******************************************************************************* Start Menu Changer'97 Readme file. ******************************************************************************* ******************************************************************************* This program is SHAREWARE. It is provided "AS IS". The author takes no responsibility for any damage caused by this program. You can copy it as many times as you like. Give it to anyone as long as all the files in the distribution are included and no changes are made to any files. If you like it you can register it. ******************************************************************************* The files which should be included in the original ZIP file: Setup.exe - The installation. StartMC.ex_ - The program. Remove.ex_ - The uninstallation. Readme.txt - The program information. (This file). ReadmeFr.txt - French translation of this Readme file. ReadmeRu.txt - Russian translation of this Readme file. Register.exe - Start Menu Changer'97 registration Register.hlp - Registration help Sharewre.txt - The concept of Shareware. History.txt - Start Menu Changer's history. File_id.diz - Small program description. End-User.txt - End user agreement Alexey\ - My favourite theme pack Win98\ - Windows 98 theme pack Sun\ - Sun theme pack by H.Renouard Sample\ - Sample theme pack of using SMC theme packs Q: How do I register the software and what benefits will I have? A: Go to Start Menu Changer'97 'About' bookmark. Press the 'Run Register.exe' button. Then fill out the form by entering your name, email address and the number of single user licenses you desire for each program you wish to purchase. After a couple of days you'll receive a registration code. Or choose 'Online registration' via secured internet protocol. Benefits: 1) All registered users will receive notifications when a new version of SMC appears. 2) If you change your operating system (for example, from Windows 95 to Windows 98), but SMC doesn't support it, just tell me and the required corrections will be done in a new SMC version. 3) Your code for registration will be valid on all versions of SMC. Q: What is the start button icon's limit? A: The Start button icon size has to be 10x10, 12x12, 14x14, 16x16, 22x22 or 32x32 with 16 colors. By default, Windows 95/98 uses 16x16 icon. You can change this by resizing the active title bar (click right mouse button on desktop, select properties/appearance). Q: What does Start Menu Changer modify and how do I remove changes? A: Start Menu Changer modifies Explorer.exe and User.exe files. Backup files are stored as Explorer.sav in your Windows directory and User.sav in your Windows system directory. It also modifies the registry. To restore your original files press the Restore button. To enable your changes you have to restart Windows. Q: How do I restore the original Windows icons on the start menu? A: There are two ways or doing that: 1) Press the right mouse button on one of the 10 start menu icons and choose 'restore' from the popup menu. 2) Press the restore button and choose 'restore original icons on start menu'. Q: I'm having trouble starting Windows 95/98. A: If you have problems with starting Windows or restoring your original settings, boot into command line (DOS) and copy the *.sav files to *.exe files. If you still have problems then 1) Extract Explorer.exe and User.exe from your Windows installation. For example, ( EXTRACT /A /L C:\TEMP WIN95_02.CAB EXPLORER.EXE USER.EXE ) for Windows 95 or ( EXTRACT /A /L C:\TEMP WIN98_22.CAB EXPLORER.EXE USER.EXE ) for Windows 98. 2) If you have Windows 95 + IE4 shell integration installed then change the line in your C:\Windows\System.ini from 'shell=Explorer.exe' to 'shell=Progman.exe'. When windows starts up with the Program Manager you will have to go to File Manager (winfile.exe) and find the IE4.01 setup. Re-install IE4 by doubleclicking setup. The Internet connection should be functioning because the problem does not effect the configuration nor IE4. When IE4 finishes the installation, the changes in system.ini are reset to normal again and the setup will restart windows 95 automatically and all systems should be working properly. Q: How can I change the start menu vertical logo? A: First of all, you have to create a bitmap file (21x130 for Windows 95 or 21x223 for Windows 98) with 16 colors. Run Windows Paint, choose the appropriate size, draw what you like and then save the picture as a 16 color bitmap file (you can also change the palette of the logo). Run Start Menu Changer and then press 'Load logo' button to load picture. After rebooting, your vertical logo size may be too small. To correct this problem you have to compress your picture file using RLE compression. Windows Paint doesn't support RLE compression, so choose another graphic editor, for example, Paint Shop Pro ( http://www.jasc.com/psp.html ). Sometimes, your BMP with RLE compression will be longer than without RLE. The best program to compress BMPs I've seen is the Borland Resource Workshop. To view the whole picture, your BMP file has to be =< 1320 bytes for Windows 95 and =< 2917 bytes for Windows 98. Q: My vertical logo has been cut and there are some incorrect pixels after it. A: To correct this run Start Menu Changer, load logo and then decrease the logo's height. However, the logo will always be cut because Start Menu Changer rewrites the existing logo in Explorer.exe file with the existing size. Q: How can I create my own Theme Pack? A: First of all, see the Sample Theme Pack. Index.smc is an ini-type file so you can easly modify it in Windows Notepad. If any ICON or BMP file (or sections in index.smc) isn't included in your theme then the picture (or options) will not be changed in Windows. NOTE: Unchecked Favorites, Run, Find, Settings, Logoff, Suspend and Shutdown will not appear in Explorer at all until you've checked them again in Start Menu Changer'97. This happens because Start Menu Changer'97 also modifies the registry. KNOWN BUGS: -> Some versions of Windows will not hide some options when you uncheck them in SMC. Microsoft's bug. -> Doesn't support Windows NT. 'Read beyond end of file' message occurs. This message also may occur on some unsupported Windows 95/98 versions. -> Doesn't hide Settings from start menu in IE4 and in Windows 98. -> 256 color icons are saved only as 16 color icons. Bug in Delphi 3.0 VCL. -> 'Save as theme' button saves loaded logo's picture in true color, not in 16 colors. So it can't be loaded again. If you have any suggestions or any questions contact me or if you have cool Theme Packs for Start Menu Changer send them to me or send me a link to your page where these Themes pack will be located. Email -------------------> servent@apollo.lv Home page ---------------> http://www.halyava.ru/aaalexey Start Menu Changer page -> http://www.halyava.ru/aaalexey/StartMenu.html