Purpose: WinSaver is a Windows utility that remembers both the names of the programs running when you exit Windows and the arrangement of their windows and icons. When you next bring up Windows, WinSaver restarts all of these programs, restores their windows and arranges them, even minimizing them to icons, as appropriate.
Format: WINSAVER
Remarks: Installing WinSaver is easy: just copy it to your hard disk and load
it from the Windows' Program Manager. As an alternative, you can start it with
Windows from the DOS prompt simply by entering:
INSERT 1(09)--1 line WIN WINSAVER
Once Windows is running and WinSaver is first loaded, the WinSaver icon
will appear at the bottom of the screen. If you click on the icon, you'll find
that three options--"About...", Autosave, and Autoload--have been added to
WinSaver's System Menu. I put the usual About Box entry here because WinSaver
has no need for the conventional window with an Action Bar menu. Both Autosave
and Autoload are toggled options; when you click them on, a check indicates
that when they are active.
If you check the Autoload option, WinSaver will automatically install
itself in the Windows initialization file by adding itself to the LOAD= entry
of the [windows] section of WIN.INI. Thus, by activating the AutoLoad, Windows
will automatically load WinSaver for you and you'll never have to run it
manually again.
The Autosave option controls whether WinSaver prompts you whether or not
to save your session when you shut-down Windows. When checked, WinSaver adds
INSERT 2(09)--1 line Autosave=1
to WinSaver's section of WIN.INI. WinSaver creates this section for you. If
(like me) you keep this option checked, WinSaver will automatically save the
names of your programs, their window positions and sizes to WIN.INI without
further prompting when you shut-down Windows. If you don't check Autosave,
WinSaver will ask you each time whether or not to save the session.
To try out WinSaver, run it and check both Autoload and Autosave on the
System Menu. Then open up some Windows applications, minimizing some and
putting the windows of others into unusual sizes and positions. Then shut-down
Windows and re-start it. When you re-start Windows, the Program Manager (or
its icon) will appear, followed by WinSaver's icon. A few moments will elapse
while the programs are loading, then--voila!--the screen will appear with the
programs and icons in the same sizes and positions as before.
