How to use ToolBox - Troubleshooting

Most of the troubleshooting you will need to do for ToolBox will need you to change the XML configuration files. We recommend that you are familiar with XML's basic concepts, although you don't need to be an XML expert to do this job. The XML configuration files are in the 'settings' folder under the ToolBox installation directory.

For example: c:\apps\toolbox\settings

Configuration Files
The configuration files are named 'toolbox*.xml' although in future versions this may change. Actually ToolBox will attempt to open all *.xml files in the settings directory at startup and use them if they are valid toolbox configurations. This means basically that you can create a ToolBox yourself just by adding an XML file into that directory.

Below is an XML toolbox configuration file, which contains one shortcut to a drive in position 1,1.

There is no *.DTD associated with toolbox configuration files yet. You can ommit any of the attributes and nodes of the XML file. ToolBox is clever enough to use defaults in any case. A configuration file like the one below, is actually the minimum configuration file for toolbox:

... although it is recommended that you least specify a name, rows and columns like this:

Real Troubleshooting

Undeleting Toolboxes
If you accidentally delete a toolbox using the Control Panel's delete command, you can go to the settings menu and find the corresponding XML file. The file will have been renamed from 'toolbox99.xml' to 'toolbox99.~xml'. You can rename this file back to what it was, or give it a better name if you like, as long as you make the extension '.xml'. If any file has a .XML extension in this folder, next time ToolBox starts, it will pick it up and use it as a proper toolbox.

I get an error that ToolBox cannot write the configuration file
In case ToolBox cannot save the configuration file of a toolbox, it is very likely that something fatal has occured (most likely a locked file or something else). Go to the settings folder and check whether the file is existing, accessible and has any contents. If any of these is false, while ToolBox is running you have the chance to save your configuration; simply choose Duplicate ToolBox from the ToolBox Control Panel. Close the application, restart it again, and if you get two duplicate boxes delete one. It is most likely that you are going to get only one.

I get an error message every time ToolBox starts...
...that a configuration file is invalid. If ToolBox cannot read a configuration file it will probably ignore it. This means that everyt time you start ToolBox you will get the same error message. If a file has been corrupted, then simply go to the 'settings' directory and delete it.