MOO 4.0 menu system for Windows 95

-- quicker than the START BUTTON!

1. When you first start MOO

When you first start MOO, it searches for and then lists all the program shortcuts in your Start Menu or on your Desktop. This list appears below the "Run" button.

To run a program from MOO, double-click the program's name. Or highlight the name and then hit ENTER (or click the "Run" button). To highlight a name, type its first few letters (using ESC to start over after a typing error) -- or use the arrow keys.

After adding or deleting or renaming program items in the Start Menu or on the Desktop, you have to execute MOO's "Refresh List" item to update its list of programs.

You can also type a command in the "Run" box (above the "Run" button) and then hit ENTER (or click the button). This works like the "Run" command in the Start Menu (which says "Type the name of a program, folder, or document and Windows will open it for you").

MOO also includes a "Quit Windows" item. This works like "Shut Down" on the Start Menu.

2. The Right Mouse Button

If you click the right mouse button, you'll get a shortcut menu of useful commands. MOO's system menu has the same items.

Use "Go to program shortcut" if you want to change the name or properties of a program item -- for example, if you want to change the name for Word in your menus from "Microsoft Word version 99" to "Word." After making such changes, you'll have to run "Refresh List" again.

You also can choose to have MOO minimize or close after you execute a program -- or to stay on top of other windows -- or to hide the "Run" box. (If you prefer to keep the "Run" box but hide the program list, then just resize MOO so that the program list is covered.) You can also turn on "Quiet mode" -- which suppresses the effect of the "hour," "half," and "minute" settings (see section 4); a slight beep sounds when you turn quiet mode off.

3. Suggestions

Install MOO.EXE by putting a shortcut file to it on your Desktop or Start Menu. Modify the properties of this shortcut file to define a shortcut key -- perhaps "Ctrl + Alt + M." I use the "+" key on the numerical keypad for my shortcut key. Then to start NOTEPAD, for example, I type "+" on the numeric keypad (to bring up MOO) and then "no" (to highlight "Notepad") and then ENTER; this is faster than using the Start Button. [NOTE: since the "+" shortcut key doesn't work while you're in a DOS program, I have another shortcut file to MOO with "Ctrl + Alt + +" as its shortcut key (which DOES work in DOS programs).]

The MOO program list is easier to use if program names on your Start Menu differ in their first few letters -- like "Word" and "Excel" -- instead of "Microsoft Word" and "Microsoft Excel." You could space out "Word" as "W ord" to bring it to the top of the "w" items; then to start WORD from anywhere in Windows, you can hit "+" on the numeric keypad (or whatever shortcut key you use for MOO) and then "w" and then ENTER.

If your Start Menu or Desktop has two program shortcuts with the same name (for example, "Clock"), MOO lists only one of them. Duplicate names are OK if they start the same program; MOO.INI keeps a record of duplicates.

The "Run" box is very powerful; let me give a few examples of how to use it. Type "c:" to open drive C. Type "c:\docs" to open folder C:\DOCS. Type "fonts" to open the font installation box (the FONTS directory), or ""start menu"" (enclosing the two-word name in quotes) to open your START MENU directory. Type "calc" to open Windows calculator in the Windows directory, "explorer" to start Windows Explorer, "command" to give you a DOS prompt, or "control" to open the control panel.Type "d:\logicola\class\logicola" to open a LOGICOLA.EXE program in another directory, or "d:\logicola\class\readme.txt" to open a README.TXT text file in this directory. Type "win.ini" to edit your WIN.INI file, or "moo.ini" to edit your MOO.INI file. You can use "c: d:" (exactly five characters long) to open drives C and D at the same time.

4. Customizing MOO.INI

You can customize MOO by modifying its MOO.INI file with Notepad.

Add a "title=Harry's Programs" line in the "[Moo]" section to make the titlebar display "Harry's Programs" (or whatever you put in) instead of "MOO."

Add a "print-to-disk directory=C:\PNTFILES" line in the "[Moo]" section if you use print-to-disk frequently and want your print files to automatically go in folder C:\PNTFILES (or whatever folder you specify) and be named 1.PRN, 2.PRN, 3.PRN, and so forth. I put this in because I use print-to-disk a lot and don't like to type the name and directory for the print files each time.

Change the "freeze configuration" value from 0 (the default) to 1 to prevent users (like your children) from changing the configuration (location, size, and so forth); MOO then won't update its configuration values when it exits -- and will start next time using its old configuration.

Changing the "freeze configuration" value to 2 freezes the configuration and, in addition, eliminates the border, scrollbar, and titlebar. I use this myself, putting a small (100 x 150 pixels) MOO menu behind my taskbar (which goes on the right of the screen) and using a shortcut key to bring MOO to the front.

Add an "hour=" or "half=" or "minute=" line in the "[Moo]" section to execute something every hour on the hour, or every hour on the half-hour, or every minute. You can specify (1) a program, (2) a WAV sound file (ending in ".WAV"), (3) a MIDI sound file (ending in ".MID"), or (4) a video clip (ending in ".AVI"). For example, "half=C:\SOUNDS\UofM.WAV" will play this WAV sound file (the Michigan fight song) every hour on the half-hour.

If you specify a path with "*.WAV" or "*.MID" or "*.AVI" in place of a specific filename, then MOO will play a random sound file or video clip from the path you specify. For example, "minute=C:\MIDI\*.MID" will play a random MIDI file from C:\MIDI every minute. If you specify a path with "*.*" in place of a specific filename, then MOO will randomly execute a file of whatever type (sound file, video clip, program, or whatever) from the path you specify.

The "minute" setting may play things too often for you; I put it in mainly to test that a path works. You can modify the "minute" setting by a "random=" line. For example, adding "random=5" gives the "minute" program a 1/5 probability of executing at any given minute. If your "minute" setting has a "*.WAV" or "*.MID" path, then you'll get random sounds at random times.

RAN-WALL.EXE is a short program included with MOO; RAN-WALL sets your current wallpaper to a random *.BMP file from your main Windows directory. To vary your wallpaper bitmaps between sessions, put a shortcut to RAN-WALL.EXE in the StartUp folder of your Start Menu. To randomly change wallpaper every hour, put an "hour=RAN-WALL.EXE" or "half=RAN-WALL.EXE" line in your MOO.INI file and keep RAN-WALL.EXE in the same folder with your MOO files.

5. Further information

MOO uses seven files. The main program to run is MOO.EXE. This is a 16-bit Windows executable written in Turbo Pascal 1.5 for Windows; it creates MOO.INI to save its configuration. MOO2INI.BAT (a batch file) and MOOINI.EXE (a DOS filter written in Turbo Pascal 6.0 for DOS) are used to create MOO2.INI (which lists your programs); neither file is meant to be run by itself. MOO.HLP is this help file. MOO.TXT is a text file with basic installation instructions. To remove MOO, delete every file in MOO's directory that starts with "MOO"; you can also delete RAN-WALL.EXE if you included this.

Here's a short history of MOO (which sounds a little like "Menu"). I wrote MOO 1.0 as a simple menu program to help my Dad adjust to his DOS-based IBM computer. I put MOO on GENIE and it became popular; I used to get a letter or two a week from people who used and liked it. Later MOOs got more complicated, with MOO 3.0 adding a Windows version. MOO 4.0 is a complete re-write; while it looks much like the previous version, it's much smaller and simpler. If Borland brings out a 32-bit version of Turbo Pascal for Windows 95, I'll do a 32-bit version of MOO.

MOO 4.0 for Windows 95 is a public domain program and is entirely free -- even for commercial use -- as is RAN-WALL. Feel free to put them on other bulletin boards or FTP sites.

If you have any suggestions, write me -- Harry Gensler, Philosophy Department, Loyola University, 6525 North Sheridan, Chicago, IL 60626 USA. Email address: hgensle@luc.edu

My Web site may have possible MOO updates: http://orion.it.luc.edu/~hgensle

After June 1996 use this address: Harry Gensler, Philosophy Department, University of Scranton, Scranton, PA 18510 USA. My email address will be: GenslerH1@Jaguar.uofs.edu