>>> This is the English version of Dies ist die englische Version von agSI. If you want the German agSI. Am Ende dieser Datei finden version, see at the end of this Sie Informationen darber, wie Sie file. die deutsche erhalten k”nnen. SSSSS III S S I S I S I AAAA A GGGG G SSSSS I A AA G GG S I A A G G S I A AA G GG S S I AAAA A GGGG G SSSSS III G GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG SystemInfo English Version 1.0.0 Copyright (c) 1994 Andreas Gr”gel Brief Guide ~~~~~~~~~~~ WHAT IS agSI? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ agSI is a system information tool running under DOS which gives dozens of items of information about hardware/system, operating system, memory, software, and drives, for example - processor (incl. Pentium specific things), BIOS, BIOS extensions, CMOS RAM, interrupt vectors - interfaces, graphics and sound cards, IRQ assignments - operating system version, system file tables, country settings, Windows modules (e.g. VxDs) - DOS memory usage, EMS,XMS,DPMI etc. - mouse driver, many installed resident programs and operating system services and extensions - logical drives (A: to Z:) with many details, including directory tree, table of contents for CDs - connected hard disks, including benchmark - disk cache and online compressor - optional continuous updating of the information in the current window (where sensible) - also offers formatting floppy disks - with higher capacity - option to print to COM1-4, LPT1-3, or a file - runs of course under several operating systems and versions, like MS-DOS, Novell DOS, PTS-DOS, a DOS session under Windows or OS/2 since version 2. I must admit that many of what agSI shows will be of no interest to average users, but useful for users with interest in internal stuff. IMPORTANT NOTES, CONDITIONS OF USE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The faultless working of agSI can, especially because several undocumented things are used, not be guaranteed, for there are many different system configurations possible. Should agSI crash on your system, try to localize the reason for the error, and notify my about it, for I cannot adapt agSI if you don't. I (THE AUTHOR) DO NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITIES OF ANY KIND! Not for the suitability of the program for any particular purpose, nor in particular for damage which may result from the use of the program or its documentation. Use agSI at your own risk. By using this software, the user agrees to these conditions. All trademarks belong to their respective owners. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Minimum: - an "IBM-compatible" computer with 80286 processor or better - MS-DOS from version 3.3 or so, or compatible - ca. 500 kB free DOS memory - runs also from floppy disk (but slow due to overlay use) Recommended: - 80386 processor or better - Mouse - sufficient XMS memory and/or cache to load the overlay part of the program - on hard disk, ca. 650-750k are needed SHAREWARE ~~~~~~~~~ agSI is distributed as SHAREWARE, i.e. you have to keep to the following rules: You may: - give the shareware version to anybody (taking only a fee for handling); this has to be done completely and unmodified (recommendedly the original ZIP archive files) - upload it to any BBS or software server, or put it on a CD-ROM (here also: completely); if the latter, it would be kind of you to inform me so I can keep track about how far agSI is spreading - use (test) it for a period of 21 days; if you want to use agSI after this period, you must register with the author, paying a small amount of money. You may NOT: - use the shareware version beyond the above test period. - pass the full version, i.e. a registration code, to anyone, any way - use a single license on more than one computers, unless you make sure that only one at a time can be used. agSI is no "crippleware", i.e. there are no limitations to the shareware version; you are just being reminded about that by a window at startup and a blinking title line. Further information about registering can be found at the end of this file. PACKAGE CONTENTS AND INSTALLATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ agSI is distributed in ZIP archives, with the name AGSIxxxD.ZIP for the German and AGSIxxxE.ZIP for the English version; xxx means the version number. (Exception: you ordered agSI on a diskette from me.) As you are reading this file, you already have the files in an unpacked state; you should have the following files: AGSI.EXE - the program file AGSI.OVR - overlay program file AGSI.HLP - file for the online help README.TXT - this file ORDERFRM.TXT - order form for registration FDREAD.EXE - TSR to allow DOS to read high-capacity floppies (taken from the FDFORMAT 1.8 package by C.H. Hochst„tter, available as FDF18.ZIP from, e.g., SimTel in msdos/diskutil) (The first two files are needed for agSI to run; strongly recommended is the help file.) You may place the files in a directory of your choice (but all in the same); during execution, the file AGSI.INI will be created which contains several settings; including the registration code - so don't pass it to someone else (without editing)! START FROM THE COMMAND LINE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The command line of agSI has the following syntax: [d:\path]AGSI[.EXE] {[/|-]Option} with: d:\path is where agSI is located Option is one of the followin options (optionally with a preceding slash (/) or dash (-)): ? and H shows a brief help text I disables usage of bright background colors U disables continuous updating of the info windows D runs agSI in debug mode: the amount of free heap memory is displayed in the lower right corner The options I and U may also be set in the Options dialog in the main menu; these and other settings are stored in the AGSI.INI file, further information about which you may find in the online help. USING THE PROGRAM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ agSI presents itself in a, as I think, nice look in DOS text mode (with mouse support). On the left side is the menu, from which you may select items the usual way; sub-menus are shown with a little triangle to the right. If a menu item is to show an information page, there are different options: Press the Space key to open the info window, but leave the (main) keyboard control at the menu; press Tab to open the info window AND activate it; for the Enter key, you may select which of the above functions (default: like Space) it should do in the Options dialog (in the main menu). Pressing Esc brings you back one menu level. This all works of course also with the mouse; simply click. (There is no need to explicitly activate the info window when using the mouse, of course.) The Info Window: Depending on the type of the displayed information, you may scroll the contents of the info window just up/down, or you may highlight each line seperately; for this you may use the cursor keys (including PgUp/PgDn, Home/End, etc.), but the up/down and home/end keys only when the window is active (see above), as they are used for the menu otherwise. Of course you may use the mouse here, too. For the lines in the info window that are marked with a triangle to the right you may get more, detailed information by pressing Enter (if the window is active) or Ctrl-Enter (mouse: double click). With the key combination Alt-X you can leave agSI at any time. (Exception: inside the help system; when a dialog is active; if a sub-info-window is active.) The following actions may be performed with the mouse by clicking the status line (the bottom-most line), or by pressing the corresponding key: F1 - Help: With this you get a help page for the current context. If the highlighted menu item is the same that is displayed in the info window, you get a help page (or a certain position inside a help page) for the currently-highlighted line of the info window; otherwise, you get a page for the menu item. F2 - Print: This opens a dialog window in which you may choose what to print to where with which options and highlighting. F7 - previous page: jumps to the previous information page (considering the order of the menu). F8 - next page: jumps to the next page. Alt-U - Update: This key performs two actions: first, the current info window will be updated immediately; second, any further automatical countinuous updating of this window will be suppressed (until you select a new window). Continuous updating may be controlled globally in the Options dialog. Also, the status line sometimes displays some short hints. IN THE HELP SYSTEM you may get help about using the help system by pressing F1 a second time, review the previous topic with Alt-F1, get to the alphabetical index with Shift-F1, and close the help window with Esc. To jump to a cross reference, first highlight the desired cross reference using the cursor keys (the help window will be scrolled if necessary), or a single click with the mouse. To jump to the connected topic, press Space or Enter, or click again. For further information, please see the online help. ATTENTION: Like in any "proper" program, there is something hidden to be discovered in agSI... KNOWN BUGS ~~~~~~~~~~ - (generally:) Some items may cause 6agSI to hang up or crash the system under certain conditions. - On a beta tester's system, when selecting Media Information for a floppy disk drive, agSI crashed with an Invalid Opcode exception under Novell DOS (but not on my system). - Under OS/2, the Speed info list (menu Hardware/System) sometimes led to a run-time error 200 or 207. - agSI crashed under some conditions under the Russian PTS-DOS. - The colour of some highlightings of the help system may look bad in monochrome modes. REGISTRATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ As you know, agSI is distributed as shareware. The registration fee is US-$ 15 or DM 20 for a single license; you will then recieve a registration code (which consists of eight letters) which you enter along with your name in the Register dialog (in the main menu). Normally, no disks will be sent; but if you want it that way, that's possible, of course (price: US-$ 4 / DM 5 per disk). As payment you may either mail me a cheque (or cash), or you order - inside of Germany only! - by C.O.D., which adds a DM 5 fee. You may also let me inform you about new "major" upgrades (by letter or - preferably - e-mail accessible from the Internet). Please use the order form in ORDERFRM.TXT which you may print and mail to me, or (C.O.D. delivery) e-mail to me. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR AND SOURCE OF NEW VERSIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My address: Andreas Gr”gel Gildenstr. 4 D-74074 Heilbronn Germany Internet e-mail: ag@studbox.uni-stuttgart.de Anyway, if you encounter any problem with agSI - as it is partially programmed very close to the hardware, this is pretty likely (I can't test hundreds of systems and configurations - or anything you don't like, tell me; only this way agSI can be more and more improved. If too much in agSI doesn't work on your system, you may even postpone registration if you think it's not worth the money now. New versions of agSI will primarily be uploaded to the Stuttgart FTP server, as files AGSIxxxD.ZIP (German version) and AGSIxxxE.ZIP (English version): anonymous ftp server: ftp.uni-stuttgart.de in the directory /pub/systems/pc/util/system I'll also upload the english version to SimTel, in the directory msdos/sysinfo. There are several mirror sites of SimTel, *the* ftp server for DOS; ask your Internet access provider about the nearest. (SimTel is also available on CD-ROM.) If you have no access to new versions the above-mentioned way, you can have me inform you about new major upgrades (see the order form ORDERFRM.TXT), and I can send you new versions then. Have fun with agSI! Andreas Gr”gel (End of English description) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEUTSCHE KURZINFORMATIONEN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ agSI ist ein unter DOS laufendes System-Informationsprogramm, das Dutzende von Informationen aus den Bereichen Hardware/System, Betriebssystem, Software, Speicher und Laufwerke ermittelt, z.B. - Prozessor (inkl. Pentium-Spezifisches), BIOS, BIOS-Erweiterungen, CMOS-RAM, Interrupt-Vektoren - Schnittstellen, Grafikkarten, Soundkarten, IRQ-Belegungen - Betriebssystem-Version, System-Dateitabellen, Landeseinstellungen, Windows-Module (z.B. VxDs) - DOS-Speicherbelegung, EMS,XMS,DPMI etc. - Maustreiber, viele installierte residente Programme und Betriebs- systemdienste und -erweiterungen - logische Laufwerke (A: bis Z:) mit vielen Einzelheiten, inklusive Verzeichnisbaum, Titelinhaltsverzeichnis von CDs - angeschlossene Festplatten, inklusive Benchmark - Disk-Cache und Online-Kompressor - optionale fortw„hrende Erneuerung der Infos im aktuellen Fenster (wo sinnvoll) - bietet auch die M”glichkeit, Disketten zu formatieren - und das mit h”herer Kapazit„t - Druck-M”glichkeit auf COM1-4, LPT1-3, in Datei - l„uft natrlich unter verschiedenen Betriebssystemen und Versionen wie MS-DOS, Novell DOS, PTS-DOS, einer DOS-Sitzung unter Windows oder OS/2 ab Version 2. Zugegeben, vieles, was agSI anzeigt, wird den durchschnittlichen Benutzer kaum interessieren, den an Interna interessierten dann schon eher. agSI wird als Shareware vertrieben (mit einer Registrierungsgebhr von 20 DM (oder 15 US-$); n„here Infos hierzu (in deutsch) finden Sie in der deutschen Version. Es gibt eine deutsche (in AGSIxxxD.ZIP) und eine englische (AGSIxxxE.ZIP) Version von agSI. Neue Versionen werden prim„r ber den Anonymous-FTP-Server ftp.uni-stuttgart.de im Verzeichnis /pub/systems/pc/util/system vertrieben (englisch und deutsch; die englische wird auch auf SimTel (*dem* Server fr DOS) hochgeladen (Verzeichnis msdos/sysinfo). Wenn Sie auf ein Problem stoáen - da agSI stellenweise sehr Hardware- nah programmiert ist, kann das schon mal vorkommen; ich kann ja nicht hunderte von Systemen und Konfigurationen testen - oder auf irgendetwas, das Ihnen nicht gef„llt, teilen Sie es mir ruhig mit; nur so kann agSI immer weiter verbessert werden. Sollte zuviel an agSI bei Ihnen nicht funktionieren, k”nnen Sie vorerst auch auf eine Registrierung verzichten, wenn Sie agSI dadurch nicht fr preis-wert erachten... ICH (DER AUTOR) šBERNEHME KEINERLEI GARANTIE ODER HAFTUNG JEDWEDER ART! Weder fr die Eignung des Programms fr einen bestimmten Zweck, noch im besonderen fr Sch„den, die durch die Benutzung des Programms oder seiner Dokumentation entstehen k”nnten. Meine Adresse: Andreas Gr”gel Gildenstr. 4 D-74074 Heilbronn Deutschland Internet E-Mail: ag@studbox.uni-stuttgart.de Tschá! Andreas Gr”gel (Ende)