Copyright: Copyright © 1992,1993 Clifton Karnes.


Main Index tutorial
 The Runner Utilities

FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS 3.1

COPYRIGHT © 1992, 1993 CLIFTON KARNES.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 Introduction	 RightClick

 Installation	 GroupRunner

 WinRunner	 MultiRunner

 TaskRunner	 How to Register


 Introduction

WHAT ARE THE RUNNER UTILITIES?

The Runner Utilities are four programs that make using Windows easier, faster, and more fun.

Here's a brief description of what each program does:

WinRunner  is a command line utility that let's you specify the starting size and visibility of any window (optimized, minimized, maximized, normal, or hidden). In addition, WinRunner lets you combine these parameters and optionally minimize Program Manager when you launch a program with WinRunner.

TaskRunner  is a powerful replacement for Windows Task List. With TaskRunner, you can hide and unhide windows, optimize them, as well as kill, tile, cascade, arrange icons, and minimize windows. And you can perform all these window management functions on single windows or groups.

GroupRunner  solves an old problem with Program Manager: You can't place groups inside groups. With GroupRunner, you can install a group inside another group.

RightClick  is a small program that lets you summon TaskRunner (or Task List, for that matter) with a right mouse click as well as the default left double-click.

 MultiRunner  lets you run multiple programs from a single command line. With MultiRunner, you can launch groups of programs that you use together from a single icon. MultiRunner is a bonus program included with the registered version of The Runner Utilities only.

GETTING STARTED

The Runner Utilities are a suite that can be used independently or together--you can use just one of these programs or all four. The best plan is to start with WinRunner, move on to TaskRunner and RightClick, then work with GroupRunner, and finally MultiRunner. Here are more details:

 Since the first thing we do with each Windows applications is run it, WinRunner, which controls the initial size, placement, and visibility of a window is the best Runner Utility to start with.

 After you run a program, you usually need to manage it in some way. That's where TaskRunner comes in. Read the TaskRunner information next.

 Next, try RightClick. If you use TaskRunner much, RightClick will make it easier and faster to call up.

 Now, try GroupRunner. It will make Program Manger much nicer to work with.

 Last, try MultiRunner with those programs you want to run as groups (or with programs that it's difficult to optimize with WinRunner.)

WHAT IS SHAREWARE?

Thank you for trying The Runner Utilities. The Runner Utilities is shareware and is provided at no charge to you for evaluation. Please feel free to share it this evaluation copy with your friends. If you find this program useful, please register it.

WHY REGISTER?

When you register The Runner Utilities, you'll get three things:

 You'll receive a registered copy of the latest version of The Runner Utilities on disk.

 You'll be advised of future releases of The Runner Utilities.

 You'll receive a special bonus program--MultiRunner, which lets you run multiple programs from a single command line, icon, or menu entry.

HOW MUCH?

 Individual copies of The Runner Utilities are $25 each.

 Corporate licenses are available for $250 each.

THE FINE PRINT

Please note that The Runner Utilities is provided as is and without warranty of any kind, either express or implied.


 Installation

HOW TO INSTALL THE RUNNER UTILITIES

The Runner Utilities consists of the following files:

WRUNNER.EXE	WinRunner executable

TRUNNER.EXE	TaskRunner executable

RCLICK.EXE	RightClick executable

GRUNNER.EXE	GroupRunner executable

MRUNNER.EXE	MultiRunner executable (included with registered version only)

RUNNER.BMP	The Runner Utilities wallpaper

RUNNER.HLP	This help file

README.TXT	Quick introduction

If any of these files is missing, please contact Clifton Karnes at the address in the How to Register section of this Help.

To install The Runner Utilities:

 Copy the files to a subdirectory on your path. Your WINDOWS subdirectory is a good choice, but you may install it anywhere..

 Create a Program Manager group called The Runner Utilities.

 Install all the files on this group, or, at a minimum, install RCLICK.EXE (RightClick) and RUNNER.HLP (The Runner Utilities Help). (You can drag the executable files from File Manager to your Program Manager group. For information on how to install programs in Program Manager, see your Windows manual.)


WinRunner Tutorial
 WinRunner

WHAT IS WINRUNNER?

WinRunner is the answer to Windows desktop clutter. With WinRunner, you can specify a starting size for every Windows program you run, so your desktop stays neat, clean, and easy to use.

As you probably know, most Windows apps start with a screen size that seems to be based entirely on the application's whim. WinRunner cures this problem by allowing you to start any application in a maximized window, a minimized window, as hidden, or in an optimized window (more about this option later).

COMMAND SYNTAX

Here's WinRunner's command line syntax:

WRUNNER  OPT | MAX | MIN | HID | NOR[+...][+ZAP]  program [parameters]

The vertical bar (called a pipe) that separates the options MAX, MIN, HID, OPT, and NOR says that you can specify one of these options only. And since these options are not in brackets, you must specify one of them.

Here's an explanation of each command line item:

WRUNNER. This is the name of this program and is naturally required.

OPT. This option will run the program and optimize the window so it fills the screen, except for a small band at the bottom that allows you to access your icons. This is the window size you get if you make one window active, minimize all others, call TaskRunner (or Task List), and click on Tile. This is probably the most useful WinRunner parameter.

MAX. This option will run the program in a maximized window, which will fill the screen.

MIN. This option will run the program in a minimized window, which will appear as an icon on your desktop.

HID. This option will run the program and hide the window so it doesn't appear at all, though the program is still running.

NOR. This option will run the program in a normally sized window, the size it would run in if you didn't use WinRunner. Providing this option may seem strange, but it's useful to use with the HID and ZAP options.

[+...]. The plus sign with the dots after it indicates that any of the foregoing parameters can be repeated, preceded by a plus sign.

[+ZAP]. This optional parameter allows you to minimize Program Manager before your program runs. This is useful for programs with fixed sized windows that tend to be hard to use with Program Manager behind them. Note that ZAP cannot be the first parameter or the only one.

Program. This is the name of the program you want to run.

Parameters. These are any command line parameters program accepts. These are optional.

To refresh your memory on these parameters, simple run WinRunner without any parameters.

EXAMPLES

To run Microsoft Excel in an optimized window, you'd use the command

WRUNNER OPT EXCEL

If you wanted to start Excel without a Sheet1 as the default, you'd use the /E switch, and you'd have the following command line:

WRUNNER OPT EXCEL /E

To run Write in a maximized window, you'd use the command

WRUNNER MAX WRITE

To run Write with MYFILE.WRI loaded, you'd type

WRUNNER MAX WRITE MYFILE.WRI

If you use Recorder macro files, you almost always want to load these as minimized, so you'd use a command like the following:

WRUNNER MIN MYMACROS.REC

If you want to hide your Recorder icon, you'd use the line:

WRUNNER MIN+HID MYMACROS.REC

If you want to start Visual Basic normally, but with a clean screen--that is, without Program Manager in the background--you'd use the following command line:

WRUNNER NOR+ZAP VB

KEEP YOUR ICONS

When you change a program's properties in Program Manager so you can start it with WinRunner, you need to follow a few steps to make sure you keep your program's icon.

 In Program Manager, Select the icon of the program you want to start with WinRunner.

 Select File, Properties from the menu bar.

 Select Change Icon and click on OK.

 In the Command Line text box, type in WRUNNER OPT before the program's name.

 Click on OK

Note that if you don't go to Change Icon before you add WRUNNER to your Command Line, Windows will assume your icon is in the WinRunner executable, WRUNNER.EXE. An icon is there, and you're welcome to use it, but you'll probably want to use your program's icon.

CLUTTER KILLING STRATEGY

The OPT parameter is the most useful for WinRunner. Simply start most of your programs with this parameter. Leave Program Manager optimized all the time. When you run a program with WinRunner OPT, it will overlay Program Manager exactly. If you run another program, it will overlay the first exactly. As a rule, keep inactive programs (except for Program Manager) minimized.

ASSOCIATIONS

One of the best ways to use WinRunner is to specify it when you make associations.  For example, instead of just associating TXT files with NOTEPAD.EXE, associate them with the following line:

WRUNNER OPT NOTEPAD.EXE ^.TXT

With this association, when you double-click on a TXT file, it will be loaded into Notepad, and Notepad will be sized just the way you want.

ADVANCED OPTIONS

There's another WinRunner option that advanced users may find useful. You can use WinRunner to resize the window of a program that's already running. To do this you supply either the program's title (also called its caption) or its class name and precede it with a colon (:).  Here's the form:

WRUNNER parameters :name

The parameters can be any normal WinRunner parameters, and name can be either the program's title (also called its caption) or its class name. For example, if you want to optimize Program Manager, you'd use the command line:

WRUNNER OPT :PROGRAM MANAGER

or

WRUNNER OPT :PROGMAN

PROGRAM MANAGER is Program Manager's title (unless you've maximized a group) and PROGMAN is its class name.

Please note that either the title or class name will work. WinRunner tries the string you specify as a class name first and if it doesn't fine a match, it tries the string as a title. It's also worth noting that case doesn't matter with either titles or class names. Progman, PROGMAN,  progman, and ProgMan are all equal in Windows' eyes.

The Program Manager example above leads us to one of the problems with using titles. They change. Program Manager is Program Manager's title, unless you have maximized a group, in which case the title is Program Manager plus the maximized group's name. The same thing is true of File Manager. It's title is File Manager unless you've maximized a document window in which case its title is File Manager plus the path to the files in the window.

Its much safer to use the class name, but you usually can't find out a program's class name without a special tool, such as Spy, included with the Microsoft SDK, or WinSight, included with Borland's C products. There's an undocumented way to find a program's class name, however.

Run Recorder and the program whose class name you want to find. Record a macro that does something with the program's main windows, like pressing Alt-F, X, to exit.

Now, back in Recorder, hold down the Shift key and select Macro, Properties. You'll see the keystrokes for the macro you just created and the program's filename, and exclamation point, and its class name.

To get you going, thought, here are the class names of all the programs that ship with Windows 3.1, plus some popular applications. If you need to find the class names of other programs, try the Recorder macro trick.

Class Name	Application

OMain	ACCESS.EXE

SciCalc 	CALC.EXE

CalWndMain	CALENDAR.EXE

Cardfile	CARDFILE.EXE

Clipboard	CLIPBOARD.EXE

Clock	CLOCK.EXE

CtlPanelClass	CONTROL.EXE

XLMain	EXCEL.EXE

Session	MS-DOS.EXE

Notepad	NOTE.EXE

pbParent	PBRUSH.EXE

Pif	PIFEDIT.EXE

PrintManager	PRINTMAN.EXE

Progman	PROGMAN.EXE

Recorder	RECORDER.EXE

Reversi	REVERSI.EXE

#32770	SETUP.EXE

Solitaire	SOL.EXE

Terminal	TERMINAL.EXE

WFS_Frame	WINFILE.EXE

MW_WINHELP	WINHELP.EXE

#32770	WINVER.EXE

OpusApp	WINWORD.EXE

MSWRITE_MENU	WRITE.EXE

It's worth noting that you could guess many of these from the program's name. Others, such as OpusApp for WinWord and WFS_Frame for File Manager are too bizarre to reason out.

USING MULTIRUNNER WITH WINRUNNER

There's a special case where WinRunner and MultiRunner (which is provided with registered copies of The Runner Utilities) can work together.

If you have a program that puts up a dialog box before its main windows, it's almost impossible to optimize the window with WinRunner. That's because Windows offers no way to optimize a window automatically. To optimize a window, WinRunner must first run the program and then find the program's window. To do this it simply looks for the active window. If the program you're running puts up a welcome message box before its main window, the welcome box will be the active window WinRunner finds.

The solution is to run the program, then use the advanced option of WinRunner to resize the window based on the title or class name.

One program that I've had this problem with is Borland's Resource Workshop. Before it displays the main window, it shows a welcome message box. To optimize Resource Workshop, I run it and resize it with the following command:

WRUNNER OPT :RWSWND

RWSWND is Resource Workshop's class name. Unfortunately, you can't use the program's title, Resource Workshop, because that's the title the welcome box uses too!

You've probably noticed that this whole procedure takes two commands: one to run the program and one to resize the window. That's where MultiRunner comes in. Here's the MultiRunner command string to run Resource Workshop and optimize it:

MRUNNER "WORKSHOP" "WRUNNER OPT :RWSWND"

For more information on MultiRunner, see the MultiRunner section in this help file.

WINRUNNER NOTES

Although I've used uppercase for the examples, WinRunner is not case sensitive; you can use either upper- or lowercase.


TaskRunner Tutorial
 TaskRunner

WHAT IS TASKRUNNER?

TaskRunner is an improved  replacement for Windows' Task List that supports all of Task List's features and adds many of its own. Here's a rundown:

 TaskRunner lets you run, optimize, hide, unhide, kill, tile, cascade, arrange icons, and minimize selected windows and tasks.

 TaskRunner lets you select multiple windows or tasks to act on.

 TaskRunner's task list is alphabetized, so it's easier to find tasks quickly than it is with Task List's unalphabetized list.

 TaskRunner lets you call your default Windows screen saver on demand.

 TaskRunner uses a larger font than Task List so its main window and buttons are easier to read and use.

 TaskRunner displays eight tasks instead of Task List's seven.

 Amazingly, even with a larger font and a larger task list, TaskRunner is still about the same size as Task List.

 TaskRunner lets you restart or exit Windows quickly.

 TaskRunner lets you reboot your system.

INSTALLATION

There are two ways to install TaskRunner.

 Load your SYSTEM.INI file into a text editor.

 Find the line taskman.exe=taskman.exe.

 Replace that line with the line taskman.exe=trunner.exe. If you can't find the line taskman.exe=taskman.exe, simply add the line taskman.exe=trunner.exe to the [boot] section of SYSTEM.INI.

  For this approach, you must either put the full path to TRUNNER.EXE or place TRUNNER.EXE in a subdirectory on your path.

Here's a second option:

 Rename TASKMAN.EXE (in your Windows subdirectory) to TASKMAN.BAK

 place TRUNNER.EXE in your Windows subdirectory.

 Rename TRUNNER.EXE to TASKMAN.EXE.

SWITCHING TASKS

You can switch to a task displayed in TaskRunner's task list the same way you do in Task List. There are three ways to switch to a task:

 Double-click on the task.

 Select the task and press the Enter key.

 Select the task and press Alt-S.

Probably the best way to get a feel for how TaskRunner can help you manage Windows is to take a tour of its buttons, keyboard commands, and menu options.

TASKRUNNER'S BUTTONS

Optimize. Optimizes the selected window or windows. An optimized window fills the screen except for a strip at the bottom that leaves just enough space on the desktop to display icons. This command (just like the WinRunner OPT parameter) is system independent. It works with 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, and so on.

Hide. Hides the selected window or windows.

Unhide. Unhides the selected window or windows.

Kill. Kills the selected task or tasks.

Tile. Vertically tiles the selected window or windows; all other tasks are iconized. This Tile command works differently than Task List's. Task List tiles all non-iconized windows. TaskRunner tiles the windows you select and iconizes all others. To makeTaskRunner's Tile command act like Task List's, simply deselect the selected task or tasks (with Ctrl-click) and press Tile.

Shift-Tile. Horizontally tiles the selected window or windows; all other tasks are iconized. (See Tile for differences with Task List.)

Cascade. Cascades selected window or windows; all other tasks are iconized. (See Tile for differences with Task List.)

Arrange. Arranges all icons on the desktop.

Minimize. Minimizes the selected window or windows.

KEYBOARD COMMANDS

Alt-x.You can press the Alt key combined with the first letter of any button to activate the button. For example, Alt-O optimizes the selected window or windows.

In addition, the following keystrokes are supported:

Alt-E. End task. (The same action as pressing the Kill button or pressing Alt-K.)

Alt-S. Switch to window. (The same action as double-clicking on a window name in the task list or selecting a window and pressing Enter.)

Enter. Switch to the selected window.

Escape. Exit TaskRunner.

Tab. The Tab key moves the input focus from the task list through each button.

Pressing the first letter of a task name moves to that task in the task list. Pressing the letter again moves to the next task that begins with that letter.

MENUS

TaskRunner's control menu has the following selections:

Move. Move the TaskRunner Window. (Standard Window control menu selection that's intended for keyboard only use.)

Close. Exit TaskRunner. (Another standard Windows control menu selection.)

Restart Windows. Reruns Windows. All applications will query you to save unsaved files.

Reboot System. This option exits Windows after querying you to save any unsaved files and reboots your system. This is a handy feature if you've gotten an error message and you think it might not be safe to continue in Windows without rebooting. It's also useful if you change something in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file and you want to test it.

Exit Windows. After querying you about saving any unsaved files, you'll return to the DOS prompt.

Screen Saver. This command activates your default Windows screen saver.

Help. Displays this help file. Please note that the help file RUNNER.HLP must be in a directory on your path.

About TaskRunner. TaskRunner's version number and copyright statement.

SELECTING MULTIPLE TASKS

You can single-click on any task to select it. You can extend the selection by:

 Dragging the mouse.

 Control-clicking tasks.

 Defining a range by clicking on the first file and Shift-clicking on the last.

 Holding down the Shift key and moving the cursor keys.

TASKRUNNER TIPS

 Often, you'll want to do something (minimize, hide, unhide, or kill) to all tasks except one. This is easy to do in TaskRunner. Simply select all your tasks by dragging the mouse from the top of the list box to the bottom (or by clicking on the first task and Shift-clicking on the last), and Control-click on the task you don't want to minimize, hide, unhide, or kill.

 If you need a quick way to optimize one window and minimize all others, select the window you want to optimize and press Tile.

 Don't forget that Shift-Tile will tile windows horizontally, which is often more useful than tiling vertically.


RightClick

WHAT IS RIGHTCLICK?

RightClick is a utility that lets you call TaskRunner (or Task List) with a single right-click on the desktop instead of a double left-click (you can still call TaskRunner with a double left-click, if you wish).

A single right click is faster and easier to produce than a double click, and you'll probably find it addictive.

 To load RightClick, simply run the program RCLICK.EXE. Nothing will happen, but the program will have loaded.

 To have RightClick run automatically each time you boot Windows, put RCLICK.EXE in your Startup group.

 To unload RightClick, simply run the program a second time.

FOR LEFTIES

If you're left handed, or if you'd just like to substitute a single left click on the desktop for a left double-click, then you can run RightClick with the LEFT parameter. For example,

RIGHTCLICK LEFT

When run with the LEFT parameter, a single left click on the desktop will summon TaskRunner (or Task List).


GroupRunner Tutorial
 GroupRunner

WHY GROUPRUNNER?

Generally speaking, Program Manager is a nice Windows shell. It's fast and intuitive, and compared with some other shells, it uses very little memory.

The one thing that's always bothered me about Program Manager, however, is that it doesn't allow you to install a group in another group. This failure is compounded by the fact that Program Manager is constantly rearranging the groups you do have, so you can never depend on a group being in the same place in two different sessions.

GroupRunner solves both of these problems.

WHAT GROUPRUNNER DOES

GroupRunner lets you install a group in another group. Double-click on the group's icon and the group jumps to attention. Click on the minimize button, double-click on the Control Menu, or press Ctrl-F4 to send the group away.

Before getting to the section on how to use GroupRunner, I want to explain what it's doing, because it involves some sleight of hand, and if you know what's going on, you'll be able to use the program more effectively.

HOW GROUPRUNNER WORKS

GroupRunner lets you install a group in another group by actually letting you run the group just the way you would a program. So, if you want to install your Accessories group on your Main group, your simply add an icon that runs GRUNNER.EXE with the parameter ACCESSORIES. GroupRunner sets up a DDE conversation with Program Manager and tells Program Manager to display the group whose name you gave as the parameter to the GroupRunner program.

What this means is that the GroupRunner group icon you see in Program Manager doesn't quite represent a group the way Program Manager's group icons do. It's an alias for a group, and the group it represents and runs is still in Program Manager, though usually hidden. (I see the real Program Manager groups about once a week.)

The only negative for creating groups inside groups this way is that you can't drag icons to a GroupRunner group the way you can a Program Manager group. I haven't found this to be a problem, however. I simply use F7 (the File, Move command) to shuttle icons among groups.

So, that said, here's how to use GroupRunner.

INSTALLATION

To install a group on another group, open Program Manager and select the group on which you want to install the other group.

Let's install Accessories on Main for an example.

 First, activate Main.

 Next, choose File, New and select Program Item.

 In the Description box, type the title of the group you want to install, in this case Accessories.

 In the Command Line box, type

GRUNNER ACCESSORIES

 Leave Working Directory blank, leave Shortcut Key as None, and leave Run Minimized unchecked.

 Click on OK and you're done.

You'll see the GroupRunner icon appear on your Main group. This icon looks enough like the Program Manager group icon to remind you that this is a group, but different enough to remind you that it's a GroupRunner group.

If you want to use a different icon, simply associate it with the group.


 MultiRunner

Please note that MultiRunner is a bonus program included in the registered version of The Runner Utilities only.

WHAT IS MULTIRUNNER?

MultiRunner is a simple command line utility that allows you to run more than one program at a time. With MultiRunner you can load groups of programs you like to use together. As examples, you could run Excel and Calculator; Write, Character Map, and Print Manager; or Borland C and Resource Workshop.

Any programs you normal run from Program Manager, a menu program, or the command line, you can run with MultiRunner.

To use MultiRunner, you simply provide a command line like the following:

MRUNNER "program1 <parameters>" "program2 <parameters>" [...]

MRUNNER takes care of running the programs. You just supply each program's name along with any parameters inside quotation marks. MultiRunner will run as many programs as will fit on a 127-character command line. (Windows has the same 127-character command line restriction as DOS.)

MULTIRUNNER EXAMPLES

Here's an example using MultiRunner to load both Excel and Calculator.

MRUNNER "EXCEL" "CALC"

This example assumes that both Excel and Calculator are on your path. If Excel isn't on your path but Calculator is, you'd use the line

MRUNNER "C:\EXCEL\EXCEL" "CALC"

assuming Excel is in the C:\EXCEL subdirectory.

USING MULTIRUNNER WITH PARAMETERS

You can also specify any program parameters you'd like.

To run WinWord and load the file C:\WINWORD\DOC\MYNOVEL.DOC and Character Map, you enter

MRUNNER "WINWORD C:\WINWORD\DOC\MYNOVEL.DOC" "CHARMAP"

Both programs can have parameters, too.  The following example loads WinWord with REPORT.DOC and Excel with REPORT.XLS:

MRUNNER "WINWORD C:\WINWORD\DOC\REPORT.DOC" "EXCEL C:\EXCEL\XLS\REPORT.XLS"

Naturally, you can use MultiRunner with WinRunner (you can even use it with GroupRunner). The following example loads Write, Paintbrush, and a Recorder macro file with Write macros. Write is minimized, Paintbrush is maximized, and Recorder is minimized and hidden:

MRUNNER "WRUNNER MIN WRITE" "WRUNNER MAX PBRUSH" "WRUNNER MIN+HID RECORDER M.REC"

Please note that when you use the optimize parameter with multiple files, that WinRunner can become confused and optimize the wrong program. You'll have to experiment with order to find the best way to run your group.


 How to Register

To print this registration form, click on the Print Topic button above or select Print Topic from the File menu.

The Runner Utilities package is $25 for individual copies and $250 for site licenses. You can order The Runner Utilities by printing and completing this form and sending it along with a check or money order to the address below. You'll receive the latest version of the program on disk, a bonus utilitiy--MultiRunner--and you'll be advised of updates.

Please make checks or money orders payable to Clifton Karnes, and mail your order to the following address:

Clifton Karnes

2519 Overbrook Drive

Greensboro, NC 27408

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