Tab2Desk V1.1 Copyright (c) 1996 JD Design All Rights Reserved What is Tab2Desk? ----------------- Tab2Desk is a small Windows 95/NT 4 application that lets you use the Taskbar's "Minimize All Windows"/"Undo Minimize All" facilities from the keyboard and get to your desktop icons without having to use the mouse. It finally answers the question with Windows 95 of "why can't I use Alt+Tab to get to the desktop?". Installation ------------ Tab2Desk is supplied as a compressed file archive. Copy the compressed file to an empty floppy disk or new sub-directory on your hard disk & extract the files. When you have uncompressed the supplied file, you should have the following files in addition to the original: Tab2Desk.exe The program Tab2Desk.txt Text documentation Tab2Desk.doc WordPad documentation You can start Tab2Desk now by simply running the program (there is no specific installation that needs to be done). If you find Tab2Desk useful and want to continue using it, the best way of using it is to create a shortcut to it in your Startup folder. If you don't know how to do this, you can find the instructions in your Windows on-line help under the Index Tab item "StartUp folder, adding programs to". How Do You Use It? ------------------ This takes longer to explain in writing than it does if you try it, you'll find it easier just to run Tab2Desk & use Alt+Tab to the Tab2Desk icon & see what it does. Once Tab2Desk is running you won't be aware of it except when you use the Alt+Tab task switch facility. If you have any windows open and switch to the Tab2Desk application (which will indicate "Minimize All Windows"), Tab2Desk will use the taskbar's facility to minimize all windows. Additionally, it will activate the desktop so that you can use the keyboard cursor keys to move around any icons on your desktop. If you switch to Tab2Desk once you have previously minimized all windows, it will indicate "Restore Windows to Desktop". It will now use the taskbar's "Undo Minimize All" facility to restore any previously minimized windows. Because of the way that Tab2Desk works, closing it down is a little convoluted. Use Alt+Tab to display the Tab2Desk icon item, release the Tab key and hold down the Ctrl key, then release the Alt key (again, it's easier to do than it is to explain). This brings up the Tab2Desk About box. From here you can close down Tab2Desk using the Exit button, or allow Tab2Desk to continue. Alternatively, if you start up another copy of Tab2Desk, it will close down in the same way. Note ---- Tab2Desk refreshes its caption text slowly so as not to provide any noticeable extra load on your system. If you're quick with trying out Tab2Desk, you may find that it displays the wrong caption. However, in normal usage we don't expect that you'll see any problems. If you do, just let us know. Tab2Desk will indicate "Restore Windows to Desktop" if you have manually minimized all open windows. In this situation the taskbar's has its "Undo Minimize All" menu item disabled, so nothing will happen. Removal ------- Tab2Desk creates no additional files or registry entries so if you want to remove it, it's just a matter of deleting the supplied files & any shortcut you have created. How to contact JD Design ------------------------ If you have any questions, you can contact us at: 100524.3072@compuserve.com. Please take a look at our web site to see the services we offer and download our other free utilities. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jdd If you need help, or have any suggestions for improvements to any of our utilities, then please contact us via Email. It's always good to hear from people using our products so why not let us know how you find the utilities anyway? Thanks JD Design 162 Mow Cop Road Mow Cop Stoke-on-Trent ST7 4NH England