Windows Tools Help Index

STRESS TESTERS

ASCII

RGB

HEX<>DEC

FILE FINDER

FILE SIZE

FREE KB

WIN.INI SPY

SCREEN COORDS

WINDOW SIZE

RULERS


HELP ON STRESS TESTERS

Stress Testers allow you to test an application in the presence of low resource conditions.

Stress Testers are available herein for:

low disk space

low DOS file handles

low global heap memory

low GDI heap memory

low User heap memory

Stress Test - Disk:

creates a file called 'stress.eat' when the ALLOC button is pressed. The file will be deleted and the memory freed when the FREE button is pressed. The size of stress.eat is selected by the user. Stress.eat is created in the root directory of the partition selected by the user. Options are:

- the current partition (logical disk)

- the partition on which the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory is located

- the partition to which windows assign temporary files.

Note : results may be unpredictable when some disk stacking (doubling) technology is employed.

Stress Test - File Handles:

allocates the number of DOS file handles selected by the user. Handles are restored when the FREE button is pressed, or computer is rebooted.

Stress Test - Memory:

allocates and frees memory in the Global Heap.

Stress Test - GDI:

allocates memory in the Graphical Device Interface until only the specified number of Kbytes is available. The FREE button frees all GDI memory.

Stress Test - User:

allocates and frees memory in the User heap.


HELP ON ASCII

Provides an ASCII chart with alternate character sets:

ANSI/WIN  	-	ANSI defined character set with windows extensions.

SYM	-	Symbol character set.

OEM	-	Original Equipment Manufacturer character set.


HELP ON RGB

Move slider bars and read off RGB (red, green, blue) values.

example use: selecting background color value for hbrBackground data member.


HELP ON HEX<>DEC

Hex to decimal and decimal to hex converter.


HELP ON FILE FINDER

Reports files that match a file name or mask supplied by user.

DOS wildcards are supported.


HELP ON FILE SIZE

Reports file size. Successive finds move last size to PREVIOUS listbox, and report current size.

example use:  tracking file size over successive compilations, testing compiler optimisations etc.


HELP ON FREE RESOURCES

Reports free Memory resources:

Global heap (in kbytes)

GDI heap  (as percentage)

User heap  (as percentage)

The SAMPLE button measures and reports resources. Successive uses of the SAMPLE button move previous values to LAST listbox, and report current values in THIS listbox.

The AUTO SAMPLE listbox, when checked, automatically samples in one second intervals.

example use: sample before and after running the program under development, to ensure it releases all memory resources allocated to it.


HELP ON WIN.INI SPY

Monitors your win.ini file and signals when other programs make changes to it.

Upon detecting a write to win.ini, WinIniSpy will

make a distinctive tone

allow the write to proceed uninterrupted

record the section that was changed

Notes:

- Programs that change win.ini should send a WM WININICHANGE message to all other top level windows. LParam should be a pointer to a string which is the section to be changed. It is this message that WinIniSpy detects.

- The section name is usually the application name, between square brackets, such as [WINWORD].

- Some programs send a lParam of NULL, which is reported as [NULL].

- Windows caches win.ini for performance reasons, so writes to win.ini may not always be associated with disk writes.

- WinIniSpy records 12 messages, but will continue to signal changes.


HELP ON SCREEN COORDS

Returns screen co-ordinates in logical units.

Can measure absolute (abs) co-ordinates, from upper left corner of desktop,

or measure the distance (diff) between two on-screen points.

Choosing this option boots a dialog box as shown below. This is a hypergraphic, click on any part for more information.

Absolute:

Move cursor to the box labelled 'click here and drag'.

Press and hold the left mouse button.

Move freely about the desktop.

Read off X and Y co-ordinates from the 'abs' edit boxes.

Difference

Move cursor to the box labelled 'click here and drag'.

Hold down the control key , press and release the right mouse button.

This sets the capture of mouse messages to the coords window.

Move to the on-screen point to begin measure.

Click and hold the right mouse button (without holding down the

control key).

Move the cursor, reading X and Y measures from the 'diff' edit box.

Release the right mouse button.

Release capture by pressing the left mouse button, or holding down

the control key while clicking the right mouse button.

example uses: determining the width of objects on screen, the optimum placement of windows, the distance to move objects.


HELP ON WINDOW SIZE

Reports the outer dimensions of a window (itself), in logical units.

example use:  determine the optimum size of fixed-size windows.


HELP ON RULERS

Another on-screen measuring tool.

Uses logical units.


X and Y coordinates as absolute values from the upper left corner of screen will appear here as the cursor is moved.


X and Y coordinates, giving the distance in logical units from the start and end points of a mouse drag will appear here, as the cursor is moved.


denotes X and Y logical screen coordinates.


Move the mouse cursor to this box, and do one of the following.

To measure absolute screen coordinates, simply depress left mouse button, and hold it down while moving the mouse cursor freely about the screen.

To measure the difference between two points, hold the CONTROL key while clicking right mouse button to begin capture. Move the mouse cursor to start point, depress the  RIGHT mouse button, and move the cursor to the end point. Release and click left button to release capture.