Contents
CustWin 1.0 Help

Copyright © 1994 Bradley P. Heintz

A Preston Software Production

Topics:

What good is this program?

Main Menu

Mode Dialog

Wallpaper Dialog

Sounds Dialog

About

Help

About CustWin 1.0

About Shareware

How to Register This Product - and the Free Stuff You Get!

License

Technical Support

Other Preston Software Products


Preston Budget Analyzer
The Preston Budget Analyzer

Scheduled Release Date:  July 1994
Price:  To Be Announced

Many high-end budget programs take care of your stocks and mutual funds, 401k retirement plans, and calculate the interst on your mortgage.  The fact is, though, that most people, and many computer owners, simply don't have to deal with these high-powered financial issues, and have no desire to pay for features they don't need in a budgeting program.

If you do have such needs, there are a hundred products on the market for you.  But what about those of us who ask questions like, "Where is my rent coming from this month?", "Where did my money go this month?", or if we're lucky, "What am I going to do with this extra cash?"

The Preston Budget Analyzer is made to deal with financial issues that the average person faces day-by-day.

The Preston Budget Analyzer, despite its humble goals, is a full-featured application, with drag-and-drop functionality, pre-made budget categories like Monthly Expenses, Regular Income, Cash-On-Hand, and Outstanding Debts, extensive configurability, and integration with other applications, such as the Preston PIM or PIM for Students, PrestonNotes, and the Preston Legal Pad.

Registered users of other Preston Software products, of course, get the usual 10% discount off the purchase price of this software.


Main Menu
Main Menu Selections

Mode:

Use this menu item to change whether system settings are randomized at each startup, or if they remain permanent.  Also, you may randomize your system settings at any time using this dialog box.

Wallpaper:

Use this menu item to change the picture on your desktop.  Choosing this item will cause the wallpaper dialog to appear.

Sounds:

Use this menu to change the sounds for various system events.  Selecting this from the main menu will cause a list of configurable events to drop down.  Choose the sound you wish to customize and the Sounds Dialog will appear.

About:

This menu will pop up a message box with a little information about the program.  For more detailed information, see the "About" topic under this help facility.

Help:

Choosing "Help" will give you this help facility.

See also:

Mode Dialog

Wallpaper Dialog

Sounds Dialog

About this application

Help


Mode Dialog
The Mode Dialog

This dialog box pops up when you choose Mode from the main menu.

There are two checkboxes, one for wallpaper, one for sounds.  When a box is checked, the corresponding system attribute is randomized at every startup from a list you define.  You use the Wallpaper and Sounds dialogs to define these lists.

There are also two buttons.  The Close button simply closes the box, and saves your settings.  The Randomize button runs the randomization application (CWRAND.EXE) and re-scrambles the system attributes you have chosen.

See Also:

Wallpaper Dialog

Sounds Dialog


Wallpaper Dialog

The Wallpaper Dialog, which pops up when you choose Wallpaper from the main menu, allows you to view .BMP picture files on your desktop, to update the system to display the wallpaper you want, and to choose a list of picture files from which a new wallpaper will be chosen randomly at each startup.

Directory Listbox:

The list box to the left lists .BMP files in the directory you chose to store them in when you installed this program.  (If you did not install this program using the included install utility, you should do so.)  Double-clicking an entry in this list box or clicking the button below this list box will cuase the selected entry to be placed in the list box to the right, adding it to the pool of files from which the desktop wallpaper may be chosen randomly at startup.  Right-clicking this listbox will have the same effect as the Test Button (see below).

Selection Listbox:

This list box lists files that you have selected to be chosen from at startup.  Double-clicking an item in the list box or clicking the button below the list box will cause the selected file to be removed from this list box, thus removing it from the pool of files from which the wallpaper is chosen at startup.  If you have a favorite image you'd like to see more often than the rest, you may enter it multiple times in the list box to increase teh frequency with which it is chosen by the randomization utility.  You may select a maximum of 50 files.

OK:

Clicking this button will exit the Wallpaper Dialog and save your selections.

Cancel:

Clicking this button will exit the Wallpaper Dialog without saving your selections, leaving things as they were before you entered the dialog.

Test:

Clicking this button will display the .BMP file currently selected in the Directory Listbox on the desktop without updating the system and telling it to use that image for wallpaper at the next startup.

Update:

Clicking this button will display the .BMP file currently selected in the Directory Listbox on the desktop, and will update the system configuration, so that this picture will be displayed as wallpaper at your next startup.


Sounds Dialog

When you choose Sounds from the main menu, you are given a popup menu containing a list of system events.  By selecting one of these events, you choose which event's sounds you will customize with the Sounds Dialog.

This dialog allows you to listen to .WAV files, to update the system to use the event sounds you want, and to choose a list of sound files from which the sound for your chosen event will be randomized at each startup.

Directory Listbox:

The list box to the left lists .WAV files in the directory you chose to store them in when you installed this program.  (If you did not install this program using the included install utility, you should do so.)  Double-clicking an entry in this list box or clicking the button below this list box will cause the selected entry to be placed in the list box to the right, adding it to the pool of files from which sounds may be chosen for your desired event at startup.  Right-clicking this listbox will have the same effect ast the Test Button (see below).

Selection Listbox:

This list box lists files that you have selected for this event.  The CustWin Randomizer (CWRAND.EXE) will choose the sound for your selected event randomly from this list.  Double-clicking and item in the list box or clicking the button below the list box will cause the selected file to be removed from the list.  You may select up to 50 files.

A tip:  If you have a favorite sound you'd like to hear more often than the others, you may enter it multiple times in the list box.

OK:

Clicking this button will exit the Sounds Dialog and save your selections.

Cancel:

Clicking this button will exit the Sounds Dialog without saving your selections, leaving things as they were before you entered the dialog.

Test:

Clicking this button will play the .WAV file currently selected in the Directory Listbox without updating teh system and telling it to use that sound as the selected event sound.

Update:

Clicking this button will play the .WAV file currently selected in the Directory Listbox on the left, and will update the system configuration, so that this sound will be used as the selected event's noise at your next startup.


About
About CustWin 1.0

CustWin 1.0  - The Friendlier Windows Customization Tool
Copyright © 1994 by Bradley P. Heintz
A Preston Software Production

What good is this program?

This program is meant for people who spend long hours using Windows and get bored with the same old configuration, but are reluctant to deal with Control Panel's clumsy interface.  It is also meant to offer configuration options that Control Panel doesn't, such as randomization of wallpaper and system noises.

Although I've seen other programs claiming to fulfill the same purpose, I have yet to be satisfied by them - either they only offered a portion of the functionality I wanted, or they were buggy, or the interface was just as clumsy or worse than Control Panel's.  My goal was to create a quality piece of software, as bug-free as possible, to fill this niche better than any other I had seen.

I hopeyou find CustWin 1.0 useful, and thereby take part in the future I have planned for this program.

Future Features and Directions

This version, unfortunately, wasn't able to include the color options.  In version 2.0 I will include options that will allow the user to conifure all the system colors, including those hard-to-get-at help system colors, perhaps even going as far as to allow an extended Control Panel-type color scheme arrangement.

Also in the next version, I will be including the ability to configure your screensavers, and have a new one chosen randomly at each startup.

My goals for CustWin 3.0 are a little fuzzier, but I would like to give users the ability to start changing the look of the whole Windows interface - do you prefer the look of OS/2, or X?  How would you like to be able to define your own maximize and minimize buttons?  How about having a 3-D title bar?
A custom cursor?  The possiblities are really almost endless, and I expect them to be even moreso when I port this application to Windows 4.0.

Your Ideas

One thing I love is to get ideas and suggestions from my users.  If you have an idea about how to improve this program (even if it's just something cosmetic), or there's some other part of Windows you'd like to configure, please let me know!  I'll do my best to work it into a future version, and if you are the first to suggest something I haven't thought of, you'll earn a free registered copy of the next version, complete with freebies, so don't be shy!

Thanks and Praise

I must first thank my fiancee for tolerating all the time I've spent if front of this silly box attempting to make a program you'd enjoy and find useful.  Her support is instrumental in motivating me and maintaining my sanity.

Thanks to Borland for continuing to make the best language products around.

And copious thanks and praise to my beta testers.  They worked out the kinks I missed, so that you wouldn't have to.


Help
Help Menu Item

Well, if you're reading this, chances are that you understand how to use the help menu item.  When you choose it, you get this help facility.


Preston Legal Pad

Available NOW!
Price:  $5 by itself, available free with registration of 	many products.

To my thinking, the legal pad is one of the greatest inventions of our century, no matter what you think of lawyers.  Before I wrote this app, my home was full of them.  I used them for jotting down notes, to-do lists, budgets, rough calculations, and any number of other things.

When my fiancee started complaining about my cherised reams of 8½"x14" cluttering the place, though, something had to be done.  Thus, the Legal Pad was born.

It's a text editor for notes that won't fit on the PrestonNotes pad.  It sorts lists of
names or other text, sorts and adds columns of numbers, saves your work for later, and minimizes to an icon when you need it out of your way.  It integrates seamlessly with the Preston Budget Analyzer and the Preston PIM and PIM for Students, allowing you to condense prioritized to-do lists and budget breakdowns to an intuitive, easy-to-read form.  It even lets you automatically pop up a to-do list or any document you want at startup.


About Shareware

Shareware is the way more and more people will get their software in the future.  If you are going to use this application, you should know how it works:

I, the author, have made an application.  It is copyrighted, but I allow you to use it under the terms of a trial license.  If you find the program useful, you are bound by law to pay for it, as described under the "How to Register" topic.

It is this method of distribution that makes a product shareware.  It saves me the hassle and you the expense of packaging, advertising and the overhead of retail distribution.

Of course, this arrangement where I trust you to pay out of the goodness of your heart is, for all intents and purposes, quite unenforcable.  So, to entice you to pay the registration fee and reward me for my work, I offer you numerous freebies and discounts on my other products.  See the "How to Register" topic for more information on the great stuff you get when you register this app.

See Also:

License

How to Register


How to Register
How to Register This Product

First, here's what you get for your money:

» The latest version of CustWin and the CustWin Randomizer on disk or by email.

» FREE - you get PrestonNotes, one of those really useful and popular sticky-note simulators, and the Preston Legal Pad, a simulated legal pad on your desktop, along with notes about how to use the special features of each for maximum productivity.

» FREE - one update of the program you registered.

» A 10% discount on all future registrations of Preston Software products, and eligibility in future discount and package promotions.

» Periodic notices about updates, new products, and promotions.

» All the technical support you need, either via email or paper mail.

How to Register:

Send a check or money order for 14.95 United States dollars ($14.95 US) to:

Brad Heintz
1085 Commonwealth Ave Suite #192
Boston, MA 02215
USA

Include either your electronic mail or paper mail address to receive your copy of the registered program.  If you choose email, be sure your mailbox can accept a large uuencoded, pkzipped file.

If you choose regular mail, please add $4US to cover shipping and handling costs.  If you live outside the US, please add $8 US to your order.

See Also:

License

Technical Support


Other Products
Preston Software Products

Click on any topic below to see information about that product:

Preston Budget Analyzer

Preston Personal Information Manager

Preston Personal Information Manger for Students

Preston Legal Pad

PrestonNotes

T-Shirts


License
License Terms

You are legally entitled to use both CustWin 1.0 and the CustWin Randomizer 1.0 for a period of 30 days.  After that, you are required by law to pay the registration fee.

Now, there's really no way to enforce this in practice, but I try to provide incentives that you'll find interesting and worthwhile.  To see all the great stuff you get when you register, see the "How to Register" topic.

How to Register


Technical Support

If you need help installing or using this program, I may be reached at any of the following places:

Email:

PrestonSW@aol.com  (preferred)
heintz@buphy.bu.edu  (only if you must)

On America Online:

PrestonSW

Via United States mail:

Brad Heintz
1085 commonwealth Ave. Suite #192
Boston, MA 02215
USA


PrestonNotes

Available NOW!
Price:  $5 by itself, available free with registration of 	many products.

PrestonNotes is yet another of those cute little apps that simulates the popular, miniature, self-adhering notepads that most of us have on our desks and around our homes.

How many of those, though, will actively remind you of something before you leave?  Or automatically pop up at a certain time?  Have you ever tried to cut-and-paste the paper notes?

For all its simplicity, PrestonNotes is a serious productivity tool.  You can write or edit short notes with the full-featured editor, and then you can stick them to your desktop, full-sized or iconized.  You can set them to pop up at a certain time, or to remind you to do something when you shut down Windows.

For example, I spend most of my time at home on the computer, developing software and taking care of business.  If need to start dinner by a certain time, PrestonNotes reminds me.  If I go out to run errands, PrestonNotes reminds me to take the outgoing mail with me when I shut down my computer before leaving.

This miniature application is fun and very useful, and integrate seamlessly into apps such as the Preston Budget Analyzer and the Preston PIM or PIM for Students.


Preston PIM

Scheduled Release Date:  July 1994
Price:  To Be Announced

This full-featured Personal Information Manager will include automatic prioritization, drag-and-drop ease of use, telecommunications features, and integration with other Preston Software products, such as the Preston Budget Analyzer, PrestonNotes, and the Preston Legal Pad.

Registered users of any other Preston Software product will, of course, receive the usual 10% discount on the purchase price of the Preston PIM.


Preston PIM for Students

Scheduled Release Date:  July 1994
Price:  To Be Announced

The market is full of PIM's for business people and those wishing to organize their personal lives, but there are comparatively few products that appreciate the needs and challenges of a students lifestyle.  The Preston PIM for Students will do its best to fill that gap.

This full-featured Personal Information Manager will include automatic prioritization, automatic class association and grade calculation, drag-and-drop ease of use, telecommunications features, and integration with other Preston Software Products, such as the Preston Budget Analyzer, PrestonNotes, and the Preston Legal Pad.

Registered users of any other Preston Software product will, of course, receive the usual 10% discount on the purchase price of the Preston PIM for Students.


T-Shirts
Preston Software T-Shirts

Preston Software, besides making quality, affordable Windows software, also offers a variety of quality, 100% cotton T-shirts with messages like, "The Imminent Death of Commercial Software is Predicted, " "I Support Shareware," "Hack Naked" (for the die-hard programmer in the family), and the Preston Software logo.

All T-shirts are $12 apiece, $10 apiece for 10 or more.  Shipping & handling is an extra $4 for one shirt, $3 per shirt for 2 or more, $2 per shirt for 10 or more.
International orders pay $5 per shirt for shipping and handling.  (All prices are US dollars.)

For FREE Information:

To see the graphics you'll get on your top-quality T-shirts, just send your mailing address with a request for T-shirt information to any of the email or postal addresses you find under the registration and technical support topics.