------------------------------------------------------------------- QuickColor 2.5 README February 20, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) Copyright EnTech Taiwan, 1996-97 HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT ======================== To view readme.txt on screen in Notepad, maximize the Notepad window. To print readme.txt, open it in Notepad or another word processor, and then on the File menu, click Print. CONTENTS ======== LICENSE AND REGISTRATION SUPPORT QUICKCOLOR FUNCTIONALITY UNDER WINDOWS NT 4.0 QUICKCOLOR FUNCTIONALITY UNDER WINDOWS 95 INSTALLING QUICKCOLOR NOTES ON SPECIFIC CHIPSETS UNDER WINDOWS 95 TIPS AND TRICKS KNOWN LIMITATIONS RELEASE NOTES LICENSE AND REGISTRATION ======================== QuickColor is shareware. You must read and accept the terms detailed in the license.txt file before you can use QuickColor. An order form is provided in the file order.txt for the purpose of registering this software. SUPPORT ======= QuickColor support is available from EnTech Taiwan via Internet e-mail addressed to entechtaiwan@msn.com. Program updates are made available over the Internet at http://www.entechtaiwan.com. Registration keys which are issued apply to all future releases of QuickColor. QUICKCOLOR FUNCTIONALITY UNDER WINDOWS NT 4.0 ============================================= QuickColor is designed primarily for use with Windows NT 4.0, and has been tested successfully with most of the drivers bundled by Microsoft with the retail release of NT, as well as with a handful of drivers recently released by various chiphouses. Since NT 4.0 supports refresh rate settings, and can change resolution and color depth on-the-fly, the main advantage of QuickColor is a more logical and convenient approach to exploiting these inherent features, combined with support for over 500 monitors and the potential to associate programs and shortcuts with specific display settings. While not particularly elegant and certainly not intended as a Windows shell program, QuickColor associations provide additional flexibility to your Windows desktop that can be hooked into by other programs, or linked directly to standard Windows shortcuts and/or Task Bar Start menu items. Like Microsoft's QuickRes utility, QuickColor is implemented as an icon with a popup menu on the system tray. But instead of offering a menu listing all possible resolution and color depth options, QuickColor features a configuration dialog box, where you can select a monitor type, and define five prime "presets" and up to twenty shortcut associations, which consist of resolution, color depth and refresh rate settings. The configuration dialog box is also, arguably, better organized than the native NT Display Properties sheet: with a certain monitor and at a certain color depth only some resolutions are supported, and at these color depths and resolutions only some refresh rates are supported. An optional floating toolbar, amongst other options, is also available. QUICKCOLOR FUNCTIONALITY UNDER WINDOWS 95 ========================================= Except for monitor type, which QuickColor reads from the Windows 95 system registry, QuickColor functionality under Windows 95 is identical to NT 4.0, provided your graphics card is implemented with a standard BIOS and you are using a driver which has been certified by Microsoft for use with DirectX under Windows 95. QuickColor has been successfully tested with the following types of graphics cards, using standard BIOS and driver releases from the chiphouse, as well as drivers written by Microsoft and included with the retail release of Windows 95, the OEM release of OSR2, and DirectX 2.0 and 3.0: * 3Dlabs - Permedia/Permedia NT * Alliance ProMotion - 3210/6410/6422/AT24 * Avance Logic - 2228/2301/2302 * Cirrus Logic - 542x/543x/544x/546x/548x * S3/2d - 911/924/801/805/928/864/964/732/764/765/775/785/868/968 * S3/3d - 325/375/385/988 * Trident - 8900,9440,9660,9680 * Tseng Labs - ET4000/W32i/W32p/ET6000 Refer to the section on specific chipsets below for any further information and caveats. NB: Under Windows 95, if you receive an "Error starting program" message which says that "A required .DLL file, DDRAW.DLL, was not found." then you need, at a minimum, to download and install the DDRAW20.ZIP file from the QuickColor page of our web site at http://www.entechtaiwan.com. (The error message also suggests that your display driver is badly outdated...) INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING QUICKCOLOR ===================================== QuickColor software consists of just two files - QCOLOR.EXE and QCOLOR.DAT - and features what we hope is a reasonably intuitive drag-and-drop interface, with hints. The QCOLOR.DAT file is a simple ASCII text file, which contains monitor definitions for NT and default refresh rate settings for Windows 95 which you should feel free to edit. To install QuickColor, you must have a PC running Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 95. These instructions assume that you have already successfully installed the very latest display drivers provided by your graphics card manufacturer or by Microsoft with DirectX (for Windows 95). To install QuickColor software, carry out the following steps: 1. Right-click the file QColor.Inf using the Windows Explorer, and then click Install. 2. Restart your computer. 3. Double-click the QuickColor icon on the system tray, or select QuickColor configuration... from the QuickColor popup menu or toolbar. 4. Select color depth, resolution and refresh rate combinations of your choice and drag-and-drop on Preset button to save setting, or on monitor image to preview setting. NB: Out of consideration for parents with home PCs, QuickColor accepts an optional command line switch which instructs the program to automatically switch to one of the five presets on start-up, e.g., qcolor.exe /x, where x is 1 to 5. Note that QuickColor's default "Safe Mode" of 640x480 in 256 colors at 60Hz also happens to be the optimal display settings for running DirectX games and many multimedia titles. (You can change the default setting if desired.) Parents can also create shortcuts to children's programs using QuickColor associations and standard Windows shortcuts (see "Tips and Tricks" below). To remove QuickColor from your computer, select the Add/Remove option from the Control Panel, and select "QuickColor (remove only)" from the list. NOTES ON SPECIFIC CHIPSETS UNDER WINDOWS 95 =========================================== Cirrus Logic - If QuickColor is unable to change the refresh rate and a Cirrus Monitor Refresh property sheet is available, ensure that the "Auto Detect Use DDC" option is checked. (This is especially important with the new Laguna/3D series of chipsets and drivers.) 3Dlabs - If QuickColor is unable to reach refresh rates above 75 or 85Hz, ensure that the refresh rate property under the Permedia device configuration setting box or 3Dlabs Setup property sheet is set to "Max". Ark Logic - Recent Ark Logic drivers which attempt to implement a "virtual desktop" are neither certified by Microsoft for use with Windows 95 nor compatible with QuickColor. TIPS AND TRICKS =============== * To add a program or shortcut to the QuickColor menu, either select a file using the QuickColor browse button or drag and drop the file on the QuickColor dialog box from the Windows Explorer. * To select an associated program or shortcut from the QuickColor toolbar, right click on the QuickColor toolbar icon. * Shortcuts to programs are preferable to programs themselves for associations because QuickColor can read additional startup information from them (working directory, parameters, etc.); only executable programs and shortcuts to them are acceptable. * Dragging and dropping display settings on the monitor image is equivalent to pressing the Ok button in the QuickColor dialog box. * Associations can be deleted by right clicking on the shortcut/ program name in the QuickColor dialog box. * Display settings associated with a specific shortcut/program can be reset to current defaults by right clicking on the display setting description in the QuickColor dialog box. * The list of DirectX capabilities in the "Graphics system information" dialog box is intended to help you select combinations of resolution and color depth which do not *detract* from optimal performance when running a DirectX program. As a general rule, the lower the resolution, color depth and refresh rate, the less graphics processing overhead and the better the performance. * Adding the command line parameter /x, where x is the number 1-5, instructs QuickColor to automatically switch to the display settings assigned to that Preset button on startup or if QuickColor is already running. "DirectX mode" is /x and "Safe mode" is /s. * Shortcuts to QuickColor associations can be created anywhere or by any program that can launch another program. The syntax for starting a QuickColor association is to add the command line parameter /x, where x is the number 101-120. For example, if Microsoft Excel has been assigned to QuickColor association #7 with display settings of 1024x768 in HiColor, and you create a shortcut on the Windows desktop specifying "qcolor.exe /107" as the target, launching the shortcut will cause QuickColor to first switch display settings and then launch Excel. * Changes to display settings assigned to QuickColor associations are temporary, while changes to display settings assigned to QuickColor preset buttons are permanent. * Configuring a screen saver with password protection enabled, in combination with QuickColor's "Activate screen saver" option, provides instant protection without resort to a seperate utility * QuickColor's default "Safe mode" is, of course, different from both Windows 95's Safe Mode and NT's VGA Mode; the latter load a standard, generic VGA driver, while the former simply sets display settings to the lowest resolution, color depth and refresh rate supported by all graphics cards and display drivers * As a general rule, QuickColor's default "safe mode" of 640x480x8bpp at 60Hz is likely to be the optimal mode for running DirectX applications as well (higher refresh rates necessarily impose a performance penalty, however slight); nevertheless, both "Safe mode" and "DirectX mode" are implemented as user-defined presets, so you can change these settings * Screen saving is now optionally monitored by QuickColor, allowing you to define specific display settings for this also (e.g., an OpenGL screen saver under NT may look best at 640x480 in TrueColor, and so on) * In QuickColor's DirectX mode, the Windows screen saver is effectively disabled because screen savers tend to interfere with full screen DirectX apps. If, for some reason, this is not desireable, use a Preset button instead. KNOWN LIMITATIONS ================= Proprietary Windows 95 Drivers ------------------------------ Many first-tier board manufacturers bundle proprietary display drivers which may not be compatible with QuickColor. In the event you encounter a compatibility problem, you do have the option of using a standard "generic" driver from the chip vendor or Microsoft which is compatible with QuickColor. Refresh Rates under Windows 95 ------------------------------ The latest drivers from chip vendors include refresh rate information which QuickColor will read and respect. However, in the absence of this information and because QuickColor is designed to work with the widest possible range of graphics cards, an extensive list of refresh rate options is provided by default. For example, although virtually all graphics cards support VESA standards of 60, 72 and 75Hz, some cards also support 85Hz (e.g., S3 and Cirrus Logic), while others support 90Hz (e.g., Tseng Labs); very few support the default maximum of 200Hz which QuickColor provides. If you select a refresh rate which is not supported by your graphics card, the next highest available refresh rate will typically be activated. Note that in order for a refresh rate to be supported by QuickColor, it must be implemented in your graphics card's BIOS refresh table. Refresh rates available for your graphics card that rely on special CRTC register programming are unlikely to be supported by QuickColor, and may in fact interfere with the program. You can also modify the list of supported refresh rates, by opening the QCOLOR.DAT file in Notepad and editing the [Win95-Refresh] section. Examples for generic Tseng ET6000, S3d ViRGE (325), and Cirrus Laguna/3d chipsets are provided. Note that this information is only read by QuickColor in the absense of a vendor-supplied refresh rate table. Font and Driver Changes ----------------------- Because QuickColor is designed for dynamic mode switching, combinations of display settings which require restarting Windows are always cancelled or ignored. For this reason, QuickColor does not support different font size settings, since changes to system font size always require restarting Windows. Screen Saver ------------ Returning from a screen saver activated by QuickColor may require two key presses or extended mouse movement, because QuickColor includes an internal, simple "screen saver" which blanks the screen Graphics System Information --------------------------- Video memory information is calculated and rounded, and therefore may be inexact (in particular, graphics cards which use multi-bank MDRAM are likely to be misreported); however, the information presented in the QuickColor "Graphics system information" screen is a more or less accurate representation of what Windows, and Windows/DirectX applications, actually "see". RELEASE NOTES ============= 2.50 - 20/02/97 Fixed compatibility problem with Matrox 3.0 NT driver Added registry search for Win95/OSR2 refresh table Revised Graphics system info dialog Safe mode hotkey is now on by default Sync'd code with initial 3D PowerStrip release 2.40 - internal 2.30 - 14/02/97 Revised system info, adding version information Minor UI changes Associated apps can now be tested by clicking icon Added screen saver preprocessor Improved toolbar docking Removed redundant registration reminders 2.21 - 06/02/97 Fixed OpenGL screen saver bug under NT Minor UI fixes and enhancements 2.20 - 05/02/97 Added additional system-wide hotkey support Move DirectX caps to new SysInfo dialog box Added screen saver support Improved safe mode/added DirectX mode presets Added Permedia NT and Cirrus 548x support 2.10 - 26/01/97 Added DirectX (DirectDraw) querying capabilities Added fast screen blanking to QuickColor menu Added "safe mode" setting with system-wide hotkey Improved monitor calc routine to support fH up to 115kHz Added additional flexibility to QC associations Updated compilation from DirectX 2 to DirectX 3 headers Updated exe and docs for credit card ordering 2.02 - 09/01/97 Fixed startup parameters bug under Win95 Removed redundant safety check 2.01 - 05/01/97 Fixed Confirmation DlgBox size conflict w. MSOffice toolbar 2.00 - 01/01/97 Enhanced interface Optimized dynamic color-depth switching under Windows 95 Added "always-on-top", minimize, close switches to toolbar Rewrote tray notification code to handle double clicks Added basic virus protection to main EXE Added OEM support (custom bitmaps, etc.) for commercial use Confirmed Win95 OSR2 and DirectX 3.0 support Imported VCP monitor support; updated to sync with OSR2 Added more flexible refresh rate support Added support for up to 20 program/shortcut associations Added support for preset startup parameter 1.14 - 29/11/96 Fixed About/Reg DlgBox scaling problem Added support for 1152x882 (Matrox) and 1152x870 (3Dlabs) 1.13 - 28/11/96 Sync'd QuickColor Win95 optimizations with VCP+ 4.0B10 Added refresh desktop option (primarily for Win95) Fixed media player link under NT 1.12 - 14/11/96 Sync'd QuickColor Win95 optimizations with VCP+ 4.0 1.11 - 13/11/96 Fixed preset bug 1.10 - 10/11/96 Added roll-up feature to toolbar Added timed cancellation to changes in display settings Added incremental enlargement/reduction of desktop size Added user-configurable refresh rate support for Win95 1.07 - 6/11/96 Fixed repititous enumeration of refresh rates under NT 1.06 - 14/10/96 Changed icons in an attempt to make them more intuitive 1.05 - 13/10/96 Added optional toolbar and easier registration facilities 1.04 - 03/10/96 Minor interface change to configuration box Added additional safety checks Maximum refresh rate set to 90Hz (for TLI etc.) Added link to media player to menu 1.03 - internal 1.02 - 01/10/96 Added additional warnings to the program and docs 1.01 - 30/09/96 Fixed ET6000 bug with RLE-encoded bitmaps Added check for sub-VGA resolutions (e.g., 320x200) under NT Added Win95 check for DirectDraw 1.00 - 23/09/96 Initial release