Calypso 2.1 Win95-style shell for Windows 3.x ============================================== Greetings, fellow 16-bit user. This program was designed to give Windows 3.1 a facelift and a new lease of life. In fact, after you've installed it as the shell, you might not even recognize your old Windows. Never mind though, because I'm sure you'll be pleased with your new interface -- millions of Windows95 users can't be wrong! Quick start ----------- Copy all the files in the package into a new directory (NOT the Windows directory), then run CALYPSO.EXE. Check out the help file for more details. What's new in v2.1 ------------------ Main enhancements Tree view -- get around the disk quicker Aliases -- shortcuts that live in files List view -- another look for icon windows New taskbar -- looks more authentic and fits windows around it New Start menu -- optionally 3D with icons Lots more options -- look in the dialog No parameters -- well, they're gone so you can't see them Smaller improvements Faster loading (with old style Start menu) Lower memory usage Icon browser Drag and drop target box Souped up graphics Slight menu restructuring Improved Find dialog Shutdown dialog And lots more. 2.0 didn't really get off the ground because it forgot to free memory and resources after rebuilding the Start menu, so I quickly replaced it! Upgrading --------- If you are using anything earlier than 1.0, clear you Calypso directory before installing. Users of 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 can keep both INI files but it is recommended that you use the supplied ones as a base to build your desktop again. Delete CALTASK.EXE if you are using it. The supplied file TASKBAR.EXE is required for this version. Last minute notes ----------------- The help compiler's been compiling for the last half hour, so I'll have to stick extra stuff in here... 1. In CALYPSO.INI, there is a [patches] section containing the line FillMenu=1. This colours the 3D Start menu in light grey. If your menu colour (set in Control Panel) is already light grey, set FillMenu=0 to skip the fill and slightly speed up the drawing. 2. To expand and collapse branches of the tree view without updating an attached window, use the right mouse button. 3. If you right click on the System window's minimize or maximize buttons, Calypso will shut down, because it is equivalent to double clicking on the close box. 4. Adventurous types can use Borland's Resource Workshop to hack at the bitmaps in the EXE files. You won't find the Windows logo for the Start button because it is extracted from Program Manager at run-time and compressed with a few blits. 5. So you MUST have Program Manager in your Windows directory. The main Calypso program looks for the Windows and MS-DOS icons in progman.exe. 6. Don't switch to Calypso using Alt-Tab or the Task Manager, because that seems to trigger the last shortcut accessed. Third party task managers and taskbars are generally OK. 7. If you try to read the directory of an audio CD, you won't get very far...try and manually eject the CD if Calypso hangs. 8. The outline component used to edit the Start menu is beginning to feel rather slow once you have several nested menus. I'll replace it with the much faster tree view code in the next update. 9. Windows Help seems to stretch the graphics in the help file when it is viewed with large fonts. Use a small fonts for best results. 10. Click on the screenshots and buttons in the help file to get popup help. Believe it or not, some people didn't know what to do when faced with just a picture of a dialog box... 11. Wherever you are expected to type in a filename, you can usually double click on the edit box to browse for files or folders, so please don't complain that there are no browse buttons! 12. In the icon browser, when you double click to choose a new icon file, you are presented with the standard "open file" dialog. The combo box where you type the filename contains previously accessed files, so there's no need to hunt around for the popular ones like PROGMAN.EXE. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Calypso is Freeware, and provided "as is" with no warranty, express or implied, including but not limited to, fitness for a particular purpose. You may freely distribute copies of this program, provided that it remains in its complete form with all support, documentation, and configuration files. Distributors are only permitted to charge a nominal fee for media costs, handling and shipping.