Copyright: Copyright 1994, Edward S. Fink


CONTENTS
CompuWorks SOUNDS

CompuWorks SOUNDS is a program that selects and randomly changes Windows 3.1 System Sounds, as well as adding additional sound events.  It will also swap your Wallpaper.  It is fully compatible with sound cards as well as Microsoft's PC Speaker driver. CompuWorks SOUNDS operates very simply - using Windows system calls, it changes the sound and wallpaper file names assigned in your WIN.INI file.

You have the option of  setting Windows System Event sounds, Windows Wallpaper, and the new CompuWorks SOUNDS  event sounds to:

•	None	No file assigned to this event.

•	Fixed	The assigned file will not be swapped.

•	Random	A file will be chosen randomly from the same directory as the currently assigned directory.

•	Alphabetic The next file (alphabetically) will be chosen from the same directory as the currently assigned directory.

 Installation

 Operation

 Tips

 Copyright


Installation

CompuWorks SOUNDS has a SETUP program that installs and configures all sounds and programs. Because many of the files are compressed, you MUST use the SETUP program.

To run SETUP, do the following:

1	From Program Manager type ALT+F to open the File menu, then highlight Run and press ENTER.

2	In the Run dialog box type the drive letter that you are installing from, followed by \SETUP, and press ENTER.  For example, A:\SETUP

3	When CompuWorks SOUNDS  SETUP asks for the drive and directory to install to, press ENTER to accept the default (C:\CWSOUNDS), or type the new drive and/or directory name and press ENTER.

4	The SETUP program will then ask if you want to install 8 bit or 16 bit sounds.  16 bit sounds are much higher quality than 8 bit sounds, so if your sound card supports 16 bit sounds, and you have the disk space, choose this option. However, if you only have an 8 bit sound card, or if you are low on disk space, or if you just aren't sure - choose 8 bit sounds. To choose 8 bit, type ALT+8, or to choose 16 bit press ALT+1.

 Installing The PC Speaker Driver


Installing The PC Speaker Driver

If you do not have a sound card, you may want to install the optional PC Speaker Driver.  The PC Speaker Driver will allow you to play wave files over your PC's internal speaker.  While the sound quality does not match that of a true sound card, it is still acceptable on most computers.

To install the PC Speaker Driver:

1	From Program Manager open the Main group by double clicking on the "Main" group icon.

2	In the Main group double click on the Control Panel icon.

3	In the Control Panel double click on the Drivers icon.

4	Click on Add, and from the list of drivers double click on "Unlisted or Updated".

5	An Install dialog box will appear and ask for the location of the driver.  Type the drive your CompuWorks SOUNDS disk is in and press ENTER.

6	You will see a single item displayed: "Wave driver for PC Speaker". Double click on this item.

7	The PC Speaker Setup box will be displayed, allowing you to make any changes to the default configuration.  By default, the speaker driver limits playback to 3 seconds. This is not long enough for some wave files, and should be increased. Click on the "Limit playback time" box, and type 10 (or higher).

8	You will see a message telling you that you have to restart Windows for the PC Speaker Driver to take effect. Do this by clicking on the "Restart Windows Now" button.

9	After Windows restarts run CompuWorks SOUNDS (if it's not already running) and open the SOUNDS system menu by clicking ONCE on the running CompuWorks SOUNDS icon at the bottom of your screen. If the menu item "Enable Sounds" does not have a check mark next to it, then click on it once to add the check mark and enable sounds.


Operation

Although referred to simply as "CompuWorks SOUNDS", there are actually two separate programs: CWSOUNDS.EXE and CWSCONFG.EXE. CWSOUNDS.EXE is the main program, which adds the additional sound events to Windows and swaps your sounds at specified intervals. Because CWSOUNDS runs continuously (minimized, as an icon), configuration options are stored in a separate program (CWSCONFG.EXE) to reduce memory usage and system resources.

CompuWorks SOUNDS does not just arbitrarily assign sounds, even in random mode. We know you want to play certain sounds for specific events, and not have Windows say "Welcome Aboard!" when you exit.

To intelligently swap your system sounds, you must place your wave files for the different system events in different directories. Simply put, error sounds go in an error directory, start up sounds in a start up directory, exit sounds in an exit directory, etc.

In order for SOUNDS to know which system sounds to switch, how to switch them, and how often to switch sounds, you must run CWSCONFG, either from Program Manager or from CompuWorks SOUNDS  "Configure" menu option.  In CWSCONFG you select the wave file directory for each of the system events, plus the new events added by CWSOUNDS,  and any other sound events listed in your win.ini, as well as the interval between swaps.

You must also set the Swap Type as random or alphabetic -- CompuWorks SOUNDS  will not swap sounds identified as none or fixed.

Although CompuWorks SOUNDS is fully configured during installation and further adjustments are not required, you may want to make changes to the default settings.  The following sections detail how to configure CompuWorks SOUNDS.

 Setting The Swap Directory

 Setting The Swap Option

 Setting The File Name

 Setting The Timer

 Playing Sounds or Showing Wallpaper

 Managing Files

 Verifying That It All Works


Setting The Swap Directory

1	Run CompuWorks SOUNDS Configuration CWSCONG.EXE), either by double clicking on its Program Manager icon or by selecting it from the CompuWorks SOUNDS menu.

2	Click on the Windows Events list box (or type ALT+E) and select the event that you want to change (Windows Start, for example).

3	Type the directory name where your wave or wallpaper files are located, or strike ALT+B (or click on the Browse button) to open a dialog box that allows you to browse different drives and directories to easily locate any of your wave or wallpaper files.

4	You can now select a specific file name (see the Setting The File Name topic)


Setting The Swap Option

1	Run CompuWorks SOUNDS Configuration (CWSCONFG.EXE), either by double clicking on its Program Manager icon or by selecting it from the CompuWorks SOUNDS menu.

2	Click on the Windows Events list box (or type ALT+E) and select the event that you want to change (Windows Start, for example).

3	Click on the Swap Option list box (or press ALT+O) and select on of the four options displayed:

•	None	No file assigned to this event.

•	Fixed	The assigned file will not be swapped.

•	Random	A file will be chosen randomly from the same directory as the currently assigned file.

•	Alphabetic The next file (alphabetically) will be chosen from the same directory as the currently assigned file.


Setting The File Name

For Swap Option RANDOM the file name doesn't matter, because, of course, the file is selected randomly. However, because the file name is chosen randomly from the same directory as the file that you assign, you should select a file that's in the right directory.

For Swap Option ALPHABETIC the file name specifies the current file, and the next file swapped by CompuWorks SOUNDS will be the next (alphabetically), file in the same directory.

To set the file name:

1	Run CompuWorks SOUNDS Configuration (CWSCONFG.EXE), either by double clicking on its Program Manager icon or by selecting it from theCompuWorks SOUNDS menu.

2	Click on the Windows Events list box (or type ALT+E) and select the event that you want to change (Windows Start, for example).

3	Click on the .wav file (or .bmp file, depending on the event) that you want to assign. If the file you want to use is in another directory, set the Swap Directory first (see "Setting The Swap Directory").


Setting The Timer

CompuWorks SOUNDS can swap your sounds and wallpaper at specified intervals. The Timer sets the number of minutes between swaps.

To prevent CompuWorks SOUNDS from swapping sounds at timed intervals set the Timer to 0.

To set the Timer:

1	Run CompuWorks SOUNDS Configuration (CWSCONFG.EXE), either by double clicking on its Program Manager icon or by selecting it from the CompuWorks SOUNDS menu.

2	Type ALT+T (or click on Timer box).

3	Type the number of minutes to wait between swaps. This can be anywhere from 1 minute to 999 minutes, or can be disabled by setting it to 0.  For example, to swap sounds and/or wallpaper every 4 hours, set the Timer to 240 minutes.  Or, instead of typing the number, you can click on the up or down arrows to increase or decrease the time in 30 minute intervals.

4	If CompuWorks SOUNDS (CWSOUNDS.EXE) is running, you will have to close it and restart it before the timer changes made in Configuration can take effect.


Playing Sound or Showing Wallpaper

CompuWorks SOUNDS works by changing your WIN.INI, which Windows searches to determine which sound to play for each system event.  Windows itself actually plays the system sounds during errors, start up, and exit.

However, while Windows (and other applications) control the playing of system sounds, SOUNDS controls the playing of the new events that it adds: Application Start, Application Exit, Maximize, Minimize, Move/Size, Swap, and Restore. Each time you perform one of those actions, SOUNDS plays the .wav file that you assigned to it in the CompuWorks SOUNDS Configurations program.

As a convenience, the Configuration program can test play the sounds or show the wallpaper so that you can verify you have selected the correct file.  To play a .wav file or display a bmp file:

1	Run CompuWorks SOUNDS Configuration (CWSCONFG.EXE), either by double clicking on its Program Manager icon or by selecting it from theCompuWorks SOUNDS menu.

2	Click on the Play button (or the Show button, depending on the event), or just double click on the file name.


Managing Files

CompuWorks SOUNDS offers convenient drag and drop copying, moving, converting, or deleting options. To use these features:

1	Run CompuWorks SOUNDS Configuration (CWSCONFG.EXE), either by double clicking on its Program Manager icon or by selecting it from the CompuWorks SOUNDS system  menu.

2	Click on the Manage button (or press ALT+M) to open the Manage Files window.

3	Select the drive or directory and the filename. To select multiple files hold down the CTRL key while you click on the filename.

4	After selecting one or more files, simply drag the selected file(s) from the file list and drop them on the Windows Event that you want to use the file(s) for.  A popup menu will appear, allowing you to select an action - Copy, Move, Convert To ADPCM, or Convert To PCM. Then just click on the on action that you want.
For example, if you want to copy some files from a floppy disk in drive A: to use for your Windows Start sounds, change the drive to A:, highlight the files that you want to copy, drag the highlighted files to the Windows Start option (which will change colors and "drag icons", indicating that the files can be dropped now), and then drop them.  When the popup menu appears click on Copy.  The files will then be copied to the directory used for Windows Start sounds.

NOTE: Converting files from PCM to ADPCM is a lengthy process. CompuWorks SOUNDS uses a sophisticated compression engine that makes 8 passes over the PCM file to determine optimum values. This can take 20 minutes or more on longer sounds, even on a hard drive. Because floppy drives and CD ROM drives are so slow (compared to a hard drive), you may want to copy any files to your hard drive before converting them to ADPCM format.
Converting from ADPCM to PCM format requires only one pass, so it is not necessary to copy ADPCM files to your hard drive first


Verifying That It All Works

Anytime you want quick proof that CompuWorks SOUNDS has swapped your sounds correctly, just cause an error after you run it!

For example:

1	From Program Manager strike an incorrect key sequence, such as ALT+Z, which causes an error and produces the Default Beep sound.

2	Now run CompuWorks SOUNDS and hit ALT+Z (or any invalid key sequence) again to beep, and you can hear that CompuWorks SOUNDS has changed the Default Beep to another sound.

Of course, if you have chosen to swap your wallpaper, you will immediately  see the change.


Tips

You should keep several wave files for each sound type to increase the odds that a new sound file will be selected each time.  If you have only a few files its possible to randomly get the same file several times in a row.

Besides - the more wave files you keep in each directory, the less likely you will be to hear the same sound so often that you get sick of it.

Events that occur frequently, such as Maximize, Minimize, Swap, etc., work best with short sounds.

The most important tip is to have a subdirectory for each of the Windows events. Events such as Asterisk or Exclamation that are somewhat vague in the types of sounds that would be appropriate can be combined into a single directory - such as a generic "Errors" directory.  But, events that should be use specific sound types, such as Windows Start or Windows Exit should have their own directories.


Copyright

CompuWorks SOUNDS copyright by Edward S. Fink for Wizard Works, Inc. and Window Ware, Inc.

Sounds supplied and copyrighted by New Eden Multimedia's Hollywood Sound Library.  The Hollywood Sound Library is the world's largest library of computer sound effects - over 10,000 sounds and growing!

NOTE:  The sounds included with CompuWorks SOUNDS are supplied only for use with CompuWorks SOUNDS, and CAN NOT legally be used in ANY other form.  To purchase Hollywood Sound Library sounds for royalty free distribution in your own programs, multimedia presentations, video productions, etc., contact New Eden Multimedia at 1(800)735-3336.

Special thanks to Mary Ann Fink, Jeremy Gaul, Erik Fink, and Bonnie Fink for all their hard work!