Except for Registered User Requested bug fixes or bugs that I find, the revisions to Accesses will be slowing down until I get a new issue of Archives developed. As far as I am aware, Accesses will satisfy every need that was requested. If you are a registered user and you wish that Accesses would do something that it doesn't concerning running or placing programs, call me. It probably does it already. CALL ME, CALL ME, CALL ME... I'm not lonely. I need to know what you need. I'm in this to make $$$$$$ and your in this to save time and have fun with Windows. A $2 phone call, at your expense, benefits us both. I'm amazed that people will spend $1000 -$3000 on a computer system and nothing on phone calls.... Changes thru 1/16/92 (Version 2.2 versus Version 2.1) 1. Added a Sort the Task List. For users who have already initialized Accesses, their Task List maybe unsorted and will have to press the following keys to resort their Task List: Ctrl+Esc, Alt+S, / (the slash key). 2. Saving user changes before reading the INI file during some of the dialog box functions. I am still minimizing INI writes, I dislike programs that are always writing to my disk. However some of the user's settings (eg Show Attached) were not saved until the end of the session and these settings would be reset to the INI file when the user executed some of the major ini file update functions during a windows session. eg. Saving the DEFAULTSIZES of windows. For some functions, I am writing the revisions and then rereading the whole INI file to reorganize Accesses' data. 3. No one reported an error in the Run Only One copy of a program, I guess because it worked when the program was launched from another program. But it did not work when the program was launched thru Accesses! Works now. I didn't notice it either for the last few revisions. 4. Redefined the startup menu so that it matches my current preferred configuration for Accesses. The Word Processor is assigned to F2, Text Editor to F3, and the File Manager to F4. The Accesses.hlp explains the benefits of this assignment in the Mouse Clicking functions and Tutor. 5. Stopped saving program names in a Folder when the limits of 20 Parent programs were found. 6. Clearing the modem DTR signal after a phone call. I didn't notice that it wasn't clearing when the phone call function was 1st added. 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 from Accesses Run+Free Drive Space menu on the Task List. This was done to minimize using your windows resources. Do not even add the program to Program Manager. It doesn't even have its own icon. Double click on the AccDrive pop-up window for options. Setting the "Read Drive Every (so many) Seconds" to too small a value in the Windows 3.0 mode will noticeably slow Windows. Every 10 seconds in Windows 3.0 for a 20 mHz 386 computer seems acceptable. 8. Deleted an unnecessary check for VGA or better monitors in WM_PAINT. Unfortunately, this means that you will have to adjust the iPixelUpDown by -1 to get exactly the same display if you have a VGA or better monitor and you manually tweaked the iPixelUpDown variable in the Accesses.ini file. 9. Changed the Name of Accesses as shown in the Task List to "z Accesses". This way Accesses is at the bottom of the Task List Display. The AccDrive window (the newly developed Free Disk Space pop-ups) is also named "z AccDrive" for the same reason. Then Added an option to exclude all Accesses and AccDrive windows from the Task List displays under the Setup Menu item. It is called "Exclude 'z Acc' on/off". 10. Determining the proper Free System Resources for Win 3.1 users. (eg. Using the GetFreeSystemResources for Win 3.1) Though, Still compiling Accesses using Win 3.0 SDK. Cheating a little here... 11. Still more improvements to the installation and de-installation of Accesses for the 1st time user. I interviewed people who didn't even like Accesses to find what they wanted. 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. 13. Discovered and Fixed an error where the correct Focus was not being established when the user would open the Task List and then close the Task List by mouse clicking on another window. The symptoms were, for example, WinWord's cursor would not blink while the user could still move the cursor and the Notepad cursor in would not even exist on some Windows systems. My error and not Windows. 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). 15. Speeded Accesses by carrying about 4K more in non-discardable Global memory. Accesses still minimizes your resource memory but I had users request Accesses to be faster. Now, Accesses is as fast as your Windows' memory for the Task List and Run Dialog box options. Changes thru 1/8/92 (Version 2.1 and 2.0 versus Version 1.1A) 1. Added phone calling functions where Accesses now accesses a user configured phone list. 2. Fixed the Esc key switch to other apps. I fouled this when I rushed a fix for Norton Desktop before Christmas. Sorry... 3. Completed the Norton Desktop functions for Accesses for the Norton Desktop users. If you need something else, let me know. 4. Closing Accesses on a WM_ENDSESSION instead of WM_QUERYENDSESSION, especially since Accesses is a Task manager. 5. Eliminated switches from a switch if running statement. eg Winword.exe /n would fail the switch if running statement in the prior version of Accesses. 6. Built a minor function to launch the user's menu if it was not running when the pop-up window is Left Mouse Double Clicked for the CMDPOST users and for other menus that can be closed without exiting Windows. 7. Fixed the user defined save window position for Top ½, Bottom ½, etc. Worked in Ver 1.0 but fouled in Ver 1.1A, again Christmas rush. 8. Allow the user to change the name of the "Show+Middle Right" and "Show+Middle Left" menu items of the Task List. This way the user can replace the "Show+Middle Right" with, for example, a "Show+Above Icons" menu item. 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. 10. Added an "ExcludeWindowNames" application heading to the Accesses.ini file. This section allows the user to add up to 10 Window Titles to exclude from all Task List displays. This is especially useful to the Norton Desktop users or to those folks that run programs that have hidden windows that the user would never want to show. Another example, if you get tired of Dr.Watson's dialog box popping open when you select the Restore All Windows function from Accesses, you can "ExcludeWindowName" from all Task List displays using this function. Accesses can show hidden windows on your system and you may be surprised by the Hidden Windows you never knew about. Accesses has only one window on your system and this is called "Accesses". The other hidden windows you'll see are from other programs. One that surprised me was Winhelp.exe. When you close Winhelp.exe it is actually hiding itself (my Winhelp Version 3.07 is doing this.) The following programs are automatically added to this list: [ExcludeWindowNames] 01="Norton Task Manager" 02="TheUlitmateMrSlate" 03="QAddeRegName" 04="Srvr" 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. 11. Improved the installation of Accesses for the 1st time user and improved the de-installation of the SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI changes for the unregistered user. I was asking too much from the user that was "trying out Accesses" in prior versions. 12. Fixed an infinite loop if a WIN.INI extension was incorrectly included Accesses.exe but not another program name following. eg. txt=accesses.exe ^.txt will now open the Run Dialog Box when a *.TXT file is double clicked on from another program like File Manager or Norton Desktop. 13. Fixed the "Delete Document from Title" check box on the Save one Window Position dialog box. 14. Changed the "Keep dialog box open" check box on the Phone Call dialog box to always enabled for user input. 15. Added a "Destroy a Task function" where Accesses can Destroy the applications one at a time so you can monitor what is happening. However, temporary files, handles etc. may be left open if the program does its cleanup work on a WM_CLOSE command verses the WM_DESTROY. It is up to the user to determine if all is going well for each case. I HIGHLY recommend that you use the 'End Tasks' to normally close windows. Programs will not notify you if you forgot to save a file or normally not of anything else if your use the Destroy Task function! Communications programs may leave a port open, etc. 16. Added a switch that will Maximize the application after it is launched and placed in the user defined position. (the switch is ignored when launching !folders) 17. Added a dialog box to edit the DEFAULTSIZE table so you can find "almost duplicate" Titles and can discover why something is being sized the way it is. 18. Added a "New and Improved" (sounds like I'm selling soap) dialog box to edit the !Folders and the Run User List found on the Run dialog box. 19. Fixed an error in the Phones, where Accesses would terminate if the user made a call and the call was busy, then the user tried to add a phone # to the list. 20. Added an "Add/Subtract Pixel Width" and an "Add/Subtract Pixel Height" variable to Accesses. This number will adjust the width and height of the pop-up either + or - pixels for those who want to tweak the pop-up size to absolute perfection. These numbers can be changed only using a text editor like notepad. The format for the keyword is: PixelUpDown=iTextUpDown,iWidthPopup,iHeightPopup and an example is: PixelUpDown=2,-12,-3 See Accesses.hlp for more... 21. The interaction of the 'List Apps on/off', 'List Icons on/off', and 'List Hidden on/off' is changed and added a 'List All of Above' menu selection to the Show Menu of the Task List. The changes should be obvious and considered an improvement in understanding. ie. when you select one option, the others are selected or de-selected automatically to avoid the user from having to keep opening this menu item to select or de-select Hidden, or Apps, or Icons. 22. For the Run Program dialog box: Fixed the Run User List selection so that you can include sizing information for a program in the Run User list and that that sizing information is appended to the document selected in the Run program with filename list box. 23. Added a Repeat the Run Dialog box to be used for launching multiple programs not in a !folder. 24. Found and Fixed a fatal error when a document was launched with a program that was in the root directory... 25. Removed the Delete key option to close Accesses to avoid accidental closing of Accesses. 26. Compiled a Version of Accesses that will receive WM_DROPFILES messages for Versions of Windows 3.0 where users have SHELL.DLL and to Beta test with Windows 3.1 beta. This version of Accesses is stored in ACCE2D.ZIP (version 2.2 dated 1/18/92) 27. Fixed a Registration problem where a Registered user could not register Accesses in Win 3.1 Final Beta Release. Changes thru 12/21/91 (Version 1.0 versus Version 1.1A) 1. Found an error in identifying the Norton DLL Windows that would cause the window to be accidentially hidden. Changes thru 12/20/91 (Version 1.0 versus Version 1.1) 1. Fixed the problem with Norton Desktop where the User Menu name could not be found. Also prevented a similar problem with other "Menu" programs. NORTON USERS, please read NORTON.TXT. 2. After buying Norton's Desktop, I Added functions that support and greatly enhance Norton Desktop. These functions are transparent although still available to non-Norton Desktop users. eg. Displaying only "Children" windows under the Show Window functions of Accesses. 3. Collecting directory information for programs that are launched thru Accesses from another application without a document. When a document is launched I am starting that program in the document's directory. 4. Fixed a fatal Windows exit when the user answered NO to the very 1st question on Startup. 5. Added an undo to the taskman.exe=accesses.exe line in the SYSTEM.INI file. This question is asked every time Accesses is closed for Unregistered Users. 6. Added a section to Accesses.hlp covering the Norton Desktop features. 7. Added a Selection mode for displaying just windows that are "Children" on the Task List dialog box. "Children" includes DLL windows of Norton Desktop and Pop-up windows of any program where the Parent is Enabled for user input. 8. Increased the number of Windows that Accesses will process from 50 to 100 during a single Windows session after seeing the number of Windows that Norton Desktop will open. apps in the Top Left, Bottom Left, Top Right, and Bottom Right positions in the respective sequence. 15. The x,y,w,h data are now optional for DESKTOPx keywords in the ACCESSES.INI file. The DEFAULTSIZEx keyword is used for the program if a default size is listed in the ACCESSES.INI file. 16. Eliminated the upper right as a default, Default Position for applications that were not listed in the DEFAULTSIZEx keywords. 17. Added a Ctrl+Shift+Esc key combination to bring up a run dialog box. 18. Changed the cursor to display the Double Mouse Click function to be executed when the cursor is over the Pop-up window. 19. Add one more variable to the Accesses DEFAULTSIZES to: 0=Use Max after Run setting 1=minimize the application after placing 2=restore the application after placing 3=maximize the application after placing Add this to the folder stuff Can be edited from the Edit - RunUserList and Edit- DefaultSize list