═══ 1. Introduction ═══ Service Centre is designed to keep all your maintenance utilities under one roof. Starting backups, virus scans, defrags etc. from a single panel not only saves icon space on your desktop. It also serves to discipline well-meaning, but essentially lazy users (like all of us). Evoke Service Centre and run all those tools in one session, giving your system a thorough cleanup. The date next to each button is a gentle reminder - telling you when a maintenance task was last performed. Primarily for people new to OS/2 and the wealth of utilities available, I have provided some tips on applications I've tested myself. Access them by pressing the ? buttons on the right hand side of the main panel. But allow me to preach for a moment now; if a program is distributed as shareware, it is not free. Shareware authors grant you an evaluation period during which you can decide whether you wish to use an application permanently or not. Should you wish to keep the program, you are required to pay a (usually modest) registration fee. Ignoring this is not only illegal - you're also denying the author encouragement and support vital to the continuation of his work. So please register such utilities (especially mine!!!). Most of the applications I've mentioned are widely accessible via online and BBS services. I've added several internal tools to Service Center There's a process killer labeled Kill Process and a utility called FreeMem. The latter forces OS/2 to reorganize ram distribution, often freeing up large quantities of physical memory. Whether or not this translates into an overall performance improvement is a matter of trial and error. Service Center now also includes an installation monitor called InstWatch. Call it up before installing a new program and it will keep track of alterations to your system files, optionally recording these to a log file. Another useful tool for people who frequently install shareware is the Object Wizard. Simply drag an .exe file onto it and a program object (icon) will be placed on your desktop. This bears the default name of the exe file itself - but you can rename it using direct editing (press < Alt> and click the icon to type in a new name). There's also a button for information on your system. Usage is self-explanatory. Finally, the program includes a frontend for chkdsk (with the parameters visible on the buttons, '' standing for no parameters). NOTE: Help for the configuration panel (you must configure the program before use) is accessible from that panel's menu. ═══ 2. Backup ═══ OS/2 Warp includes its own backup facility called backup.exe - a text mode program normally run from a command line window. Using Service Center, you can configure this utility to start with your chosen parameters (see Warp's online reference files), which will spare you some typing when later evoking it. But share- or freeware front ends for backup.exe are also available. These provide a graphical interface for the program. One I've tried myself is BaR by Paul H. Caron. I can't find any fault with it, though I generally use a command line myself - for reasons I find hard to explain! Of course, alternative backup utilities abound. You may find it more convenient to run one of them, especially if it was bundled with hardware you use, such as a streamer. ═══ 3. AntiVirus ═══ First of all, don't panic! Specific viruses for OS/2 are few and far between. However, if you use DOS or Windows applications, you still run a certain risk of catching bugs written for those platforms. That's why OS/2 virus scanners actually concentrate on little DOS creatures - the OS/2 bit in their names largely only refering to the operating system the scanner was coded for. Possibly the most widespread antivirus software is Mcafee's VirusScan. Evaluation copies are available almost everywhere. If you run this utility from Service Centre, you may wish to add the parameters /adl after its .exe name in the configuration window. That way, VirusScan will check all your disk partitions and report the results without further ado every time you press the AntiVirus button. ═══ 4. Defrag ═══ OS/2's HPFS file system is less susceptible to fragmentation than DOS's FAT partitions. That said, there are two good reasons to use defragmentation software with OS/2 anyway. One, HPFS isn't totally invincible. And two, you've probably still got a FAT partition or two on your hard disk, if only to accomodate Windows. Several packages such as the commercially marketed GammaTech Utilities include optimization tools for both partition types. Personally, I use the ones provided with M. Kimes' very reasonably priced shareware application FM/2. This program is distributed as a file manager, but in reality it's far more than that. Sometimes titled a 'Swiss army knife' for OS/2, the software contains utilities for all sorts of speakable and unspeakable situations. It's available in the Compuserve forum OS2BVEN, where you should also look out for Kimes' very frequent updates. NOTE: I don't recommend using the FM/2 optimizers (or any other text mode optimizers) straight from Service Center. It's safer to configure the program to call up the entire FM/2 package. You can easily defrag from there. The reason: this particular button (and this one only) does not happily cooperate with utilities lacking a PM mode graphical interface. ALSO NOTE: Most authors of defragmentation tools advise you to backup your data before using them. I've yet to experience any calamities - but the warning stands. ═══ 5. IniEdit ═══ OS/2 applications tend to share an irritating trait common in their Windows cousins - when you erase them, they leave traces all over the place. Warp's ini files are amongst their preferred stomping grounds, so it pays to have a look there every so often (to remove those cobwebs manually). The snag is that ordinary editors cannot read these files - you need a specialised tool. Unimaint appears to be many people's favourite here, though I must admit I've never tried it. Once again, I use a utility provided with M. Kimes' FM/2 file manager. It's called ini.exe and can be run separately from its mother program. You can simply type its path and name in the appropriate fields in Service Center's configuration window. ═══ 6. ConfigEdit ═══ Another file which often gets burdened with the relicts of long ditched applications is OS/2's config.sys. Check out path entries, especially. You'll frequently get reminded of forgotten acquaintances! This is the only button I've pre-configured, so that Warp's system editor will run by default. However, it's hardly the utility best suited to the job. Try Rick Meigs' freeware Config.sys Information Center (cnfg. info.exe). The program is more than a specialised editor - it also provides a wealth of config.sys related tips and information, which can lead to a marked improvement in your system's performance. ═══ 7. ClassEdit ═══ Classes are extremely useful. An object belonging to a certain class knows just how to behave when you click it. In a nutshell, classes belong to the very essence of an object oriented OS. Really, the only time they ever constitute a letdown is when they're totally redundant. I refer once again to those horrid traces left by apps we long ago erased from our system's hard disk memory and our own. Many programs register their own classes when installed or run for the first time - but unfortunately, those classes don't get deregistered when you dump the applications which required them. Special tools like Harald Wilhelm's SOM/WPS Class Browser perform this chore for you. Yet another source of cluttering up vanquished! ═══ 8. Configuring Service Center ═══ To configure Service Center, you need to enter an application for each of the tasks you wish to be able to perform. As an example, I've pre-configured ConfigEdit to run the system editor e.exe with the parameter c;\config.sys. The path and parameter specification may be wrong (depending on whether you've actually installed OS/2 on your C drive or elsewhere), but it gives you an idea of the syntax -i.e., if you're using parameters, leave a space after the .exe file name before entering them, just as you would on the command line. Press Check, if you're not so sure whether your entry is correct. Path and filenames will then be scrutinized for you. Press Done when you're ready. Your changes will take immediate effect. ═══ 9. Using FreeMem ═══ FreeMem forces OS/2 to reorganize its use of ram. The effect is often a marked increase in the amount of free physical memory. However, this does not always lead to an improvement of your system's performance. I've even found that it can slow things down if used too often in one session. Correct use is therefore a matter of trial and error! FreeMen may be most useful if you're multitasking heavily and want to free up ram for the application running in the foreground. ═══ 10. Using the Process Killer ═══ Sometimes, a process will 'hang' so badly that its window cannot be closed. The Process Killer can close such an application. Simply mark its name in the list and press Kill - but be careful! Some processes on the list aren't really separate applications, but part of the WPS. Shoot them down, and you knock your desktop cold as well! ═══ 11. Using InstWatch ═══ InstWatch will only work if you prime it directly before installing a program and check the results immediately afterwards. By default, it will write these to a log file, so that you have a record of alterations made by programs you've installed (should you wish to deinstall one).