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1995-11-01
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================================================================
Media Changer 2.0 for Windows NT/95
Copyright (C) Swoosie Software 1995
by Mike Henderson and Gary Lucero
================================================================
What do all these terms mean?
MCSETUP and MCSETUP.EXE refer to Media Changer Setup.
MCHANGER and MCHANGER.EXE refer to Media Changer.
Program Groups, Program Items and directories are associated
with Windows NT. Please refer to your Windows NT documentation
for more information.
The Startup Menu, Shortcuts and folders are associated with
Windows 95. Please refer to your Windows 95 documentation for
more information.
The Windows registry is a file where various system and
application settings are stored. Please refer to your Windows
documentation for more information.
The Control Panel is used to alter user settings. Please refer
to your Windows documentation for more infomation.
================================================================
What is Media Changer?
Media Changer is a 32-bit Windows application that can
effortlessly change your wallpaper bitmap, screen saver, and
system sound settings every time you start Windows.
================================================================
What does Media Changer do?
Media Changer copies or points to files from directories or
folders that you specify, and then updates the Windows registry
with these filenames. Once run, your system media settings will
use these selected files for its wallpaper, screen saver and
system sounds.
================================================================
How do I set up Media Changer?
Just copy MCHANGER.EXE and MCSETUP.EXE to a directory or
folder. Create a program item or shortcut in your Startup program
group or folder for MCHANGER.EXE. Create program items or shortcuts
for both MCHANGER.EXE and MCSETUP.EXE in a program group or
Start Menu folder of your choice, so that when you need quick
access to either of them, they're close at hand.
To configure Media Changer, run MCSETUP.EXE. The setup program
will present you with nine rows of similar check boxes, edit
boxes, and buttons. Each row contains:
On/off check box -
The label (like Wallpaper or Asterisk) is also the on/off switch
for that media type. When on, Media Changer will change the media
type each time it's run. When off, Media Changer will not modify
the item.
Path + filename edit box, Browse button -
The edit box (and the Browse button next to it) allow you to
specify which directory Media Changer should copy files from.
You can type in a path, or a path plus a filename, or you
can select the Browse button and choose a file from the common
file dialog.
Preview button -
The Preview button allows you to load the current wallpaper
into Paintbrush (or the currently associated .BMP viewer),
bring up the current screen saver, or listen to the current
system sound (using SNDREC32.EXE).
Tile\Password\Random check boxes -
In Windows 95, the Tile checkbox toggles wallpaper tiling on
and off. In Windows NT, this setting must be set via the
Control Panel Desktop.
In Windows 95, the Password checkbox in the Screen Saver row
toggles password protection on and off for screen savers. In
Windows NT, this setting is made through the Control Panel
Desktop.
Checking any of the Random checkboxes in any of the system
sound rows will cause Media Changer to randomly select a .WAV
file from the specified directory. With this checkbox off,
Media Changer will select the next file in the directory
(sequentially).
Clone button:
The clone button copies the contents of the Asterisk edit
box into the edit boxes of the remaining system sounds. All
values for the other system sounds will be lost.
Clone makes setting up system sounds very easy. For instance,
if you keep all of your .WAV files in one directory or folder,
use the Browse button for Asterisk, and select any file from
that directory or folder. Now select the Clone button. The
text from the Asterisk edit box is copied to the rest of the
system sounds. Now turn Random on for all of the system sounds.
Select the Save button. Notice that now each of the system sounds
is using a different .WAV file.
Even if you keep your .WAV files in more than one directory or
folder, Clone can still make setting up Media Changer easier.
If the directories or folders are all on the same drive, type
that drive name, or select with Browse, for Asterisk. Now select
the Clone button, and then in order to correctly specify the
remaining directories or folders, select Browse or edit the paths
by hand.
At the bottom of the dialog, four more buttons perform
the following functions:
About button -
Selecting the About button displays a message box with copyright
information concerning this shareware product.
Network button (Windows 95 only)-
This button will bring up the Network Options dialog. This
allows you to tell Media Changer if you want it to make copies
of the current media files in its own directory. This can be
handy if you get your media files off of a network drive which
is unavailable from time to time. For example, by setting Media
Changer to make a copy of the Startup sound file, your system will
play a copy of that .WAV, which will be stored locally in the
same directory or folder as MCHANGER.EXE. With this setting off,
Media Changer will simply point the media settings in the
Windows registry to the actual file instead of making a copy
of it.
NOTE: Normally, if you get bitmaps and sounds from a network drive,
you will want to have Media Changer copy the wallpaper and the
startup sound so that those two files will be available to Windows
when it is starting. Normally, Windows will not long on to network
drives until after it has tried to load the startup sound and
wallpaper bitmap.
Save button -
Selecting the Save button saves the current settings to
the registry. The specified files are copied, and the registry and
Media Changer Setup dialog are updated with any changes that
might have taken place.
NOTE FOR WINDOWS NT USERS: To complete your setup of Media Changer,
you need to do the following two steps:
a. Open the Control Panel and bring up Desktop.
Double-check that the wallpaper tiling mode is set how
you want it. Next, single-click the Name box in the Screen
Saver section. It will pop open and show all of your screen
savers. Notice one of the names is repeated twice. Choose
the first (top) of the two duplicate names. This is MCHANGER's
copy of the screen saver it has currently selected. Each time
you run MCHANGER.EXE, this will now automatically change to
the screen saver Media Changer has selected for you.
Click OK to save the settings.
b. Open the Sound Control Panel item. Set each of the following
sound items to the corresponding file in Media Changer's
directory:
System Asterisk: ASTERISK.WAV
System Default: DEFAULT.WAV
System Exclamation: EXCLAMAT.WAV
System Exit: EXIT.WAV
System Hand: HAND.WAV
System Question: QUESTION.WAV
System Start: START.WAV
Close button -
Choosing the Close button will close Media Changer Setup.
***NOTE: You MUST choose Save before closing the dialog or all
changes made will be lost.
================================================================
How to Use It:
Each time you run Media Changer, it will choose new media files
to use according to the options you set in MCSETUP. It will
then set your Windows media settings to either a copy of the
chosen media files, or to the chosen media files themselves.
(This option is set via the Network Options button in MCSETUP
and is only available in Windows 95. In Windows NT, Media
Changer will make copies of the current media files in its
directory.)
For the best (and the most fun) results, place a program item
or shortcut for MCHANGER.EXE in your Windows Startup program
group or folder. This way, each time Windows restarts, your
system settings will automatically change.
If you ever wish to change your settings, simply run Media Changer
Setup and alter the options to your liking.
NOTE: If you run Media Changer under Windows NT, the file _SCR.SCR
will be copied to the Windows\System32 directory, not to the same
directory as MCHANGER.EXE and MCSETUP.EXE. Under Windows NT,
all screen savers must be in this System directory in order to
work properly.
================================================================
Error Messages:
It is possible (but not likely) that you could encounter error
messages when running MCHANGER or MCSETUP. These errors will
hopefully be self-explanatory (such as chosing a bad media file
for one of the items, or if you select an invalid path). On
rare occasions, the Windows registry system will do quirky things
and cause error messages in Media Changer. If you encounter one
of these problems, the best thing to do is restart Windows and
run MCSETUP.EXE to make sure everything is set up correctly.
If the problem persists, contact Gary or Mike (e-mail and snail-mail
addresses are listed below), or check your Windows documention.
================================================================
How to Register It:
Media Changer is GuiltWare. It has taken an unbelievable amount
of time to design, code, debug, test, enhance, and fix this
software. We were even kind enough not to put annoying nag
screens or disable any features in this version. We would
appreciate your support in our endeavors. Swoosie Software is
committed to producing top quality software that enhances your
Windows 32-bit computing experience. Please don't take advantage
of us.
If you do register, we'll send you the next major upgrade
free of charge, and you will remove all feelings of guilt from
your mind.
To register, make out a check or money order for $10.00
payable to:
Mike Henderson and Gary Lucero
And send it, along with your name and address, to:
Swoosie Software
300 East 1900 North
Provo, Utah 84604
================================================================
Speak to Us:
Gary and Mike are lonely Internet surfers who are hungry for
contact with the outside world. If you have any suggestions,
comments, or (*gasp!*) bug reports, you can contact us at:
GLucero@novell.com - and - MHenderson@novell.com
Swoosie Software, Media Changer, and Media Changer Setup are in
NO way affiliated with Novell.
================================================================
Revision History:
1.1 May, 1995 - Media Changer is born as a shareware app. MCSetup
is only offered to registered users.
2.0 July, 1995 - Media Changer begins storing all of its
configuration in the Windows registry. All system media
settings are automatically changed via the Windows
registry as well. MCHANGER.EXE received a complete
rewrite which removed many bugs and shrunk the .exe
size considerably. MCSETUP.EXE underwent a major interface
overhaul, and is now included in the non-registered
release. The Random feature is removed from BMP and
SCR settings. You can now turn wallpaper tiling and
screen saver password mode on or off through Media
Changer. All of Media Changer's copies of the media
files are now stored in the same folder as MCHANGER.EXE
except under NT. The wallpaper is automatically updated
as soon as Media Changer is run.
2.0 August, 1995 - As the Windows 95 release date draws near,
we figure out that NT doesn't take kindly to its
registration being fiddled with. We decide to remove
registry support for NT, and instead we go back to
the 1.0 way of doing things for NT: The user must
open the Control Panel and do initial setup themself.
But the Windows 95 version is still uses the registry,
and it all works pretty well, even though Windows in
general is kind of inconsistent in the way it updates
the registry versus the Control Panel applets.
===============================================================
The Legal Stuff:
Copyright (C) 1995 Swoosie Software
All Rights Reserved
License Agreement
You should carefully read the following terms and conditions
before using this software. Unless you have a different license
agreement signed by Swoosie Software, your use of this
software indicates your acceptance of this license agreement
and warranty.
Shareware Edition
Evaluation and Registration
This is not free software. You are hereby licensed to use this
software for evaluation purposes without charge for a period of 21
days. If you use this software after the 21 day evaluation period
a registration fee of $10 is required. Payments must be in US
dollars drawn on a US bank, made payable to Mike Henderson
and Gary Lucero, and should be sent to Swoosie Software, 300 East
1900 North, Provo Utah 84604. When payment is received you will
be sent a registered copy of the latest edition of Media Changer
and Media Changer Setup.
Unregistered use of Media Changer after the 21-day evaluation
period is in violation of U.S. and international copyright laws.
Distribution
Provided that you verify that you are distributing the Shareware
Edition (see the top of this file to check) you are hereby
licensed to make as many copies of the Shareware Edition of
this software and documentation as you wish; give exact copies of
the original Shareware Edition to anyone; and distribute the
Shareware Edition of the software and documentation in its
unmodified form via electronic means. There is no charge for any
of the above.
You are specifically prohibited from charging, or requesting
donations, for any such copies, however made; and from
distributing the software and/or documentation with other products
(commercial or otherwise) without prior written permission, with
one exception: Disk Vendors approved by the Association of
Shareware Professionals are permitted to redistribute Media Changer,
subject to the conditions in this license, without specific
written permission.
Registered Edition
One registered copy of Media Changer and Media Changer Setup
may either be used by a single person who uses the software
personally on one or more computers, or installed on a single
workstation used nonsimultaneously by multiple people, but not
both.
You may access the registered edition of Media Changer and/or
Media Changer Setup through a network, provided that you have
obtained individual licenses for the software covering all
workstations that will access the software through the network.
For instance, if 8 different workstations will access Media Changer
and/or Media Changer Setup on the network, each workstation must
have its own Media Changer license, regardless of whether they
use Media Changer at different times or concurrently.
Governing Law
This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of
Utah.
Disclaimer of Warranty
THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE SOLD "AS IS" AND
WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OF MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY
OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. Because of the
various hardware and software environments into which Media
Changer may be put, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE IS OFFERED.
Good data processing procedure dictates that any program be
thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it.
The user must assume the entire risk of using the program. ANY
LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT
REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.
Trademarks
Windows NT and Windows 95 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.