Copyright: Copyright © 2000 by H+H ZfRk - GmbH
Citation: Copyright © 2000 by H+H ZfRk - GmbH


  Overview

Virtual CD Management is the main program in Virtual CD. In addition to the basic functions such as inserting, ejecting and creating virtual CD images, the Management program is also used to configure all of the main settings for Virtual CD.

The main window in the Management program is divided into three panes:

•	Drive view: Shows the virtual drives.

•	Image view: Shows the images registered in the Virtual CD program.

•	Detail view: Shows the contents of an image.

You can activate commands through the toolbar or through the menus in the Virtual CD Management program. Some commands can also be activated using hotkeys.


  Drive View

The drive view shows the virtual drives that are available in your system through the Virtual CD program. You can change the number of drives at any time using the Drive Wizard.

The symbol shown next to the drive letter indicates the type of virtual CD image in the virtual drive. The default drive symbol indicates that the drive is empty. If there is an image in the drive, the symbol that represents the corresponding CD type is shown.

If there is an image in a virtual drive, you can remove it by selecting the Eject command. If an image is selected in the image view, you can load it in the selected virtual drive by selecting the Insert command.

You can configure this window pane on the Drive view page of the Virtual CD settings.

The popup menu that opens when you right-click, contains the main commands available for the selected virtual drive.

Insert	Loads the selected virtual CD image in the virtual drive
Eject	Removes the selected image from the virtual drive


  Image View

The image view shows all of the virtual CD image files registered in the Virtual CD program. A virtual CD is automatically registered when it is created. You can also register CDs "manually, for example if you have virtual CDs that you created with an earlier version of the VCD program, or if you have deleted a given CD from the Management program and wish to restore it.

You can have the information shown with large symbols, with small symbols, as a list or with detailed information. If you select ‘details’, information about image files is shown in the image view. The order in which images are shown, as well as the choice of columns shown, can be configured on the Image view page of the Virtual CD settings.

When you select an image, its default CD-ROM drive is automatically selected in the drive view. If no default drive has been configured for the image, the first virtual drive found is selected.

You can load the selected virtual CD image in the selected drive by using the Insert command. If there already is an image in the selected drive, you can remove it using the Eject command. Double-click on the image or select Properties to open a dialog in which you can configure the image file information.

The popup menu that opens when you right-click contains the main commands available for the selected image.

Insert	Loads the selected image in the virtual drive
Eject	Removes the selected image from the virtual drive
Delete	Deletes an image
Large symbols	Displays large symbols in the image view
Small symbols	Displays small symbols in the image view
List	Displays the image view as a list
Details	Displays the image view as a list with detailed information
Properties	Displays the image properties


  Detail View

The detail view shows the contents of the image selected in the image view. This may include data tracks, music tracks, or both. You can run the individual files in an image by double-clicking or using the Open command. The program used to open this file depends on the settings for this type of file. If no start program is defined for the file type in question, a dialog box is opened for the configuration of a start program.

	The Open command extracts only the selected file. For example, you can view a text file in a text editor. However, you cannot change this file, if it is part of an image file. Files that contain links to other files, as HTML files often do, are not complete when viewed in an editor, because the linked files (usually pictures or tables) are not extracted.

Use the Extract command to store a file in a separate location. This command opens the standard Windows Save as... dialog.

	You can extract only one file at a time. You cannot extract folders or music files.
The popup menu that opens when you right-click, contains the main commands available for the selected entry.

Open	Extracts the selected file and opens it with the corresponding application
Extract...	Extracts one file
Properties...	Shows the properties of the selected entry


  Toolbar

The main commands for image management are available in the toolbar.

Insert	Loads the selected image in the virtual drive
Eject	Removes the selected image from the virtual drive
Find...	Searches your system for existing images
Add...	Adds individual existing images
Delete	Deletes an image
Create	Starts the Image Wizard for creating a new image
Editor	Opens the Virtual CD Editor! for creating custom CDs
View	Opens a menu containing the following items: Large symbols – Shows large symbols in the image view Small symbols – Shows small symbols in the image view List – Shows the image view as a list  Details – Shows the image view as a list with detailed information
Help	Shows the program documentation


  Menus

All commands for image management can be activated through the menus.

File Menu

View log file	Opens a dialog showing the log file for the selected image
Exit	Closes the Virtual CD Management program

Edit Menu

Insert	Loads the selected image in the virtual drive
Eject	Removes the selected image from the virtual drive
Open	Extracts the selected file and opens it with the corresponding application
Extract...	Extracts one file
Find...	Searches your system for existing images
Add...	Adds individual existing images
Delete	Deletes an image
Create	Starts the Image Wizard for creating a new image
Editor	Opens the Virtual CD Editor! for creating custom CDs
Drive Wizard	Opens the Drive Wizard for changing the number of virtual drives
Properties...	Opens a dialog that shows the properties of an image, some of which can be edited

View Menu

Status bar	Shows or hides the status bar
Detail view	Shows or hides the detail view, which displays image contents
Large symbols	Shows large symbols in the image view
Small symbols	Shows small symbols in the image view
List	Shows the image view as a list
Details	Shows the image view as a list with detailed information
Virtual CD settings	Opens a dialog for configuring Virtual CD settings
Refresh	Refreshes and updates the active view

Toolbar Submenu

Tool buttons	Shows or hides the toolbar
Add text to buttons	Shows or hides the explanatory texts under the toolbar buttons

CDDB Menu

Registration...	Opens a dialog for changing the CDDB registration
About...	Shows information about CDDB
Options...	Opens a dialog for configuration CDDB options
Music Browser...	Opens the CDDB Music Browser
CDDB – The #1 CD Info Source	Open the CDDB home page

Help Menu

Help	Opens the program documentation
About	Shows information about the program


  Image File Properties

In this dialog, you can view information about an image, some of which can be edited. The information is on two pages: the General page and the Audio tracks page.

The Audio tracks page is only available if the image file contains audio tracks.


  General Page

The General page of the Image file properties dialog is divided into two areas. The upper area shows the image file information that cannot be edited. The lower half of the page shows image file information that can be edited.

•	As a Description you can enter text that makes it easy to recognize exactly which virtual CD this is

•	The Start program is the program that is started automatically when this image is inserted in a virtual drive

•	The Default drive is the drive used when the image is loaded for the first time

•	The Hotkey is a key combination pressed to automatically insert the image in the default drive

	You can change the description only if the image is not currently loaded in a drive.


  Audio Tracks Page

The Audio tracks page of the image file properties is shown only if the image contains audio tracks. It shows a list of track titles and the time of each. The Edit button opens a dialog box for editing the titles.


  Virtual CD Settings

Select Virtual CD settings from the View menu to configure general settings for the Virtual CD program. You can also configure settings for the drive view and the image view here. The System page lets you configure operating system settings that affect the CD-ROM drives.

In Virtual CD, settings are divided into the following pages:

Global

Drive view

Image view

System

	The System page is included only in Windows NT4 and Windows 2000 installations.


  Global Page

The global settings affect the various programs that make up Virtual CD.

•	Default image folder: for storing new image files. When you use the Image Wizard to create an image and enter only a file name as the target, without specifying a folder, the new image is automatically stored in the folder indicated here.

•	Close the Virtual CD Image Writer automatically: When this option is selected, the Image Writer program is closed automatically after writing an image file. If an error occurred while writing the file, however, this program will remain open.

•	Retrieve audio CD information from CDDB server: Virtual CD can automatically retrieve the name of your CD album, the artist, and the track titles from the CDDB server. To disable this feature, for example if you do not have Internet access, deselect this option.

•	Always activate the option to 'Automatically create a directory...' for audio CDs: When the Image Wizard creates an image from a CD-ROM, it offers you the option to Automatically create a directory for the new image. This option can be particularly useful when you are creating an audio CD image, as audio images can consist of a large number of files (one for each track). When you select this setting, to have the option 'Automatically create a directory for the new image'  selected for audio CDs, the Image Wizard will automatically select this option every time you make an audio CD image.

•	Use the Start Wizard: With this option selected, the Start Wizard runs automatically every time you start Virtual CD. If you disable the Start Wizard by deselecting this option, you can re-enable it at any time by selecting it again.

•	Show Quick Start icon in system tray: This option lets you show or hide the Quick Start icon in the system tray.

•	The priority defines the amount of processor time the system allows Virtual CD for creating images

	Changing the priority could result in errors during the creation of images. In particular, the low priority setting should be used only if the system processor is very fast.


  Drive View Page

The settings on the Drive view page let you define whether

•	the symbols displayed for the virtual drives are large or small.

•	the Virtual CD animation is shown when an image is inserted or ejected.


  Image View Page

The settings on the Image view page let you define the image file information  to be displayed in the detail view. The two lists on this page indicate which columns are hidden and which are displayed. Use the Add and Remove buttons to configure the display as desired.

To change the order in which the columns appear, use your mouse to drag and drop the column titles.

If you select the option to Show only Virtual CD symbols in the image view, only Virtual CD symbols are used in the display, not the symbols that belong to the image files.


  System Page

On the System page you can define whether CDs are started automatically.

	This page is available only under Windows NT4 and Windows 2000. Under Windows 95, you can achieve a similar effect by defining an autostart function for each individual drive.


Edit Track Titles
 Editing Track Titles

In the Edit track titles dialog, you can enter or change titles for music tracks.


  File Information Page

The File information page shows the properties of the file selected in the detail view. The information includes file type, path, size and date.

	Because the file information refers to an image file, the Path indicates the source CD rather than a drive.


View Log File
  Viewing the Log File

Every time you create a new image, pertinent information about the process is recorded in a log file. You may wish to view the file,  to check whether an image was created successfully or errors occurred.

When you close the log file, you are asked whether you wish to delete the file contents.


Delete Image File
  Deleting an Image File

When you select the Delete option, you can either delete an image file from your hard disk completely, or simply remove its symbol from your Virtual CD Management program display. In the latter case, the image file still exists on your computer and can be loaded in Virtual CD again at any time. If you wish to delete an image file from your hard disk, you must expressly select the option Delete the image from the hard disk to do so. You are prompted to confirm this choice before the image is deleted.

	When you delete an image from your hard disk, this includes the audio tracks and the symbol file. However, if a folder was created automatically for this image, the folder remains on your hard disk.


Find Existing Images
  Finding Existing Images

The dialog to Find existing image files lets you search your system for image files that have already been created and stored on your system but are not currently registered in the Virtual CD Management program. Select the desired path for the search and click on Start searching. All image files found are listed; you can select the images you would like to add to the Virtual CD Management program.

	Images that are already registered in Virtual CD Management are included in the search results. It is not possible, however, to add an image that is already in the Management program. If you attempt to add an image that is already registered in the Virtual CD Management program, the attempt is ignored.


  Symbols in the Main Window

The following table shows the symbols used for images and drives in the three window panes of the main Virtual CD Management window.

Symbol	Meaning
	Empty virtual drive
	Virtual CD type: Single Data Track
	Virtual CD type: Audio CD
	Virtual CD type: Mixed Mode (Audio/Data)
	Virtual CD type: CD-Extra
	Virtual CD type: CDI
	Virtual CD not found
	If an image has its own symbol, you can have that symbol displayed rather than one of the symbols described above indicating CD type. In the Virtual CD settings you can define whether the default symbol assigned by Virtual CD or the image's own symbol is displayed.


  Image File Information

The following information is stored regarding each image file. Some of the data can be edited

Information	Description
Image (Description)	Text describing the image
Image file	Path and file name of the image file
In use	Image is currently loaded in a virtual drive (yes / no)
Size (MB)	Image file size in megabytes
Default drive	Default drive for the image
Compression	Type of compression used in creating the image file. None – No compression Normal  – Normal compression Maximum – Maximum compression Audio – Compression defined for audio data
Hotkey	Combination of keys as a shortcut for automatically inserting the image in a virtual drive
Date created	Date and time the image was created
Start program	Program started automatically when the image is inserted in a virtual drive


  About

Select this item to view information about the program.