GUI: Last selected drive is shifted by one on Application Start
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#56 GUI: Last selected drive is shifted by one on Application Start
Most of the time, I am mounting a certain Volume to drive V:, so when closing VeraCrypt, typically drive V: is highlighted/selected.
But after rebooting, each time I open VeraCrypt, drive U: is highlighted/selected.
It would be nice if the last selected Drive Letter would be highlighted/selected correctly on Application Start.
Windows 7 SP1 x64
VeraCrypt 1.13
I have made a correction in 1.14-BETA to solve an issue in the configuration file. Can you please check if it also solves your issue? The installer is here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/veracrypt/files/VeraCrypt%20Nightly%20Builds/
On my side, I tried to replicate your issue using 1.14-BETA and the drive that was selected on the list before logoff or reboot is always selected when the user logs back to the system and opens VeraCrypt.
For your informartion, the last selected drive is saved to the XML file located at C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\VeraCrypt\Configuration.xml (key: LastSelectedDrive). You can open this file in an text editor to check that the selected drive has the correct value before you reboot.
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I noticed that my Configuration.xml file had a 7th of July Timestamp, the History.xml file had a 4th of August timestamp. These timestamps, as well as the content of the files (LastSelectedDrive = U:), would not change upon using Veracrypt and rebooting.
I installed the 1.14-BETA nightly, it would not write into the files upon opening/closing/mounting/rebooting.
So I tried to force updating them, I went to the Settings and changed "Open Explorer Window for successfully mounted Volume", and voila, both xml files were finally updated in terms of content and timestamps. LastSelectedDrive is updated properly now.
Seems like there was an issue with an old build that somehow resulted in the configuration files being prevented from being written to up until today.
Actually, there is a change that was introduced in 1.13: in order to prevent leaking information about VeraCrypt usage (privacy issue), the last drive used is updated in the XML file only when "Never save history" is unchecked.
So, you are certainly in this case and that's why the last selected drive is not updated in your case.
For my tests, I automatically unchecked "Never save history" and I missed that you certainly didn't do the same.
The old behavior was causing VeraCrypt XML files to be updated everytime it exists and this can give hints to potential attackers about the user's habits. The idea now is to update the XML files only when needed and for usage related information to be written only when the user activates history saving.
The last selected drive is considered a history parameter.
Your report shows that there is a flaw in the current logic since we take into account the value of the last selection present in the XML file eventhough the history is disable. The correct behavior would have been to ignore the last selected value in this and do nothing.
I will modify the logic to make it more complete.
Anyway, this means that you will still have the issue if you don't activate history saving. One possibility that comes to mind is to add a specific options to activate saving the last selected drive for those who need it but I prefer to reduce the number of options and leave the last selected drive saving linked to history activation.
"Never save history" was and is unchecked.