********************************************************************* FastFolders V2.42 Readme ********************************************************************* Welcome to FastFolders, a system extension which increases your productivity dramatically by giving you quick and easy access to folder contents and files. Without opening each and every folder, you can browse the directory structure starting at any point by clicking the right mouse button on a file, folder or drive. The program modifies the context menus of shell objects, adding a menu item which displays the directory structure on demand. If you drag and drop an object on a folder or drive using the right mouse button, you can copy or move the object(s) to any folder of your computer by selecting it from the FastFolders menu. In addition, FastFolders includes a revolutionary feature to resize the items of the status bars of all Explorer windows to fit all important information (e.g. file sizes) optimally. -------------------------------- Instructions: -------------------------------- To use FastFolders, open the context menu of any shell object ("My Computer", "Network Neighborhood", a drive, folder or file, etc.) by right-clicking it. When you move the mouse pointer over the FastFolders menu item, a submenu opens which displays the contents of the selected object. To open any object, simply click the menu item with the left mouse button. To access the context menu of the object, click the right mouse button on the item. CLICKING THE FASTFOLDERS MENU ITEM ITSELF OPENS THE FASTFOLDERS OPTIONS DIALOG, which allows you to customize many options of FastFolders, including a filter for the file extensions to display. The FastFolders item of the context menu of the "Start" button in the Taskbar contains all items of the Desktop. This allows quick access to all objects on the Desktop. The usual keyboard navigation for menus also works with the FastFolders menus. IMPORTANT: Some users have reported, that SmartStatus occasionally causes Windows to hang at startup. If you experience this problem, please select the option "Safe mode" in the SmartStatus group of the main dialog. This way, SmartStatus will only be activated after you right-click any object for the first time after booting Windows. -------------------------------- Uninstallation: -------------------------------- To uninstall FastFolders, open the Windows Control Panel, select "Add/Remove Programs" and the select the FastFolders item from the list of installed programs. Click "Add/Remove" to remove FastFolders from your system. -------------------------------- Remarks: -------------------------------- Menu speed: It is recommended to set the menu show delay to 0 seconds, because this will allow the fastest navigation through the directory tree. Under certain circumstances, this setting may have no effect, e.g. if an old version of the MS IntelliMouse Driver is installed. In this case, please update the driver to the newest version available from the Microsoft website (http://www.microsoft.com/mouse/). Default editor / viewer: This edit field allows you to specify a command line which is invoked if you select a file type which has no executable program associated with it. Typical examples are files like: "Readme.1st", "Disk.id", "Setup.nfo", etc. It is recommended to enter your favorite text editor, so you can view all these files quickly. By default, FastFolders chooses the program which is associated with .TXT files (generally this is NOTEPAD.EXE). So the default command line is: "C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE %1". The "%1" at the end makes NotePad load the file which was selected by the user. If you choose any other program than NotePad, loading the selected file probably works the same way, so please make sure that the "%1" is specified at the end of the command line. SmartStatus 98: If you are using Windows 98 or Windows 95 with Internet Explorer 4 and its desktop enhancements, you will probably have noticed that the important information in the status bars of Explorer windows (e.g. volume information for drives, file sizes) is only visible if you make the window very large. SmartStatus resizes the parts of the status bars to display all information optimally. (If you are using Windows 2000, Windows NT or Windows 95 without IE 4.0, SmartStatus has no effect!) Transition effects for menus and tooltips: For Windows 98 and 2000, transition effects for menus and tooltips (e.g. fading, scrolling) are disabled for the FastFolders menus. -------------------------------- FastFolders System requirements: -------------------------------- *) Pentium CPU or higher *) 8 MB of RAM *) Windows 95 / 98 / NT 4.0 / 2000 or higher *) Mouse or compatible pointing device *) 1 MB of free harddisk space If you have any questions or comments, please write to 'support@desksoft.com'. If you experience any problems running the program, please make sure to include information about your computer configuration, hardware and software. The DeskSoft Team. Windows 95 / 98 / NT, Internet Explorer, etc. are registered trademarks of Microsoft. All other registered trademarks are registered trademarks of their respective owners.