Purpose: PROGSET is a Windows utility that lets you restore order to your WIN.INI file painlessly and without the possibility of corrupting it. PROGSET also fills a few gaps in the Windows Control Panel and File Manager by giving you complete control over the file "associations" that let you start an application by clicking on one of its files.
Format: PROGSET
Remarks: PROGSET is a relatively easy program to use. You will probably want
to set up an icon for PROGSET in your Program Manager Accessories group. To
run it under the Program Manager you simply select the PROGSET icon.
Alternately, you can choose the Run command from the File menu and enter the
full path for PROGSET. To run PROGSET from File Manager, simply locate the
PS.EXE file and double-click it with the mouse.
PROGSET comes up with a dialog box listing your Windows file
associations, as shown in Figure 1. Its Add, Modify, Remove, and Exit buttons
can be selected either by clicking with a mouse or by typing the Alt-
underscored letter combination for the desired button. The two radio buttons
in the box at the top of the window control whether the listbox displays file
associations or programs that have installed themselves in your WIN.INI file.
You can move through the listbox either with the mouse or with the Up- and
Down-Arrow keys. Alternatively, by typing its first letter you can advance
automatically to the first item in the listbox that begins with that letter.
PROGSET will always ask for confirmation before it removes anything from
WIN.INI, so you can feel free to experiment without actually deleting anything
from your WIN.INI file. You can Add, Modify, or Remove file associations, and
you can Remove installed programs.
To edit the file associations in WIN.INI, begin by selecting the File
Associations mode with the appropriate radio button. Both the Modify and
Remove functions act on the currently selected file association from the
listbox. When you choose Add or Modify another dialog box will appear that
provides fields for the file extension and the command line, together with OK,
Cancel, and Browse buttons. In Add, you enter both the file extension and the
command line; in Modify you simply enter or modify the command line. In either
case, you can choose the Browse button to help you locate the file to be
associated with the extension.
The Browse function works like a File Open dialog box: you select
drives and directories until you locate the desired file and then either
double-click the file or select OK. If you choose to enter the command line
manually, you must remember to follow the [Associations] section format
INSERT 3(10)--1 line ext = appname.exe ^.ext
discussed above. If you use the Browse function, the proper default command
line parameter is inserted for you. To remove a file association just click
Remove and select Yes when PROGSET asks you to confirm your intention.
To remove (or un-install) a program from WIN.INI, simply select the
installed Programs mode with the appropriate button from the top section of
the PROGSET window. Then pick out the desired program from the listbox and hit
the Remove button. PROGSET will again ask if you really want to remove the
selected section. Click Yes and it's gone. Remember, however, that when you
remove an installed program with PROGSET you aren't actually deleting its
files, but only removing the program's section from your WIN.INI file.
Because PROGSET is a fairly simple application there is no need for a
main application menu. For this reason the "About..." function is located in
the system menu. You can access the system menu by clicking the little box in
the upper left corner of the PROGSET window or by typing Alt-Spacebar. (The
picture in the system menu box represents a spacebar, making the Alt-Spacebar
combination easy to remember.) To exit PROGSET, just click the on the Exit
