Megamarcello's Windows 3.x Spells

ASTVWXYZ

B Autoexec Bitmapchanger If you're a sucker for the fancier side of Windows 3.1, and you'd really like to change bitmaps with every startup, but you haven't found a suitable program that does this yet (besides, those around usually demand quite a lot memory- and processorwise), then this is the way to do it. Open your AUTOEXEC.BAT-file (it's in your root-directory, e.g. c:\), and, below the regular DOS-commands, but above the `win´-command, insert something that looks like this: IF NOT EXIST c:\windows\mega.bmp GOTO mega5 IF NOT EXIST c:\windows\mega1.bmp GOTO mega IF NOT EXIST c:\windows\mega2.bmp GOTO mega1 IF NOT EXIST c:\windows\mega3.bmp GOTO mega2 IF NOT EXIST c:\windows\mega4.bmp GOTO mega3 IF NOT EXIST c:\windows\mega5.bmp GOTO mega4 :mega REN c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp c:\windows\mega1.bmp >nul REN c:\windows\mega2.bmp c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp >nul GOTO proceed :mega1 REN c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp c:\windows\mega2.bmp >nul REN c:\windows\mega3.bmp c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp >nul GOTO proceed :mega2 REN c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp c:\windows\mega3.bmp >nul REN c:\windows\mega4.bmp c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp >nul GOTO proceed :mega3 REN c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp c:\windows\mega4.bmp >nul REN c:\windows\mega5.bmp c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp >nul :mega4 REN c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp c:\windows\mega5.bmp >nul REN c:\windows\mega.bmp c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp >nul GOTO proceed :mega5 REN c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp c:\windows\mega.bmp >nul REN c:\windows\mega1.bmp c:\windows\chieldsk.bmp >nul GOTO proceed :proceed Now, continue with the normal Windows startup routine. If you made sure all the references are correct, your AUTOEXEC.BAT will now make it so that, without the extra load on your memory banks, you have a different Windows Wallpaper with every startup (but it will not show the procedure it uses onscreen during startup - that's what the '>nul'-references are for). E Windows Error Messages In this section, we discuss several of the Windows-problems we encountered over the years. Not all of them concern themselves with error-messages, but they all have something to do with something or other that does-not-work. "Windows and DOS-in-a-box don't seem to be able to tell me what's on my floppy-disk in drive A:\. Everytime I try, the system crashes and a manual reboot is the only option left". Answer: get rid of Nortoncache, use Smartdrive instead. "Error loading PROGMAN.EXE" Answer: check the SYSTEM.INI-file, located in your Windows\system\-directory. In it, the first rule says 'SHELL='. The entry behind it most likely is your culprit. First, check if it points to the program of your choice, then check if that program is there, at all. "Out of environment/alias space" Answer: this is not serious, but it means you cannot use your 4DOS aliases, because they are not read into the memory. To counter this problem, check up on the presence of 4DOS.INI in your root directory (e.g. c:\), then either diminish the number of lines in your aliases-file, or increase the amount of memory available to 4DOS as specified behind the COMMAND.COM-reference in your CONFIG.SYS-file (located in your root-directory, e.g. c:\). Note: this last option will slow down your DOS operations, so it is clearly not preferrable. S Changing the Windows Startup Logo Want to change the Startup Logo for Windows 3.x? Haven't got a program to do it with? Here is the smartass way to do it. Open Paintbrush, and in it, open the file 'VGALOGO.BMP' (it should be in your Windows directory, but if it isn't, create it - make sure, however, that its dimensions exactly match those of the original logo, or it will not work). Alter or create the file to your liking, then save it as a 4 bits per pixel (=16 colours) bitmap. Open an application that can convert Windows .BMP-files to .RLE-files (i.e., WinGIF). Convert the aforementioned bitmap to a 4 bits per pixel .RLE-file named 'VGALOGO.RLE'. Copy this file into your Windows directory. Go to Windows Setup in your Program Manager, and change colorcard drivers (to whichever one works, it really doesn't matter). Restart Windows, then change the colorcard driver back to the original one. Windows will now have read the content of the VGALOGO.RLE-file into the WIN.COM-file. You see, it stupidly does this every time you change system drivers. The WIN.COM-file is the file that starts up Windows 3.x. Therefore, if you now exit Windows and then restart it, you will see your own startup logo in all its splendor. Be aware: when changing drivers in future, Windows will change the logo again and you may have to repeat the procedure, unless, at that time, the same VGALOGO.RLE-file is still in your Windows directory.