FREE REGISTRATIONS TO the first 10 USERS THAT REPORT FATAL ERRORS or TERRIBLE ERRORS THAT I CAN REPRODUCE! ALL previous users of ACCESSES should read this file to at least the description of the current version of ACCESSES they are using. Lately, all of my changes are user requested. I love feedback! Very Advanced Windows 3.1 Program Manager's Startup folder TIP: To start up windows 3.1 the way you want, do something like the following (if this is not clear, call me): Delete Accesses.exe from your WIN.INI Load= line. Add "Accesses.exe !FolderNo10" to Program Manager's Startup folder. in Accesses !FolderNo10 you can have the following: !FolderName=Startup Folder !program1=PauseSecs 15 <- varies with computer speed !program2=PlaceDefault clock.exe !program3=StayOnTop clock.exe !program4=MinimizeWindow clock.exe !program5=PlaceDefault winfile.exe !program6=PlaceDefault progman.exe !program8=hidewindow drwatson.exe !program9=PlaceDefault dayalarm.exe !program10=PlaceDefault winoa386.mod !program11=StayOnTop winoa386.mod This assumes that the Program Manager's Startup folder launches: clock, winfile, drwatson, dayalarm, and a PIF file. If ANYONE has problems: Call Ted Wall: 510-484-4129 non-emergencies: 8am - 6pm (Pacific Time) Mon-Sun emergencies: call anytime. Changes thru 7/1/92 (Version 2.9e versus Version 2.9d) 1. Version 2.9d was released before its time to give a user a function he wanted. This release fixed the mouse click to stop multiple launched apps, and fixed Accesses following the mouse when clicked on the background screen. (Accidentially disabled in 2.9c only, sorry). 2. Fixed a problem Accesses had activating Full screen DOS Windows that I did not know that I had! I was doing some special processing for DOS windows so if the window was operating full screen but the procedure fouled full screen windows. I always run DOS windowed or using the Alt+key I've defined and the problem never shows in that mode. Extended the Honor System registration period so that user will use Accesses long enough to tell me about problems like this. I don't know how many users that I've turned off with this problem but I wish someone would have told me. Because I cannot tell whether an iconic DOS window will be full screen when it is activated, I have disabled some multiple window functions for the DOS window. This will cause very little inconvience for most users, but call me if something crops up that you wish would be fixed. Changes thru 6/10/92 (Version 2.9d versus Version 2.9c) 1. Saving the Arrange Dialog box settings and the Task List's "Split ON" setting. Changes thru 6/9/92 (Version 2.9c versus Version 2.9) 0. One version of Accesses is now compatible with Windows version 3.0 and 3.1; however many of the 3.1 functions are disabled in the 3.0 version, eg, Fonts, Drag Drop, etc. 1. Allowing the user to CANCEL all prior pending Alarms. *** IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM AN EARLIER VERSION OF ACCESSES **** 2. A Much more intelligent PauseSecs, MILLISEC_DELAY_WIN, and MILLISEC_DELAY_PIF has been written. (definitions in ACCESSES.HLP.) This will allow the user to lower the values and causes less timing conflicts. New values are respectively, 100 and 2000. Therefore: ***** USERS OF OLDER VERSIONS OF ACCESSES ******* should edit the "MILLISEC_DELAY" and "PIF mSec Delay" variables to the 100 and 2000 values or lower. I'm using 50 and 500. You can change these variables via Ctrl+Esc, Alt+U, C, N, [enter]. 3. Added Font changing functions (Win 3.1 mode). 4. Accesses now follows the mouse when clicked on the background screen. 5. Reversed the former action of the function keys under the Run Menu of the Task List. Now the function key will always launch the program and the Shift+Function key will switch to the program if it is already running and launch it if not already running. Changes thru 5/22/92 (Version 2.9b versus Version 2.9) 1. Technical, Changed Accelerator keys to Virtual Keys from ASCII. Changes thru 5/11/92 (Version 2.9 versus Version 2.8) 1. A safer compile option. Changes thru 5/1/92 (Version 2.8 versus Version 2.7) 1. Added a "StayOnTop" and "NotOnTop" Task List menu items and !folder commands. Also added a "PlaceDefault" !folder command for problem programs or to place programs started from the Program Manager's Startup folder (be sure to use PauseSecs for Program Manager's Startup folder). format: PlaceDefault clock.exe StayOnTop clock.exe See Accesses.hlp for more info. NOTE: the executable program name for a DOS Window is: winoa386.mod for 386/486 systems only 2. Discarding more global memory for low memory users. Changes thru 4/24/92 (Version 2.7 versus Version 2.6) 1. Added a ReStart Windows and ReBoot DOS to the Exit Windows menu item. WARNING Rebooting DOS from Windows can cause some memory managers to lock up! The Reboot DOS function is disabled in WIN 3.0. 2. Was tired of Accesses pasting DOCs into an existing Winword 2.0 program if one was already running. Accesses behaves better if you Ctrl+Esc, Alt+U, C, N, [enter] and then add "winword.exe,0" to the Run Only Run MDI program group. 3. A bizarre function: Click once on Accesses's popup window then press Alt+U will convert the clipboard text contents to upper case. Alt+L to lower case. Alt+P to proper case. Alt+S will strip formatting from WinWord text saved to the clipboard. Clicking the middle mouse button on the left 1/3 of the Accesses popup windows is the same as pressing Alt+L, middle 1/3 equals Alt+S, and right 1/3 equals Alt+U. 4. Hold the Left Mouse button down and Clicking the middle mouse button on the left, middle, and right 1/3 of the popup is the same as pressing F10, F11, and F12 respectively when the popup has focus. 5. If you select more than one file from another program and Drag Drop to Accesses, they are all launched (using WIN.INI extensions if they are not executables). Changes thru 4/20/92 (Version 2.6 versus Version 2.5) Mostly very minor changes were made in this version that are not covered in the list below. Many of the comments were from users. Accesses is fairly mature. I need user comments to continue with major improvements! 1. Accesses was not placing DOS windows properly for some users when the user launched DOS apps in WIN3.1 mode using a command line without the PIF file name. For example: accesses.exe 123.exe If you do not specify the PIF filename and then launch a DOS app thru Accesses, then the MILLISEC_DELAY_WIN variable for the Windows mode becomes significant. See "Millisecond Delay" using the Search button of the Accesses.hlp file. If to fast, then the window is not placed properly for you. 2. Users do not have to do anything special to hide Accesses or AccDrive for the WIN 3.1 version when using TRUE WIN 3.1 Screen Savers. 3. AccDrive Stay On Top now can be Turned Off in the WIN 3.1 version. Changes thru 3/26/92 (Version 2.5 versus Version 2.4) 1. Added Esc key to switch the focus away from Dayalarm when Accesses is running. Using the Esc key minimizes Dayalarm's interference with the Shft+Tab key combination. 2. Improved the avoidance of gaining focus by Accesses and AccDrive in the Windows 3.1 environment. Read the Screen Saver section of Accesses.hlp if you use a Win 3.0 Screen Saver. 3. Button Task List is now wider and shows more text in the List Box. 4. Added PauseSecs to the !Folder commands listed in 3/10/92 changes point 0. The format is PauseSecs 3. Changes thru 3/10/92 (Version 2.4 versus Version 2.3a) 0. I had a registered user request that Accesses hide windows when they are started. He wanted to hide primarily programs that always run as ICONS in the background. eg, DrWatson. And another user was frustrated that her Program Manager sometimes started as an icon. Therefore, added several commands so you can hide, restore, minimize, or maximize programs from any folder. Additionally, the programs do not have to be launched by the folder (but obviously, must have been previously launched). For example: !folderno5 1 c:\windows\drwatson.exe 2 HIDEWINDOW drwatson.exe 3 RESTOREWINDOW progman.exe (Also see "PauseSecs 3" in Version 2.5 and see StayOnTop NotOnTop in Version 2.8) In the above example, the user wants to launch and HIDE DrWatson's icon and then the user wants to make sure that the Program Manager (progman.exe) is not minimized or maximized when the !folder executes. The case-independent Commands are: HideWindow, RestoreWindow, MinimizeWindow, MaximizeWindow (and PauseSecs 3, see Version 2.5) Remember, you can have Accesses launch a folder when Accesses is 1st started. 1. Modified AccDrive so that the window displays the active background color properly. 2. Improved Accesses and AccDrive so that they avoid gaining the current Window focus even more. Accesses will still gain the focus sometimes and I will improve this when I get to the next major upgrade of Accesses. eg Ver 3. This sometimes requires the user to Shift+Tab more than once to switch to another window other than Accesses or AccDrive. (AccDrive causes most of the problem.) I have a 2 second delay built into Accesses where Accesses and AccDrive tries to ignore the the Shift+Tab key switch as much as they can in Windows 3.0. This means that if you switch between applications using the Shift+Tab key combination within 4 seconds of Accesses or AccDrives being activated, then you will probably switch to Accesses or AccDrive. The Windows 3.1 version is much better. (Windows 3.1 is not released to the public as of this issue.) 3. Added an input string to allow foreign users to input foreign days of the week for the popup display. See the setup for dayalarm.exe. Accesses will use the same "days of the week" string. 4. Added a tiny calendar display - DayAlarm.exe. The purpose of this calendar is to use the minimum amount of user resources so that the user can always have the calendar open. The calendar also contains a daily alarm that checks the daily alarms when the program first opens. DayAlarm is very primitive (to keep it very tiny); and, my final objective is to link DayAlarm to Accesses so an alarm on a particular day at a particular time will be activated. 5. Added an icon to AccDrives so users can launch it from Program Manager. Accesses still needs to be launched first however... 6. Changed the compiler to user MicroSoft's C7.0 and 286 instructions. This provides smaller and faster code. Now, All of the programs are compiled to operate only in the Standard and Enhanced modes of Windows. They will not launch in the Real Mode of Windows. Look under Program Manager's Help+About to see what mode you are operating in if you are not sure. 7. Added a ShiftKey status to the "Show Accesses on/off" menu item. When the Shift Key (or right mouse button) is held down then Accesses and AccDrives will not show in the "Show"+ "List All of the Above" Task List selection 8. Accesses "sticks" less on a missing floppy in a floppy drive. Only SIGNIFICANT changes ARE LISTED for the following: Changes thru 1/27/92 (Version 2.3 versus Version 2.2) Changes thru 1/16/92 (Version 2.2 versus Version 2.1) 7. Added ACCDRIVE.EXE, a registered user Requested pop-up displaying the Free Drive Space. This program is NOT self contained and must be launched with Accesses. This was done to minimize using your windows resources. Double click on the AccDrive pop-up window for options. 12. Added an "Auto Insert" check box on the Run Dialog box to give the user control and to indicate when Accesses will insert the filename selected in the Filename List box to the program name listed in the Run edit text box. Much, much nicer now... Checked or grayed means that the dialog box is will be auto inserting or has already auto inserted. Not checked means that the user is over riding the default insert mode. Basically, the Run Dialog box is complicated but makes much more sense to the user and fewer errors are made due to this addition. Also functions very well with the Drag Drop version of Accesses. 14. Accesses is not now showing hidden windows that do not have at least a minimize box, maximize box, or a thickframe window. I was having too many users getting into trouble showing and not understanding hidden windows. Rarely will a window cause a problem when shown that passes this test. This isn't taking much away from you. If you really want to see what Accesses isn't showing press Ctrl+Esc, Alt+S, Shift+D. However, you cannot do anything with the windows shown this way since Accesses cancels the Shift+D as soon as the Task List list box is filled. This does mean, however, that Accesses will not Hide a Window that does not have a minimize box, maximize box, or a thickframe window since it cannot show it. If this causes a problem, call me and we can add a small INI editable switch (switch is there already, I just want to understand why you want to do this). Only the "Undocumented" changes are listed below for the earlier versions: Changes thru 1/8/92 (Version 2.1 and 2.0 versus Version 1.1A) 9. NOTE, THE FOLLOWING HAS LIMITED DOCUMENTATION... (A "semi-undocumented" procedure?) Established a primitive "start a program without a filename in a user defined directory" function. The format for starting a program in a particular directory is as follows: accesses.exe notepad.exe*d:\textfile\ or when running from Accesses RUN PROGRAMS dialog box or adding to Accesses Menu, the same example is as follows: notepad.exe*d:\textfile\ (You don't have to include accesses.exe when running the program from Accesses.) Where the directory follows the program name and is separated by an asterisk. You cannot enter a filename for this function. The last backslash is required since Accesses will not append the last backslash. If you enter a filename, Accesses always starts the program in the directory of the filename. Otherwise, Accesses will always start the program in the directory that the program was launched from if you do not use the *drive:\directory\ or enter a filename when launching programs. eg. If you launch a program from Program Manager using the following command line: accesses.exe notepad.exe then Accesses will launch that program from the directory specified by Program Manager or from the directory that Program Manager is currently in depending on what you specified in the Program Manager options of Program Manager. If you never run Norton Desktop, then you can delete all the above names from this list. To save a window to this list press Ctrl+Esc, then select the window name from the Task List display, then press Alt+U, V, Alt+F, Alt+S. You will have to manually delete the Excluded Window Title from the [ExcludeWindowNames] if you ever want to re-include a window that was saved to the Accesses.ini file for Exclusion. To delete a Window Title from the ExcludeWindowNames list, select Ctrl+Esc, Alt+U, V, then press the 'Edit List' button located at the Lower left of this dialog box. Version 1.1A released 12/21/91 Version 1.0 released 12/11/91 _______________________________________ If programmers want to use Accesses to place a window using the DEFAULTSIZE settings in Accesses, post: PostMessage(hWndAccesses, 273, 201, (LONG) 5678); You can find the handle of hWndAccesses from: hWndAccesses= FindWindow((LPSTR) "AccessesTASKMAN", NULL); or from programs like CMDPOST you can default to Accesses.ini default settings to place windows by using: if WinExist("z Accesses") then IntControl (23, IntControl(21,"z Accesses",0,0,0),273,201, 5678)