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EXPLOSIV 3.0 Explosiv 3.0 is the one screen saver that addresses all your DOS(R) and Microsoft(R) Windows(TM) computing needs. You will find Explosiv 3.0 both entertaining and practical as beautiful displays save your computer screen from harmful burn-in. Compatible on machines running DOS 3.x and up, Windows 3.x and up, and PC networks, Explosiv 3.0 is designed to take care of your monitor without getting in the way of the work you need to do. 1. INSTALLATION The installation options are: 1. To install Explosiv for DOS and Windows 2. Install Explosiv for DOS only 3. Install Explosiv for Windows only 4. Exit to DOS ( chose this option to NOT install Explosiv 3.0) Assuming that you selected one of the install choices 1 - 3, install then asks a second level of questions: 1. Which directory on your disk would you like to install Explosiv into 2. The directory that is on your named path (as defined in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file) that the file EXPLOSIV.BAT will be installed into. This is optional. 3. The directory where Windows 3.x resides. NOTE: At all times help is available in the box displayed at the bottom of the screen. Also, the ESC key may be pressed at any time to terminate the install process. Install will now copy Explosiv 3.0 for DOS and place it in the directory you have named. If you selected the Windows version of Explosiv 3.0 to be installed, Windows will be invoked, a new Windows Group will be created and Explosiv 3.0 for Windows will be placed in it. When this is done, windows will exit and you will be returned to the DOS command line prompt. Installation of Explosiv 3.0 will now be complete. If any part of the installation fails, a notice will be displayed as to what went wrong. You must then remedy the problem and re-install (from the distribution diskette) the sections of Explosiv 3.0 you wish. * Manual Installation The steps needed to manually install Explosiv 3.0 are: a) Create a directory on your hard drive where you wish to install the program files. Assume that this directory is C:\EXPLOSIV. b) Copy all the files from the Explosiv disk(s) into that directory. c) If you want Explosiv to run automatically when you boot your machine insert the line "EXPLOSIV -" in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. d) If you want Explosiv to run automatically when you run windows then append "C:\EXPLOSIV\WX.EXE" to your load line in WIN.INI. e) Start Windows and create the Explosiv Program Group using the Windows Program Manager. 2. USING EXPLOSIV 3.0 * The DOS Version The DOS version of Explosiv 3.0 is a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program that loads into memory when you like (for example, automatically at boot up time) and stays out of your way until you want it to become active. Occupying from 1 to 47 KB of memory (which can be loaded above the 640KB limit), the DOS version of Explosiv 3.0 renders several beautifully animated displays. In fact, if you like, you can invoke the full screen user interface and just point and click on the displays you want to see. Just sit back and watch the show! To invoke the DOS version of Explosiv simply go to the DOS command line prompt and type: C:\> EXPLOSIV and the full screen interface will be invoked. Alternatively, Explosiv 3.0 also accepts a full range of command line options ( which are discussed in detail in the appendix ). For example, to install explosiv as a memory resident screen saver, simply enter: C:\> EXPLOSIV - The above command would also be the recommended way of running explosiv directly from your autoexec.bat file on bootup. Once resident the screen saver will execute a display if you are in text mode and blank the screen if you are in a graphics mode. To activate explosiv immediately without waiting press the Ctrl-Alt-Shift key combination at the same time. The display can then be deactivated by pressing any key or by clicking on the mouse button. Note that some programs grab the keyboard in such a way that explosiv does not detect key presses, in many cases pressing the mouse button will still work to deactivate explosiv and return you to your work. If you want to temporarily turn the screen saver off you can press Ctrl-Alt-E ( and then Ctrl-Alt-B to turn the screen saver on again ). You can run "explosiv off" to turn the screen saver off and "explosiv on" to turn the screen saver on. You can set this up in a batch file if you want to automatically disable explosiv while you are running a particular program. The hot keys listed above can be changed. If you want to remove explosiv from memory you can type "explosiv remove". This will remove explosiv from memory if there are no other programs loaded above it. If it is not possible to remove explosiv from memory a error message will be printed. The Explosiv Interface If you start explosiv with no command line options a full screen interface will appear. From this environment you can demo displays, change screen saver settings or even create new displays. For the interface to work properly it is important that the three files EXPLOSIV.COM, EXPLOSIV.EXE and EXPLOSIV.OVL are stored in the same directory. To use explosiv, either copy these three files to your path or put a separate copy of EXPLOSIV.COM in your path and set the environment variable EXPLOSIV to the directory name of the three files. For example, if you copy the three screen saver files in the directory C:\EXPLOSIV then put EXPLOSIV.COM in your path and run the command SET EXPLOSIV=C:\EXPLOSIV. When the interface starts you will see several windows. Note that the active window will appear with a highlighted title. To make another window active you can either press the TAB key, the Shift-TAB key or simply click the mouse cursor on the window you wish to activate. Most active windows will also have a cursor within the window. This cursor can be moved with the up or down cursor keys or by clicking the unselected item with the mouse. Finally, if the selected item has a value associated with it (for example, the number in the minutes field) then this can be changed by using the right and left cursor keys or by clicking on the selected item. ON-LINE HELP You can see on-line help for any window by pressing the F1 key, a box will appear describing the window's function and disappears again when you press any key. Key Bindings If you press F10 ( or Esc ) a popup window will appear with a list of options. You can activate any option by pressing the first letter in the description or by clicking on the entry with the mouse. The popup window is divided in two parts, where the top part lists the screens that can be viewed - from Image Maker to Display Librarian - while the bottom part list alternate methods of exiting the interface. If you want to quit the interface without explosiv becoming resident then press Esc E. If you want explosiv to become a screen saver press Esc Q. To remove a resident copy of explosiv from memory press Esc U. Finally, to abort all changes made, press Ctrl-C. Viewing Displays When the explosiv interface initially starts the DISPLAYS window will be active; by moving the cursor to the desired display name you can select a new module. To demo the display from within the interface simply press enter or click on the selected entry. Each entry will have its own values of color, delay or objects. The color of the display will have one of three values, mono will force the display into monochrome mode, color will force color patterns and tinge gives an alternate color pattern. Although setting the latter does not affect very many displays it does give different displays for aranea, fireworks and serinde. Once explosiv is resident, the minutes field indicates the number of minutes of inactivity the screen saver should wait before it starts the selected display. This can be set to as little as one minute or as much as one half hour. The delay is a number from 1 to 255 which controls how fast the display changes. Set this to default to use the value calculated from your CPU speed ( this value is shown by running EXPLOSIV ? at the command line). The object of the display indicates one of several things; for example, it can be the density of the fractal pattern, the number or type of objects that appear or may have no meaning at all. Configuration Screen Select the configuration screen by press the Alt-C keys. The fields that you will see control specific aspects, such as monitor type and hot keys, of explosiv when it becomes resident. Changing these options may not change the operation of the screen saver until the next time you install explosiv. The display memory size controls how much memory is allocated to run explosiv displays. Explosiv has the ability to load new displays directly into the resident program itself. You do not need to first remove explosiv and install it again with the new settings! Simply set the display size to a value large enough to load the desired display and run explosiv. You can then change to a new display simply by running the command "EXPLOSIV NEW <DISPLAY>" or by using the explosiv interface. Note that if you are not going to use this feature then set the display memory size to min. This will force explosiv to allocate just enough memory to fit the display. The memory usage determines how much memory explosiv should allocate for saving the screen state. See the following table: Value Memory 50 Line Mode User Defined Fonts __________________________________________________________________ Small 4K no no Medium A 8K yes no Medium 8K yes yes, if 25 line mode Medium B 8K no yes Large 12K yes yes By default explosiv will automatically select the appropriate monitor type to use. You can use the monitor field to force explosiv to run another video card. For example, set it to VGA to force a VGA screen saver ( but note that you should only do this is you are sure explosiv picks the wrong type ). The multiplex field indicates the number explosiv should use to communicate with resident copies of the screen saver. Do not change this value unless explosiv conflicts with another memory resident program. Similarly, the start and stop keys indicate the hot keys that explosiv should use. By default explosiv sets these to Ctrl-Alt-B and Ctrl-Alt-E, respectively. These fields, which should not be changed unless a conflict occurs, allow the users to change the letters in the hot key combination. If you have a memory resident clock (or other video activities) then explosiv will not start if video checking is on. By turning this off explosiv should start properly regardless of clocks or other screen changes. Display Librarian The librarian allows the user to control which displays are available to explosiv. This information is stored in EXPLOSIV.OVL and since this file will be changed whenever you use the librarian it is important to backup the distributed EXPLOSIV.OVL before using any of the features described in this section. The explosiv displays are stored in a compressed format in the file EXPLOSIV.OVL. Each original display is put into this library once for each monitor type it supports. For example, the display aranea will have a separate entry for VGA, EGA, and so on. If you wish to save space and allow more room for your own displays ( explosiv allows a maximum of 250 displays in the library ) then it is suggested that you remove all displays for other monitors. For example, if you have a VGA monitor then you may remove all entries for EGA, CGA, HERC and MDA cards. To add a new display simply click on the Add button. A dialog box will appear asking you for a description of the display and a file name. The description is the name of the display that will appear in the DISPLAYS window, this must be a unique name for your monitor and be less than 12 characters long. The file name is the path name of the program that you wish to archive. This function will only work for programs that satisfy the necessary format, for example, image maker programs work fine. If you wish to change the name of the selected display then click on the change button. A dialog box will appear with the description and file name of the display you wish to change. Remember that the description must be unique for that monitor and if the file name is not given then DISPLAY.COM is used by default. Since the explosiv library stores displays in compressed format in the file EXPLOSIV.OVL it is possible to uncompress these displays and store them to disk. The dump button will write the display into the current directory using the name given when the program was first added. The dumped program will be completely independent of explosiv and can be used by WIM.EXE or with screen capturing software to save patterns to image files. Clicking the On/Off button will disable a display. The display will remain intact in the explosiv library but can no longer be run by the screen saver. Use this feature to disable displays you do not like but do not want to remove permanently. To erase a display permanently use the remove button. These modules will be permanently erased from the library. Removing unwanted displays has the advantage of making the file EXPLOSIV.OVL smaller and making more entries to be available for new modules ( up to a maximum of 250 ). Image Maker Image maker will allow the user to view GIF images and create programs from them. These programs can be stand alone or can be incorporated directly into the explosiv library. When you first start this screen a message box will appear telling you that image maker is reading the current directory for files. The program will only allow you to see the GIF files and .COM files that are in the directory. To read another directory select the item in the DIRS window, a new message box will appear telling you that image maker is searching the new directory. Similarly, to read a new drive select the drive from the DISK window. Image maker allows the user to select the video mode that the selected image will be drawn in. The possible options are listed in the MODES window, where the desired mode will appear with a mark beside it. If the mark is an X, which is the default, the image maker will allow you to crop as much of the image as possible. If the mark is a check, which can be set by pressing the right or left key within the MODES window, then the cropped images will be smaller. The explosiv library will only archive programs that are smaller than 34K, while image maker can produce much larger files. Only by setting the check mark can you be sure that the image you are capturing will be small enough to be made into a screen savers. The Add button is equivalent in function to the Add feature described for the display librarian. To view the file that you have selected simply press enter from within the FILES window. If the file is a program then the program will be run, while if the file is a GIF image then the image will be drawn. Once the image is drawn a box will appear (this box may be difficult to see). You can move the box around the screen by using the cursor keys. If you hold the Control key done then the cursor keys will change the size of the box. Press Esc at any time to abort. If the Ctrl-Arrows keys do not work on your machine you may use the Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys instead. If the image is larger than the screen then press the TAB key to go into scroll mode. The box will disappear and the cursor keys can be used to recenter the image. Hold the Control key down at the same time to move the image around in smaller increments. Press TAB again to exit scrolling. The box will appear again which you can position as described above. Once you are done press the Enter key to save your image or the Esc key to abort. If you pressed Enter, then the entire image within the box will be saved to a file with the same name as the image but with a .COM extension. The image maker interface will reappear with the new entry added and the cursor positioned on it, you may then press Enter to view the program that you have created. Saving the image to disk may take a little longer if the background color is not black. In this case, image maker will beep twice to tell you to be patient while the color palette is being adjusted. A program that was created for an EGA video mode may appear with jerky motion on some VGA monitors. In this case, you will have to set the object level to 1 to view the image properly. You cannot do this from the image maker screen but if you exit explosiv then you can run the new program with the "e1" command line option. To slow a 256 color image down, use the "e5" command line option. Note Taker Similar to image maker, explosiv allows the user to create programs from messages that he or she writes. To do this select the note taker screen and a screen with three small boxes will appear. Initially, the top box will be active ( which can be seen since the cursor appears there ) and is where you will write your message. Although the window is initially very small the box automatically expands to fit the text. The window can be reset to this size at any time by pressing the New button. Simply type in whatever you want to say, use the cursor keys to position the cursor, use enter to move to a new line and backspace/delete to delete characters. When you are done click on the save button and a dialog box will appear asking you for a description and file name. A line will also appear asking you whether you wish to include the new program directly into the explosiv library. Select this by pressing the right or left cursor key when the entry is highlighted. Only by selecting this will the description field be necessary. Clicking on the small Save button in the dialog box will cause the message to be saved to a new program. Once done (and if you had requested it), explosiv will save the display to the explosiv library. * The Windows Version To start the Windows version of Explosiv 3.0, you must first do one of the following: 1. Choose Explosiv 3.0 for Windows to be activated during install. 2. Install Explosiv 3.0 for Windows manually (see the install section above). To invoke Explosiv 3.0 for Windows, double click on the icon on the Windows Desktop. If Explosiv is not currently on the Windows Desktop, then first double click on the Explosiv Icon within the Explosiv group in the Windows Program Manager. Once started, you can set, modify, and view all parameters through the Explosiv Icon menu-driven Dialog Boxes. There are four important menu choices to be made after clicking on the Explosiv Icon: 1. The Explosiv Setup Choice: This leads to a group of three Dialog Boxes; the Main Box (displayed after clicking on the Icon Menu choice), the Display Options Box (displayed after clicking on the Options... button in the Main Dialog Box), and the Password Box (displayed after clicking on the Password... button). 2. The Start Explosiv Choice: Starts Explosiv immediately. 3. The Registration Info Choice: Info on registering copies of Explosiv. 2. The About Explosiv Choice: This displays a simple box that gives reference to Date and Authors of Explosiv 3.0. The Setup Dialog Box controls are similar in functionality to those from the DOS version of Explosiv 3.0. To begin with, the Select Display: Box contains a scrollable list of display choices. Clicking the mouse on a choice makes that choice the active display. The Select Time: Box contains a scrollable list of times, ranging from 1 to 30 minutes. Clicking on a value causes that time to be the time to activation for Explosiv. The Screen Saver On: Box indicates whether or not Explosiv will come on as a Screen Saver at the Activation Time. Clicking on this Box toggles the Screen Saver On and Off. The Demo Button lets you get a preview of any of the selected displays. This button should be clicked On SLOWLY. NOTE: Double Clicking the mouse on the MultiPak display opens the Multi Display Dialog Box in which you can add or delete displays to be shown. You can make the display choices go in the order you have selected, or be random. Finally, you can select at what interval you want the displays to change where the value selected is the number of minutes before the display will change on you (ranging from 1 to 60 minutes). Selecting 0 means that the display will only change whenever Explosiv is turned off and then on again. The Display Options Dialog Box (activated via the Options... button) contains two Mouse Corner groups. Clicking on any one corner will make the corresponding corner on the screen either : 1. The corner in which the screen saver is INSTANTLY activated from (the group to the left indicates this action). 2. The corner in which, if the mouse is so placed, the screen saver will NEVER come on, even at the activation time. Next are two scrollable boxes that allow: 1. The rate of Delay to be set. If you find a particular display too fast to your liking, increase the Delay Rate from between 0 to 3. 2. The Number of Objects. This is not active in all displays, but the displays that do use this control will increase the number of displayed objects as the number value selected increases (ranging from 1 to 9). NOTE: For many of the displays, selecting a value GREATER THAN 6 will give you a randomly varying display. This is especially effective in the GYRO display. Next, there is the Detect Mouse Movement Box. Toggling this On or Off (by clicking on it with the Mouse) either Enables or Disables the screen saver to turn off via a movement of the mouse. This is especially useful for unstable situations, such as laptop computing. Also, some Graphics Co-Processor boards work better when the Mouse Movement Detection is turned off. Finally is the Auto - Off Print Manager Box which disables Explosiv if the Windows Print Manager is running. This is especially effective if Spooling is turned on in the Print Manager. The Password Dialog Box, the last of the Dialog Boxes, is opened up by clicking on the Password... Button. To enter a BRAND NEW password, type in your new password in the Enter Password: Box, then repeat it in the Confirm Password: Box. Finally, Click on the Accept button to permanently set your new password. If you made a mistake in either your original or confirmation entries, a failure sign will show up on the Accept button. Just start all over again. If your password was successfully entered, the Accept button will display a Success message. NOTE: Passwords can be up to 8 characters in length, and can be any combination of ASCII characters, including numbers and symbols. Also, upper and lower case of the same letter are seen as two different values to the password program. To change a password, first enter your old password in the Old Password: Box, and then proceed as outlined above for entering a FIRST TIME new password. If any error is made (i.e., the Accept button indicates a Failure), just start the entire process over again. After you have successfully entered (or changed) a password, the Password On: Button is enabled. If this button is selected, then a Password Box will pop up and ask you for your password every time an activated screen saver display is halted (e.g., by a mouse movement, button click, or keyboard key press). At that time, you enter your password and then click on the Accept button, or click on the Cancel button to immediately start the screen saver display again. If nothing happen, the Password Prompting box disappears after 8 seconds, and the screen saver display resumes activity. * Windows Explosiv Logo All the above procedures are duplicated in the Windows Version of Explosiv Logo with the exception that the Options Box contains only the mouse activation corners. The displays to select are the ones that you will have made in the DOS based Image Maker. These will show up in the display selection box. Note: DOS and Windows are trademarks (TM) of Microsoft Incorporated. GIF and "Graphics Interchange Format" are trademarks (TM) of Compuserve Incorporated, an H&R Block Company. SPECIAL THINGS TO WATCH FOR Some special things to be aware of include: a. DOS Graphics Mode. When a DOS program is running in graphics mode, Explosiv 3.0 for DOS WILL NOT display the currently selected module, but rather will simply blank the screen. This insures the best possible restoration of any given graphics state (this may occur even in text mode if Explosiv cannot reliably determine the systems' graphic state). b. Windows 3.0 Real Mode. Explosiv 3.0 for Windows DOES NOT WORK in Real Mode (with or without expanded memory) in Windows 3.0. It is to be used in Standard or Enhanced Modes only. If you try to start Explosiv 3.0 for Windows in Real Mode, Explosiv will simply terminate itself with a explanatory message. Explosiv 3.0 for DOS will NOT ACTIVATE when Windows 3.0 is running unless Windows is running in Real Mode. To disable this (as it could produce undesirable side effects), enter the line: EXPLOSIV OFF before you start up windows in Real Mode (i.e., win /r), and then enter: EXPLOSIV ON after exiting the Windows Real Mode session. This could easily be made into a batch file if need be. c. File Transfers and Printing under Windows. If you are doing large file transfers over a serial communication line in Windows, it is advised that you use one of the following displays in Explosiv 3.0 for Windows: CLOCK, STARS, BLAZON, BLANK These displays will not impede your file transfers to any noticeable degree. The other displays will slow the transfers down to varying degrees. The same holds true for printing jobs, with the exception that if you do all your printing through the Print Manager spooler you can then select the Options Window and enable the Auto - Off for Print Manger button. Now, if Print Manager starts (even if it starts on a time delayed command), Explosiv turns off until all the printing is finished. d. Hercules Display. If you are using a Hercules monochrome display and are unsure as to whether or not your program is in graphics mode, set Explosiv off before starting the program to give maximum compatibility with the underlying program (alternatively, you can try the +on and -on option as well). e. Hot Keys. Explosiv 3.0 for DOS has certain Hot Key assignments that are very important. They are: 1. Ctrl-Alt-Shift. This key combination starts Explosiv 3.0 immediately. 2. Ctrl-Alt-E. This key combination temporarily disables Explosiv 3.0 for DOS. 3. Ctrl-Alt_B. This key combination Enables Explosiv 3.0 for DOS after it had been previously disabled. MAILING ADDRESS AND ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS To order additional copies of Explosiv 3.0 please have you credit card ready (MC/Visa/Amex/Disc.) and call: 1-800-2424-PSL or 1-713-524-6394 For all inquiries, including registration (which is done via the accompanying EXPORDER.FRM file), please contact us at: H&G Software P.O. Box 3013 Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3X5 Canada NOTE: Please write to us for info on other software products offered.