MiniCD v2.0 - 32-bit Shareware CD player for Windows 95 & NT ------------------------------------------------------------- Short Description: ------------------ Adds five small CD audio control buttons (play, stop, pause,track back, track forward) and three application control buttons (mode, minimize, exit) to the Windows desktop. Starts playback of an Audio CD automatically on startup. Can also reside in the taskbar notification area next to the clock. Longer description: ------------------- When the program starts, it checks the CD-ROM drive for a disc, if any, and determines its type. If it finds an audio CD, playback is started. If there is no CD in the drive or the CD is a data CD-ROM, the program shuts itself down. The control buttons float on top of other windows. Pressing the X-button closes the program and stops playback, pressing the small square minimizes the program to the taskbar notification area. The mode button switches between normal mode and movable mode. Pressing the right mouse button anywhere above the button bar or the taskbar icon brings up a pop up menu - just choose the track you want to play. If you want CD's played automatically when Windows starts, copy the program item 'MiniCD' to your startup group. The next time Windows starts, the program checks for an audio CD and upon finding one starts playing it. Windows 95 users can use this program instead of the 95 CD player to autoplay audio CD's - just change the performing application from CDPLAYER.EXE to MINICD20.EXE in file types/audio CD. Installation: ------------- Copy the file ctl3d32.dll to your Windows\system32 directory and the file minicd20.exe to the directory of your choice. If the directory Windows\system32 doesn't exist, use the Windows\system directory. Create a new program item for minicd20.exe into one of the groups in Program Manager/Start menu (e.g. startup) Registered vs. unregistered --------------------------- - The registered version of the program uses an INI file to save the location of the program window every time the program shuts down. So, the program 'remembers' it's previous location and also whether it should start directly in the taskbar notification area. - A mixer (volume control) application can also be specified in the INI file of the registered version. The mixer is started from the track selection pop up menu. - Of course, there are no message boxes appearing at the beginning and the end of the program. - If you use the program beyond a 30 day trial period, you must register. There is more information on registering and registration benefits in the file REGISTER.TXT. - The registered version detects opening and closing the drive bay and upon insertion of another Audio CD starts playing it automatically. Anything else? -------------- Check out the new MiniAPP called MiniWAV, a Windows WAV player! the file is called MWV32_1?.ZIP (? indicates version number, currently 05) and is likely to be found in the same server and directory that you found MiniCD in. New features in version 2.0 (compared to 1.5): ---------------------------------------------- - Taskbar notification area icon - many bug fixes small and large, e.g. no error beep when trying to start another session of the program - The program's icon doesn't appear in the Alt-Tab list The Author: ----------- Seppo Virtanen, student, dept. of physical sciences (electronics and computer science), University of Turku, Finland. Internet e-mail: Seppo.Virtanen@utu.fi - feel free to give me any feedback! If you decide to evaluate this program, please let me know - it would be interesting to know how many people have tried this program out. How to get the latest information on MiniCD: -------------------------------------------- Go to http://www.utu.fi/~seaavi/minicd.html for information on development, release plans for newer versions, and downloading! (EOF)