README for PInstall - Enhanced App Installer for USR Pilot ---------------------------------------------------------- Author: Mark Pierce Updated: 19-Nov-96 Version: 0.31 (FreeWare Beta Release) Comments to: 100013.3004@compuserve.com Updates from: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_Pierce Copyright 1996 Mark Pierce All Rights Reserved DESCRIPTION ----------- PInstall is a replacement for the Pilot App installation program which USR deliver with the DeskTop software. PInstall has been developed to work on Win 95 and NT 4.0, also works on NT 3.51, but _won't_ work with Win 3.1. INSTALLATION ------------ The Pilot DeskTop software _must_ already be installed in order PInstall to configure itself correctly. You can copy PInstall wherever you like, then just run it up to complete its installation. You should now get a message-box telling you that the Windows registry has been updated. That should be the last time you every need to run the program directly, except when you upgrade to future versions. USE --- Now you can cause .PRC files to be set up for installation on the next HotSync, simply by double-clicking them. When you do this, you should get a 2-second splash screen which informs you that the file is ready to install when you HotSync. Left-clicking on this screen makes it go away immediately. Click and hold the left mouse-button down if you want more time to read the splash screen - it will disappear when you release the button. You get an error message box if the file could not be set up for installation. No harm is done by repeatedly marking a file for Pilot installation. If you change your mind about files, just go to the "Install" subdirectory of your username in the Pilot desktop installation, and delete the files you don't want installed. If you want to associate .PDB files with PInstall, you can do this the normal way via Explorer or File Manager (double-click a .PDB file, then tell Windows to use PInstall.exe on this type of file). Or you can use Explorer's "View | Options..." menu and choose the "File Types" tab, to associate the file extension(s) of your choice with the PInstall program. If you prefer, you can install a short-cut to PInstall in your Taskbar "Send To" folder - you can then mark any type of file for Pilot installation, by using the mouse right-button and accessing the Send-To item in the pop-up menu. This technique also allows you to highlight multiple files and set them for Pilot installation in one operation. If you use batch-files etc to prepare data for your Pilot, you can pass the name(s) of files to install on the PInstall command-line, eg: PInstall file1.prc file2.prc file3.prc ... filen.prc You can specify as many files as you like, but note that they will be installed in the _reverse order_ to that used on the PInstall command-line. This is for better compatibility with the "SendTo" facility. IF MORE THAN ONE PILOT GETS HOTSYNCED ON YOUR PC ------------------------------------------------ Pinstall should cope with this, but you will need to set your user-name in the DeskTop software and then _close the Pilot DeskTop_ program in order to make sure that files are installed on _your_ Pilot, not somebody else's. PInstall defaults to installing Pilot software for the last user of DeskTop. The confirmation splash includes the name of the user for whom the file(s) has/have been installed. If you use your Pilot in this kind of scenario, I would appreciate your comments on how PInstall's behaviour can be improved. FREEWARE -------- The PInstall Beta is FreeWare. It may not be sold on for profit.