S.A.K. Utility

Swiss Army Knife Utility — A portable Windows toolkit for PC technicians, IT pros, and sysadmins.

Migration · Maintenance · Recovery · Imaging · Deployment — one portable EXE.

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full version history.

Latest: v0.9.1.1 — Comprehensive documentation accuracy audit: updated all docs, About dialog, workflow, and THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES to reflect current codebase (OST Converter implemented, 7-Zip removed, iPerf3/Icons8 credited, file counts corrected, stale references cleaned up).

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Highlights

100 % Portable	No installer. Drop on a USB stick and go.
Backup and Restore	Step-by-step wizards with smart filtering, AES-256 encryption, NTFS permission handling, plus integrated screenshot settings and BitLocker key backup.
Diagnostics & Benchmarking	SMART disk health, CPU/disk/memory benchmarks, stress testing, thermal monitoring, system maintenance tools, HTML/JSON/CSV reports.
Image Flasher	Flash ISOs/IMGs to USB. Download Windows and Linux ISOs directly.
File Management	Organize files by extension, find duplicates with parallel hashing, and grep-style content search with regex, metadata, archive, and binary/hex modes.
Application Management	Scan installed apps, match to Chocolatey packages, bulk-install on a new PC. Offline deployment with direct installer downloads. Deep application removal with leftover scanning and registry snapshot diffs.
Network Management	Diagnostic suite (ping, traceroute, MTR, DNS, port scan, bandwidth, WiFi, connections, firewall, shares), adapter inspector with ethernet backup/restore and network reset, WiFi QR code manager.
Email Tools	Browse PST, OST, and MBOX email archives. Search, export (EML/CSV/VCF/ICS), contacts, calendar (month/week/day), attachments browser — no Outlook required. Multi-threaded OST/PST converter with 8 output formats including IMAP cloud upload.
Modern UI	Windows 11-style rounded corners, custom splash screen, and responsive layouts.

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Table of Contents

• System Requirements
• Quick Start
• Features
  • Backup and Restore
  • Application Management
  • Benchmark and Diagnostics
  • Image Flasher
  • File Management
  • Network Management
  • Email Tools
  • OST Converter
  • Settings
• Security
• Building from Source
• Configuration
• Contributing
• License
• Acknowledgments

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System Requirements

	Minimum
OS	Windows 10 (1809) or Windows 11
CPU	x64 Intel or AMD
RAM	4 GB
Disk	~500 MB + working space
Privileges	Standard user; elevates per-task via UAC when needed

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Quick Start

1. Download the latest ZIP from Releases.
2. Extract anywhere (USB drive, desktop, network share).
3. Run sak_utility.exe — runs as a standard user; individual features prompt for elevation when needed.

Code Signed: Releases are digitally signed via Azure Trusted Signing. Windows SmartScreen and Defender should recognize the signature automatically. Right-click sak_utility.exe → Properties → Digital Signatures to verify.

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Features

Backup and Restore

Guided wizards for comprehensive user-profile migration with smart filtering, AES-256 encryption, and NTFS permission handling.

Backup Wizard — Scan and select user profiles, customize per-user data categories (Desktop, Documents, AppData, browsers, email, and more), configure filters, compression, and encryption, then execute with real-time progress and cancellation support.

Restore Wizard — Map source users to destination users (auto-map or manual), configure merge behavior, select data categories, handle NTFS permissions, and restore with detailed logging.

Quick Tools — Integrated one-click actions:

Tool	Description
Screenshot Settings	Captures screenshots of Windows Settings panels for documentation
BitLocker Key Backup	Exports BitLocker recovery keys for all encrypted volumes

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Application Management

Two subtabs — App Installation and Advanced Uninstall — under one panel.

App Installation

Scan installed apps, match them to Chocolatey packages, and bulk-install on a new PC.

1. Scan — Queries HKLM/HKCU Uninstall registry keys; extracts name, version, publisher.
2. Match — PackageMatcher with curated mappings (high/medium/low/manual confidence).
3. Backup — Optional data backup via UserProfileBackupWizard (browser profiles, IDE settings, etc.).
4. Export — JSON migration report portable to the target machine.
5. Install — Embedded Chocolatey with retry logic and exponential backoff.
6. Restore — UserProfileRestoreWizard maps source paths to target paths and restores data.

Offline Deploy — Build deployment bundles for air-gapped or bandwidth-limited environments:

Mode	Description
Build Bundle	Downloads .nupkg packages with internalized dependencies for offline Chocolatey install
Direct Download	Downloads the actual installer binaries (EXE/MSI) directly — supports URL-based, embedded-binary, and meta-package patterns

Includes preset package lists (Office PC, Developer, Media, etc.) and curated package catalogs with search.

Advanced Uninstall

Deep application removal with leftover scanning, cleanup, and system protection.

Program Enumeration

• Win32 apps (HKLM, HKLM\WOW6432Node, HKCU Uninstall registry keys)
• UWP / Microsoft Store apps
• Windows provisioned apps
• View filters: All, Win32 Only, UWP Only, Bloatware Only, Orphaned Only

Uninstall Modes

Mode	Description
Standard	Runs the native uninstaller with optional auto-cleanup of detected leftovers
Forced	Bypasses the native uninstaller — removes registry entries and leftover artifacts directly
Batch	Queue multiple programs and process sequentially with full logging

Leftover Scanner

• Three depth levels: Safe (common paths/registry), Moderate (broader pattern matching), Advanced (deep scan with registry diff)
• Detects: files, folders, registry keys/values, services, scheduled tasks, firewall rules, startup entries, shell extensions
• Risk-level color coding: Safe (green), Review (yellow), Risky (red)
• Registry Snapshot Engine — captures pre/post uninstall diffs to detect leftover changes

Cleanup & Deletion

• Select All, Select Safe Only, Deselect All, or manual per-item selection
• Recycle Bin support — files routed via SHFileOperationW with FOF_ALLOWUNDO (registry and service entries are always permanent)
• Locked file handling — files that cannot be removed are automatically scheduled for deletion on reboot via MoveFileExW with MOVEFILE_DELAY_UNTIL_REBOOT
• User notification of reboot-pending items

Uninstall Settings

Group	Options
Leftover Selection	Select all leftovers by default vs. safe only
Deletion Behavior	Send deleted files to Recycle Bin (toggle)
System Protection	Auto-create restore point before uninstall
Default Scan Level	Safe / Moderate / Advanced
Display	Show system components in the program list

Context Menu — Uninstall, Forced Uninstall, Add to Queue, Open Install Location, Copy Program Name, Copy Uninstall Command, Show Properties, Remove Registry Entry

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Benchmark and Diagnostics

Comprehensive hardware diagnostics, performance benchmarking, and stability testing with bundled smartmontools for SMART analysis.

Hardware Inventory

• CPU: model, cores, threads, base/max clock
• Memory: total capacity, slot usage
• Storage: model, capacity, interface (SATA/NVMe/USB), media type
• GPU: model, VRAM, driver version
• OS: name, build number

SMART Disk Health

• Queries all physical drives via bundled smartctl.exe (smartmontools 7.4)
• Health status (Healthy / Warning / Critical / Failed)
• Temperature, power-on hours, raw attributes
• Attribute-level detail with threshold monitoring

Benchmarks

Benchmark	Metrics
CPU	Single-thread and multi-thread scores, matrix multiply, compression throughput, prime computation
Disk	Sequential read/write, random 4K IOPS (read and write), queue-depth scoring
Memory	Read/write bandwidth, random-access latency

Stress Testing

• Configurable duration
• CPU stress (all-core compute + floating-point)
• Memory stress (pattern write/verify for ECC error detection)
• Disk stress (sustained sequential I/O with direct writes)
• Real-time thermal monitoring with auto-abort at configurable limit
• Error-count abort thresholds

System Maintenance — Integrated one-click actions:

Tool	Description
Optimize Power Settings	Applies High Performance / Ultimate Performance plan
Verify System Files	sfc /scannow + DISM /RestoreHealth
Check Disk Errors	chkdsk with bad-sector scan
Generate System Report	Comprehensive report: OS, hardware, storage, network, drivers, event logs, installed programs (HTML)

Full Suite Mode

• One-click sequential run: Hardware Scan → SMART Analysis → CPU Benchmark → Disk Benchmark → Memory Benchmark → Stress Test → Report Generation
• Step-by-step progress with live status

Report Export

• HTML — Styled report with hardware summary, SMART health, benchmark scores, and stress test results
• JSON — Machine-readable structured data for automation
• CSV — RFC 4180 compliant, importable into Excel or data pipelines

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Image Flasher

Create bootable USB drives from disk images.

• Formats: ISO, IMG, WIC, ZIP, GZ, BZ2, XZ, DMG, DSK
• Windows ISO download directly from Microsoft via UUP Dump API (multiple editions, languages, x64/ARM64)
• Linux ISO download with built-in distro catalog:
  • Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Linux Mint Cinnamon
  • Kali Linux
  • SystemRescue, Clonezilla, GParted Live, ShredOS
  • Ventoy (multi-boot USB creator)
• Windows USB Creator — NTFS format, ISO extraction, bootsect.exe boot sector, UEFI structure, verification of critical files
• Generic writer — Raw sector I/O with streaming decompression (bootable for Linux and other ISOs)
• Safety: System-drive protection, multi-select for parallel flash

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File Management

Three subtabs — File Organizer, Duplicate Finder, and Advanced Search — under one panel.

File Organizer

Organize files by extension into configurable categories.

• Default categories: Images, Documents, Audio, Video, Archives, Code — fully customizable with user-defined extensions
• Collision handling: rename, skip, or overwrite
• Preview mode — see what would happen without moving anything
• Confirmation dialog before destructive operations (shows file count and collision strategy)
• Category validation — detects empty mappings and duplicate category names
• Reset to Defaults — one-click restore of built-in category mappings

Duplicate Finder

Detect duplicate files via content-based hashing.

• MD5 hash-based duplicate detection with configurable minimum-size filtering
• Multi-directory recursive scan with duplicate directory prevention
• Parallel hashing with configurable thread count (auto-detects ideal thread count)
• Summary: duplicate count, wasted space, scrollable results for large scans

Cross-Operation Safety

• Organizer and duplicate finder share mutual locking — running one disables the other to prevent conflicts
• Cancel support for both operations

Advanced Search

Enterprise-grade grep-style file content search with a three-panel interface: file explorer, results tree, and preview pane.

• Text content search — Line-by-line search with configurable context window (0–10 lines before/after)
• Regex support — Full QRegularExpression engine with case-sensitive, whole-word, and multiline options
• Regex Pattern Library — 8 built-in patterns (emails, URLs, IPv4, phone numbers, dates, hex, numbers, words) plus custom user-defined patterns with JSON persistence
• Binary/hex search — Search binary files for text or hex patterns with hex-context display
• Image metadata search — Search EXIF/GPS metadata in image files
• File metadata search — Search metadata in PDF, Office, audio/video files
• Archive search — Search inside ZIP/EPUB archives with deflate decompression (handles real-world .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .odt, .epub)
• File explorer — Drive and directory navigation with lazy-loading tree, context menus
• Results tree — Grouped by file with 8 sort modes (path, match count, file size, date modified)
• Preview pane — Monospace file preview with yellow/orange match highlighting, previous/next navigation with wrapping, line numbers with >>> match indicators
• Search history — Last 50 searches persisted via ConfigManager

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Network Management

Three-tab network panel covering diagnostics, adapter configuration, and WiFi credential management.

Network Diagnostics

10-tool diagnostic suite with report generation.

Tool	Capabilities
Ping	Configurable count, timeout, interval, packet size; per-reply stats with min/max/avg/jitter aggregation
Traceroute	Max hops, hostname resolution; per-hop RTT table
MTR	Continuous ping + traceroute with cycle-by-cycle stats: loss %, avg/best/worst/jitter per hop
DNS Lookup	Query by record type, custom DNS server, reverse lookup, multi-server comparison, flush DNS cache
Port Scanner	Preset port lists + custom ranges, concurrent scanning, banner grabbing, timeout control
Bandwidth	iPerf3 client + server mode; HTTP speed test; bidirectional and multi-stream testing
WiFi Analyzer	Scan nearby networks with signal/channel/security; continuous scanning; channel utilization analysis
Active Connections	TCP/UDP connection monitor with process info, auto-refresh, process/port filters
Firewall Auditor	Enumerate all Windows Firewall rules; detect conflicts and coverage gaps; filter by direction/action
Network Share Browser	Discover SMB shares on a host; test access permissions

Report Generation

• HTML — Styled report with all cached diagnostic results and adapter info
• JSON — Machine-readable structured data
• Technician name, ticket number, and notes metadata fields

Network Adapters

Adapter inspector with ethernet backup, restore, and network reset.

• Enumerates all network adapters (Ethernet, WiFi, Virtual)
• Full configuration display: IPv4/IPv6 addresses, subnet masks, gateways, DHCP status, DNS servers, MAC address, driver info, link speed, traffic statistics
• Copy adapter configuration to clipboard
• Capture adapter IP/DNS/gateway settings to a portable JSON file
• Restore settings to the same or a different adapter on any machine via netsh commands
• Supports DHCP and static configurations, primary and secondary DNS servers
• Cross-machine portability — back up on one PC, restore on another
• Reset Network Settings — One-click reset: flushes DNS, resets TCP/IP stack, Winsock, firewall, and adapters

WiFi Manager

WiFi credential manager with QR code generator and cross-platform network profile export.

Network Details — Enter Location label, SSID, Password (show/hide toggle), Security type (WPA/WPA2/WPA3, WEP, Open), and Hidden network flag.

Saved Networks Table — Store multiple WiFi configs with search/filter, inline editing, and tri-state select-all. Save/load entire table to/from JSON.

QR Code Generation

• Single-network QR for immediate phone/tablet connection
• Batch QR export wizard (PNG/PDF/JPG/BMP) with optional location header banner
• WiFi QR payload format with HIGH error correction (30%)

Script & Profile Export

• Generate Windows .cmd batch scripts using netsh (single or batch)
• Add selected networks directly to Windows known WiFi profiles via netsh WLAN profile XML
• Generate macOS .mobileconfig plist files (single or multiple networks per profile)

Windows Integration — Scan existing Windows known profiles and import them into the table for backup/management.

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Email Tools

Browse, search, and export data from Outlook PST/OST archives and MBOX mailboxes — no Outlook or MAPI libraries required.

Supported Formats

• PST — Outlook Personal Storage (Unicode and ANSI)
• OST — Outlook Offline Storage
• MBOX — RFC 4155 (Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Linux mail clients)

File Scanner — Automatically discovers PST/OST/MBOX files in common locations (user home, desktop, recent paths); select which to open.

Folder Tree — Navigable hierarchy with typed icons (Inbox, Sent Items, Drafts, Deleted Items, Junk Email, Calendar, Contacts, etc.)

Item List — Sortable table with Subject, From, Date, Size, Type, and attachment indicator.

Preview Pane — Four tabs:

Tab	Content
Content	HTML/plain-text email body; contact details; task descriptions; sticky note text
Headers	RFC 5322 message headers (monospace)
Properties	MAPI property names and values for forensics/analysis
Attachments	File list with individual or batch save

Search — Full-text search across subjects, bodies, senders, recipients, and attachment names. Filter by item type, date range, has-attachment, and folder scope.

Contacts Dialog — Searchable address book with sortable columns (name, email, company, phone) and export to VCF or CSV.

Calendar Dialog — Three view modes (month, week, day) with event highlighting, half-hour grid lines, and column separators. Navigate by date, click events to view details, and export to ICS or CSV.

Attachments Browser — Scans all emails in the mail file and presents every attachment in a searchable, filterable list. Type filter (images, documents, archives, etc.), filename search, and right-click context menu with Save Attachment, View Containing Email (navigates to the source message), and Copy Filename.

Export Formats

Format	Use Case
EML	RFC 5322 email files (Outlook, Thunderbird compatible)
CSV	Emails, contacts, calendar, or tasks as spreadsheet data
VCF	vCard 3.0 contact files
ICS	iCalendar appointments/events
TXT	Plain-text sticky notes
Attachments	Batch extract with optional filtering and inline-image skip

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OST Converter

Multi-threaded bulk OST/PST conversion engine integrated as a second tab in the Email Tools panel.

Supported Output Formats

Format	Description
PST	Outlook Personal Storage (Unicode)
EML	RFC 5322 email files
MSG	Outlook message files
MBOX	Unix mailbox format
DBX	Outlook Express format
HTML	Styled HTML email archives
PDF	PDF email archives
IMAP Upload	Direct upload to IMAP servers (Office 365, Gmail, Yahoo)

Key Features

• Multi-threaded conversion with configurable worker count (1–8 threads)
• Deleted item recovery (soft and hard delete scanning)
• PST splitting for large archives with configurable size limits
• IMAP cloud upload with PLAIN, LOGIN, and XOAUTH2 authentication
• Advanced filtering by date range, folder, sender, and subject
• Corruption handling with automatic recovery
• Metadata preservation across all output formats
• Detailed conversion reporting

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Settings

Settings are configured per-panel — each panel that needs configuration provides its own settings dialog or inline controls.

Panel	Settings
Backup and Restore	Default backup location, confirmation prompts, notification preferences, logging, compression
Advanced Uninstall	Leftover selection defaults, deletion behavior, system protection (restore points), scan level, system component visibility
Image Flasher	Flash settings, verification options

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Security

Layer	Implementation
File encryption	AES-256-CBC via Windows BCrypt with PBKDF2 key derivation
Secure memory	SecureString / SecureBuffer — zero-fill on destruction, page locking via VirtualLock
Input validation	Path sanitization, IP/port validation, Chocolatey name format checks
Elevation	Per-task elevation via elevated helper process with Named Pipes IPC; asInvoker manifest with on-demand UAC prompts

All crypto uses the Windows BCrypt API (FIPS 140-2 validated provider).

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Building from Source

Prerequisites

Tool	Version
Visual Studio 2022	v17+ with Desktop development with C++
CMake	3.28+
Qt	6.5+ MSVC 2019 64-bit
vcpkg	Latest (for zlib, bzip2, liblzma)

Build

git clone https://github.com/RandyNorthrup/S.A.K.-Utility.git
cd S.A.K.-Utility

# Configure
cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 `
  -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="C:/Qt/6.5.3/msvc2019_64"

# Build
cmake --build build --config Release --parallel

# Bundle smartmontools (required for SMART diagnostics)
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/bundle_smartmontools.ps1

# Run
.\build\Release\Release\sak_utility.exe

Code Signing (Optional)

Local builds can be signed via Azure Trusted Signing:

# One-time: log in to Azure
az login

# Sign after building
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/sign-exe.ps1

# Or enable automatic signing on every build:
cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 `
  -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="C:/Qt/6.5.3/msvc2019_64" `
  -DSAK_CODE_SIGN=ON
cmake --build build --config Release

Requires Azure CLI and access to the Azure Trusted Signing account. CI builds (GitHub Actions) are signed automatically.

Dependencies

Library	License	Purpose
Qt 6.5+	LGPL v3	UI framework (Core, Widgets, Concurrent, Network, Xml; Gui linked transitively via Widgets)
zlib	zlib License	Compression and ZIP archive decompression (deflate)
bzip2	BSD-style	bzip2 compression
liblzma	0BSD / Public Domain	xz/LZMA compression
qrcodegen	MIT	QR code generation (bundled source)
smartmontools	GPLv2	SMART disk health analysis (bundled smartctl.exe)
iPerf3	BSD 3-Clause	LAN bandwidth testing (bundled iperf3.exe)
Chocolatey	Apache 2.0	Embedded package manager
Windows BCrypt	OS component	AES-256, PBKDF2, SHA-256

Full license texts: THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md

Testing

cmake --build build --config Release --target RUN_TESTS

93 automated tests across 117 test files covering Advanced Search, Advanced Uninstall (types, controller, leftover scanner, registry snapshot engine), Network Diagnostics (types, utils, report generation), Email Inspector (PST/OST parsing, MBOX parsing, email types, search, export, profile manager, report generator), OST Converter (types, controller, PST splitter, integration), Offline Deployment (install script parsing, NuGet API, script rewriting, package builder), Elevation (tier classification, IPC protocol, task dispatcher, mixed-tier operations, UX components, hardening), diagnostics, security, encryption, configuration, ISO download, and quick action validation.

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Configuration

Settings are stored at %APPDATA%\SAK\Utility\ in INI format.

Key Settings

[QuickActions]
backup_location=C:/SAK_Backups

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for coding standards, commit conventions, and PR workflow.

Quick summary:

1. Fork -> feature branch -> PR
2. C++23, camelCase methods, m_ member prefix
3. Conventional commits (feat:, fix:, docs:, etc.)
4. Tests for core logic

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Roadmap

Planned Features (detailed plans in docs/)

• File Converter Tab — Universal offline file conversion for documents, images, audio, video, spreadsheets, and PDFs with batch processing and quality controls. Adds a new tab to the File Management panel. See FILE_CONVERTER_TAB_PLAN.md.
• macOS Bootable USB — Create macOS bootable USB drives from macOS installer images. See MACOS_BOOTABLE_USB_PLAN.md.

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License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0) — see LICENSE for the full text.

Third-party dependency licenses are documented in THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md.

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Acknowledgments

• Qt — Cross-platform UI framework (LGPL v3)
• qrcodegen — QR code generator by Project Nayuki (MIT)
• aria2 — Multi-connection download manager (GPLv2)
• UUPMediaCreator — UUP-to-ISO converter by OSTooling (MIT)
• wimlib / libwim — WIM image library by Eric Biggers (LGPL v3, bundled with UUPMediaConverter)
• smartmontools — SMART disk diagnostics (GPLv2)
• iPerf3 — LAN bandwidth testing (BSD 3-Clause)
• Icons8 — UI icons (Icons8 Free License with attribution)
• Chocolatey — Windows package manager (Apache 2.0)
• zlib — Compression library (zlib License)
• bzip2 — Compression library (BSD-style)
• XZ Utils — LZMA compression (0BSD / Public Domain)
• vcpkg — C++ dependency manager (MIT)
• CMake — Build system (BSD 3-Clause)
• Microsoft — Windows BCrypt API, PowerShell, Windows SDK, ADK tools (cdimage, imagex, bcdedit, cabarc)

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Author

Randy Northrup GitHub · S.A.K.-Utility

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