(a) Copy the file “Startup Screen Picker INIT 1.2” onto your system folder. Let the system move it to the Extensions folder for you.
(b) Copy the file “Startup Screen Picker app 1.2” into the “Startup Items” folder in your system folder.
2. If you are using an old version of Startup Screen Picker, throw the old version in the trash and go to step 6.
3. Open your system folder.
4. Create a new folder and name it “Startup Screens” (no quotes).
5. Put one or more startup screens into this new “Startup Screens” folder.
6. Restart your Macintosh.
QUICK INSTALL (system 6):
1. Copy the file “Startup Screen Picker 1.2” onto your system folder.
2. If you are using an old version of Startup Screen Picker, throw the old version in the trash and go to step 6.
3. Open your system folder.
4. Create a new folder and name it “Startup Screens” (no quotes).
5. Put one or more startup screens into this new “Startup Screens” folder.
6. Restart your Macintosh.
WHAT IT IS:
Startup Screen Picker will let you have a random startup screen, displayed when you start up your Macintosh while system extensions are loading. It will pick a startup screen from all the files in the “Startup Screens” folder in your system folder.
WHAT’S A STARTUP SCREEN?
A startup screen is a picture in a particular format. Most paint programs support saving any picture in startup screen format. Superpaint and Giffer actually call it “Startup Screen” format; with Adobe Photoshop, save as “PICT Resource” and set the resource ID to 0. If Startup Screen Picker seems to be working fine (see CRUCIAL NOTE below) but you’re still getting the boring “Welcome to Macintosh” message, your pictures may be in the wrong format.
CRUCIAL NOTE:
If you have just installed Startup Screen Picker for the first time, it will not appear to do anything the first time it loads. This is perfectly normal and is due to the technical details of how Startup Screen Picker works. If Startup Screen Picker didn’t report any errors, then there should be a random startup screen waiting for you the next time you restart your Macintosh.
HOW WILL I KNOW THAT IT WORKED?
If you are using the Startup Screen Picker INIT, you should see the Startup Screen Picker icon (the blue doily) appear at the bottom of your screen sometime during the startup process. If you see the icon with a big red X through it, that means something has gone wrong, and Startup Screen Picker will attempt to display an error message telling you what went wrong.
If you are using the Startup Screen Picker startup application, your only indication that everything is fine is that you don’t get any error messages. If something goes wrong, the startup application will display a error message telling you what went wrong.
TROUBLESHOOTING (if it doesn’t work after the second time):
- Your startup volume must be unlocked, or Startup Screen Picker will not load.
- Make sure the folder “Startup Screens” is spelled correctly and is in the system folder on your startup volume.
- Make sure there is at least one startup screen in the “Startup Screens” folder.
- Make sure the pictures in the “Startup Screens” folder are in the right format (see WHAT’S A STARTUP SCREEN above).
- Make sure there is nothing in the "Startup Screens" folder except honest-to-goodness startup screens: no folders, no extraneous files, etc. This also means no aliases (see EXPLICATIONS below).
TECHNICAL STUFF (if you don’t understand it, skip it):
Startup Screen Picker does not duplicate any files; it just moves them around (via PBCatMove). Therefore, it will not require any more disk space than the startup screens themselves (except for its 32-byte preference file).
If you have the Notification Manager, the Startup Screen Picker INIT will use it to notify you of specific errors. Regardless, if there is an error, the Startup Screen Picker INIT will draw a large X through its icon when it loads.
EXPLICATIONS (for the truly interested):
Startup Screen Picker does not resolve aliases. This is due to the fact that it is the operating system, not Startup Screen Picker, which actually displays the startup screen. This means that you need the real startup screens in the “Startup Screens” folder in your system folder; aliases to startup screens will not work.
A user once described the following scenario to me: “I have a Duo, so when I use the Duo as a portable computer, the screen size is different than when I use it as a docked computer. Can you modify Startup Screen Picker to check the screen size and select from different lists of startup screens based on screen size compatibility?” The short answer to this is “no.” Startup Screen Picker works on the one-ahead principle; by the time it loads at INIT time, the current startup screen has already been displayed, and Startup Screen Picker picks the screen for the _next_ time you start up. Checking screen size would do no good, since there is no way for Startup Screen Picker to know what the screen size will be the _next_ time you start up.
CHANGES IN VERSION 1.2:
The only changes in this version (other than this documentation) are technical ones. Startup screen icons should now be positioned correctly by the Finder (instead of piling up in the top-left corner of their folder). Also, invisible files in the “Startup Screens” folder will never be selected. This is not usually a problem unless your “Startup Screens” folder has a custom icon; the custom icon is stored in an invisible file called “Icon”, and older versions of Startup Screen Picker would occasionally select the “Icon” file, thinking it was a startup screen.
Startup Screen Picker is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave., Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR:
All Macintosh users should feel free to contact me for any of the following reasons: reporting bugs or suggestions about Startup Screen Picker or any other program I’ve written; requesting a list of other programs I’ve written; requesting a copy of the GNU General Public License; discussing the possibility of collaborating on future programming projects; discussing the virus I wrote and released (MBDF-A); discussing ways to keep potential virus-writers from becoming actual virus-writers; discussing techniques for really good backrubs.
My e-mail address is f8dy@netaxs.com. To send me e-mail anonymously, mail to an48382@anon.penet.fi. (Due to the double-blind system, you will be allocated an anonymous I.D. which will keep your identity hidden.) To send me encrypted mail, e-mail me requesting my PGP public key. If you do not have e-mail access, my home address is 1130 Radnor Hill Road, Wayne PA, 19087-2203, USA. Obviously, it will take me much longer to reply to snail-mail; use it as a last resort.
