home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
INI File | 1990-12-31 | 13.1 KB | 253 lines |
- [WinLoad, Version 1.0: Copyright by HLS/Aachen/1991]
- ----------------------------------------------------
- (NO WARRANTY: see disclaimer below)
- WinLoad automatically loads DOS- and Windows-Applications after Windows has
- been booted. It does this "in the background", that means that you can begin
- your work immediately after Windows has been booted.
-
- To do this only the following is required:
- * copy the files WINLOAD.EXE, WINLOAD.TXT and WINLOAD.HLP to the directory
- where you want to have them (WINLOAD.EXE and WINLOAD.HLP must be in the
- same directory in order to access online help),
- * make a copy of your current WIN.INI (after successfull installation of
- WINLOAD you can delete the copy!),
- * add WINLOAD.EXE as usual to one of your program groups (only needed for
- initialization or changes of setup).
-
- Prepare WinLoad to load your applications
- -----------------------------------------
- Start WinLoad as a usual Windows application, e.g. by double clicking on the
- WinLoad icon in the program managers group window. The WinLoad main window
- and then the SetUp dialog box should appear on the screen.
-
- With the dialog box you can set up a list of programs and select for each
- program is initial window size (minimized, normal or maximized) and the
- delay time before the next application is to be loaded. The programs
- from the list can be loaded after(!) the Windows boot process has been
- completed.
-
- In addition, the "Load=" and "Run=" lines in the [Windows] section of your
- WIN.INI file can be changed via the SetUp dialog box.
-
- When you are running WinLoad for the first time, the following is
- recommended:
- - Start the Windows Help Application by pressing the "Help" button of the
- SetUp dialog box or selecting "Help" from WinLoad main window's system
- menu; the information presented to you is the same as the information
- provided in WinLoad.TXT, which is an ASCII file.
- - Remove those entries of the old "Load=" and "Run=" lines, which you want
- to be started asynchronously after Windows startup, and add them to the
- WinLoad program list as described below; it's a good idea to do this
- one after another for each entry.
- - The "Load=" line must contain "WinLoad", otherwise WinLoad will not start
- to load automatically. If the "Load=" list does not contain "WinLoad", it
- will be appended automatically after closing the SetUp dialog box by
- pressing the "OK" button. You can insert a new entry "WinLoad" yourself
- in the "Load=" list (if WinLoad cannot be found, insert
- "PATH\WinLoad.exe", where PATH is the full path name).
-
- How to change the WinLoad program list
- --------------------------------------
- The WinLoad program list contains programs which are to be loaded after
- Windows has been booted. The programs from the list are loaded in the given
- order.
-
- The first entry in the WinLoad program list is always "WinLoad". For this
- entry you can select the size of the WinLoad main window, and as delay time
- the time WinLoad waits before loading the first application (the second
- program in the list). This delay time is also the default for all other
- applications.
-
- * Append new entries to the list:
- - Enter the name of the program you want to load in the edit control of the
- combo box (the browser can be used to search for files). If WinLoad cannot
- find it when loading your programs (in the Windows directory, it's System
- subdirectory or via the PATH variable), you should give the full path
- name and extension. Parameters can be appended as well. Parameters and,
- if no path is supplied, program extension (default: EXE) are optional.
- If there is a link for the given extension in the [Extensions] section
- of your WIN.INI file, WinLoad will try to load the appropriate program
- during automatic loading.
- - Press the "Append to list" button; the new entry will appear at the
- end(!) of the list.
- - Select the initial size and, if required, change the delay time.
-
- * Change existing entries:
- - Select the list entry you want to change.
- - If you want to change it's "Initial size", simply check the appropriate
- radio button.
- - If you want to change it's "Delay" value, simply enter the new time.
- The value is interpreted as milliseconds and should be between 1000 and
- 60000 (1 - 60 seconds). If the selected entry is the first ("WinLoad"),
- all entries which previously had the same delay value as "WinLoad" will
- receive the new delay value.
- - If you want to change it's name, path and or parameters, simply make the
- appropriate changes by editing the text in the edit control of the combo
- box or by using the browser, then press the "Change entry" button.
-
- * Delete entries or change their position in the list:
- - Select the list entry you want to delete or shift.
- - Press the "Cut from list" button. The entry will be removed from the list
- and be displayed in the "Private clipboard" area.
- - If you wanted the entry to become a new position, select the appropriate
- list entry. Then press the "Paste into list" button. The contence of the
- "Private clipboard" will be inserted after the previously selected
- entry, and will then be selected itself.
- - The contents of the "Private clipboard" remains unchanged until the "Cut
- from list" button is pressed again, and can be pasted into the list more
- than once at different positions.
-
- * Browse for files:
- - Instead of editing the text in the edit control of the combo box, the
- file browser can be used. To do this, press the "Browse ..." button.
- - A new Browser dialog box appears, which let's you walk through your
- directory trees as usual.
- - If you found the desired file, press "OK", and after the dialog box
- disappeared the name of the file is copied into the edit control of the
- combo box of the SetUp dialog box. It can then still be changed if
- needed, before the "Append to list" or "Change entry" button is pressed.
- - If the Browser dialog box is closed by "Cancel" or by selecting "Close"
- from the system menu, nothing is changed in the edit control of the
- combo box.
-
- * Comments:
- - Comments can be added to the WinLoad program list as well as programs;
- any string that starts with a ';' is treated as a comment.
- - Comments offer a simple method to disable list entries by simply
- prepending them with a ';' instead of removing them from the list,
- since comments will be ignored during automatic loading.
-
- * Exiting from the SetUp dialog box:
- - Press the "OK" button to save the changes to WINLOAD.INI (see below),
- - press "Cancel" to quit without saving, or
- - select "Close" from the system menu (a message box will prevent you from
- loosing your changed data without confirmation).
-
- Required settings in WIN.INI
- ----------------------------
- In most cases, WIN.INI will already be o.k. for use with WinLoad, and you
- won't have to change it. Here are some hints for advanced users.
-
- WinLoad stores it's settings by default in a profile named WINLOAD.INI (see
- description below); if you want another profile to be used instead, add - if
- not present - a new section [Private Profiles] to your WIN.INI file, which
- should contain a with a line named "WinLoad=...", where "..." stands for the
- name of the file you want to use. By default, this section should read:
- [Private Profiles]
- WinLoad=WINLOAD.INI
-
- WinLoad uses the extensions found in the "Programs=" line in the [Windows]
- section to decide which file names denote programs. For Windows 3.0, this
- line should read "Programs=com exe bat pif"; it should not contain other
- extensions! For program names without path and extension, EXE is assumed
- and no checks are performed.
-
- If a program name has an extension not contained in the "Programs=" line as
- described above, WinLoad searches in the [Extensions] section of WIN.INI for
- an apropriate line and builts the correct command, if possible.
-
- Additional information
- ----------------------
- * To reopen the SetUp dialog box, choose "SetUp ..." from the system menu.
- * To force WinLoad to begin loading, choose "Start!" from the system menu.
- * If WinLoad is started by the "Load=" line from WIN.INI during Windows
- startup, it begins loading automatically.
- * If WinLoad is started after Windows has been booted, or by the "Run=" line
- from WIN.INI instead of the "Load=" line, the SetUp dialog box is being
- opened automatically.
- * Once WinLoad has started to load applications, the "SetUp ..." and "Start!"
- items in the system menu will be disabled. Loading can only be stopped by
- terminating WinLoad (e.g. by double clicking on the system menu bar).
- WinLoad will terminate at latest when all applications from the WinLoad
- list have been loaded.
- * WinLoad cannot be run more than once at a time. Any attempt to run more
- than one instance of WinLoad will terminate silently.
- * If you still want applications other than WinLoad to be startet at Windows
- boot time, you can of course add them to the "Load=" or "Run=" line in
- the [Windows] section of your WIN.INI file by using the SetUp dialog box
- or editing WIN.INI as usual.
-
- Description of entries in WINLOAD.INI
- -------------------------------------
- (you can change all settings via the "setup" dialog box and do not need to
- edit WINLOAD.INI, but some old fashioned people prefer this method)
-
- Entries in the [WinLoad] section of WINLOAD.INI have the form:
- <entry> ::= <number>=[<delay>],[<initial size>],[;]<program>
- <number> ::= "a non negative number without leading zeros"
- <delay> ::= "a non negative number consisting of 2 to 5 digits"
- <initial size> ::= Maximized|FullScreen|NormalSize|Iconized|Minimized
- <program> ::= [Path]ProgramName[.Extension] [Parameters]
-
- The first entry must have 0 as <number>, the second 1, and so on.
-
- Entry 0 has a special meaning:
- <delay> is the time (in milliseconds) WinLoad waits before the first
- application is loaded and, by default, the time before each next application
- is loaded. If omitted, 5000 ms is the default.
- <initial size> is the initial window size for WinLoad.
- Default is "NormalSize".
- <program> should be "WinLoad" (this is ignored).
-
- For each program to start a line with key <number> (sequence number, greater
- than 0) is required. The sections <delay> and <initial size> are optional.
-
- The <program> section is required; it tells WinLoad the name of the
- executable file which contains the application that is to be started by
- WinLoad. If this file cannot be found in the Windows directory, it's System
- subdirectory or via the PATH variable, the full path name is required.
- Parameters and, if no path is supplied, extension (default: EXE) are optional.
- If the name given here is linked to an application via the [Extensions]
- section of your WIN.INI file, WinLoad will try to load the appropriate
- program. If the program name is preceeded by the comment character ';', the
- line will be ignored during automatic loading.
-
- <initial size> tells WinLoad the initial window size for the application,
- where "FullScreen" is the same as "Maximized" and "Iconized" is the same as
- "Minimized". The value can be abbreviated, but a minimum of two letters is
- required. If this field is missing or invalid, the default value "NormalSize"
- is assumed.
-
- <delay> tells WinLoad how much milliseconds to wait before the next(!)
- application is to be loaded. Default is <delay> value for WinLoad. The
- values should be in the range 1000,...,60000. If not, they will be adjusted
- as appropriate.
-
- Example for the entries in the [WinLoad] section of WINLOAD.INI (assuming that
- extension ".cal" is linked to CALENDAR.EXE, for example):
-
- [WinLoad]
- ;---Example: Settings for WinLoad----------------
- 0=5000,Norm,WinLoad
- ;---Example: Settings for applications to load---
- 1=2000,Mini,\win3\util\freemem.exe
- 2=,,\win3\util\perfmetr.exe
- 3=5000,Mini,clock.exe
- 4=5000,Mini,\win3\std.cal
- 5=5000,Mini,winfile.exe
- 6=5000,Norm,\win3\util\scrpeac3\saver.exe
- 7=1000,Mini,\win3\gms\wineyes.exe
-
- Copyright & Disclaimer
- ----------------------
- WinLoad is CharityWare. It may be copied and used freely by anyone, as
- long as WinLoad.HLP and WinLoad.TXT are copied also and nothing has been
- changed. If you find WinLoad useful and continue to use it, please give
- something for charity to an organization you think to be worth it (e.g.
- 1% of your monthly income, or more).
-
- WinLoad is nevertheless copyrighted and protected by several laws. It may
- not be sold by anyone except me without my written permission. This also
- includes shareware- and public-domain-software-traders. If they want to sell
- my program or want to charge anything for copying it, they need my approval.
-
- ABSOLUTLY NO WARRANTY FOR ANYTHING!
- Since this program is for free, I do not guarantee anything. Although WinLoad
- was developed and tested very carefully, the author cannot be liable for any
- damage caused by any use of the program; if you use the program, it's your own
- risk! WinLoad seems to work fine on my machine. I use it every day and it has
- never crashed anything. But if it does so on your computer be aware that you
- use(d) it on your own risk.
-
- Version 1.0: Copyright by HLS/Aachen, 1/1/1991
-