<span style="font-weight:normal;">Document Launcher for AUTORUN.INF</h1>
<i><p>By Koen 'RockinFewl' Mannaerts, WhirlyWiryWeb.com, Nov 2001.<br />
Can be freely used as long as proper credit is given.<br />Home of ShellExe is at the <a href="http://www.whirlywiryweb.com/q/shellexe.asp">Whirly Wiry Web</a>.</p>
<p>This About page displays if no documents were passed to ShellExe. For correct usage, see below.</p></i>
<h2>What is ShellExe</h2>
<p>ShellExe launches documents with their associated viewer application. Used in autorun.inf, ShellExe allows to automatically open a document as soon as a user puts your CD in.</p>
<h2>Main benefits</h2>
<h3>Fall back mechanism with multiple document types.</h3>
<p>ShellExe accepts a queue of documents to open. If the user hasn't the proper viewer for a document installed, ShellExe attempts to open the next document.</p>
E.g. you can start with a PDF document. For the case the user hasn't Acrobat Reader installed, you can provide a HTML file. Then for the rare case the user hasn't a Web browser installed, you can provide a TXT file.<br />
You can provide as many documents as desired. (Note that Windows accepts command lines up to 255 characters only).</p>
<h3>Small footprint.</h3>
<p>Smaller than 35KB, ShellExe is among the leanest document launchers available today.</p>
<h3>Self-containment.</h3>
<p>Everything ShellExe needs is built-in. It will run on anything from Windows NT3.51 and 95 on. Internet Explorer is not required. This will make your CD's autorun work on virtually all Windows platforms.</p>
<h2>Usage</h2>
<h3>Create a text file named <i>autorun.inf</i></h3>
<p>Here's the contents of a sample autorun.inf file.</p>
<pre>[autorun]
open = shellexe.exe intro.avi intro.htm intro.txt</pre>
<p>Modify it to make it match your document types and names.</p>
<p>In this sample, ShellExe will first attempt to
load <b>intro.avi</b>. If that fails (the user doesn't have an AVI viewer), ShellExe will load the <b>intro.htm</b> file.<br />
If also that fails -- the user doesn't have a Web browser associated --, ShellExe will load the <b>intro.txt</b> document.<br />
It's a good idea to end with a file that everyone can see, even on the simplest system. A text file is always okay.</p>
<h3>Write all the files to the root of your CD</h3>
<p>Write autorun.inf, shellexe.exe and all document files referred, to the root of the CD.</p>
<p>Done.</p>
<hr />
<i><p>Can be freely used as long as proper credit is given.<br />Home of ShellExe is at the <a href="http://www.whirlywiryweb.com/q/shellexe.asp">Whirly Wiry Web</a>.</p></i>
