Hello there,
I've just uploaded the following program to various FTP sites:
fmstep20.zip File Manager StepUp 2.0 for Win3.1 & WFWG3.11
File Manager StepUp v.2.0 for Windows 3.1 and Windows for
Workgroups 3.11 - dramatically improves File Manager. Provides
standard FM's dialog boxes with additional useful elements
('history' lists, 'verify' check boxes, etc.); shows the dialogs
with 3D effects; brings customizable Quick Menu and Execute Menu;
allows to easily view, edit, or print arbitrary files; contains
useful utilities (calculating the size of dirs including their
subdirs, etc.). FM StepUp makes the File Manager an actually user
friendly application. Try it - and you won't believe you worked
without FM StepUp before. The way software should be! Shareware.
Currently it can be found in the following places:
File: fmstep20.zip
FTP site Uploaded into Will appear in
------------------- ---------------------- -------------------
ftp.uu.net /tmp (same)
wuarchive.wustl.edu /pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/win (same)
archive.umich.edu /msdos/UPLOADS/ /msdos/windows/util
ftp.sunet.se /pub/pc/uploads /pub/pc/windows/utils
It will also appear in cica, garbo, and oakland, as well as in
the group comp.binaries.ms-windows (in UUE format) shortly.
Long description:
-----------------
This is a MAJOR upgrade to the versions 1.x. If you tried any
of the previous versions of the FM StepUp and did not like it by
any reason, try this one - we hope you'll change your mind!
SPECIAL NOTE for those who do not like registration reminders and
love to evaluate shareware for long time: unlike many other
shareware producers, we are using a passive reminder in this
version -- you don't have to press any key or wait for some time
to turn it off.
SPECIAL NOTE for Windows for Workgroups users:
if you tried and had given up the FM StepUp ver.1.x because of the
conflict between FM StepUp and Toolbar, please take a look at the
new version. That bug has been fixed and they (FM StepUp and
Toolbar) enjoy each the other now.
SPECIAL NOTE for network system administrators:
now you can restrict File Manager in the same way as you do it for
Program Manager - through [Restrictions] section in a file.
SPECIAL NOTE for registered users:
thanks to your support, we have found the possibility to make the
UPGRADE FROM ANY PREVIOUS VERSION OF FM STEPUP to version 2.0
FREE! If you are a registered user of the FM StepUp 1.x, you will
receive new disk from us shortly.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Welcome to File Manager StepUp!
//
// the File Manager Extender
// for Microsoft(R) Windows(tm) 3.1, 3.11
// and Windows for Workgroups(tm) 3.11
//
// Version 2.0
// Shareware edition
//
// Copyright (c) 1994, ChaoSoft.
// All rights reserved.
//
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
1.1. About FM StepUp
1.2. What's new in version 2.0
1.3. Features of the FM StepUp 2.0
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1.1 About File Manager StepUp
-----------------------------
File Manager StepUp (or, briefly, FM StepUp) is a utility that
dramatically improves File Manager. Instead of replacing File
Manager, FM StepUp simply makes it better. When you install FM
StepUp, additional commands are added to File Manager's menus, and
existing commands are enhanced.
FM StepUp makes the File Manager an actually user friendly
application. With FM StepUp installed in your system you will
perform various file management operations easier and faster.
FM StepUp enhances standard dialog boxes of the File Manager,
providing them with additional useful features (history lists,
remembering you previous commands; 'verify' check boxes; 'browse'
buttons; etc.).
FM StepUp allows you to combine most frequently used commands of
File Manager into Quick Menu, so that you can access them just
pressing the right button of your mouse.
FM StepUp makes your able to easily create, view, edit, or print
arbitrary files, not necessarily associated with an application,
and you can assign your favorite viewer or editor to do this.
FM StepUp provides you with some unique or hard-to-find commands,
allowing you, for example, to figure out the total size of a
directory, including all its subdirectories; change date or time
of the file; run the default screen saver whenever you want it to;
etc.
FM StepUp allows you to add your own commands to the File Manager
and easily execute them. You may use this possibility to launch
frequently used applications (such as Control Panel or Clipboard
viewer) directly from File Manager menu, or to perform
preprogrammed operations over files selected in a File Manager's
window (UnZip or UnArj, for example).
If you are a network administrator, FM StepUp can help you to
restrict some of the File Manager's capabilities (in almost the
same way as you do it for the Program Manager), allowing you to
prevent your users from performing potentially dangerous or
undesirable commands.
After all, FM StepUp is highly customizable. You are in charge of
almost every aspect of its functionality - from the size of the
history lists to contents of the Quick Menu and Execute Menu.
Try it - and you won't believe you worked without FM StepUp
before.
The way software should be!
1.2. What's new in the version 2.0
----------------------------------
A LOT!
New features (please see detailed list below), new documentation,
new installation utility, new registration encouragement policy.
No new bugs (hopefully!).
The only old thing is the price. Yes, due to success of the FM
StepUp ver.1.x and support of our registered users, we were able to
significantly improve FM StepUp and keep the same low registration
fee.
1.3. Features of the FM StepUp v.2.0
------------------------------------
The following is the list of features the File Manager obtains
after installing the FM StepUp. The signs 'NEW!' and 'UPDATED:'
are used to mark new or updated features in comparison with
previous versions of the FM StepUp.
UPDATED:
1. 14 standard dialog boxes of the File Manager are now
updated by the FM StepUp (and you are able to prevent any
of them from updating, if you like!). Almost ALL the edit
controls of the dialog boxes are provided with history
lists keeping track of the text you typed into edit boxes.
With FM StepUp you are able to recall any of them and edit
it, if necessary, without typing all the text from
scratch. (Before version 2.0 only a few specific dialog
boxes were enhanced with the history lists).
2. The following dialog boxes: Move, Copy, and Copy Disk, are
provided with the 'Verify' check boxes which enable you to
easily set the verify mode on or off (with the same effect
as entering command VERIFY ON/OFF at the DOS command
prompt) before performing the operations.
NEW! 3. The Run dialog box is supplied with two additional
buttons, 'Command' and 'Argument', allowing you to browse
your disks and choose a file to run or supply its filename
as an argument for the command line.
4. The Move and Copy dialog boxes are provided with an
additional button, 'Browse', in case you forgot the name of the
directory to copy/move files in.
5. Print dialog is now provided with:
1) check box 'Copy to PRN' which makes you able to
quickly print plain ASCII files, not necessarily
associated with applications, or binary files obtained
with using the 'Print to file' (or the like) option
provided by many applications;
NEW! 2) check box 'Eject', allowing you to specify whether to
eject the last page or not, that is convenient for some
printers;
NEW! 3) edit box 'Copies', where you can specify the number
of copies to make.
The controls 2) and 3) above are activated and used only
when using the 'Copy to PRN' mode.
6. The main menu of the File Manager is getting a new item,
StepUp, containing a number of additional commands:
New File - to instantaneously create a new file;
View File - to view the contents of the file currently
selected in the File Manager Directory Window
using the Default Viewer;
Edit File - to edit the contents of a selected file using
the Default Editor. You are specifying the
applications to be used as Default Editor and
Viewer in the 'Preferences' dialog box of the FM
StepUp;
NEW! Execute - to perform a user-defined action on the
currently selected file or to launch an
application. By default it contains the following
commands:
Control Panel - to launch the Windows Control
Panel from the File Manager;
Clipboard - to run the Windows Clipboard viewer;
DOS Prompt - to start the DOS session from the
File Manager;
PIF Editor - to run the PIF Editor;
UnZip - to run the PKUNZIP utility for the
currently selected file (assuming it's a
ZIP archive);
UnArj - to perform the 'ARJ x' command for the
currently selected file (assuming it's an
archive produced by the ARJ utility);
You can change the commands of the 'Execute' menu,
add new commands and otherwise customize it using
the 'Preferences' dialog box of the FM StepUp.
Special - to perform some useful operations:
UPDATED: Total Size - to calculate the total length and space
occupied for all the selected files and
directories, including all the subdirectories; the
directory to be analyzed can be selected in either
Directory or Tree window of the File Manager;
UPDATED: Change Date/Time - to change the date and/or time of
all the selected files (not for just one file);
NEW! Run Screen Saver - to launch the default Windows
Screen Saver (usually specified with the Control
Panel) any time you want to leave your machine (if
you are using a screen saver with the password
protection - you don't have to wait 5 min. to
activate it!);
Return to DOS,
Restart Windows,
Reboot System - name says it all;
Preferences - to customize FM StepUp:
UPDATED: - change the Default Viewer and/or Editor; you can now
browse the directories to find the application you
wish to use as the Default Viewer or Editor;
NEW! - set up the desired way of dealing with the associated
files;
- specify the size of the 'history' lists;
NEW! - choose the way of displaying new icon for the File
Manager;
UPDATED: - specify new name for the FM StepUp's menu item in the
File Manager's main menu;
NEW! - customize the Quick Menu;
NEW! - customize the Execute Menu;
UPDATED: - set up the desired appearance of the dialog boxes:
(a) choose which standard dialog boxes of the File
Manager (out of 14) you want to be updated by
the FM StepUp (by maintaining history lists,
verify check boxes, etc.);
(b) specify the using the 3-D effects when
displaying the controls;
(c) specify the using the extended user interface
when working with history lists;
UPDATED:Help - to get detailed information on how to use the
FM StepUp.
About - to get information about the version of the FM
UPDATED: StepUp and the person it's registered to
(registered version only).
7. The right button of the mouse is now used to activate the
Quick Menu - a set of frequently used commands, so that
you don't have to spend time finding them in the File
Manager's menu now. Starting from version 2.0, the Quick
Menu consists of two portions:
Top portion: the fixed set of the File Manager commands,
collected in one place for your convenience. You
UPDATED: can customize that part using the Preference
dialog box. Any commands can be made easily
accessible, even those created by you to be used
in the 'Execute' menu;
NEW! Bottom portion: the history list of the commands used. The
most frequently used commands are accumulated here
automatically and can be easily re-used.
NEW! You can also specify the most convenient way of choosing
commands from the Quick Menu - with the left or right
button of mouse!
UPDATED:
8. All the dialog boxes of the File Manager are now displayed
with 3D effects (like that of Excel and some other
applications). The bug which displayed improper 3D effects
with some video drivers has been fixed.
NEW! 9. FM StepUp comes with new cool icon for File Manager and
you can specify its using with the Preferences dialog box;
NEW! 10. For Network System Administrators:
With the File Manager StepUp v.2.0 you can restrict the
user's access to some of the features of the File Manager.
(Microsoft has made it possible to restrict the Program
Manager but somehow forgot to do it for the File Manager!)
With the FM StepUp, you can place the file FMSTEPUP.SYS in
the WINDOWS›SYSTEM directory, make the [Restriction]
section in that file, and add the following boolean
entries to it (standard rules for specifying boolean
entries of the win.ini and system.ini files apply here;
particularly, 1/ON/TRUE/YES can be used interchangeably to
turn the mode on, 0/OFF/FALSE/NO - to turn it off):
NoShowHiddenSysFiles - to disable the 'Show Hidden/System
Files' check box of the 'By File Type' dialog box;
NoChangeFileAttrib - to disable the 'Attributes' group of
the 'Properties' dialog box (and prevent users from
changing attributes of files)
NoRun - to disable 'OK' button of the 'Run' dialog box and
prevent users from running applications using it;
NoSaveFMSettings - to prevent users from saving the
current settings of the File Manager on exit;
NoCloseFileManager - to prevent user from closing the File
Manager (with some restrictions);
NoChangeFileDateTime - to disable 'OK' button on the
Change Date/Time dialog and prevent users from
modifying these file attributes;
NoUninstallStepUp - to prevent user from uninstalling the
FM StepUp (with some restrictions);
NoSaveStepUpSettings - to prevent users from saving the
current settings of the FM StepUp on exit;
NoCustomizeExecMenu - to prevent users from customizing
the 'Execute' menu of the FM StepUp;
NoCustomizeQuickMenu - to prevent users from customizing
the Quick Menu of the FM StepUp;
NoChangeViewerEditor - to prevent users from changing the
default viewer and editor in the Preferences
dialog box;
For more information please see on-line Help.
Thank you for trying File Manager StepUp!
Uploaded by the author.
Andrei Belogortseff
andreib at delphi.com
