BOINC version history

Version 6.4.5

released: 16 Dec 2008

• Support running science jobs on graphics cards

Version 6.2.19

released: 19 Sep 2008

• client: fix compiler warning.
• client: coprocessor support isn't supported in 6.2.
• SCR: Fix GDI/Memory leak in the screen saver. Pointed out by David Barnard.
• winsetup: Change the delete file after reboot code to use MoveFileEx instead of the RunOnce registry key. It does what I was originally trying to do directly to: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations

Version 6.2.18

Note: If you run into benchmark errors the first time after BOINC starts up, this is known to the developers and they are looking into what is causing it. When you or BOINC reruns the benchmarks eventually, they will run correctly.

• WINSETUP: For some reason BOINCTray.exe was only being installed when the 'Protected Applcation Mode' was selected. I don't remember why we did this, so install it on all scenarios.
• client: fix crash in this scenario (From Ian Hay. Fixes #705)
  • A file upload sends request.
  • The network is down, and something (e.g. a router) sends a long (> 4KB) error page. This overruns the 4KB buffer of HTTP_OP::req1.
  • Solution: keep track of the size of the buffer, and don't overrun it.
  • Also move the body of a huge for loop into a separate function.
• client: don't leak handles to shared-mem files
• client: don't leak process handles when abort jobs
• client: if an app exits or we kill it, always destroy the shmem segment.
• Mac lib: set visibility of symbols to hidden by default.
• SCR: Fix 8/14 checkin that causes the CPU util to spike on Macs and possibly Windows.

Version 6.2.17

• Mac Installer: fix bugs in script which converts BOINC installer to a GridRepublic installer.
• Update copyright strings in various Windows resource files.
• WIN: Update OS Detection code. NOTE: Holy cow, Between Vista and Server 2008 there are now 26 different SKUs.
• WINSCR: Certain checks should be done regularly like keyboard/mouse activity and the notification window check. They should not depend on whether or not the graphics window has been displayed or not.

Version 6.2.16

• CLIENT/MGR/TRAY: When installed on Vista and UAC is turned on the user by default cannot create globally shared objects. This becomes a problem when protected application mode is turned off for keyboard and mouse detection. Basically all of the components would start up and fail to create the shared memory segment and report the error through stderr which most people don't look at by default. *The client is now the only component that is allowed to create the shared memory segment, if creating the global segment fails it'll create a local one instead. Both the tray and manager now just attach to the existing segment, first trying the global one then the local one.

Version 6.2.15

• MGR: Code which tests for reboot required should be Windows-only.
• SEA: Change references of boinc_cmd to boinccmd
• SCR: Don't treat CPU throttling as BOINC being suspended. - Fixes #706
• MGR: If the reminder frequency is 0, then don't show any reminder messages.
• SCR / CLIENT: fix get_screensaver_tasks RPC so it does not exclude tasks suspended for CPU throttling. Fixes the screensaver problem for V6 graphics. Checked into boinc_core_release_6_2_15 tag.

Version 6.2.14

• WINSETUP: Don't execute the custom action that creates the RebootPending.txt file in the program directory if a reboot isn't required.
• Fixes/Updates? included from 6.2.13

Version 6.2.13

Note: Unreleased due to error with reboot option fixed in 6.2.14

• MGR: Fix the application name for both views. (NOTE: the data type 'char' should NOT be used within the various views. This is the classic example of how direct data access messes things up in projects with many developers. Use wxString with the PrintF method instead.)
• MGR: Fix build breaks from the above changes: pass a C string, not a wxString to the PrintF method.
• client: Fix build breaks on Mac due to removal of headers from cpp.h.
• MGR: Fix the application name for both views. (ANSI/Unicode compatible)(VS/GCC compatible)
• CC: Read the config file before setting the max file sizes.
• MGR: Fix small bug when displaying the active task count in the taskbar.
• WINSETUP: Create a flag file that can be used to keep either the manager or the CC from starting until a reboot has been performed. Flag the file for deletion after a reboot has been performed.
• WINSETUP: Don't create the flag file until after the migration phase has been completed.
• WINSETUP: Use real quotes around the delete file command instead of tick marks, the Windows shell throws an error.
• WINSETUP: Instead of calling the Windows API to determinethe various special folders, use the MSI properties which match the 'choose folder' dialog. We can skip the step if doing a case insensitive compare. Plus it appears that MSI normalizes the paths for us.
• MGR: Detect when a reboot is required for BOINC and display an error dialog if it is required.
• WINSETUP: Revamp the various strings used.

Version 6.2.12

• client: add "Suspending computation" messages for system idle and initial delay cases.
• MGR: Reset messages whenever connecting or reconnecting to client. Fixes 2 bugs: stale messages if client on remote host was stopped and restarted while local manager was connected to it but minimized, and stale messages when local client exited and was automatically restarted by Manager.
• MGR: On Mac, don't display alerts when minimized, as they hang Manager. On Windows and Mac, if minimized when trying to display the Connection Failed dialog, set a flag to display it when the user maximizes the application, so the user can respond. In addition, Windows still immediately displays a Connection Failed balloon if minimized.
• client: Fixes ticket Fixes ticket #537. Forces use of small files in zlib.h and when /proc filesystem is used on solaris.
• WINSETUP: Prevent certain special paths from being used for either the install directory or the data directory. Prevent this from both the UI component of setup, and if the situation is detected from the migration custom action, skip migration.

Version 6.2.11

• This version has a fix for the double migration problem that still happened on some systems, when updating from 6.2.9 to 6.2.10
  • I’m releasing another build to test with the migration skip functionality. Jord found an edge case where the migration skip functionality didn’t work when migrating from 6.2.9 to 6.2.10. This bug only shows up during the upgrade from .9 to .10, and wouldn’t show up again until .99 to .100. Instead of holding things up waiting for a bug fix and another round of testing, I’m releasing a .11 build so that the migration skip functionality can be tested between .10 and .11.
• It turns out that the 64-bit installer was including the 32-bit C Runtime Library instead of the 64-bit C Runtime Library. Please re-download the 64-bit client and give it a whirl.

Version 6.2.10

• MGR: Fixed tool-tip.

Version 6.2.9

• client (Win): if running as service, and service is suspended/resumed, restore previous run state rather than going to auto.
• client: improve startup messages (non-system user??)
• client (Win): if we're not in protected mode, don't create shmem segs in global name space. Hopefully this will fix a bug (on Vista, UAC off, non-protected install) where apps fail to attach to shmem.
• MGR: Fix the Alt-Tab icon on Windows XP. Fixes #586. Thanks Der Meister.
• MGR: Change from using balloons to tooltips. Fixes #9. Thanks David Barnard.
• client: Fix build break on Mac.
• MGR: Fix build breaks on Mac.
• MGR: If more than two active tasks are running then tell the user how many active tasks are running instead of attempting to display the percent complete of each one.
• MGR: If the computer name is the local host then skip displaying it in the tooltip.

Version 6.2.8

• MGR: Fix help menus in Simple GUI (not applicable on Windows).
• client (Win) look for CUDA as nvcuda.dll
• API/runtime system: remove "fraction done update period" stuff. This was always 1 second, which is fine.
• client/API: add "computation_deadline" to APP_INIT_DATA. This supports apps that can do variable amounts of computing; they can boinc_finish() if their deadline is near.
• client: fix crashing bug when detach from project. The problem: the variable ordered_scheduled_results has a list of pointers to RESULTs. These pointers become dangling when the project is detached. It's not sufficient to do schedule_cpus() because this returns immediately if # projects == 0. So clear the list directly.
• WINSETUP: Validate that the installed executables are the ones we are expecting.
• WINSETUP: Do not allow the data directory and install directory to be the same directory.
• WINSETUP: Reduce the amount of time allocated to shutdown the BOINC Manager from 30 secs to 5 secs before killing it. Otherwise the user thinks the install process is hung.
• WINSETUP: Change text for describing the protected mode install
• WINSETUP: Add text describing the reason for a reboot
• WINSETUP: Add text describing the need to run a repair in the case where a third party BOINC CC was installed or a private drop of the CC was used.
• WINSETUP: Properties that are changed during the execution phase of setup do NOT bubble back up to the UI phase of setup when completed. Create some custom actions that store those properties in the registry and then read them back after we are back in the UI phase. Without them we cannot control what text is displayed in the setup completion dialog.
• WINSETUP: Suppress the reboot prompt and just reboot, since we have already informed the user it is needed on the conformation screen

Version 6.2.6

• MGR: Adjust pie control slices so small wedges are visible if at all possible,
• MGR: Don't enlarge pie control slices if value is zero.
• client: eliminate spurious "unparsed XML" messages Fixes #664. Rom, please backport to 6.2
• web: convert some tr() to tra() on BOINC web pages
• boinccmd (Windows): chdir to the data directory (from registry)
• client: copy api_version of APP_VERSIONs in scheduler reply, even if we already have the APP_VERSION. Otherwise, when upgrading from 5.10 to 6.2, we won't have the api_version, and we won't learn about it until project releases new version.
• fix build breaks for Windows x64 builds.
• Mac Installer: delete old locale directory to remove "boinc manager.mo" files before installing new "boinc-manager.mo" files (or vice versa).
• WINSETUP: The call to GetFreeDiskSpaceEx was failing becuase the path didn't exist yet, so all the values in the returned data structures was random junk. If the directory had never been created before then it was returning 27/57 bytes free. If the drectory had existed at one time then the return values were several gigabytes. If the first request to GetFreeDiskSpaceEx fails, then check for the parent directory, if that fails pass a NULL value which means check the default volume.
• WINSETUP: Fix a struct alignment issue when dumping the base64 encoded password for boinc_project to a file. ATL's string conversion functions act of a class and not a buffer which makes memory management easier but doesn't interop well with fprintf unless you specify the buffer name directly.

Version 6.2.4

• Mac: revise build scripts for c-ares and cURL to work when there are spaces in the paths. These changes are based on information from the cURL developers.
• MGR: Fix trace statements in StartupBOINC()
• MGR: Add some more trace statements for Linux startup.
• MGR: BOINC commandline options require the '--' in front of the option. '-' just causes the CC to exit while printing its help fr the commandline options.
• MGR: --insecure isn't supported on Linux yet. It is only supported on the Mac.
• SCR: BOINC's screensaver module in preview mode only displays the BOINC icon, since the preview window is only 300x200 or so. We shouldn't launch the data management thread when launched in preview mode.
• client: If a scheduler reply doesn't include <host_venue> (as is the case if its DB is down, or it has no work and skips the DB check) don't overwrite the host_venue on the client. Fixes #656, I hope (Rom: please port)
• client: when parsing state file, don't change result states unless there's an inconsistency. Fixes #621
• MGR: Fix a casting issue that was causing crashes on x64 platforms. Fixes# 658 (From: bbaetz)
• client: fix command line parsing bug. Parse the command line before initializing the diagnostics framework.
• WINSETUP: Block installing on domain controllers for this release. (I'll fix this for the next release cycle, or a future 6.2 release.)
• client: JM7 was seeing repeated file upload failures. It turned out that when we close and reopen the temp file that stores the HTTP reply, the open was failing. I have no idea why. Attempted workaround: open the file for R/W originally, and instead of close/open do a seek.
• client: go one step further, and don't create temp files in some system-supplied directory; create them in the BOINC data directory.
• client: on Windows (at least) if you kill a task (e.g. reset project) ACTIVE_TASK::handle_exited_app() never gets called, so the coprocessors weren't getting freed. Fix this.
• LINUX: fixes the CC startup problem.

Version 6.2.2

• client: if we request that an app exit, and it doesn't do so within 10 seconds, kill it. This deals with the situation where the app is ignoring messages (e.g. because it forgot to end a critical section).
• client: if either the FP or int benchmark runs less than 3 CPU seconds (out of 10 seconds of wall time) ignore the benchmark. This is an effort to deal with a problem where (for unknown reasons) the int benchmark runs for a tiny amount of CPU time, leading to an absurdly large result
• Manager: don't prepend "[error]" to MSG_INTERNAL_ERROR messages; the client already does this.
• client: Fix compiler warning.
• MGR: Fix CMainDocument::WorkShowGraphics() for Mac, UNIX and Linux to allow showing graphics with or without sandbox.
• MGR: Statistics and Disk tab panes: clear when disconnected from Client, update quickly when connecting to a (different) Client.
• client (Unix): linking libcudart.so wasn't working, so CUDA detection failed.
  • For reasons I don't understand, adding "/usr/local/cuda/lib" to LD_LIBRARY_PATH and then doing dlopen("libcudart.so") wasn't working, even though the library is in that dir. I worked around this by calling dlopen("/usr/local/cuda/lib/libcudart.so") and if that fails call dlopen("libcudart.so")
• Unix: commented out Eric's setenv() stuff. After doing a configure, HAVE_SETENV is not in config.h, so something's messed up with it.
• client: trimmed down "pre-release software" message
• LIB: Windows 9X doesn't like it when you specify a security descriptor, so special case Win9X so that it'll pass a NULL to CreateFileMapping.
• DIAG: Passing a null value to fclose in VS 2005 will cause a crash, so check to make sure that stdout_file and stderr_file are not null before attempting to close them. If they are null return ERR_FOPEN so that the next message logged can attempt to cycle the log without error.
• CLIENT: Make sure the diagnostics framework is initialized before the config file is parsed or the command line is parsed, that way if an unexpected XML tab or command line parameter is found the client doesn't crash.
  • NOTE: The client would only crash if the log file was already greater than 2MB which would cause the client to attempt to cycle the log files. Since the diagnostics framework wasn't initialized yet nothing was logged to the log file, no call stack was generated, and the default Windows debugging environment was fired up.
• MGR: Update comments on how to link with Development / debug build of wxWidgets; add this info to build documentation.
• client and server: in coprocessor records, change "name" to "type" to avoid confusion with "name" field of CUDA. This is a bug fix - please port.
• start script: don't error out if run_state.xml file is empty (which happens if project runs out of disk space)
  • client part of the above

Version 6.2.1

• DIAG: Add an easy way for projects to initialize the diagnostics framework for graphics applications.
• DIAG: Make SetDllDirectory work for Win2k3, Vista, and Win2k8
• API: If the diagnostics framework hasn't been initialized for the graphics application, initialize it.
• client: Win: fix CUDA detection:
  • look in the registry to find the CUDA install directory, and look for cudart.dll in that dir.
• client: for CUDA, don't confuse coproc.name ("CUDA") from coproc.prop.name (e.g., "Device Emulation (CPU)" on my PC, which doesn't have a recent-enough GPU)
• client: if no coprocessors present, say so in startup messages
• API: Fix build break from my last check-in.
• client (Unix) Add /usr/local/cuda/lib/ to LD_LIBRARY_PATH before looking for CUDA library
• boinc_cmd: changed help strings to say "boinccmd". I'd like to change the filename too but can't figure out Makefile stuff
• API: fix Mac compile errors.
• client: implement Mac CUDA detection, fix compiler warning.
• boinc_cmd: change name to "boinccmd".
• client (unix): avoid crash if LD_LIBRARY_PATH not set
• MGR/CLI: remove direct references to CreateEnvironmentBlock and DestroyEnvironmentBlock since Win98 doesn't support them. This functionality is only required for the Windows sandbox implementation anyway.
• LIB: Remove direct reference to OpenThread in win_util.C since it isn't supported on Win98.
• MGR: Another fix for CC execution on a Linux machine.
• client (Unix) fix to CUDA detection if LD_LIBRARY_PATH is ""

Version 6.1.16

• API: fix boinc_resolve_filename_s() to handle symlinks the same as boinc_resolve_filename().
• client: do the /proc/interrupts stuff (see above) only on Linux-like systems; use device_idle() only on non-Linux Unix systems
• Fix is_file() to use S_ISREG() macro instead of incorrect (sbuf.st_mode & S_IFREG); fix is_dir() to use S_ISDIR() macro instead of incorrect (sbuf.st_mode & S_IFDIR).
• Fix is_file() and is_dir() to compile properly on Windows by using the actual expressions instead of the macros which aren't defined.
• scheduler: fix FCGI compile problem. FCGI can't use libboinc.a; is needs its own specially-compiled versions of everything in lib/
• MGR: Make help system work again.
• MGR: Add pre-release to the BOINC Manager title bar and about dialog if it is a pre-release version of BOINC.
• CLI: Add some pre-release text to the CC startup routine and suggest they revert back to a released build if they don't plan on testing the client.
• client: fix array size in Linux test for running on batteries

Version 6.1.15

Note: Unreleased

• DIAG: Make sure that if the symstore isn't defined at all, don't construct the symstore search path.
• WINSETUP: Don't check for SP4 against Win9X.
• LIB: Fix build break on Linux compat VM.
• BLD: Update confgiure.ac to require libcurl 7.17.1.
• client: use symlinks only if project has <use_symlinks/> element.
• API: fixed boinc_resolve_filename() bug: didn't work right for symlinks
  • Fix is_symlink() to use S_ISLNK() macro instead of incorrect (sbuf.st_mode & S_IFLNK), which made it return true for regular files and caused boinc_resolve_filename() to work incorrectly.
• manager: fix menu appearance
• Unix init script: modified to make less linux specific.
• Does not presume the existence of "pidof" or "runuser".
• If started with an old style Bourne shell, will try to restart in bash, zsh or ksh.
• Starts with no parameters by default.
• Logs stdout and stderr to /var/log/boinc_client.log and /var/log/boinc_client_err.log by default.
• With appropriate "boinc-client.conf", the script can be run by a non-root user.
• client: improved user idle checking on Linux (from Frank Thomas)

Version 6.1.14

• client: add coprocessor support: i.e., parse the list of coprocs in <app_version>s from the server, keep track of the number free of each type of coproc, and don't run an app that needs more than are available. (not quite working yet)
• client: Per Carl's recommendation add CURLOPT_POST301 to the list of curl options used so that the followups to redirects still post instead of get.
• client: finish and debug coprocessor support
• manager and GUI RPC: show plan class in app version string
• client (Unix): don't follow symbolic links when computing directory size. This will avoid counting the size of executables and input files in slot directories.
• Build fixes for non-Win32, non-Linux, non-MacOS systems.
• configure script:
  • Added checks for functions strdup(), strdupa(), daemon(), stat64(), strcasestr()
  • Fixed problems with kc_mysql.m4 and wxWidgets.m4 returning invalid CFLAGS and LIBS flags.
  • Fixed incorrect order of pthread flag checking on solaris.
• New files: lib/unix_util.[Ch]. Currently contains implementation of daemon() for systems that lack it.
• Access to binary files in /proc was failing on some systems when compiled with 64 bit file access. Rearranged headers and defines to force 32bit file access in hostinfo_unix.C
• all_tty_idle() didn't work as advertised on any system as far as I can tell. I rewrote it to check ttys that are not named /dev/tty[1-9]. The old implementation was modifying a statically allocated read-only string, anyway.
• added implementation of non-standard function strcasestr() to str_util.C
• added #define of MAP_FILE to shmem.C, because it is missing from most unix systems, (and is unnecessary on linux anyway).
• other minor bug fixes.
• Graphics API: Add boinc_close_window_and_quit() API to UNIX / Mac lib.
• Mac: Fix compiler warning.
• Mac: Remove -fvisibility* compiler flags from BOINC library builds and boinc_cmd build.
• Client/server protocol: send <client_cap_plan_class/> if client understands app version plan class. The server checks for this instead of version > 6.11. (suggested by Nicolas Alvarez)
• clean up unix_util: .h files declare only (extern) interfaces; no reason for daemon() to be C
• compile fixes for gcc 4.x; fixes #592
• scheduler: bug fix for case when app version XML is > 64KB
• server: when creating log dir, we were using wrong bit for sticky flag
• WINSETUP: Make sure the executable permissions are setup correctly after the binaries are installed.
• WINSETUP: Inform MSI that a reboot is suggested after creation of 'boinc_master', 'boinc_project', 'boinc_admins', 'boinc_users', 'boinc_projects'.
• WINSETUP: Reread the INSTALLDIR property from the registry to determine if their is data to migrate. INSTALLDIR is changed to where ever the user wants to install BOINC now, which may be different then where it was in 5.10.
• WINSETUP: If the user is running on Win2k but hasn't upgraded to SP4, inform them of the new requirement.
• API: change boinc_resolve_filename() so that it detects symbolic links and treats them as a special case. Also, if the virtual file doesn't exist (as in the standalone case) just return zero; otherwise if the app is running standalone and checks the return value, it will error out.
  • NOTE: apps that check the return value of boinc_resolve_filename() won't work on 6.12+ under Unix; recompiling with this change will fix the problem.
• Mac: Update build documentation, move building project applications build instructions to a separate document (wiki page)
• Mac: Fix bugs in new backtrace code.
• Added init.d script (boinc-client.in) and Makefile.am to install it.
  • I got this from the Fedora package. I have modified it to create the run directory if it does not exist, and to not run boinc as root. Checking for running processes needs to be improved.
• boinc-client.in is still very linux centric and probably won't work on non-linux systems or under Bourne shell without significant changes.
• WINSETUP: Fix the bug during uninstall where the data files were not being migrated back to the executable directory.
• fixes for gcc 4.3
• GUI: Disable Show Graphics button if any selected task is suspended for any reason.
• Mac: Fix new backtrace code for x86_64 Client and project applications.
• client: send client_cap_plan_class as <x>1</x> rather than <x/> in scheduler request; the latter breaks older schedulers.
• old parse code: make skip_unexpected() work with <x/>

Version 6.1.12

ALPHA

• Migration Issues
• WIN: Protected Application Execution issues

Version 6.1.10

ALPHA

• MAC: The long-awaited first full alpha release of version 6 on the Macintosh for your testing pleasure!
• MAC: Changes from 5.10.x are too numerous to list, but include full multiple selection support on the Grid Views.

Version 6.1.8

ALPHA

• Updated the test matrix to include tests for the new 6.x installer

Version 6.1.7

ALPHA

• more in-depth logging with regards to migration failures.

Version 6.1.6

ALPHA

• Undefined Changes/Bugfixes?

Version 6.1.5

ALPHA

• Migration Issues
• Versions 6.1.0 to 6.1.4 were tested internally

Version 5.10

• Manager
  • Project selection list in Attach Project wizard.
  • Advanced preferences dialog.
  • Grid-based views: column sorting, progress bars, line shading.
  • Ability to find browser cookies on some platforms; enables web-only attach.
  • Don't allow multiple connection-request dialogs.
  • Better logic for Snooze menu item.
• Core client
  • Improved slot directory logic makes it impossible for two apps to run in same slot.
  • Reject directory-traversal and format conversion characters in filenames from projects.
  • Add security-related configuration options: suppress_net_info, disallow_attach, os_random_only.
  • Support new work_buf_additional_days preference.
  • Various changes to prevent buffer overruns.
  • Day-of-week preference enforcement.
  • Work correctly if core client starts up before DNS system is working.
  • Export scheduling info in GUI RPCs.
  • Upgrade to OpenSSL 0.9.8e and LibcURL 7.16.4.
• Windows
  • Work around Vista problems by running all components with administrative rights.
• Mac
  • BOINC 5.10.28 fixes problems when running under Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard).
  • Added a separate application to uninstall BOINC.
  • Fix various problems with use of shared memory.
  • Fix bug which created zombie processes.
  • Correctly report RAM > 2 GB.
  • If screensaver launched BOINC, don't stop running when energy saver puts display to sleep.
  • Improved user idle detection.
  • More robust installer.

Version 5.8

• Snooze button.
• CPU throttling.
• Simple GUI; skinnability, local prefs dialog.
• Preferences for limiting RAM usage.
• Disk usage pie chart.
• Support for advanced account manager features like host-specific resource share.

Version 5.8.16

• CPU model string includes Family/Model/Stepping?.
• Fix errors if detach project while file transfers active.
• Limits on # of file transfers apply to uploads and downloads separately.
• Add checkpoint_debug log flag.
• Set processor affinity mask for benchmark threads (Windows).
• Disable connection caching in Curl.
• Add 'Detach when done' flag to projects (for clean detach, e.g. from account manager).
• Delete all files when detach from project.
• Fix bugs on Mac OS X 10.3 that could create bad users/groups.

Version 5.8.15

• Mac: eliminate AppStats helper application.

Version 5.8.14

• Win: installer fixes.

Version 5.8.13

• Fix bug where tasks are erroneously restarted after abort.
• Win: installer fixes.

Version 5.8.12

• Win: installer fixes.

Version 5.6

• New CPU scheduler and work fetch policy.
• CPU capability detection.
• Improved security for POSIX compliant systems (only implemented for the Mac).
• Support for file compression on upload.

Version 5.4

• BOINC now lets you use 'Account managers' - special web sites that let you browse BOINC projects, attach/detach, change resource share and settings, all with point-and-click simplicity. Account managers are also great if you have several computers - you just have to make changes once. A couple of excellent account managers are nearly ready for use; stay tuned to the BOINC web site for details.
• Fixes a bug where a personal firewall prevents the BOINC screensaver from running, causing your computer to lock up.
• General preferences can be overridden by a local file. More info.
• BOINC now alerts you whenever it needs you to create a network connection.
• SOCKS5 proxies are now supported.

Version 5.3

• Customized clients can now be created.
• Account manager support has been enhanced.
• Farm manager support has been added.

Version 5.2

• You attach to projects using your own email address and password. Long, random 'account keys' are no longer used.
• BOINC checks for proxy configuration problems when you first attach to a project.
• The file gui_rpc_auth.cfg contains a password that protects the BOINC client from control by other users on the same host. BOINC automatically generates a password if none is found. If you use tools like BOINCView you may need to look it up or change it. If you need to revert from 5.2.x to an earlier version, you must delete gui_rpc_auth.cfg from your BOINC directory.
• Alert boxes now provide feedback when certain errors occur.
• BOINC supports 'Account Management Systems' (to be announced).