Introduction: Welcome to CDRunner95! CDRunner95 was designed to make the digital life easier for all of us. CDRunner95 allows Windows 95 to give us the autoplay technology it promised. While CDRunner95 is active all you now have to do to run that favorite CD is put it in the drive! CDRunner95 will take it from there whether or not the disc is designed for autoplay. Here's a breakdown of some of the features included in CDRunner95: * Remembers CD-ROM data, and associated executables. * Supports multiple title CD's and allows you to choose what you want to run when the CD is inserted. * Can be set up to use CD-ROMs with ANY programs you want to use them with * Automatically runs CD-ROMs even older non-autoplay discs! * Keeps track of Audio-CD's * Plays Audio-CD's with a full featured and programmable CD Player. * Allows you to edit Audio-CD information, such as titles, and artist! * Prints Audio CD catalogs. Installation: Run the setup program, then run the program (in your startup group) once to get going! That's it! Now the next time you insert a CD into your drive, CDRunner95 will do it's job! Uninstalling: Should you decide to uninstall CDRunner95, you may do so from the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs icon. Please be aware though to stop the program from running. Also if you have no other programs in your startup group, the group will be removed as well. Simply create a new one in the Windows Explorer when it is needed again. Accessing CDRunner95: At any time CDRunner95 is active, you can access it's main menu by holding [SHIFT]+[CTRL]. Installing CD's: CDRunner95 makes this task easy. When a CD is inserted into the drive that CDRunner95 has not met before, the program will guide you through a short installation process so CDRunner95 can "learn" how you would like it to treat the disc from then on. CDRunner95 will automatically determine whether the CD is Audio, or Data and treat it accordingly. If a CD-ROM is designed to take advantage of Windows 95 AutoRun, then CDRunner95 will pass the disc along to Windows 95. AutoRun CD-ROMs: Simple, just put them in. CD-ROMs: If the disc is a CD-ROM, and CDRunner95 has not encountered it yet, you will be asked a series of questions. If it "knows" the disc, it will be activated. Installing: The first question you are asked is if you would like to install the CD. Answer YES if the disc has not already been installed on your system. Answer NO if you have previously installed the disc, or if no installation is required. The last option, ignore, should be used if the disc was only inserted to look at or you do not wish CDRunner to consider the disc. Ignoring the disc will only apply to this time the disc is inserted, next time you will be asked again. To always ignore this disc choose NO it does not need to be installed, and when asked for the executable, point the browser to the CDRunner95.exe file. Verifying The Installation: If you opted to install the CD, CDRunner95 will prompt you for the installation program and run it. You will see a screen asking if the installation went ok. If it did choose yes and continue. If the installation went bad CDRunner95 was unable to activate the install program correctly, choose Installation Bad and follow the instructions that came with the disc to install it. CDRunner95 will learn the disc later. Either way, do not make a decision on this screen until installation of the disc is completed. In the event the installation program restarts Windows, treat the program as one that is already installed. Multiple Executables: If a CD-ROM is a "Multipack", or a collection of files that require using different executables to run different programs on the disc, CDRunner95 can handle it. Simply choose yes. You will asked how many different files you run from this disc and, will be be prompted for a Title, for each as well as it's executable. CDRunner95 will give you a choice of which to run when the CD is inserted. If the collection is run through a menu, or the disc uses just one executable to start, choose no. Selecting Executable: After a CD has been installed on the system, you must tell CDRunner95 what program to run when the CD is inserted. simply call it up in the requester. If you are unsure, check any instructions that came with the disc, or if the application is Windows based, check under the program's properties from the desktop or Windows Explorer. Command Line: On this screen type any command line parameters needed to run the executable program. Again, if you are unsure, check any instructions that came with the disc, or if the application is Windows based, check under the program's properties from the desktop or Windows Explorer. Finished: CDRunner95 now "knows" the disc, and will run it. In the future, CDRunner95 will run the disc automatically when it is put in the drive. Audio-CD's: If the disc is an Audio-CD CDRunner95 will activate it's built-in CD Player by default. You may also configure CDRunner95 to use the Windows95 CDPlayer (registered version only) through the main menu [CTRL]+[SHIFT]. You choose to setup information about the CD by using the player's EDIT button. (See Editing CD's) CD Player: You may insert and remove Audio-CD's at will, CDRunner95 will reset when you do. The CDRunner95 CD Player is activated whenever an Audio-CD is inserted into the drive. The buttons and their functions are as follows: Down Button: Skips 1 track down on each click. Jump Button: Skips to chosen song title. Up Button: Skips 1 track up on each click. Pause Button: Pauses playback. Stop Button: Stops disc playback, CDRunner95 will wait for a new disc. If auto-eject is set disc will eject. Repeat Button: Disc will repeat when finished, until disc is stopped or removed, or CDRunner95 is ended. Auto-Eject Button: If your CD drive supports this feature, disc is ejected when stopped, or finished playing. Volume Control: Runs your soundcard's mixer utility, or the Windows95 volume control. Minimize: Iconifies the CD Player. Power: Quits CDRunner95. Edit: Allows editing of the current Audio-CD information (see Editing CD's). Program: Allows you to configure a preset playlist for this CD. Display: You can double click on the Album Title, Artist Name, or Song Title to quickly edit this information. Use this in combination with the Jump button for quicker editing. Editing CD's: Audio CD's: To change any information about an Audio-CD, simply put it in the drive, and push the Edit Button on the CD Player. CDRunner95 will cycle through the information it has about the disc. If you do not want to change the current item, just hit the enter key, otherwise type in the new information. You can also edit any information about an Audio-CD while the information is currently displayed by the CD Player by double clicking on the appropriate part of the display. Use this in combination with the Jump button for quicker editing access. CD-Rom's: Bring up the Main Conrtols by holding [SHIFT]+[CTRL], and choose Edit CD-ROM. CDRunner95 will ask you to insert the CD. When you do, click OK and CDRunner95 will treat the disc as one it has never seen before. Enter the correct information so CDRunner95 can "re-learn" the disc. Hints And Tips: The Possible Pitfalls Of Plug And Play: Remember that if a disc is inserted, it will be used. Don't leave discs in the drive when you have finished using them. On the same note don't remove a CD-ROM while using it and then put it back in, simply because you will run the program again, which can cause problems (unless of course you want to run it twice). Multidisc games: Some newer games come spread out over more than on CD. If this is the case, install the "boot" disc as normal, then set the rest of the discs to always ignore (see Installing above) Accessing The Configuration Screen: The configuration screen can be accessed by holding [CTRL] + [SHIFT]. The screen can not be accesed while the CD Player is active. Changing The Sound Card Mixer: To change the sound card mixer, first stop the CD Player. Hold [CTRL] + [SHIFT], and choose Change Mixer from the configuration menu. Locate the new mixer program and click OK. Disc Not Responding: Some CD-ROM Drives are slow to start, if you do not get an immediate response from CDRunner95, wait a few seconds, if still no reponse, simply remove and re-insert the CD. Start Menu/Desktop Icons: Once you have installed CDRunner95, you can safely delete any Program Manager icons or groups associated with the CD's. CDRunner95 stores all of its information seperately from Windows 95, and is a much easier way to run the CD. Just note any properties (such as command line arguments) needed to run the disc for future reference. Using Different Applications: One possible way to use CDRunner95 to its fullest is to associate a CD-ROM with an existing application. For example a CD-ROM that is a graphics collection, can be set up to run your favorite graphics viewer by using the viewer as the executable, if your viewer supported a command line option to log to a set directory, provide that as the command line, and when the disc is inserted your viewer is ready! You could also use the multiple feature to do this type of thing, and allow a choice of graphics programs to be run when the disk is put in. Re-Installing A CD-ROM: If by chance you should remove a CD-ROM from your system, and then attempt to re-install it, when you go to do so CDRunner95 will attempt to run it when you put it in the drive. To avoid this, use Edit CD-ROM to reinstall the disc. ShareWare Limitations in this version are imposed by limiting the number of CD's supported by the program. To Register and recieve the full version (latest update) send check or money order for $25 (US) to the address below. NY Residents add sales tax. Please specify that you are ordering CDRunner95, or use the OrderForm.txt file located in the program directory. E-Mail questions or comments to InterNet: orion@global1.net Or write: Eddie Thorpe 565 Summit Ave Schenectady, NY 12307