copyright 1993 by Mark Pilgrim, MerriMac Software Group
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.
HOW TO USE IT:
Copy the Startup Screen Picker INIT into your system folder (the Extensions folder under System 7). Create a folder in your system folder (NOT in the Extensions folder) called "Startup Screens". Note that the name of the folder should have one space between the words, two capital S's, and no quotes around it. In this folder, put as many startup screens as you want. Name them anything EXCEPT "StartupScreen" (without the quotes).
Whenever you start up your Macintosh, one of the files in the "Startup Screen" folder will be moved into the system folder and renamed "StartupScreen", so that the next time you start up, this file will be displayed while your extensions are loading. If there is already a "StartupScreen" file, it will be renamed to its original name and moved back into the "Startup Screens" folder. (If it was there before you installed Startup Screen Picker, it will be named "Old Startup Screen" and moved into the "Startup Screens" folder.)
THINGS TO WATCH FOR:
• Your startup volume must be unlocked, or Startup Screen Picker will not load.
• When you first install Startup Screen Picker, your startup volume must have enough space free for Startup Screen Picker to create a 32-byte preferences file.
• Make sure the folder "Startup Screens" is spelled correctly and is in the system folder on your startup volume.
• 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).
• Make sure there is at least one startup screen in the "Startup Screens" folder.
• Make sure there is not a file in the "Startup Screens" folder with the same name as the original name of the current "StartupScreen" file.
• Make sure the "Startup Screens" folder is really a folder and not a file.
TECHNICAL STUFF:
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, Startup Screen Picker will use it to notify you of specific errors. Regardless, if there is an error, Startup Screen Picker will draw a large X through its icon when it loads.
EXPLICATIONS:
Startup Screen Picker does not resolve aliases. My reasoning is this: all the startup screens must reside somewhere on your startup volume, since no other volume is mounted during INIT loading. Therefore, even if you had aliases of your startup screens, the real files would have to be somewhere on the startup volume anyway, so I didn't see much merit in supporting aliases.
A user described the following scenario to me recently: "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.
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; 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 2.2 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.
