************************************************************************ Oxford Computer Group Christmas Card 1995 ************************************************************************ Christmas greetings from Oxford Computer Group. To follow last year's Advent Calendar, we have written a new Christmassy screen saver. It is accompanied by some Christmassy icons, animated cursors and wallpapers, as well as a very slightly improved version of last year's Advent Calendar screen saver. This readme accompanies the second release of the files, 4th December 1995. See the change notes later for more information. This readme is written to accompany both the disk-based and "download-based" distribtion of the files. On the disk there are two files, this readme file (README.TXT) and the archive file XMAS95.EXE. The archive file contains the rest of the files, and, for the benefit of people who download it, it also contains this readme file. File List (archive file contents) ================================= XMAS95.SCR Christmas Card Screen Saver, new for 1995. No other files are required to run it. Quick install: extract XMAS95.SCR from XMAS95.EXE by running the command "A:XMAS95 XMAS95.SCR" (this assumes that your XMAS95.EXE program is on a floppy disk in drive A:). The file XMAS95.SCR will be created in the current directory. Either make the Windows directory the current directory before running the command, or move the file to the Windows directory afterwards, then select it as for any other screen saver. Note that approximately 5MB disk space is required for XMAS95.SCR. ADVENT94.SCR Advent Screen Saver, this is re-released from last year. No other files required to run it. Animations for your Cursor (Windows 95 & Windows NT only): SANTA.ANI; CHAMPAG.ANI; KISS.ANI; POSTIE.ANI; SNOWBOY.ANI; SURFER.ANI; TREE1.ANI; TREE2.ANI; XMAS.ANI; XMAS1.ANI Some Static Cursors: HOLLY1.CUR; HOLLY2.CUR; HOLLY3.CUR; SLEDGE1.CUR; XMAS1.CUR; XMAS2.CUR; XMAS3.CUR; XMAS4.CUR A selection of Christmassy icons to liven up your desktop: TREE.ICO; FULL.ICO; EMPTY.ICO; INBOX.ICO; BRIEF.ICO; MYCOMP.ICO (Windows 95 users can use XMAS.REG to install the above on their desktop.) Some post Christmas icons for those of you still in the mood: OLDSACK.ICO; UNWRAP.ICO; OLDTREE.ICO (POSTXMAS.REG is for Windows 95 users as above.) For Windows 95 users, to return your desktop icons back to default: DEFAULT.REG Some other icons to use as you wish: PRESENT.ICO; RECYCLEE.ICO; RECYCLEF.ICO Some Bitmaps to use as wallpaper: SANTA.BMP; TREE16.BMP; TREE256.BMP; XMAS16R.BMP; XMAS16W.BMP; XMAS256R.BMP; XMAS256W.BMP; XMAS31.BMP XMAS95.LST is a list of all the files in the above set. ======================================================= Screen Saver Descriptions ========================= XMAS95.scr ---------- Xmas 95 is a sort of Christmas card screen saver. It is designed to display a series of changing events during the run up to Christmas and on into the New Year (up until 12th night). Events that happen on specific days (such as putting out mince pies for Father Christmas) have been "stretched" to ensure that they occur during the working week. ADVENT94.scr ------------ This is more like a traditional Advent Calendar, with animated scenes behind the windows. Nothing extra happens after December 24th. Disclaimer ---------- The Xmas 95 programs are intended a bit of Xmas fun. They have been developed quite quickly by our staff mostly in their spare time. The programs have not been rigorously tested. Oxford Computer Group makes no direct or implied suggestion as to the suitability of these files for any purpose. Oxford Computer Group Ltd accepts no liability for any loss or damages resulting from the use of these files. If you are not happy with these conditions - do not load the files. System Requirements ------------------- XMAS95.SCR uses quite a lot of system resources - but we couldn’t do it any other way. You should not use any important files until you are sure that any applications you are using will run successfully with the saver installed. On slower machines (e.g. 386s) animations may not run smoothly. If you notice that graphics start to partially or fully disappear, this may imply that there is a memory resource problem (or a bug of course). Please try restarting Windows. The XMAS95 screen saver works best in SVGA 256 colour mode (it also works at higher colour depths, but correspondingly more memory and CPU power will be needed for no gain in display quality). This version will also run on 16 colour displays, but considerable CPU time is used by the colour dithering algorithims. The dithered output looks quite good from a few feet away, but it is not designed for close up viewing. As a reference, the XMAS95.SCR clock pendulum is designed to take 1 second to travel from one side to the other, (though the pendulum can pause noticeably when large animations are loaded from a slow file system). The XMAS95 saver is designed to work at 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions (the room is a bit smaller in the latter). At higher resolutions you will see black space around the edges. Both savers are supplied as 16-bit programs tested for Windows, Windows 95 and Windows NT. True Saver Mode --------------- The XMAS95 Screen Saver has a "true screen saver mode". This can be enabled on the config dialogue. Except under Windows NT, return to the "ordinary saver" from the "true saver" by moving the mouse. A keyboard press will cancel the screen saver in either mode. If selected, the true saver mode starts after 10 minutes. Passwords --------- When running under Windows 95, it is possible to kill the screen saver from the task list. Thus the inbuilt password protection is not reliable. When running under Windows NT, the password may be set, and is then required to exit "Test" mode, but is not meaningful during ordinary operation. You can still use the Windows NT Security dialog to Lock the workstation. [As this is a 16 bit application, Windows 95 and NT do not offer you the option of using the "system" password protection.] Note that passwords set for screen savers could be cicumvented by someone who has access to your computer. The XMAS95 password is not common to other screen savers (which is the norm). 32 Bit Versions --------------- If we produce a 32-bit version of the XMAS95 screen saver, it will be made available from the WWW pages (see below). Installation ============ File Extraction --------------- All files are supplied in the form of a self-extracting PKZIP compressed archive (XMAS95.EXE). From an MSDOS-type prompt just run this executable to create the files it contains (either do this in your Windows directory, or in a temporary and/or empty directory so that you will be able to delete the files afterwards). The decompressed screen savers (*.SCR) and all the other files should be placed in your Windows directory (c:\Windows, c:\WINNT, c:\WIN95 etc.) or in the system sub-directory of this directory. The following example commands show a method of directly placing the supplied files in the directory "\WINDOWS" on dirve "C:", it assumes that the XMAS95.EXE file is on a floppy disk in drive A: a:xmas95 c:\windows The following example will place just the two screen saver programs in the directory "\WIN95" on drive "C:", it also assumes the original file is in A: a:xmas95 c:\win95 *.scr If any files already exist, you will be asked if you want to overwrite them. The archive file is not required after you have extracted the files that you need from it. But you may wish to keep it to pass on to your friends. Screen Savers ------------- Once the files are in place, the screen savers can be activated from the control panel (desktop for Windows and Windows NT or display properties dialog for Windows 95). For XMAS95.SCR Look for either the name "Xmas95 OCG" (Windows 3.1x), "Xmas95 OCG (16-bit)" (Windows NT), or just "Xmas95" (Windows 95). For ADVENT94.SCR look for either the name "Advent Calendar-94 OCG" (Windows 3.1x), "Advent Calendar-94 OCG (16-bit)" (Windows NT), or just "Advent94" (Windows 95). XMAS ICONS ---------- Most of these are specifically designed to work in Windows 95, replacing the My Computer, Recycle Bin, Network Neighbourhood and Inbox icons on the desktop. The files (Tree, Full, Empty, Inbox, Brief, Mycomp, Xmas.reg) should all be placed in your Windows directory. Then simply double click on "Xmas.reg", and relogin or reopen Windows. The icons should now have changed to the Christmas ones! If you wish to change them back to the original icons, double-click on "Default.reg", and relogin. If, however, you like the new icons so much, there is also a set of post Christmas icons (oldsack, oldtree, unwrap and postxms.reg). Double click on "postxmas.reg" and close Windows or relogin to see the icons... Animated Cursors ---------------- These are only available to Windows 95 and Windows NT users. The animation files (*.ani) should be copied to the Windows root directory (or its Cursors subdirectory if you have one). Then from the desktop Control Panel, choose "Mouse", and move to the Pointers tab. Click on Browse, and select the animation you wish to see. Then Click on OK, and your cursor will change to that animation. Wall Papers ----------- The bitmap files (*.BMP) have been designed to be used as wallpapers. They are also installed from the Control Panel (Desktop or Display). Different versions for 16 and 256 colour systems are available. Copyright and Copying ===================== The copyright to all the programs, graphics and text is owned and retained by Oxford Computer Group Ltd. You are encouraged to redistribute the original files (preferably as the complete set), but may not do so for commercial gain (except for standard bulletin board type access charges). About Oxford Computer Group Ltd =============================== Tel: +44 (0)1865 512675 Tel: +44 (0)171 6387676 (London City) Tel: +44 (0)121 7797512 (Birmingham) Tel: +44 (0)171 7067186 (London West) Fax: +44 (0)1865 310407 E-mail: info@ocx.com Web: //www.ocx.com/ocx Snail Mail: Oxford Computer Group Ltd Wolsey Hall 66 Banbury Road OXFORD OX2 6PR UK Oxford Computer Group Ltd has two divisions, Oxford Computer Applications Ltd and Oxford Computer Training Ltd. Oxford Computer Group is a Microsoft Solution Provider and a Lotus Business partner. The group has one the highest concentrations of Microsoft Certified System Engineers and Microsoft Certified Solution Developers. Oxford Computer Applications Ltd offers a bespoke programming service specialising in SQL, Access, Visual Basic, Visual C++ and C (amongst others). The company services range from a full management of design and implementation of a large client-server to a day's help with an Access database; from 1 million to £500. Oxford Computer Training Ltd is a Microsoft ATEC & ATC and an authorised trainer for Lotus, Superbase and WST. Although based in the UK, we provide training services throughout Europe and the world. We have already trained in Austria, Australia, Dubai, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, USA. OCT are the twice and only winners of Microsoft's best UK training company award. We provide training at both the application and systems level and are well known for our technical rigour and training skills. We have also published a number of books (the most recent are available from Hodder Headline). Could we do one for you? ------------------------ Following last year's screen saver (also included on this disk) we received a few enquiries about the possibility of producing screen savers for other people. This is something we can do. Costs would depend on exact requirements. Competition ----------- It is quite fun to see how far this program gets during its short Xmas life. Mail us a Xmas card (e-mail or post) and we will give a bottle of champagne to the most amusing/interesting response or location. On the other hand, you can always send us a bottle (well wrapped) if you think we have enlivened your day. Known Problems -------------- None, well nothing worth mentioning anyway. Except that if you leave the screen saver running continuously for two nights, or more, it will only advence by one day. Simply restart it. Problem Reporting ----------------- It is possible, but hopefully unlikely, that you will enconter a problem with the screen saver. Installation is very simple and unlikely to cause any problems, please first consult with your collegues if you have any difficulties with it. If something unexpected happens while the screen saver is running, please assemble the following information before you contact us. 1) The version information line in the About Box (accessed from the setup dialogue). This includes some system information. 2) The processor type / amount of main memory / graphics board type / amount of graphics memory. 3) Other useful details might include answers to the following: Does the problem always occur (and is thus reproducible), or is it intermittent; Does the problem occur on a collegue's similar machine; Does a particular change to your system setup make the problem go away; Has the problem been occuring always, or has it suddenly started? We will endeavour to list any problems and / or solutions etc on our Web pages. History ------- File dates & times 29Nov95 00:02 1st release. V1.0.0.2 04Dec95 00:04 2nd release. V1.0.0.4 This version fixes a couple of minor bugs in the initial release of XMAS95.SCR, no other files changed (except this readme): Active Application: When XMAS95.SCR terminates the previously active app becomes active again (in V1.0.0.2 it was necessary to click on the application to reactivate it in Windows 3 and Windows 95. Faster Closedown: On termination the original windows are displayed more quickly (this may not be noticeable on some video cards). Version information in the about box: This has been added, it includes some system information. We will post any further updates to the Web site if there is both a need and the time. PS - Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year from all at OCG Ltd