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Text File | 1990-07-11 | 22KB | 489 lines

INTRODUCTION ------------ Congratulations! As a new or renewing PC Sources subscriber, we've sent you the all new, state-of-the-art PC system control program by Michael J. Mefford. The program called SYSCTRL.COM gives you control over things like the ear-grating DOS beep, the keyboard's typematic repeat rate, the color mapping of the palette and the cursor size. SYSCTRL also gives you a disk space status report, a real-time clock, appointment reminder, calendar and notepad. And since SYSCTRL is a TSR (terminate and stay resident) program, all this is available from within your applications at a touch of a key. All this power and control is amazingly packed into only 14K of memory. ***************************************************************** BACKUP ------ Before you do anything else, make a backup copy of this disk. The SYSCTRL.COM program on this disk is modified when you save the customized settings to disk. Having a backup copy will insure that you can always retrieve the original program settings. To make a backup, put this disk in drive A: and place an empty formatted disk in drive B:. Then enter: COPY A:\*.* B: This will create an exact duplicate of this disk that will now be in your B: drive. ***************************************************************** PRINT THIS FILE --------------- To print a copy of this README file, turn on your printer and enter: COPY A:\README PRN ***************************************************************** INSTALL ------- To install the programs from this disk onto a hard disk, create a directory and then copy all the files to the new directory. We suggest that you use a directory named PCS, but you can use any name that suits you. If you are going to install the disk on drive C:, for example, and this floppy disk is in drive A, you would first enter MD C:\PCS And copy the files to the newly created directory by entering: COPY A:\*.* C:\PCS ***************************************************************** RUNNING ------- You must follow two rules to successfully load SYSCTRL into memory. First, the directory containing SYSCTRL must be the current directory when you try to install SYSCTRL into memory. For example, if you followed the above suggestion of storing SYSCTRL in a directory called PCS on the C drive, then you would enter C: CD PCS SYSCTRL If you don't have a C: drive and SYSCTRL is in the root directory of the A drive, you would simply enter A: SYSCTRL The second rule only concerns those of you that use the resident program SideKick. Since SYSCTRL is a resident program like SideKick and SideKick insists on being loaded last, you must load SYSCTRL before you load SideKick. If SideKick is loaded first, SYSCTRL will refuse to load. To unload SideKick, from SideKick's main menu, press Ctrl-Home and then Ctrl-End. SYSCTRL can be unloaded from memory by entering SYSCTRL /U Note, that resident programs (TSRs) must be unloaded in the reverse order of their loading. If you loaded another resident program after SYSCTRL, you must unload that program before you can unload SYSCTRL. ***************************************************************** HOT KEY ------- The default hot key to pop-up SYSCTRL is Alt-C. Press and hold the Alt key and then press C. You can change the hot key to another Alt or Ctrl key combination from the SYSCTRL F9 Hot Key menu. ***************************************************************** AUTOEXEC.BAT ------------ You can load SYSCTRL from any batch file or simply by entering SYSCTRL at the DOS prompt, but the best place to load SYSCTRL into memory is from your AUTOEXEC.BAT. The easiest way to add SYSCTRL to your AUTOEXEC.BAT is with any word processor or text editor capable of saving in ASCII format. If you don't have an editor, you can use the DOS line editor called EDLIN that comes with DOS. At the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, add the following 4 lines C: CD \PCS SYSCTRL CD \ (Of course, if you use a drive other than C or directory other than PCS, substitute those values in the above instructions.) If you use SideKick, be sure leave it as the last line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT. Once the instructions have been added, save the new AUTOEXEC.BAT to disk in ASCII format. The next time you boot, the new AUTOEXEC.BAT will automatically load SYSCTRL. ***************************************************************** SETTING UP A BATCH FILE ----------------------- Instead of adding SYSCTRL to the AUTOEXEC.BAT, you can set up a batch file to change to the PCS directory. Create a batch file with the name SYSCTRL.BAT, for example, with the following instructions. C: CD \PCS SYSCTRL %1 CD \ The %1 parameter allows you to also uninstall SYSCTRL by typing SYSCTRL /U. Make sure the batch file is in a directory that DOS can find. The recommended directory is one called BATCH. Then add BATCH to your AUTOEXEC.BAT PATH command. ***************************************************************** ENTERING AND EXITING SYSCTRL ---------------------------- SYSCTRL is a text based program. That means you can not pop-up SYSCTRL over a graphics screen like Microsoft Windows. If try to do so, SYSCTRL will complain with a short beep. Also there are times when SYSCTRL can not pop-up over a text screen. This situation occurs when DOS is busy doing something else or if there is disk activity. SYSCTRL will notify you that it can't pop-up with two short beeps, a half second apart. Pressing Esc at the Main Menu exits SYSCTRL. Your can use the hot key instead of Esc to exit a function and SYSCTRL without stopping at the Main Menu. Then the next time you pop-up SYSCTRL you will return directly to that function without having to stop at the Main Menu. ***************************************************************** SAVING YOUR CUSTOM SETTINGS --------------------------- You will want to customize SYSCTRL's Beep, Typematic, Palette, and Cursor Size to your liking. You can save the customizations to disk by pressing F4 while in any of these functions. Pressing F4 will also save the Reminder's appointments and the Notepad notes while in those functions. Then the next time you boot your machine, the changes you made will take effect. As a reminder, if you press Esc to return to the Main Menu after making a change to one of these functions without saving, you will be asked if you want to save the change to disk. Answer yes by pressing "Y" to make the change permanent. Otherwise, answer no by pressing "N" if you want to make the change only temporary. If you do not save your custom settings to disk, they will be lost when you turn off the computer. ***************************************************************** SYSCTRL FUNCTIONS ================= F1 HELP ------- When you first pop-up SYSCTRL you will see the Main Menu. From there you can reach all of SYSCTRL's 9 functions by pressing the desired function key between F2 and F10. You can bring up SYSCTRL's context-sensitive help by pressing F1 at any time. Pressing F1 at the Main Menu will give general help instructions. Pressing F1 from a function menu will give specific help for that function. The on-screen help will provide most of what you need to know, but below are some additional details that you may not find in the functions menu or in the help. F2 Beep ------- Beep allows you to tame the tone and duration of the ear-grating system beep associated with the BELL character (27 or Ctrl-G). Beep, however, will not control those applications that bypass the system and access the speaker directly. Beep also controls the tone and duration of SYSCTRL's appointment chime found in the Reminder function. Use the up/down arrow keys to change the tone and the left/right arrows to change duration. PgUp and PgDn will change the tone an octave at a time. Press F2 to sample the tone and duration of the beep. Press F3 to reset the beep to the normal default (C note of octave 6 for a duration of 1/18 of a second). F3 Typematic ------------ Typematic is the automatic repetition of a keystroke when you hold the key down. SYSCTRL can change the rate at which keystrokes are repeated. It can also change the length of the initial delay that occurs after you press a key and before typematic begins. Use the up/down arrow keys to lengthen/shorten the initial delay before typematic begins and the left/right arrow keys to decrease/increase the repeat rate. Press and hold any alphanumeric key to observe the setting on the typematic test pad. You can reset typematic to the normal default with the F2 key. The typematic is normally controlled through the keyboard hardware. Some machines do not support hardware control, especially those before the AT class machine. If you do not notice any change in typematic through the hardware typematic mode, press F3 to toggle to software typematic mode. Note that the rate values in hardware and software modes are not equivalent. The hardware default rate is 12 and for software it is 1. F4 Palette ---------- Use Palette to change the color scheme of the DOS prompt screen or your application programs. You can make up to 6 different custom palettes for applications. First press F5 to select one of the 6 palette sets and then use the arrow keys to customize that particular palette. Select one of the 15 display colors or the screen border color with the left/right arrow keys. The End key will quickly take you to the border color and the Home key will return you to the first color, normally black. Use the up/down arrow keys to change the hue of that color. Use PgUp/PgDn to change the hue's saturation. If you pop-up SYSCTRL over the application whose colors you wish to change, you will be able to see the results to the application as you make changes. For example, when you first enter the Palette menu, the arrow points to the first color attribute, 00, which is normally black. If you press the up or down arrow keys you will see that color change. Note also that everywhere on the screen that was black before is now the new color. Likewise, you can move the arrow to the red attribute, 04, and change all of the normally red colors on the screen to a different one. To reset the single color that the up arrow is pointing to back to its normal value, press F2. To reset the entire palette of the active palette set to normal, press F3. The numbers below the sample color blocks are the attribute numbers (0-15). The first digit above each color block is the hue value (0-7) and the second is the saturation value (0-7) that are assigned to the attribute. You can make a custom palette for each of your applications, up to 6 palettes. Press F4 to save the change to disk. Now, when you switch applications, pop-up SYSCTRL and press F5 to select that application's palette. Press Shift-F5 to toggle in the reverse direction. You may wish to save one of the palette sets as normal. You can also select a palette set using a batch file with the /Pn option where n is a number between 1 and 6. For example, if you have a customized palette set number 3 for an application called MYAPP, make a batch file that looks something like this CD \PCS SYSCTRL /P3 > NUL CD \MYAPP MYAPP The third palette set then will be loaded before running MYAPP. Of course, replace MYAPP with the name of your application. Also, this batch example, assumes that SYSCTRL is in a directory called PCS. WordPerfect can cause the SYSCTRL Palette menu to have abnormal control if one of the customized screen fonts, Italics for example, found in the WordPerfect Shift F1 Setup menu are used. For best results, from WordPerfect's Setup menu, go to the Display:Colors submenu and select Normal font. F5 Cursor Size -------------- Change the way the cursor looks in an application or at the DOS prompt with Cursor Size. Cursor Size will not control those applications, however, that bypass the system and access the cursor directly. Use the left or right arrows to select the top or bottom line of the cursor. Use the up and down arrows to change the active cursor line. Some applications use the cursor size to convey information. A word processor, for example, often uses cursor size to indicate insert and overwrite mode. If you don't want SYSCTRL to control the cursor size, pop-up SYSCTRL's Cursor Size Menu and disable the cursor control with the F3 toggle. Some application programs have the annoying habit of changing the normal cursor to a minus sign, particularly if you have a Hercules-type video display card. To change the cursor back to normal, press F2. If an application programs the cursor directly, you may still get a minus sign cursor when the program exits. To correct this, just run SYSCTRL at the DOS prompt or at the end of an application's batch file. For example, if an application called HASSLE is giving you fits, create a batch file that looks something like this HASSLE CD\PCS SYSCTRL > NUL When HASSLE exits, SYSCTRL will fix up the cursor for you. The "> NUL" command redirects SYSCTRL messages to the NUL device, keeping SYSCTRL's messages from cluttering your screen. Note that SYSCTRL does not support a wrap-around cursor, that is, the cursor top must always be above or equal to the cursor bottom. F6 Disk Status -------------- Disk Status reports the total disk space of a selected drive, the percent that is used and the percent that is free. Simply press the letter of the drive you wish a report on. Disk Status is convenient for deciding if there is enough room before copying files. F7 Reminder ----------- Reminder performs three functions. First, it will make a short chime at the beginning of each hour. Press F2 to En/Disable the hourly chime. Second, Reminder will display the current time and date at the top right corner of the screen. Press F3 to En/Disable the date/time display. When the time display is disabled, it will appear in the SYSCTRL menu instead of the top corner of the screen. Third, Reminder will alert you to the time for appointments like an alarm clock. Enter a date and/or time into the Reminder and a note for the appointment. When the time arrives, SYSCTRL will sound a chime and automatically pop-up with the cursor on your appointment. If you are in graphics mode, SYSCTRL will not be able to pop-up. The chime will still work, however, and when you switch back to text mode, SYSCTRL will then pop-up. You do not need to fill out both the date and time fields. If just the date is entered then the chime will occur once when that date arrives. You must save the date to disk by pressing F4 so that SYSCTRL will retain the appointment if you shut down your computer in the interim. Entering only dates is good for remembering things like birthdays. You can leave the date blank and just enter a time if the appointment is just for today. If you save to disk the time-only entry without a date, then the chime will occur the same time everyday. The Tab key will quickly take you from one entry field to the next. For example, if the cursor is in the date field and you wish to skip to the time field, you can get there with one press of the TAB key. Press F5 to delete the appointment that the cursor is on and F6 to clear all the reminders. The End key will take you to the end of the line; a second press will take you to the bottom right hand corner. The Home key will do just the opposite, one press to the start of a line, the second to the top left corner. Use the cursor keys to navigate around the screen. Be sure to enter dates and times just as they will appear in the real-time clock. For example, omit leading zeros in the month and hour field, but do include them in the day and minute fields. It is VERY important that you include 'am' or 'pm' with your time. For example, a September 2nd date at 9 o'clock in the morning would be entered 9-02 9:00am and not 09-2 09:0 m. You'll find that Reminder will convert any attempts to enter a leading zero in the date and time to a space. In fact, a 1 is the only number Reminder will accept in the far left position of these fields since the maximum is 12 months and 12 hours. Any other number entries are shifted to the right one space. Control the appointment alarm tone and duration from the Beep Menu. If you leave your system on all the time you may have noticed that the date often will not be correct when the time rolls past midnight. The real-time clock of SYSCTRL will solve that problem. F8 Calendar ----------- Calendar has every month from January of 1583 to December of 9999. Use the arrow keys to change the month and year displayed. The Home key will quickly go to the first calendar, End to the last calendar and F2 back to today's calendar. Use PgUp/PgDn to move a decade at a time. The current day is highlighted on today's calendar. F9 Hot Key ---------- SYSCTRL'S pop-up hot key can be changed from the Hot Key menu, F9. SYSCTRL's default hot key, Alt-C, may not be to your liking or conflict with another TSR or application. Change the hot key used to pop-up SYSCTRL by holding down either the Alt or Ctrl key and then the new desired key. For example, to change the hot key to Ctrl-Q, press and hold Ctrl and then press Q. After changing the hot key, answer Y to the "save changes to disk" message to make the hot key permanent. F10 Notepad ----------- Notepad will hold one screen full of notes. Notepad works only in overwrite mode, that is, it does not have an insert mode. The Del key and Backspace key work just like your word processor. F2 will delete the line the cursor is on and F3 will clear the entire notepad. After pressing F5 to print out your notes, select either the first or second printer by pressing 1 or 2. If you have only one printer, press 1. You can save your notes to disk by pressing F4. Just like the Reminder function, the End key will take you to the end of the line; a second press will take you to the bottom right corner. The Home key will do just the opposite, one press to the start of a line, the second to the top left corner. Use the cursor key to navigate around the screen. CUSTOMIZE SYSCTRL ----------------- If you don't like SYSCTRL's color scheme or if it is hard to read with your monitor, you can change the colors with Debug. Be sure to make any of the following modifications to a backup copy of SYSCTRL. If you have a color adapter, enter DEBUG SYSCTRL.COM E 160 aa ;Red 74 E 161 bb ;Blue 71 E 162 cc ;Normal black on white 70 E 163 dd ;Intensity white on white 7F E 164 ee ;Highlight 7F W Q where aa - ee are the new hexadecimal color values replacing the color descriptions to the right of the semicolon. For a monochrome adapter, enter DEBUG SYSCTRL.COM E 165 aa ;70 E 166 bb ;70 E 167 cc ;70 E 168 dd ;70 E 169 ee ;07 W Q where aa - ee are the replacement attributes corresponding to the same color descriptions.