README.TXT: List of files and installation instructions 16-Sep-93 WINSINCE.EXE Version 4.0 Copyright 1993 Rob Hueniken 68 Fox Mill Crescent, London, Ontario, "The Batch Machine" Canada, N6J 2B4, 1-519-471-0333 Compuserve 70162,1521 Registration: $20 WINSINCE is a customizable Windows file processing utility that searches for files and performs definable actions on the list of files. It is able to run both DOS programs and commands as well as Windows programs. It is an excellent utility for power users, programmers, and network administrators. WINSINCE 2 introduced the ability to run minimized in batch mode, logging files found, performing an action on the files found, and then exiting when done. Because the action to be performed can be any Windows program, DOS command or program, you have complete flexibility in defining what gets done. Its relative date searching lets you search for files created a number of days or hours before the current date. WinSince will find the files you want to work on. WINSINCE 3 introduced built in File Copy and Delete functions to become a full powered file manager. Moving files between directories is as easy as point and click. Its new drag and drop file selection lets you easily create specialized file lists, and run an Action on a single file. And with the unique WinSince path technique, you can quickly solve any file management task. WINSINCE 4 now introduces a built in Timer for performing file searches and actions on a regular basis. For example, you can set the timer interval to an hour, and have WinSince look for files created in the last hour, and perform an action on them. There are also new options to reduce the copying of files already in the target directory, and to handle locked or open files. Full help is available within the program. A text version of the help is available as WinSince.wri, which you can print using the Windows WRITE.EXE. WinSince runs unders Windows 3.1, and under OS/2 2.1 in WIN-OS/2 Full Screen in addition to Seamlessly on the OS/2 Desktop. Installation ============ *** To install, run the SETUP.EXE program. This will prompt you for the directory to put WINSINCE into, and copy the files to the appropriate directories. WinSince supports VGA and higher resolutions. If you are running an older version of WinSince (or the previous Since version 1.01) you will need to delete the old Since.dll, Since.exe and Since.hlp files. The WinSince SETUP program will overwrite an old DLL in \windows\system. The version of Since.dll used by version 3.0 is dated 08-11-93 04:39 pm and is 31771 bytes in size. The older version also used Vbrun200.dll while you will need Vbrun300.dll for version 3.0. Vbrun300.dll can be found on the distribution disk or on your BBS, and should normally be in your \Windows\System directory. If you get an error when starting WinSince that says "The file c:\directory\SS3D2.VBX is out of date" then you need to delete that file: WinSince installs the latest version in your \Windows\System. You may need to exit and re-enter Windows to be able to delete the file, since Windows may say that it is using it. If you get a General Protection Fault that shows an error in KRNL386.EXE then you probably have an old SS3D2.VBX file in your \Windows directory that should be deleted. If the SETUP program does not install WinSince, you can run WinSince out of a directory containing all of the distribution files. Alternatively, the "Files needed" section below can show you where each WinSince file is normally copied to. WinSince requires VBRUN300.DLL. Norton Desktop Installation Notice ================================== A small problem in the MicroSoft Setup Kit with NDW can result in a DDE message following a successful installation: "An application using DDE did not respond to the system's exit command". If you see this message, click on the CLOSE button. This problem does not affect the installation or the running of WinSince. My apologies for this problem. New features in version 4.0 =========================== Timer function allows WinSince to be activated at regular intervals, to search for files, and to perform an Action on the files found. New /timer command line switch to set the time between timer events. New /timercount command line switch to set number of times the timer will run. New /nosearch command line switch to not search for files when WinSince starts. New Options to only copy files that are Newer or Different in Size or Date, as well as command line switches /IfDifferent and /IfNewer. New Option to ignore non-fatal file copy errors, such as a locked or open file, as well as command line switch /NoCopyWarn. New features in version 3.3 =========================== File List can now be sorted by File Name, Path, Extension, Date, Size or File Attributes. This makes it very easy to locate a particular file in the list, or to determine the largest file in a directory area. Escape key is equivalent to clicking on Cancel in Action Warning. New features in version 3.2 =========================== Copy command in the File menu for single file copies. Defaults to selected file. New option to not warn when clearing or removing File List entries. Logging of directory creation and removal events. New features in version 3.1 =========================== Drag and Drop a file from the directory list directly onto an Action, without needing to add it to the File List first. Very handy for taking quick action on a single file. Drag and Drop a file from the directory list into the File List, for one shot, spot additions or for creating a diverse file list. Drag and Drop the file creation date of a particular file, to find files created since that date. Remove selected files from the File List, or clear the list completely. New features in version 3.0 =========================== New %Copy and %Del commands for copying and deleting files without DOS. New %CurDrv and %CurDir drive and directory tokens for copying files to and from the current directory. Get new copies of selected files from other directories. Create and remove subdirectories. Improved logging of the actions taken on selected files. New /All startup qualifier for auto-selecting all files after a file search. New /NoWarn qualifier to suppress Action warnings. Search date can now include the time, for even more specific file searches. Relative date search can specify the amount of time prior to NOW, such as -0:08:00:00 meaning 8 hours before now. This is really powerful for searching, automating file management and tracking changes. See the /Since description. Single directory file searching is now faster. New %A substitution token represents the entire path and file name, such as C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM. Version 2.1 used %D:\%P\%F (which still works). The help file is now available as WinSince.wri for use with Windows Write.exe. New features in version 2.2 =========================== Search date can now include the time, for even more specific file searches. Relative date search can specify the amount of time prior to NOW, such as -0:08:00:00 meaning 8 hours before now. This is really powerful for searching, automating file management and tracking changes. See the /since description. Single directory file searching is now faster. New %A substitution token represents the entire path and file name, such as C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM. Version 2.1 used %D:\%P\%F (which still works). New features in version 2.1 =========================== Now handles multiple file types during the search, such as *.txt;*.exe (separate with semicolon). Can now have multiple instances of WinSince running at the same time. Shows the total size of selected files in the new List menu. The log file name can be automatically generated from the date to create unique log files. New features in version 2.0 =========================== WinSince is now able to run in batch with command line startup instructions. This will allow you to create specialized WinSince instances that automate your file management. Once you set up your WinSince Actions, you can create Program Manager WinSince icons to define each of your file tasks. There are now 21 start up commands: /dir= Directory to start the program search. /filetype= Type of files to search for. /subdir Search down the subdirectory tree from the current directory. /drives= Search the entire selected drives for the file type. /cleardate Ignore the creation date when finding files. /since= Creation date of files to find since; can be absolute or relative to Now. Can include time as well as date: /since=mm-dd-yyyy:hh:mm:ss /archive Search for files with the Archive file attribute set. /search Search for files when WinSince starts. /nosearch Do not search for files when WinSince starts. (* NEW *) /all Select all files after each file search. /action= Action number (1 to 10) to perform on the files found. /nowarn Suppress warning before Action is taken on selected files. /exit Exit WinSince once the initial file search and action are done ("batch mode"). /min Run minimized. This is handy for running WinSince as a batch job. /timer= Set the amount of time between timer events (* NEW *) /timercount= Set the number of times the timer is to run; 0 for continuous (* NEW *) /ifdifferent Copy file only if different in size or date than in target directory. (* NEW *) /ifnewer Copy file only if source file is newer than that in target directory. (* NEW *) /nocopywarn Ignore errors encountered when copying, such as locked files. (* NEW *) /log= Name of log file to write files found and actions performed by WinSince. /append Append to an existing log file, as specified in /log qualifier. My personal preference for interactive file management is to always specify /log on the command line but without the /append. It barely slows things down and is often very handy for checking details about what files were found and what actions were taken. To set up WinSince to use the command line switches, use the File | Properties menu item in the Program Manager to modify the WinSince command line. Ie. instead of running C:\WINSINCE\WINSINCE.EXE you might change it to show C:\WINSINCE\WINSINCE.EXE /DIR=C:\ /FILETYPE=*.BAT /SEARCH The command line switches can be combined to do a variety of tasks that range from customizing the startup file type to automatically copying files between directories. Setting up multiple icons for WinSince on the Windows desktop ============================================================= As you come up with your own list of file tasks that you would like to automate, you can add copies of the WinSince icon within its Windows group. To do this, hold down the Ctrl key while you click and drag the WinSince icon to a free spot within its group. Modify its File Properties with the command line qualifiers, and change its title to show the meaning of the task it does. Example 1: You are interested in seeing a list of all TXT files in particular areas: WINSINCE.EXE /DIR=C:\MYWORK /FILETYPE=*.TXT /SUBDIR /CLEARDATE /SEARCH This tells WinSince to look down in all subdirectories starting from C:\MYWORK for files with the extension TXT, and to ignore the creation date, ie. find all .TXT files regardless of creation date. Since no /ACTION is given, WinSince will display the list of files when it appears, leaving it up to you to view the list and possibly choose an Action at that time. Example 2: You want to review or edit TXT files changed in the last hour, and create a log file showing the list of the files found: WINSINCE.EXE /DIR=C:\MYWORK /FILETYPE=*.TXT /ACTION=3 /MIN /EXIT /SEARCH /LOG=C:\MYWORK\CHECK.LOG /SINCE=-0:01:00:00 This tells WinSince to look only in the C:\MYWORK directory for files with the extension TXT that have been created since yesterday. The /SINCE=-0:01:00:00 tells WinSince that you are using a relative date of one hour in the past. On each of these TXT files, WinSince will run Action number 3 ("Edit"), which in the distribution version of WinSince runs the Windows NOTEPAD editor on the selected file. (You may customize all Actions to do whatever you want if you don't like the defaults). Since /MIN is specified, each Notepad session will appear as an icon, ready for you to work on when ready. Since /EXIT is specified, WinSince itself will never appear to you: it will just start up the Notepad sessions and then exit. The list of files found, along with their dates and sizes, will be put into C:\MYWORK\CHECK.LOG, as requested in the /LOG command. This is an Ascii file suitable for later editing or printing. Example 3: You want to copy TXT files changed since January 2nd 1993 to a safe directory, and create a log file showing the list of the files found. This is a similar example to Example 2 except that a specific date has been selected, and the Action is 2 ("Save Copy"): WINSINCE.EXE /DIR=C:\MYWORK /FILETYPE=*.TXT /ACTION=2 /MIN /EXIT /SEARCH /LOG=C:\MYWORK\CHECK.LOG /SINCE=01-02-1993 This tells WinSince to look only in the C:\MYWORK directory for files with the extension TXT that have been created since January 2nd 1993. The /SINCE=01-02-1993 tells WinSince that you are using an absolute date. Action 2 is defined in the distribution kit as %COPY %A %D:\SAVE\%P\%F . If we use C:\MYWORK\HELLO.TXT as one of the files found, it would be copied to C:\SAVE\MYWORK\HELLO.TXT . The subdirectory structure is retained. Features introduced in version 1.2 ================================== Quick Start tutorial help section. Point and click file button assignment; it's fun and easy! Double click on file name to run associated program. Options for getting files when starting, and warning before running double clicked files. The action definition can be cleared by double clicking. Two-size edit screen (summary and editing details). Screen layout modified slightly to allow for use under VGA. Saves last position of program for next session. Files needed ============ There are 10 files required for running WinSince.exe: 1) WinSince.exe 2) WinSince.hlp (must be on the path, or in the working directory) 3) Since.dll (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory) 4) Since.ini (usually in the Windows subdirectory, on a network this can be in the same directory as the end user's version of win.ini) 5) Sincerun.bat (must be on the path, or in the working directory, is put into the \Windows subdirectory) 6) Sincecls.pif (must be on the path, or in the working directory, is put into the \Windows subdirectory) 7) SS3D2.vbx (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory; this is the Sheridan 3D Widget Runtime) 8) Vbrun300.dll (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory; part of Visual Basic 3.0 runtime) 9) Msafinx.dll (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory) 10) Spin.vbx (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, (* NEW *) must be on the path, or in the working directory) There are two additional files: 11) WinSince.wri (Windows Write version of the WinSince.hlp) 12) Readme.txt (this file) Distribution disk setup versus Bulletin board setup =================================================== The SETUP.EXE program uses SETUP.LST to check which special files are needed for Setup. The supplied SETUP.LST (a copy of SETUP.DSK) is for distribution by disk and expects to find and install VBRUN300.DLL. The version of SETUP.LST needed for a bulletin board or for computers that already have VBRUN300.DLL is in SETUP.BBS. If you are planning to upload WINSINCE to a bulletin board then copy SETUP.BBS to SETUP.LST. This will avoid needing to upload VBRUN300.DLL (which the BBS has already) and avoid an error when SETUP.EXE tries to find VBRUN300.DLL. WinSince is already on Compuserve as WINSNC.ZIP, in the WINSHARE File Utilities area.