JVM arguments.  The installconfig.properties file's ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS property should be uncommented (by removing "#" at the start, and removing any leading spaces), and the arguments added after the "=" sign with spaces between them, as seen in the examples below. 

Specifying Corporate Fonts  

If you are running on Windows go to C:\Windows\Fonts and copy all the fonts you want to make available from Omniscope to another folder such as C:\our_fonts. Now edit the installconfig.properties file as explained above. Add a command line option to specify which fonts are available by uncommenting (removing the space & hash) at the front of the  #ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS line and provide the following: -DinstalledFontLocation=c:\our_fonts (case sensitive). Below is an example of how the modified installconfig.properties line would look:

ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-DinstalledFontLocation=c:\our_fonts

Note:it is important that to copy rather than move your fonts from the C:\Windows\Fonts location. Also note that onlyTrue Type Fonts (with .TTF extension) files can be included.

Heap dump on out-of-memory

To enable this, only when advised, ensure the ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS line is uncommented and includes the option "-XX+:HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError". For example:

ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError

This will cause a heap dump (*.hprof file) to be written to the install folder should you experience an out of memory situation. When this occurs, deliver this file to Visokio for diagnosis if you believe the error to be unwarranted. More information...

Disable Free trial

You can disable free trial prompts on start-up and from the Help menu by following the steps below. If you are in a corporate environment it is recommended that you install Omniscope for all users, rather than for each individual user, otherwise you will need to carry the steps below by modifying each user account's installconfig.properties. 

Find this line in installconfig.properties 
#ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError

Replace with the following line:
ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-DdisableFreeTrial=true

If you have ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS property already enabled, add to the end 
" -DdisableFreeTrial=true" 

Disable automatic update check

Find this line in installconfig.properties 
#ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError

Replace with the following line:
ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-DCHECK_UPDATES_AUTOMATICALLY=false

If you have ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS property already enabled, add to the end 
" -DCHECK_UPDATES_AUTOMATICALLY=false"

Further information

See Generating a class load log and Customising Omniscope memory allocation.