Configuring RISC OS Adjust
David Bradforth continues his exploration of the RISC OS Adjust configuration system.
This time we're skipping the 'Logging' and 'Network' sections of the Configuration system, as they merit a larger article themselves; and hence will form the conclusion of this piece in the next issue of RISCWorld. In the meantime, we're moving on to the 'Pinboard' settings.
Pinboard
The Pinboard section allows you to make changes that affect how the pinboard and RISC OS desktop is presented to the user. Click the Pinboard icon to open this window.
Let's start with the Backdrop & Icons section. This allows you to alter the use of a backdrop graphic on the RISC OS desktop, or to select a standard colour. Click the Backdrop & Icons icon to open this window.
This window is concerned with setting how the desktop background or backdrop will appear. There are three options available.
- You can choose one of the standard tiles supplied with RISC OS. These are selected by using the bump icons beside the title panel.
- You can import a Sprite or JPEG image to be used as the backdrop by selecting Custom Image and dragging the image to be used to where it says Drop image here. This can be either scaled, centred or tiled. There are disadvantages to using a large JPEG or Sprite in that it will slow down the redraw speed of your computer, especially if the source image is not the same size as the desktop. It will also take a lot of memory.
- You can have a plain coloured backdrop, the advantage of which is that it takes very little memory. If you choose to select a 'Bottom Colour' you can force RISC OS to place a rainbow backdrop between the two colours; using very little memory at that time.
The Icon Text colour is the colour used for icons placed onto the RISC OS background.
You can test any settings by hitting the 'Try' button, return to the default by clicking 'Default', cancel the changes by clicking 'Cancel' or activate the new settings by clicking 'Set'.
Let's move on to the Options section.
The Pinboard Options window is concerned with the placement of icons on to the pinboard. It defines what happens when you send an icon to the RISC OS backdrop or choose the 'Tidy' option.
When it comes to options for the 'Iconise' function, you can iconise individual windows to a 'Button', the 'Icon Bar' and one of the four corners of the desktop. Stacked either horizontally or vertically.
Against the 'Tidy' function, you can tidy icons to any of the four corners of the desktop, again stacked either horizontally or vertically.
The 'Grid Lock' option allows you to create a virtual grid on your desktop to which each icon will be locked. This ensures that you do not have one icon overlapping another on the desktop, and hence that you can see everything going on with your system at a glance.
The 'Filer-like clicks' option forces icons on the pinboard to behave as they would within a standard filer window.
You can restore the default settings by clicking 'Default', cancel any changes made by clicking 'Cancel' or confirm the changes by clicking 'Set'.
Recycle Bin
RISC OS Adjust has brought into the operating system for the first time a recycle bin function. Integrated into the operating system, just as Windows XP and Mac OS X have their own integrated trashcans, its control window is available by clicking Recycle bin. The window opens as shown.
The 'Enable recycle bin' option needs to be ticked if you wish the Recycle Bin (or Recyclone as it's known) to be active.
With 'Force delete on Shift' enabled you can bypass the recycle bin by holding down the 'Shift' key when initiating a delete.
The 'Expire time' is the length of time for which data should be stored within the Recycle Bin before being automatically deleted. This can be anything from a day to a thousand days.
The 'Edit Exclude List' option allows you to prohibit the recycle bin from working with any given operating system. Whether it's IDEFS or SCSIFS, and for whatever reason, using the format given in the example file you can ensure that any given filing system will always delete files directly rather than send them to the recycle bin.
Finally the 'Location' section allows you to specify whether the recycle bin should be global or on a per-user basis.
The 'Cancel' option will cancel any changes you've made, while 'Set' will confirm them.
Sound
The Sound section allows you to configure the computer's sound system. Click the Sound icon to open this window.
We'll start with the Frequency section. Click the Frequency icon to open this window.
Here you have control over the RateTracker module. This attempts to use the highest frequency available for any sound sources making use of the 'SharedSound' interface while also maintaining compatibility with the legacy sound system. Basically, if the function is enabled your sounds should come through better.
Let's move onto the Internal section, the window for which looks as below.
The top item is a slider which sets the default volume. Most people will want this set to maximum as the internal speaker is not very efficient and most external speakers will have a volume control.
16 bit sound should be On unless you have a very early Risc PC which has not yet had a 16 bit sound upgrade.
Oversampling should be On.
System beep is the sound that the computer makes when it wants to attract the attention of the user. By default this is the sound known as Wavesynth-Beep, but you can alter this if you wish or even add a special sound effect module.
There are two sound levels available for this; usually Quiet is loud enough but you may wish to set it to Loud.
Click 'Try' to experiment with the current settings on the selected sound, 'Default' to restore the system defaults, 'Cancel' to escape without confirming changes or 'Set' to confirm your changes and continue using the computer.
System
The System section allows you to update the system resources on your computer. Click the System icon to open this window.
If you wish to make use of an application that uses later versions of system modules than those available in your system, the easiest way to merge them into your computer is through this window. Take the !System folder off of the supplied disc, and drag it into this window. Click 'Merge' to confirm the merge and the process will take place.
VAPower
If you're running Virtual Acorn we next have the VAPower section; providing power management functions through RISC OS. Click the VAPower icon to open this window.
Towards the top of this window you can either enable or disable Power Management through Virtual Acorn and RISC OS. This is ideal if you're running Virtual RPC-Adjust on a laptop and prefer the RISC OS environment to the battery management functionality offered by Windows XP.
VirtualAcorn recommend that you always have Power Management enabled, even on desktop machines, as it will use less power and will run the CPU at a lower temperature.
Enabling the 'Battery Manager' by placing a tick in the 'Load Battery Manager on startup' box will ensure that you always have an eye on the available power left in your battery.
To confirm the changes click 'Save changes and Quit'.
David Bradforth