OS/2 Shareware BBS: 11 Util/11-Util.zip/newlookb.zip/newlook.txt

Text File | 1996-03-31 | 12KB | 258 lines

************************       NEWLOOK V. 0.11       **************************
 March 28 1996                  copyright (c)             Alessandro Cantatore
************************          DISCLAIMER         **************************
 If you like this program, you are free to use, copy and modify it as you
 like. Under no circumstances the author is liable for any loss or damage.
 The use of the program implies acceptance of the conditions stated above.
*******************************************************************************

 CONTENTS:

- WARNING                   Read this section before running NEWLOOK.
- WHAT YOU NEED             NEWLOOK requirements.
- INSTALLATION
- WHAT IT DOES              How to run NEWLOOK.
- NPS WPS ENHANCER          Close button bitmaps.
- MORE ICONS                Some more icons and bitmaps.
- UPDATE.CMD                Automatically updates the icons of some objects.
- HOW IT WORKS              Read this section if you face any problem or get
                            any error message.

 WARNING

 This program has been tested just with OS/2 WARP. It could work correctly with
OS/2 2.1 too, but I cannot grant it, so read carefully the rest of this file
before trying.

 If you do not yet have a set of OS/2 emergency boot diskettes, make them by
the utility in the System Setup folder or any other one.

 IF THE PROGRAM EXITS WITH AN ERROR MESSAGE YOU DO NOT NEED TO REBOOT.
EVERYTHING HAS BEEN RESTORED TO ITS PREVIOUS STATE AS YOU HAD NEVER RUN
NEWLOOK SINCE THE LAST BOOT.

 See the HOW IT WORKS section for more details or any problem you have.


 WHAT YOU NEED

 To run this program you must have installed REXX support and Martin Lafaix's
Resource Decompiler/Manager, a freeware application distributed as RESMGR.ZIP,
(you can FTP it from hobbes.nmsu.edu/incoming or /os2/dev32 or various BBSs)
should be in a directory included in your CONFIG.SYS PATH statement or in the
NEWLOOK directory. If NEWLOOK cannot find any of the needed files it will
display a warning message.

 You need RC.EXE, RCPP.EXE and RCPP.ERR in your \OS2 directory. If you do not
find them, you must run "Selective install".
   - In the "System configuration" window, click on OK;
   - in the "OS/2 Setup and Installation" window, select
     only "Optional system utilities" and click on the "More..."
     button;
   - in the list of the utilities window select only "Link object modules"
     and click on "OK". YOU DO NOT NEED TO REBOOT!!! Even if stated
     so. The following files will be added to your \OS2 directory:
     \OS2\LINK386.EXE
     \OS2\LINK.EXE
     \OS2\RC.EXE
     \OS2\RCPP.EXE
     \OS2\RCPP.ERR
     You can delete them later...
     Now you can run NEWLOOK.CMD and then reboot...

 You need about 8 MBs of free disk spaces for the temporary files and
multiple back-up copies of the DLLs. Anyway, you could run NEWLOOK
safely even with only 3 MBs, provided you change only thw system icons
before, then reboot, move the back-up copy of PMWP.DLL to a diskette,
run NEWLOOK again to change the windows controls and then reboot.


 INSTALLATION

 Just unzip NEWLOOK.ZIP recreating SYSICONS and WINCTLS directories.


 WHAT IT DOES

 NEWLOOK.CMD is a REXX script that allows you to change the OS/2 default icons
and window controls patching PMWP.DLL and PMMERGE.DLL. You must run it without
arguments, just double click on its icon. If it finds all the files it needs,
it will show you the following menu:

   ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │                                                                        │
   │    ACTION                                                  COMMAND     │
   │    Read NEWLOOK.TXT ...................................... read        │
   │    Edit the new system icons ............................. editico     │
   │    Edit the new window controls .......................... editctls    │
   │    Change the default system icons ....................... newico      │
   │    Change window controls ................................ newctls     │
   │    Change both system icon and window controls ........... newall      │
   │    Restore original system icons ......................... restico     │
   │    Restore original window controls ...................... restctls    │
   │    Restore both original system icons and window controls  restall     │
   │    Exit .................................................. quit        │
   │                                                                        │
   └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

 If you want to perform an action just type the corresponding command.
 Here is a short description of the actions performed by NEWLOOK:

read
    this command will open NEWLOOK.TXT (this file). After you close the
    OS/2 Editor window you can go on with another command or quit.

editico
    will open the SYSICONS folder. The icons are saved with a "ptr"
    extension. DO NOT RENAME THEM!!! You can edit them or substitute them
    with a different icon file. Just open an OS/2 command window and type:
    COPY MYFILE.ICO X:\PATH\SYSICONS\OLD.PTR
    where MYFILE.ICO is the name of the new icon file you want to use,
    X:\PATH\SYSICONS is SYSICONS folder path and
    OLD.PTR is the name of the NEWLOOK icon file you intend to replace.
    Icons and bitmaps are usually saved in various formats.
    For 640x480 and 800x600 screen resolutions you should care about
    "Independent Color Form (=VGA)", for normal icons (32x32 pixels), and
    "Independent Small Color Form" for the smaller ones (16x16 pixels).
    For 1024x768 and larger screen resolution you should care about
    "XGA/8514 - 16 colors", for normal icons (40x40 pixels), and
    "XGA/8514 Small Color Form" for the smaller ones (20x20 pixels).
    Remeber that if you previously patched your video display DLL, by
    some utility like Jason R. Shannon's SMALLFIX, your system could
    use 32x32 pixel icons even if your screen works at 1024x768 pixels
    or greater resolutions.
    To access the various formats use the Device|List menu command of
    OS/2 Icon editor. See the online help of the OS/2 Icon editor for
    more details.

editctls
    will open WINCTLS folder. See editico for more details.

newico
newctls
newall
    will patch PMWP.DLL, PMMERGE.DLL or both. Original DLLs are saved
    in NEWLOOK directory as PMWP.SAV and PMMERGE.DLL. Since I found
    problems with RESMGR when re-patching DLLs, you MUST RESTORE
    ORIGINAL DLLs before patching any DLL you previously patched
    before. If NEWLOOK detects you are re-patching DLLs, it will show
    you a warning message.
    When patching is finished you will get a message. Now you are done,
        you do not have to boot from diskette, copy any file or any other
        boring thing. JUST SHUTDOWN AND REBOOT!!!
    Now most of objects on your desktop and in your folders will have
    a new look.
        If some objects do not get their icons updated, run UPDATE.CMD (see
        the UPDATE.CMD section for more details).
        If you previously edited the default icon of an object,    you should
        press the Default button in the General Page of the Settings notebook
        if you want the new icon to replace the old one. Remember that in this
        way you will reset the object name as well!


restico
restctls
restall
    allow you to restore original PMWP.DLL, PMMERGE.DLL or both.
    YOU MUST NOT ERASE PMWP.SAV or PMMERGE.SAV in order to let this
    commands work properly.

quit
    you know what it means ;).


NPS WPS ENHANCER

 In the MORICONS subdirectory you will find 3 different close-button BMPs
for NPS WPS Enhancer. Just rename your favourite BMP and copy it in NPS
WPS directory.


MORE ICONS

 In the MORICONS subdirectory you will find some more icons and bitmaps
for SYSICONS and WINCTLS folders. INFO2.ICO, DRIVES2.ICO and MINVIEW2.ICO
are used for setting the animated icon of the "Information", "Drives" and
"Minimized Window Viewer" folder objects by UPDATE.CMD.


UPDATE.CMD

 Once you run NEWLOOK and reboot, some object could not have their icons
correctly updated (specially if you changed the default icon).
 To update some icons automatically you can run UPDATE.CMD. It will prompt
for your confirmation before updating an object.


HOW IT WORKS

  This program patches two system DLLs (PMWP.DLL and PMMERGE.DLL) and
temporarily edit your CONFIG.SYS file. It anyway makes back-up copies of both
DLLs (in its own directory) renaming them PMWP.SAV and PMMERGE.SAV and of the
CONFIG.SYS file in the root directory as CONFIG.NLK.
 Since PMMERGE.DLL and PMWP.DLL are locked, it is not possible to swap them with
the new DLLs, while OS/2 is running. So the CONFIG.SYS file is modified in order
to swap the DLLs before loading the WPS on the next system boot and then
automatically restored to its previous state.
 If you run NEWLOOK and change the default system icons or window controls
YOU MUST REBOOT. If you do not do so and run NEWLOOK again, trying to change the
controls (or the icons) or trying to restore the old ones, you will get an error
message, since NEWLOOK will detect that the CONFIG.SYS file has already been
modified to allow DLLs swapping. Then the original CONFIG.SYS and everything
else will be restored to its previous state as you had never run NEWLOOK since
the last boot. Now if you still want to change or restore something you can
run again NEWLOOK, type the proper command and then reboot.

 If you previously patched your PMMERGE.DLL by the Matt Schellhaas' CHG_CTLS
application, you should restore the original one before running NEWLOOK, since
RESMGR (used by NEWLOOK) sometimes does not work properly with previously
patched DLLs.
 If you do not have a copy of the original DLL file you can get it from the
OS/2 installation CD. From an os/2 command window type:
CD \anydir (not the root directory)
  UNPACK X:\OS2IMAGE\DISK_5\BUNDLE /N:PMMERGE.DLL
  UNPACK X:\OS2IMAGE\DISK_5\BUNDLE /N:PMWP.DLL
where X is your CD ROM Drive ID.
 If you installed a FixPack, you must restore the FixPack DLLs. Check the
FixPack readme file for their location.
 If you try to re-patch already patched DLLs and the operating system warns you
that it must terminate NEWLOOK because an access violation occurred, click
on OK to terminate it, then run NEWLOOK again typing the newall COMMAND.
You will get an error message, because the program will detect that the
CONFIG.SYS file was previously modified, then NEWLOOK will restore all the
correct files.

 If you get a "Resource Compiler" or "Resource Manager" error check your
CONFIG.SYS file. You could have something like:
  SET TMP=X:\directoryName
  SET TEMP=X:\directoryName
where directoryName is the name of a non existing directory. Just create
the directory and run again NEWLOOK or delete the above statements and
reboot before running NEWLOOK.
 If your CONFIG.SYS file is OK than check your DLLs, you probably already
patched them.

 If you have installed a FixPack which updates PMWP.DLL and PMMERGE.DLL,
giving your system the "old look", the old DLLs back-up copies will be renamed
(ie rename PMWP.SAV and PMMERGE.SAV -> PMWP.SV1 and PMMERGE.SV1).
 Later if you intend to back-out from the FixPack delete the new back-up
copies and rename the old ones PMWP.SAV and PMMERGE.SAV.

 If you do not use the default OS/2 system editor (E.EXE) NEWLOOK will
prompt you for the name of the executable of the editor you usually work with.
Just type it with or without extension.

 Some problems have been reported with Object Desktop. NEWLOOK works correctly,
but the window controls are not displayed. I will solve that with the next
release.

_______________________________________________________________________________

That's all folks!
If you find any problem or bugs in using NEWLOOK, or just want to improve
my poor English, just e-mail me...

Alessandro Cantatore
  Team OS/2 Italy
[e-mail]