Copyright: Copyright (C) 1995-1996 Swoosie Software


Media Changer Deluxe Setup Help Contents

Media Changer Deluxe (MCD) can automatically change your system sounds, wallpaper, screen saver and/or theme each time one of its support applications is run. Please select one of the following items for more information on setting up or using MCD:

Wallpaper settings

Screen Saver settings

Sounds settings

More Sounds settings

Themes settings

How to use Media Changer Deluxe

How to use Media Changer Deluxe Tray

Revision history

Registering Media Changer Deluxe

About Media Changer Deluxe


About MCSetup Dialog

The Legal Stuff:

Copyright (C) 1995-1996 Swoosie Software

All Rights Reserved

License Agreement

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software.  Unless you have a different license agreement signed by Swoosie Software, your use of this software indicates your acceptance of this license agreement and warranty.

Shareware Edition

Evaluation and Registration

This is not free software.  You are hereby licensed to use this software for evaluation purposes without charge for a period of 21 days.  If you use this software after the 21 day evaluation period a registration fee of $18.00 is required.  Payments must be in US dollars drawn on a US bank, made payable to Mike Henderson and Gary Lucero, and should be sent to Swoosie Software, 671 North 120 East, Orem Utah 84057. When payment is received you can then download from the Swoosie Software web site the latest edition of Media Changer Deluxe.

Unregistered use of Media Changer Deluxe after the 21-day evaluation period is in violation of U.S. and international copyright laws.

Distribution

Provided that you verify that you are distributing the Shareware Edition (see the top of this file to check) you are hereby licensed to make as many copies of the Shareware Edition of this software and documentation as you wish; give exact copies of the original Shareware Edition to anyone; and distribute the Shareware Edition of the software and documentation in its unmodified form via electronic means.  There is no charge for any of the above.

You are specifically prohibited from charging, or requesting donations, for any such copies, however made; and from distributing the software and/or documentation with other products (commercial or otherwise) without prior written permission, with one exception:  Disk Vendors approved by the Association of Shareware Professionals are permitted to redistribute Media Changer Deluxe, subject to the conditions in this license, without specific written permission.

Registered Edition

One registered copy of Media Changer Deluxe may either be used by a single person who uses the software personally on one or more computers, or installed on a single workstation used nonsimultaneously by multiple people, but not both.

You may access the registered edition of Media Changer Deluxe through a network, provided that you have obtained individual licenses for the software covering all workstations that will access the software through the network. For instance, if 8 different workstations will access Media Changer and/or Media Changer Setup on the network, each workstation must have its own Media Changer license, regardless of whether they use Media Changer at different times or concurrently.

Governing Law

This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Utah.

Disclaimer of Warranty

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE SOLD "AS IS" AND

WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OF MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.  Because of the

various hardware and software environments into which Media Changer Deluxe may be put, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED.

Good data processing procedure dictates that any program be thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program.  ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.

Trademarks

Windows 95 and Plus! are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Desktop Themes is the trademark of Left Side Software.


Wallpaper

Enable Wallpaper  - Enable or disable changing the current wallpaper each time MChanger.EXE is executed.

Random - Specify whether wallpaper should be randomly chosen each time MChanger.EXE is executed.

Edit box and folder icon - Specify the initial starting path and filename for the bitmap to use as wallpaper. If no filename is specified, the first bitmap in the directory will be chosen when MChanger.EXE is executed.  If Desktop Themes is installed on this computer, when you select the browse button (folder icon), the Files of type combo box will have an extra item: JPEGs.  If you select this item you can then select a file with a .JPG extension for your initial wallpaper bitmap.  When Mchanger.EXE is cycling through the directory, if Desktop Themes is available, both .JPG and .BMPs will be selected.

Automatically tile wallpaper smaller than - Enable or disable automatic tiling. This feature allows you to chose a maximum size wallpaper should be before it is tiled.

NOTE: The following feature requires that Microsoft Plus! or Left Side Software’s Desktop Themes Version 1.1 or later be installed on your system!

Automatically stretch wallpaper as big or bigger than - Enable or disable automatic stretching. This feature allows you to chose the minimum size wallpaper should be before it is stretched to fill the entire desktop area.

OK will save the current settings and set your wallpaper, screen saver and sounds according to those settings.

Cancel will close MCSetup.EXE and throw away all current changes to its settings.

Help will display context sensitive help for the current tab.


 Screen Saver

Enable Screen Saver - Enable or disable changing the current screen saver each time MChanger.EXE is executed.

Random - Specify whether screen savers should be randomly chosen each time MChanger.EXE is executed.

Edit box and folder icon - Specify the initial starting path and filename for the screen saver to use. If no filename is specified, the first screen saver in the directory will be chosen when MChanger.EXE is executed.

Settings - Brings up the selected screen saver’s properties so you can customize them. This button does the exact same thing selecting the Settings button in the Screen Saver tab of the Display Properties control applet does.

Activate - Test the current screen saver, enabling it immediately.

OK will save the current settings and set your wallpaper, screen saver and sounds according to those settings.

Cancel will close MCSetup.EXE and throw away all current changes to its settings.

Help will display context sensitive help for the current tab.


 Sounds

Enable Asterisk, Critical Stop, Default Sound, or Exclamation - Enable or disable changing the current sound each time MChanger.EXE is executed.

Random - Specify whether sounds should be randomly chosen each time MChanger.EXE is executed.

Edit box and folder icon - Specify the initial starting path and filename for the sound to use. If no filename is specified, the first sound in the directory will be chosen when MChanger.EXE is executed.

OK will save the current settings and set your wallpaper, screen saver and sounds according to those settings.

Cancel will close MCSetup.EXE and throw away all current changes to its settings.

Help will display context sensitive help for the current tab.


 More Sounds

Enable Exit Windows, Question or Start Windows - Enable or disable changing the current sound each time MChanger.EXE is executed.

Random - Specify whether sounds should be randomly chosen each time MChanger.EXE is executed.

Edit box and folder icon - Specify the initial starting path and filename for the sound to use. If no filename is specified, the first sound in the directory will be chosen when MChanger.EXE is executed.

About section - Program name, version, and copyright information. Also, whether this copy is registered or not. If it is not registered, then you will be nagged each time you run TChanger.EXE or MChanger.EXE.

OK will save the current settings and set your wallpaper, screen saver and sounds according to those settings.

Cancel will close MCSetup.EXE and throw away all current changes to its settings.

Help will display context sensitive help for the current tab.


 Themes

NOTE: The following feature requires that Microsoft Plus! or Left Side Software’s Desktop Themes Version 1.1 or later be installed on your system!

The following controls are only available if MS Plus! is installed, and Desktop Themes is NOT. When TChanger.EXE is executed, it changes the current theme based on the following settings:

Screen saver - If this is enabled, then when a new theme is chosen, the screen saver in that theme will become the current screen saver. Otherwise your current screen saver setting will not be altered.

Sound events - If this is enabled, then when a new theme is chosen, the sounds in that theme will become the current sounds. Otherwise your current sound settings will not be altered.

Mouse pointers - If this is enabled, then when a new theme is chosen, the mouse pointers in that theme will become the current mouse pointers. Otherwise your current mouse pointer settings will not be altered.

Desktop wallpaper - If this is enabled, then when a new theme is chosen, the wallpaper in that theme will become the current wallpaper. Otherwise your current wallpaper setting will not be altered.

Icons - If this is enabled, then when a new theme is chosen, the icons in that theme will become the current icons. Otherwise your current icon settings will not be altered.

Colors - If this is enabled, then when a new theme is chosen, the colors in that theme will become the current colors. Otherwise your current color settings will not be altered.

Font names and styles - If this is enabled, then when a new theme is chosen, the fonts and font styles in that theme will become the current font and font styles. Otherwise your current screen font and font styles will not be altered.

Font and window sizes - If this is enabled, then when a new theme is chosen, the sizes of the fonts and windows in that theme will become the current sizes for your fonts and windows. Otherwise your current font and windows sizes will not be altered.

If Desktop Themes is installed, regardless of whether MS Plus! is or not, the settings below AND the settings in Desktop Themes control how themes are changed when TChanger.exe is executed.

Desktop Themes - This button is only available if Desktop Themes is installed. It brings up the Desktop Themes application. To change the settings, select a theme, configure the settings as you wish, and then select OK.

Random - Specify whether themes should be randomly chosen each time TChanger.EXE is executed.

Current Theme - Whether Desktop Themes is installed or Plus!, the current path and theme name will be displayed here.

OK will save the current settings and set your wallpaper, screen saver and sounds according to those settings.

Cancel will close MCSetup.EXE and throw away all current changes to its settings.

Help will display context sensitive help for the current tab.


Registering Media Changer

Media Changer Deluxe is Shareware.

It has taken an unbelievable amount of time to design, code, debug, test, enhance, and fix this software. We were even kind enough not to put annoying nag screens or disable any features in this version. We would appreciate your support in our endeavors. Swoosie Software is committed to producing top quality software that enhances your Windows 95 computing experience. Please don't take advantage of us.

If you do register, feel free to download the most recent version of Media Changer Deluxe from our web site at:

http://www.xmission.com/~myq/swoosie.html

Please also check out our other web site at:

http://www.burgoyne.com/pages/glucero/MediaChanger.html

To register by CHECK OR MONEY ORDER, send $18.00 payable to:

Mike Henderson and Gary Lucero

And send it, along with your name and address, to:

Swoosie Software

671 North 120 East

Orem, Utah 84057

DO NOT MAKE THE CHECK OUT TO SWOOSIE SOFTWARE!!!

MAKE IT OUT TO Mike Henderson and Gary Lucero.

- OR -

To order by CREDIT CARD ONLY -

You can order with MC, Visa, Amex, or Discover from Public (software)

Library by calling 800-2424-PsL or 713-524-6394 or by FAX to 713-524-6398

or by CIS Email to 71355,470. You can also mail credit card orders to PsL

at P.O. Box 35705, Houston, TX 77235-5705.

Please reference product number 14705 when you order.

"THE ABOVE NUMBERS ARE FOR CREDIT CARD ORDERS ONLY.

"THE AUTHOR OF THIS PROGRAM CANNOT BE REACHED AT THESE NUMBERS.

"Any questions about the status of the registration, refunds, registration options, product details, technical support, volume discounts, dealer pricing, site licenses, non-credit card orders, etc, must be directed

to:

Swoosie Software

671 North 120 East

Orem, UT 84057

E-Mail: glucero@burgoyne.com

To get the latest version of Media Changer Deluxe, please download it from one of the web sites listed above.

We’ve included a handy, easy to use form (the filename is ORDER.TXT or double-click on the Registration Information icon in our program folder on the Start menu). Just print it out from Notepad or any other text editor or word processor, fill it out, and send it in.

Now you don’t have any excuses for not registering today!


Trouble Shooting Notes

If Media Changer Deluxe displays an error when you run MChanger.EXE or choose OK from MCSetup.EXE (and all of the settings are correct), try the following steps and then run MChanger.EXE again:

1) Open the Control Panel and bring up the Display Properties control panel applet. Choose any bitmap from the Wallpaper edit box in the Background tab. Next, select the Screen Saver tab, and select any screen saver from the Screen Saver combo box. Click OK to save the settings.

2) Open the Sounds control panel applet. Select sound files (they can all be set to the same one) for every one of the following Events:

Asterisk

Critical Stop

Default sound

Exclamation

Exit Windows

Question

Start Windows

Click OK to save the settings.

If these notes do not help you to get Media Changer Deluxe running, you are welcome to contact us.

For TChanger.EXE, make sure Theme support is installed from your Plus! disc. To verify it is, open Control Panel, and double-click on Desktop Themes. Select a new theme from the Theme drop down list, and select OK. If you receive any error messages from Windows 95 while attempting to complete these steps, please reinstall Plus! and make sure the Theme check box is checked in Plus!’s Setup program.

NOTE: Because Microsoft often leaves registry entries dangling even after you uninstall the various modules of Plus!, we may sometimes ACT like Plus! is installed on your system even when it isn’t. If the Themes tab or the stretch controls show up in MCSetup and you don’t have Plus! theme support or visual enhancements installed, you will need to go into the registry and delete the keys that we look for. This is not for the faint of heart. Please contact us for this information.

For Technical Support send E-Mail to:

Mike Henderson

myq@xmission.com

or Snail Mail to:

Swoosie Software

671 North 120 East

Orem, Utah 84057


How To Use Media Changer Deluxe

Each time you run MChanger.EXE, it will choose new media files to use according to the options you specified in the Wallpaper, Screen Saver, Sounds and More Sounds tabs.

You can use the command line switch ‘-c’ to force MChanger to reset the current MCSetup options. For instance, if you have used MCSetup to configure your wallpaper, and then at a later time use the Display control panel applet to change the wallpaper, running MChanger with the ‘-c’ switch (MCHANGER.EXE -c, for instance) would reset the wallpaper to the MCSetup configuration. Alternately, running MCSetup.EXE and choosing OK would do the same exact same thing.

Each time your run TChanger.EXE, it will choose a new theme to execute according to the options you specified in the Themes tab. This theme will be randomly chosen if you turn Random mode on in the Themes tab.

If you run MChanger and TChanger at the same time (let’s say you change your theme once a week, but you change the wallpaper, screen saver, and sounds daily), you will notice that several of the sounds (like Minimize, Maximize, etc.) will still be set, even though you are only running MChanger on a daily basis. This is because MChanger does not alter these sound settings. You will need to select Start | Settings | Control Panel | Sounds and turn off the sounds associated with the sound items NOT listed in the Sounds or More Sounds tabs in MCSetup. But often times it is desirable to let the theme and the rest of the media settings get out of sync, so it is not necessary to remove those sounds unless they annoy you.

For the best (and the most exciting) results, place a program item or shortcut for MChanger.EXE in your Windows Startup program group or folder. This way, each time Windows restarts, your system settings will automatically change.

If you are a user of Microsoft Plus!, you can schedule MChanger.EXE and/or TChanger.EXE with System Agent, running them every time you boot your system, once daily, or less often if you prefer.

Also, you can just left-click on the Media Changer Tray Icon in the system tray and choose Change theme or Change wallpaper, screen saver, sounds to run TChanger or MChanger respectively.

If you ever wish to change your settings, simply run MCSetup.EXE and alter the options to your liking.

Trouble Shooting Notes


Media Changer Revision History

1.0:

May, 1995 - Media Changer is born as a shareware app. MCSetup is only offered to registered users.

2.0:

July, 1995 - Media Changer begins storing all of its configuration in the Windows registry. All system media settings are automatically changed via the Windows registry as well. MCHANGER.EXE receives a complete rewrite which removes many bugs and shrinks the .EXE size considerably. MCSETUP.EXE undergoes a major interface overhaul, and is now included in the non-registered release. The Random feature is removed from BMP and SCR settings. You can now turn wallpaper tiling and screen saver password mode on or off through Media Changer Setup. All of Media Changer's copies of the media files are now stored in the same folder as MCHANGER.EXE except under NT. The wallpaper is automatically updated	as soon as Media Changer is run.

August, 1995 - As the Windows 95 release date draws near, we figure out that NT doesn't take kindly to its registration being fiddled with. We decide to remove registry support for NT, and instead we go back to the 1.0 way of doing things for NT: The user must open the Control Panel and do initial setup themselves. But the Windows 95 version still uses the registry, and it all works pretty well, even though Windows in general is kind of inconsistent in the way it updates the registry versus the Control Panel applets. V2.0 is released to the Internet and we finally start getting people to register Media Changer.

2.1:

Sept., 1995 - We enhance the random functionality to make it more 'random'. We also remove unnecessary error messages.

2.5:

Oct., 1995 - We make many modifications to both MCHANGER.EXE and MCSETUP.EXE, including:

1) Change Exit on MCSETUP dialog to Exit Windows.

2) Add Online help to all Media Changer Setup dialogs.

3) Add an Auto Tile dialog to Media Changer Setup, and auto tile functionality to Media Changer.

4) Change the Tile and Password check boxes to Random, since we now have automatic tiling and the password check box didn’t work right anyway!

5) Add code to set wallpaper when Save is selected from Media Changer Setup dialog.

6) Change Save so instead of those media items that are set to random being randomized when the settings are saved, they are only randomized when either Change is selected, or when MCHANGER.EXE is run.

7) Add the Change button which causes MCHANGER.EXE is be run, which in turn causes all media files to be changed.

8) Add code to check for changes to any of the check or edit boxes in Media Changer Setup, so if Close or Change is selected before Save, and changes have been made, the user is prompted to save them before continuing.

9) Remove support for Windows NT.

If you have Windows NT, please find a previous version (V2.1 or earlier) of Media Changer. If you can’t find a previous version of Media Changer, please let us know and we will be happy to send you V2.1.

2.52:

Mar., 1996 - We make a minor modification to MCHANGER.EXE to

handle random selections better. We change both MCHANGER and MCSETUP to use a different registry key. We also updated MCSETUP’s interface to reflect the new version number. This help file was also revised, edited, and somewhat prettied up.

3.0:

June, 1996 - We rewrote MCSetup.EXE from scratch, making it into more of a Windows 95 application. In doing so, we removed quite a bit of it’s standard controls, including the Save, Change, Network, About, and Auto Tile buttons. Some of the functionality that these buttons served has been kept (like Auto Tile), and some has not (like Change and Network). We also removed the Clone button and figured users could just as easily use the clipboard to do the same thing (you can right-click in an edit box to cut, copy, or paste). We no longer support Preview, although the Windows 95 common file dialog used to browse for files supports this automatically (just right-click on a filename and choose Play for sounds; Quick View or Open for bitmaps; or Test for screen savers). Our Browse buttons have been replaced with icons of a small folder, and everything appears on a tabbed dialog now. We have added a few new features too: TCSetup is now integrated into MCSetup and themes now support a random mode. We added the ability to automatically stretch wallpaper for Plus! users. Help has been completely rewritten, and we’ve added an additional application, MCDTray.EXE.

3.0a:

July, 1996 - We fixed a bug in MCSetup.EXE that was causing a serious crash on some user’s machines. We also fixed a bug in MChanger.EXE that was preventing the Default Beep from being changed under Windows NT 4.0 Beta 2.

3.0b:

July, 1996 again - Changed the Customize button in the Screen Saver tab of MCSetup.EXE to Settings, and got it working the way I had wanted to originally. It now works correctly for Windows 95 and NT 4.0. Check help for the Screen Saver tab for more information.

3.0b (second take):

July, 1996 again again - Changed error handling on MChanger.exe so if MS supplied registry keys are not present, MChanger.exe will not issue error messages. Now MChanger.exe will only issue error messages if Swoosie keys are not present or contain invalid data. Changed all version numbers to 3,0,2,0/3.0b in all applications.

3.1:

Oct/Nov 1996 - Fixed TChanger.exe to handle alternate paths. Modified TChanger.exe and MChanger.exe to use Desktop Themes, if it is available, for theme setting, wallpaper stretching, and JPEG support. Modified MCSetup.exe to allow inclusion of .JPG files for initial wallpaper selection and to offer means of launching Desktop Themes from the Themes tab when it is installed. Added registration and current theme read-only edit boxes to MCSetup.EXE. Added nag support and ability to handle key codes to MChanger.EXE and TChanger.EXE. Moved all apps (except MCDTray.EXE) to MFC, using a shared DLL, which is installed in the Program directory.


How to use Media Changer Deluxe Tray

MCDTray.EXE is automatically added to your StartUp folder as the icon Media Changer Tray Icon. Each time you start your computer, a small icon depicting our dog, CEO and chief scientist, Swoosie, is added to your system tray.

If you left-click on the icon, a menu appears with the following options:

NOTE: The following feature requires that Microsoft Plus! or Left Side Software’s Desktop Themes Version 1.1 or later be installed on your system!

Change Theme - TChanger will run and the current theme will be changed based on the options you have set in the MCSetup Themes’ tab.

Change wallpaper, screen saver, sounds - MChanger will run and the wallpaper, screen saver, and/or sounds will be changed based on the options you have set in the MCSetup Wallpaper, Screen Saver, Sounds, and More Sounds’ tabs.

Run Media Changer Setup - MCSetup will run.

Activate screen saver - The screen saver currently configured in the MCSetup Screen Saver tab will be activated. If you have changed your screen saver with the Display control panel applet, Activate screen saver will still activate the one configured in MCSetup. If the screen saver configured in MCSetup is no longer available, no screen saver will be activated.

Exit - Media Changer Tray Icon will be terminated.