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Text File | 1995-07-05 | 27KB | 541 lines

Welcome to CSTARTUP v8.0! If you have a program(s) that you run on a regular basis (perhaps from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file) and you only need to run it once a day, or on a specific day of the week, or even on a specific day of a year, You will find CSTARTUP to be very useful. For example you might want to run a virus check program that scans your hard drive only once a day, or perhaps only on Sundays, or even just once a month. You might have a hard drive unfragmenter that you only want to run on a periodic basis. CSTARTUP can save you time by running the programs you want only when you want them run. It helps you in other ways as well. It will monitor your PC and create a log file that lets you know if someone booted up your PC without your knowledge. It will even run a series of commands for you if it detects someone logging on that should not be. You can also tell it to "hide" a directory of your choice when this occurs. These security features are not completely foolproof but are secure enough for most people's needs and are very easy to implement. CSTARTUP also offers a simple, but useful debug mode that will help you pinpoint problems. But aside from all of this, probably the best part of CSTARTUP is that it is free. I make no requests for money for using this program--all I ask is that you give it to those friends who you feel will find it useful. Why? Because I wrote this, originally, for my own use and wish to share it with the public. Besides, I've enjoyed adding features to it and working on it. So, having said this, please continue reading to find out how to use CSTARTUP. INSTALLATION ────────────── The files contained in CSTART80.ZIP should be moved into a directory of your choice. I use C:\CSTARTUP; however, you may want to either place it in C:\ or C:\DOS. You will see the following files: CSTARTUP.EXE The CSTARTUP program file CSTARTUP.TXT Example CSTARTUP command file CSTARTUP.DOC CSTARTUP documentation After you run CSTARTUP for the first time, the following hidden file will be created: CSTARTUP.TYP Binary copy of CSTARTUP.TXT Later, depending on which parameters you use to run CSTARTUP, the following hidden file may be created: CSTARTUP.LOG CSTARTUP log file (optional, see below) CSTARTUP: SETTING IT UP/HOW IT WORKS ────────────────────────────────────── CSTARTUP works by scanning a file that you create (CSTARTUP.TXT) and running the programs in it at specific days that you have defined. You can tell it to run a program by identifying when you want it to run and by typing the name of the program you want to run. Probably the best place to call CSTARTUP is from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You will probably also want to move any programs you run from AUTOEXEC.BAT into the CSTARTUP.TXT file so that CSTARTUP will run them instead of AUTOEXEC.BAT. I'll describe how to set up your own CSTARTUP.TXT file next.... The following shows the commands you use to tell CSTARTUP when to run a program. These commands are set up in the CSTARTUP.TXT file in the positions indicated. Positions 1-5: MON = always run on Monday TUE = always run on Tuesdays WED = always run on Wednesdays THU = always run on Thursdys FRI = always run on Fridays SAT = always run on Saturdays SUN = always run on Sundays ONC = run once each day ALL = always run whenever CSTARTUP executes MON1 = run once only on Monday TUE1 = run once only on Tuesdays WED1 = run once only on Wednesdays THU1 = run once only on Thursdys FRI1 = run once only on Fridays SAT1 = run once only on Saturdays SUN1 = run once only on Sundays mmdd = run everytime CSTARTUP runs on this date mmdd1 = run once on this date only WAT = run command if watchdog key not hit REM = Comment line Positions 6-100: Program path/name with parameters you wish to run. For example: Date to run program starts here in position 1 │ │ │ Program to run starts here in position 6 │ │ 1....6..................................................100 MON dir c: (runs "DIR C:" each monday whenever CSTARTUP is run) ONC chkdsk (runs "CHKDSK" once a day only, regardless of day) ALL chkdsk (runs "CHKDSK" always regardless of day) FRI1 dir b: (runs "DIR B:" once only, each Friday) 0128 dir a: (runs "DIR A:" on 01/28 whenever CSTARTUP is run) 10021dir d: (runs "DIR D:" on 10/02, first run of CSTARTUP only) REM Any message (is a comment line that will be "ignored") WAT beep.bat (runs "beep.bat" if watchdog key was not hit) At this point, if this isn't making sense to you, take a close look at the sample CSTARTUP.TXT file included in this package. This file shows other examples and can be run from your PC without modification. If you want, go ahead and run CSTARTUP by typing the following command at the DOS prompt: "CSTARTUP" and see what happens. When you create your own CSTARTUP.TXT file, it is very important to position the day and command line that you want to run in the proper positions! The day you want to run a command must start in the first position of the line and the command you wish to run must start in the 6th position. The examples above should give you an example of what I mean. Whenever you make changes to the CSTARTUP.TXT file, the next time CSTARTUP runs it will notice the changes and create an updated CSTARTUP.TYP file. To help prevent prying eyes from finding out what CSTARTUP is doing, copy CSTARTUP.TXT to a safe place and then delete it from the location you copied it from. CSTARTUP will run without the CSTARTUP.TXT file as long as you have a valid CSTARTUP.TYP file in the same directory that CSTARTUP.EXE is in. (You will probably also want to hide CSTARTUP.EXE by using DOS's ATTRIB command.) If you ever need to recreate a lost .TXT file you can specify the /R parameter (described below) that will build a new .TXT file from the existing .TYP file. If you do not boot your PC over a period of a few days and thus do not execute the scheduled commands in CSTARTUP.TXT, CSTARTUP will, the next time it runs, execute the commands that were missed. Since it does not detect duplicate commands, some commands might be run more than once if your CSTARTUP.TXT contains duplicate commands that run on different days. It will not run the 'ONC' and 'ALL' commands multiple times, however. At this time, the only way around this is to run CSTARTUP with the /D option (described below). This solution may not be very convenient however. This program will not allow you to interrupt it (short of turning of your PC). Although this may seem restrictive, it was done to prevent you from accidently damaging your system somehow by stopping a process prior to its completion. ERROR CHECKING ──────────────── Errors detectable by CSTARTUP will be displayed in green and will be accompanied by a short beep. The error message will be displayed for 5 seconds or until a key is hit, whichever comes first. PARAMETERS ──────────── CSTARTUP will accept a set of parameters as described below. Each parameter should be seperated by a space. Now for a brief description of what they are and what they do. /A WATCHDOG ALERT TONE. This parameter will cause a tone to sound when CSTARTUP is ready for the watchdog key to be hit. It works independantly of the /S parm. As an option to this parm, you may specify a frequency to use when the tone sounds. All you have to do is add a number from 20-10000 after the /A. For example /A1000 will set the tone to 1000 hz. If you do not specify a tone, the default will be set to 2000 hz. CSTARTUP will remember the last value you set for this parameter, therefore you only have to specify it once. Note that some machines may not have the ability to produce an audible tone at the extreme values of the parm. If you want to test the tone you have set with the /A parm you should run CSTARTUP as follows: "CSTARTUP /b /w /annn" where "nnn" is the tone you want to use. This will run CSTARTUP which will sound the tone you indicated and then prompt you for the watchdog key--the CSTARTUP.TXT file will not be processed in this case. /B BYPASS MODE. At times you might wish to execute CSTARTUP without being forced to actually run the commands in the CSTARTUP.TXT file. This parameter will accomplish that. The only parameters that will do anything in conjunction with /B will be /W, /A, /T, and /K. This will allow you to set the delay time, the watchdog alert tone in hz, the translate directory, and the hotkey without actually running the command file (ie CSTARTUP.TXT). However, all actions normally undertaken by /W, and /T will still occur; in other words the files in the translate directory will be "hidden" and Watch Dog mode will work as it would normally by waiting for the hot key. /D DEBUG MODE. If you are having problems with CSTARTUP, you probably have a problem with the CSTARTUP.TXT file. If you use this parm, CSTARTUP will pause before running a program and it will show you the Julian date that shows the last time the command was run, and the line/program it is about to run that was specified by the line in CSTARTUP.TXT that it is using. If you hit the spacebar at this point the indicated line will be executed, hitting 'b' will bypass the indicated line should you wish to not execute it. This parm is especially handy for testing the commands on the WAT record types. /F FAST MODE. CSTARTUP will pause slightly between programs it runs and also when it displays errors. Specifying this parameter will speed this up noticeably--in fact no delays will occur at all. /K HOT KEY. This parm will change the default hotkey used for Watch Dog mode (see /W parm)-the default key is '='. To use it just add /K to the command line followed by the character you want to use as the new hotkey. For example: "/k;" will set the Watch Dog hotkey to ";". You only have to specify this parm once--CSTARTUP remembers it for you. You can even specify it without specifing the /W and /T parameters (eg "CSTARTUP /k; /b"). /N NUMBER OF LINES. Sets the maximum number of lines per screen to 25. The default is to 43 lines if you have an EGA and 50 if you have a VGA card. If you don't have an EGA or VGA you must specify this parm! /Q QUIET MODE. This parm will redirect all screen display information to a NUL device. Use this to execute CSTARTUP without displaying what you are running. Note: this may not work for all programs as a few access screen memory in such a way as to make NUL redirection inoperable. /R REBUILD CSTARTUP.TXT FILE. This parameter will allow you to rebuild the CSTARTUP.TXT file if, for some reason, it has been deleted or corrupted in some manner. You must have a valid CSTARTUP.TYP file for this to work since the .TXT file will be built off of it. When you use this command CSTARTUP will default to Bypass mode (/B). The new .TXT will be created in the directory where CSTARTUP.EXE runs. You will lose any REM statements you had in your original .TXT file because the .TYP file does not contain these statements in it. /S SOUND ON. Normally CSTARTUP will run quietly and will not generate any annoying sounds. If you wish to allow it to generate a tone on errors use this parm. If you specify this parm and use the /W mode, a tone will sound that will prompt you when to hit the hotkey. /T TRANSLATE DIRECTORY MODE. This mode will allow you to "hide" files in a specified directory. If you specify this mode CSTARTUP will assign new names to the files in the directory specified by the /T mode parm (details below). Any subdirectories beneath the directory specified on the /T parm will also have their file names renamed. The directory names themselves, however, will not be changed. To restore the file names you MUST run CSTARTUP again using the /T parm. This mode acts as a toggle. If the files were previously renamed, /T will restore them back to the originals. If the files are the originals, /T will rename them. (This option is best used with the /W parm as described below, but you may use it without /W to manually "hide/unhide" the files.) Here's how it works in detail: <1> run "CSTARTUP /W /Tc:\games" <2> CSTARTUP will begin and wait 5 seconds for the hotkey '=' to be pressed. <3> If '=' is not hit in 5 seconds the files in c:\games are renamed and a log file entry is placed in CSTARTUP.LOG. <4> If '=' is hit within 5 seconds CSTARTUP will leave the files in c:\games alone. <5> CSTARTUP continues to run normally. To restore the original file names do the following: <1> run "CSTARTUP /Tc:\games /B" <2> CSTARTUP will restore the file names. If CSTARTUP is run from AUTOEXEC.BAT and this mode is used along with the /W parm, someone who starts your PC and does not hit the hotkey will cause CSTARTUP to quickly rename the files in the /T directory (and in it's subdirectories) to innocent names, thus "hiding" the files. If the files have already been renamed and an incorrect hotkey is hit, the files will remain "hidden". When you boot the PC, strike the hotkey after CSTARTUP begins to make sure the files in the /T directory will be "unhidden". CSTARTUP will not rename files that have already been renamed. However; if you have a problem, the file TCD95006.BIN will have a list of the translations. This is the file CSTARTUP uses itself to keep track of the file names. DO NOT DELETE THIS FILE! If this file is deleted, and the files have been renamed, you will not be able to set the filenames back to their real names! CSTARTUP will not allow you to specify a directory that has a length less than 4 characters, thus "/Tc:\" will be invalid and CSTARTUP will ignore it. This was done as a safety measure--I didn't want to translate my root directory. Whatever you do, don't try to use /T on your DOS or CSTARTUP directory! If you do, to undo your error, get a bootable floppy boot disk, boot your computer, and run a copy of CSTARTUP from a disk using /T with the name of the directory you destroyed, and the /B parm (eg "CSTARTUP /tc:\dos /b"). CSTARTUP will remember the last directory you specified on the /T parm. Once you specify a directory, simply using /T without a directory name after it will work as if you specified the name of the directory a second time. /W WATCH DOG MODE. If this mode is used, someone who starts your PC and does not hit the hotkey (see /K parm) will cause CSTARTUP to create a hidden file called CSTARTUP.LOG. This log file will contain the dates and times that CSTARTUP was run and the hotkey was not pressed. This way you can tell when someone booted your PC if you display the file by entering the following command at the DOS prompt: "type cstartup.log". Since CSTARTUP.LOG will be a hidden file you will have to use the DOS "ATTRIB" command if you want to delete it. If the hot key is not hit within the delay time, the ONLY commands that will be processed will be the commands on the 'WAT' records. This allows you to run specific commands whenever the watchdog key is not hit and this parameter is specified. This event also forces CSTARTUP to override some parameters. CSTARTUP will run as if you specified the /Q and /F parameters. If you specifed the /S parameter, it will be ignored (ie sounds will be off). Since you will never actually see the WAT commands executing as CSTARTUP will write all info to the NUL device (ie /Q parm) it may be hard to test this. To test the 'WAT' commands simply run CSTARTUP with the /D command (see /D parm). You must be very careful concerning which commands you place on the 'WAT' records! Do not place any commands that require a user response from the keyboard--if you do, and the 'WAT' records are run, when CSTARTUP runs a command that requires a user response, the PC will appear to lock up when, in reality, it is waiting for the user to do something. If the watchdog key is hit, the 'WAT' file record commands will not be run. This mode allows one more option. If you wish to change the delay time just add a number from 1-60 after the /W to specify the delay time, in seconds, that CSTARTUP will wait for the hotkey to be pressed. For example, /W20 sets the delay to 20 seconds. If an invalid value is entered, the program will default to a delay of 5 seconds. CSTARTUP remembers how the delay was last set, therefore once you set it, the next time you use /W, the delay you set earlier will be in effect. /? HELP! As a reminder, if you use this parm as the -only- parameter on the command line, a brief description of the possible parameters that may be specified will be shown. HAVING PROBLEMS? ────────────────── If you are having problems getting CSTARTUP to run a specific program or you want to check if your CSTARTUP.TXT file is set up properly, run CSTARTUP in debug mode (eg CSTARTUP /d). See the description for the /D parm (above). The vast majority of problems are due to command lines in CSTARTUP.TXT that are incorrectly set up. Be sure to look closely at the sample CSTARTUP.TXT that I've included. It includes examples of each of the possible commands that are possible in CSTARTUP.TXT. I've had reports from a couple of people who have had problems running some programs with CSTARTUP. This is a rare circumstance that I have been unable to reproduce. If you do have problems, you can try creating a .BAT file that calls the program you wish to run and then specifying the .BAT file in the CSTARTUP.TXT file. This may solve the problem. WARRANTY ────────── THIS SOFTWARE IS SUPPLIED "AS-IS" WITH NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER. IT IS THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PURCHASER TO DETERMINE THE SUITABILITY AND FITNESS OF THIS PRODUCT FOR ANY PURPOSE. NEITHER THE AUTHOR, NOR ANY DEALER OR DISTRIBUTOR MAKES ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, CONCERNING THIS SOFTWARE'S QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE AUTHOR IS NOT LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES INCLUDING DAMAGE TO EQUIPMENT, INTERRUPTION OF SERVICE, LOSS OF BUSINESS RESULTING FROM ANY DEFECT OR OMISSION IN THIS SOFTWARE, MANUAL OR MEDIA. DISTRIBUTION ────────────── CSTARTUP is Freeware! You are granted permission to distribute this program to your friends provided you make absolutely no alterations to CSTARTUP.EXE, CSTARTUP.DOC, or CSTARTUP.TXT. If you do decide to distribute it you must include the files CSTARTUP.EXE, CSTARTUP.DOC and CSTARTUP.TXT. It is my hope that you find it as useful as I have. HISTORY ───────── CSTARTUP was originally written in Borland's TURBO PASCAL v6.0. It was later re-written in Borland C++ v3.1 which resulted in a larger EXE but a faster program. This documentation and the program source itself was written using BOXER 7.0. I highly recommend the BOXER editor to anyone wanting a very powerful yet inexpensive text editor. BOXER can be found on CompuServe and on many BBS's. 07-05-95 05:24:41 pm Tom Duensing. [70400,233] Bartlett, Illinois. Revision History: ----------------- Version 1.0 03/11/91 -Initial release. Version 2.0 08/19/91 -Added "REM" comment option. Version 3.0 04/01/92 -Neatened Abend processing, -Reset color modes on exit, -Allow program to run with missing CSTARTUP.TXT file. Version 4.0 02/15/94 -Rewrote in Turbo C++, -Added command line parameters. Version 4.1 02/17/94 -Added "bypass" option when using /d parameter. Version 5.0 03/05/94 -Added "/W" and "/T" options. Version 6.0 09/29/94 -CSTARTUP will now run commands that were skipped due to a user not using the PC over a period of days. ("ONC" and "ALL" commands will be not run). -CSTARTUP will now allow a specific date to be set on which to run programs. -Removed CSTARTUP.MON file. -Added /K and /B parms. -Fixed mode reset problem when returning to DOS on exit. Version 6.1 10/03/94 -Under one rare condition, the SUN through SAT records in CSTARTUP.TYP were not built properly. Fixed. -Now always handles leap years properly. -If no CSTARTUP.TYP file is found, any parms that are not specified on the command line will be reset to their default values. Applies to "/K", "/T" and "/W" only. Version 6.2 12/05/94 -Added "/R" parameter. -Changed format of "/D" output by moving julian date to the front of the debug line. Version 7.0 04/24/95 -Added "/A" parameter. -Changed /T file renaming to always start at last year. -Dates will increment from 1-7 days for each filename. -Changed name translation file name to TCD95006.BIN. -Changed /W so that if hotkey is not hit, CSTARTUP.TYP file will not be processed. -Added 'WAT' record type. If watchdog key is not hit 'WAT' records, if any, will be processed instead of the other commands in CSTARTUP.TXT/CSTARTUP.TYP. Version 7.1 06/26/95 -Fixed bug that was causing WAT records to run at wrong time. -Changed error delay from 3 to 5 secs. Version 8.0 07/05/95 -All files, in all of the subdirectories beneath the directory specified on the '/t' parm, will now be renamed. -Contents of CSTARTUP.TYP file and TCD95006.BIN files are now encripted and are unreadable.