Perfect Screens for Windows 95 and NT Copyright (c) 1996-1999 Pitrinec Software, All rights reserved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Readme.txt content: 1. Overview 2. Installation 3. Requirements 4. License agreement 5. Contacts 6. History 1. OVERVIEW: Perfect Screens is a virtual screens (virtual desktops) manager. It allows a user to organize work on several screens (desktops) and make the user to feel like having several monitors. Organizing windows on several virtual screens decrease the number of windows displayed on the screen at the same time and allows the user better orientation and faster switching among applications. The Taskbar is not full of buttons of all running applications but only the buttons of applications presented on the given screen are in the Taskbar. Windows can be copied/moved among screens very easily if necessary. Perfect Screens also dramatically simplifies launching applications and accessing desired files. Each screen has its own Screen menu and toolbar containing applications and files associated with the given screen. On each screen, the user is only one click far from opening desired application or file (or URL location). Having several screens, each for a typical activity like document processing, networking, file management, system management, gaming, etc., allows the user to logically divide work on several screens, be more efficient and have clearer desktop. 2. INSTALLATION: To install the Perfect Screens to your system run SETUP.EXE program. 3. REQUIREMENTS: - Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.x - 1.5 MB free disk space 4. LICENSE AGREEMENT: Upon your acceptance of this Agreement, Pitrinec Software (Author) grants to you a nonexclusive license to use the Perfect Screens software (Software). 1.Use of the Software. The Software has been released for distribution as a SHAREWARE and may be distributed at no cost. You are granted a license to try the Software for 30 days. After this time, the Software must be registered or removed from the system. You may install the Software on a hard disk or other storage device; install and use the Software on a file server for use on a network for the purposes of (i) permanent installation onto hard disks or other storage devices or (ii) use of the Software over such network; and make backup copies of the Software. 2.Restrictions. Unregistered use of the Software after the 30-day evaluation period is in violation of international copyright laws. You are not allowed to modify, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software. The number of the (licensed) Software instances running at the same time may not exceed the number of licenses purchased. You are not allowed to redistribute or provide to 3rd party already registered versions of the Software as well as you may not publish the registration number(s) that unlock the Software. The Software can be distributed only as the package provided by the Author. This package cannot be change in any way without written Author's permission. 3.No Warranty. ALL WARRANTIES ARE DISCLAIMED, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SOFTWARE. THE ENTIRE RISK OF THE USE OR THE RESULT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE REMAINS WITH THE USER. Unpublished-rights reserved under international copyright laws. 5. CONTACTS: Postal: Pitrinec Software Petr Pitrinec Dolni Jircany 271 252 44 Psary Czech Republic E-mail: pitrinec@kagi.com WWW: http://www.softwareutilities.com 6. HISTORY * Version 3.40 - March 25, 1998 New features & changes: ----------------------- 1) Window with mouse on it is automatically activated without necessity to click. Optional feature available in Main seetings/Mouse. 2) Drag & drop among screens. When dragging a file (or other object) from one screen to another just place the mouse cursor for a while on target screen button (or left/right screen edge) and screens is to be switched. 3) Sticky windows - user defined list of windows that should remain visible on all screens. (Available in Main settings dialog box.) 4) "Hide window" and "Show window" functionality. Allows to hide (and show again) windows. (Available on: Right click on screen icon -- small icon near upper right corner of active window -- and select "Hide window" or "Show window" from menu shown.) 5) Force refresh after screen switch. If checked, the Perfect Screens forces all the application (and desktop) to redraw (refresh the content). (Available in main menu.) 6) Perfect Screens "Lite" version released. 7) Improved screen switching. 8) Improved icons look. Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) Bug (introduced in version 3.25) causing unstability of some applications was removed. 2) Upgrade problems (old settings reappearing) is fixed. * Version 3.25 - September 15, 1998 New features & changes: ----------------------- 1) Automatic recovery after crash. If PS crashes (for whatever reason) just restart it and PS will start in the state left before the crash. 2) Items in toolbar (Screen menu) can be easily sorted using new "Move" functionality available on right click on an item. 3) "Paste Item" command added to the main menu. 4) Improved drag & drop. 5) Drag & drop on a submenu item causes the dragged file is added to the submenu. 6) Improved application starting. 7) Mouse cursor is not moving to the center of screen menu's first item. 8) New option "Automatically switch to screen with active application" (in Advanced properties). If checked, the Perfect Screens automatically switches to the screen with active application (if application was activated by some event, for example opening file from File Explorer). 9) Integration with Perfect Keyboard's macros! Macro items can be added to Screen menu and toolbar. 10) Copy/paste works on whole submenu. 11) "Shift+click" on an item shows property dialog box. 12) Auto hide menu item in main menu Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) "Copy" and "Copy to all screens" is available also if "All Taskbar buttons" option is checked. 2) Ocasional loosing windows from the screen. 3) When in autohide, the toolbar is not shown if screen saver is running (Win95). 4) MS TaskBar buttons ordered is not changing when switching screens. 5) Windows are properly updated (painted) when switching screens. 6) 'Screen icon' is showing immediately after an application is started. 7) Toolbars cannot appear out of screen when in autohide mode. 8) Tooltip is showing on newly added screen. * Version 3.0 - released in January 1, 1998 New features: ------------- 1) New toolbar look and feel ("jumping" buttons). 2) New type of items - hot key. If button of such item is clicked specified hot key is pressed. This allow to run macros (defined in MS Word or other programs) on mouse click. 3) The "Submenu" item can be put to the toolbar as another items. Clicking such button will pop up the submenu. 4) Auto-hide. Each toolbar can have auto-hide specified. 5) Integrated bar. Both screen toolbar and application toolbar can be put to one integrated bar. Integrated bar looks and behaves as MS TaskBar (including auto-hide). 6) Network support. Default configuration can reside on a network drive and can be shared by many users. Users still can customize the shared screens by adding their own (private) items to the screen menu (application toolbar). 7) Multiple user support. Many users can share the same Perfect Screens copy because each of them has its own profile. 8) Improved password protections. There is more levels of protection including network administrator password. 9) Integration with MSIE 4.0 active desktop technology. 10) Autorecovery after crash. When PS crashes and is launched again it recovers screens (applications on screens) as it was before crash. 11) Improved big screen feature. 12) "All taskbar buttons" feature allows to switch on that buttons of all running applications are in the TaskBar. Default is that only application presented on the active screen have buttons in the TaskBar. * Version 2.6 - released in March 6, 1997 Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) Alt+right click in some cases caused that Perfect Screens crashed. This terrible bug is fixed in this version. * Version 2.5 - released in March 5, 1997 New features: ------------- 1) Configuration assistant that helps you to configure Perfect Screens. 2) Screen buttons can be reordered (see "Screen settings" dialog box. 3) Screen switching is faster and smoother. 4) The number of windows opened on each screens is (optionaly) displayed on screen buttons (set up it in "Application settings/Advanced"). 5) On-line registration. Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) Installation program creates Start menu group also in NT. 2) Right click on Screen menu works without any problems in NT. 3) Screen cannot be switched when screen saver with password protection is running. 4) The problem with GDI resources when Perfect Screens is in TaskBar is fixed. * Version 2.1 - released in December 15, 1996 New features: ------------- 1) There is a new item "Original screen" in the menu allowing you switch on/off the button of the Original screen. 2) Registration numbers are incompatible with previous versions (2.0 and older). The upgrade to this version is free. Already registered user will by re-registered for free. Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) If big screen is checked and there is not a window on the screen the programme crashed when moved mouse cursor to the edge of the screen. This bug is fixed. * Version 2.0 - released in November 25, 1996 New features: ------------- 1) Big screen - you can "scroll" screens to left and down if there is some programm on the screen exceeding the screen's edge. You can scroll it by mouse movement to edges of screen. You can switch it on/off for each screen in screen settings. 2) New (standard) setup. 3) You can change some screen settings (sound, ToolBar look) globally. There is new Configuration/Global settings... menu item. Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) The programm doesn't "eat" resources (version 1.6 did). 2) "Toolbars have grey color" setting works again. 3) Some other minor fixes. * Version 1.6 - released in September 5, 1996 New features: ------------- 1) The program supports drag & drop of shortcuts (*.lnk files). 2) Autosave - the program automatically saves all changes made in settings. Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) Bugs that may cause unstability were fixed. 2) Program folows color settings set in standard Windows dialog "Display properties". * Version 1.5 - released in July 29, 1996 New features: ------------- 1) Program runs under Windows NT 4.0 without problems (for more information read "NT users" topic in the help and "Requirements" in the readme file). 2) Program runs fine under Windows NT 3.51 with some functionality disabled (for more information read "NT users" topic in the help and "Requirements" in the readme file). 3) When you switch to a screen a sound can be played. This option is a part of "Screen settings" now. 4) Better font used. 5) Tab-like buttons. (Can be selected in "Application settings", "Buttons and Icons" section.) 6) Splash screen can be switched off. (Can be switched off in "Application settings", "Advanced" section.) 7) Perfect Screens checks for already used shortcut keys. 8) Drag a window and drop it on another screen. Drag a window and move it to the left or right side of the screen like you want to move it outside of the screen. When the cursor is on the edge of the screen the Perfect Screens automatically switches the screen to the next one. If you release mouse buttons then the window you originally caught is moved to the current screen. This require to have switched on the option Go to next/previous screen... in the Application settings in the Advanced section. 9) Perfect Screens Help allows you to use Find function. This allows you "full text" searching in the help. 10) Perfect Screens window can overlap TaskBar (if "Always on top" option is set on). 11) New help file - Perfect Screens Quick Help -was added. The file name is psqh.hlp. Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) Several bugs that may cause unstability were found and fixed. 2) Bug in drag & drop of long file names was fixed. 3) Help allows to use Find function. 4) Bug that caused Perfect Screens crashs when switching screen by moving mouse to an edge of the screen was fixed. 5) Several bugs in help were fixed. * Version 1.4 - released in May 25, 1996 New features: ------------- 1) Password protection. 2) Global items. 3) Alt + click is turnable on/off. * Version 1.3 - released in April 18, 1996 Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) The program was not able to run without MFC40.DLL dynamic link library (shipped with MS Visual C++ 4.0 and maybe with other Microsoft products). New features: None. ------------- * Version 1.2 - released in April 12, 1996 Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) Program automatically saves all settings when Windows is exiting. 2) Strange cursor movements that sometimes appears in the version 1.1 is fixed. 3) Perfect Screens window is possible to place directly to the bottom of the screen. 4) Previous version of the Perfect Screens sometimes crash when you quickly switch screens several times. This is fixed in this version. New features: ------------- 1) It is possible to place screen buttons (icons) to the TaskBar (click on the yellow mouse cursor icon, select "Application settings" item from menu shown, choose windows position "On TaskBar") 2) It is possible to place ToolBar buttons (icons) to the TaskBar (click on the cyan mouse cursor icon on the TooolBar, select "ToolBar settings" item from menu appeared, choose windows position "On TaskBar") 3) You can set the default screen (this is the one the Perfect Screens switchs to after start). (Do right mouse click on the screen icon and from the menu appeared choose "Screen settings" item.) 4) ToolBars color may be either gray or the same as the screen background color. (To set this click on the yellow mouse cursor icon, select "Application settings" item from menu appeared, select "Advanced".) 5) ToolTips. Each icon in both the Perfect Screens window and ToolBar shows the name if you move the mouse cursor over the icon and wait for a while. 6) Application you launch from the ToolBar (or screen menu) may be automatically visible (accessable) on all screens. There is new check button in the Screen menu (ToolBar) item "Properties" on the bottom of the dialog window. 7) Right click on the yellow mouse cursor icon may pops up the Screen menu associated with the current screen. (To set this click on the yellow mouse cursor icon, select "Application settings" item from menu shown, select "Advanced".) 8) There are new shortcut keys for switching among screens that replace Alt+left arrow, Alt+right arrow, Alt+down arrow keys. These shortcut keys are optional. (click on the yellow mouse cursor icon, select "Application settings" item from menu appeared, choose "Shortcut Keys".) 9) Context sensitive help. 10) If you do left mouse button click together with Alt key press on title bar of a window the menu with copy/move/remove window operations is shown. This is (sometimes) faster way how to copy/move/remove window to/to/from screen. 11) You can save settings manually. This protects you from loosing your settings if your system crashes from any reason. 12) Switching among screens is a little bit faster now. 13) You can switch to next/previous screen if you move and keep for a while mouse cursor on right/left margin of the screen. This is optional and you can switch on/off this feature in "Advanced" section of Application settings. 14) Tabbed dialog windows. * Version 1.1 - released in February 29, 1996 Bugs fixed: ----------- 1) Version 1.0 didn't cooperate correctly with Xmouse utility from Microsoft Power Toys package. 2) Version 1.0 didn't cooperate correctly with some system utilities (Xmouse, compress agent) because of bug in ps32dll.dll library. (The program didn't call mouse and keyboard next hook.) New features: ------------- 1) The program allows user to choose screensaver to performe when the mouse cursor is moved to the upper right corner of the screen (this is optional; maybe set-up in the advanced options). * Version 1.0 - released in February 13, 1996