Photo shows CAD Commander 2.52 running on @Macarlo's Warp 3.0
How To Use
CAD Commander (Updated to V. 2.52)
Perez Computing Services has released version 2.52 of Control-Alt-Delete Commander.
The upgrade is free for owners of recent versions of the program. You can download
a 30 days full funcional demo version (CC25DEMO.ZIP,
1688,5Kb.) clicking the logo above.
I, @Macarlo, registered user of 209 OS/2 programs, including
CAD Commander, use it on Warp 3.0 to works on the Net with seven (or more) virtual
desktops:
Desktop 1 (OS/2 Task Manager from Chris Graham)>@@@
Desktop 2 (PMMail/2)>@@@
Desktop 3 (Netscape Communicator 4.04)>@@@
Desktop 4 (DeScribe 5.0 Word Processor)>@@@
Desktop 5 (FileStar/2 File Manager)>@@@
Desktop 6 (InJoy Extended Dialer)>@@@ Desktop 7 (PU Monitor)>@@@ Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander (CAD Commander) takes control of the
boot services
of an OS/2 Warp system. It prevents accidental rebooting of OS/2 from
within any type of OS/2, DOS, or Windows session. In addition, it also
allows "rebooting" of the Workplace shell without stopping any running
applications. It gives complete command over all application's
status (including their priorities), and allows selective shutdown of errant
applications which cannot normally be shutdown via OS/2's Ctrl-ESC key
sequence. It also provides a handy status line and enhanced task list
to let you control applications from your PM Desktop. Finally, it includes
a Game Boost option for DOS and Win full screen games to enhance their
performance under OS/2.
If you are have problems please see the "Problem Determination" section
later in this document. You can also visit our Web Site and get
answers to almost any question on CAD Commander.
If you are a Japanese Warp user please do the following before proceeding
to the next step:
* Determine which type of keyboard you are using (101, 106, or AX).
* Enter the \CADCDEMO\JKBDBASE directory.
* Copy the appropriate keyboard driver to the \CADCDEMO directory. Use the
following table to determine which driver to use for each keyboard:
* Copying this will overwrite the standard U.S. W95 enabled keyboard
provided with CAD Commander. You may wish to copy this file to another
name before overwriting it.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION IF YOUR CONFIG.SYS HAS NON-STANDARD FORMATTING
If your CONFIG.SYS includes indentation of the PATH, DPATH, LIBPATH, HELP,
or BOOKSHELF statements you may encounter a problem where the install
process incorrectly adds new statements at the end of your CONFIG.SYS for
these commands. If this happens, delete these new lines and add x:\CADCDEMO;
to each of these commands in your CONFIG.SYS.
To install the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander 2.5 log to drive A: and type INSTALL
(or click on INSTALL.EXE in your Drive A folder).
Installation Phase 2
After the first phase of installation is complete you will see a new icon
"Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander Control Panel Install Run this to finish CAD
Commander Installation after rebooting" on your desktop. Shutdown your
computer and then reboot. When reboot has completed run this program to
complete the installation of Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander.
Release 2.5 of the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander shipped with only English and
preliminary Spanish language support. PCS expects to have available
complete Spanish version by 4th Qtr 98, with German and French
versions to follow shortly. Please check the PCS Support BBS
(360-424-7292) or the PCS Web Site (http://www.pcs-soft.com)for
one of these languages. Only versions 2.5 or later will support
using these language files when they become available.
UPDATE PROCEDURE - IMPORTANT - READ THIS IF YOU ARE UPDATING FROM CAD
COMMANDER 1.x
To install this update do the following:
1. Unzip this folder into your \CADCDEMO 1.5 or 2.5 Beta directory using Info-Zip's
UNZIP or PKUNZIP with the -d (directory) option (the directory must exist):
C:\CADCDEMO> UNZIP CC20BETF
or
C:\CADCDEMO> PKUNZIP -d CC20BETF
2. Please delete your PCS Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander folder from your desktop,
then shutdown and restart your system.
3. After restart run the CCDESK.CMD file from your \CADCDEMO directory.
4. We highly recommend dragging the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander Control Panel
to the Warp Center or Launchpad. This will make it easy to configure
Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander and to set up the "Hot-key Application"
function.
5. To use the provided command line tools, you may want to modify your CONFIG.SYS's
PATH statement to include x:\CADCDEMO (where x: is the drive where you installed
CAD Commander 2.5).
The following is in your PCS CAD Commander 2.5 folder:
* The User's Guide has been updated and contains new information
* A frequently asked questions guide
* The CAD Commander Control Panel (lets you configure CAD Commander)
* Status Line Program object
* Netscape Navigator URL to visit PCS web site (PCS no longer supports
Web Explorer for visiting its web site).
Using the Web Explorer icon in the PCS Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander folder. If
you do not see the Web Explorer icon in the PCS Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander folder
it is probably because Web Explorer is not in your PATH or installed on your
system. You can use any Web Browser to visit our site. The address is:
http://www.pcs-soft.com
The PCS Web Site has now been optimized to work with Netscape Navigate
2.52 for OS/2 so you may want to try that browser.
The online documentation contains a superset of the information contained
in the printed manual. Newer versions of the online manual will be made
available via the PCS Support BBS and the PCS Web Site. PDF versions of
the documentation will also be made available at the same time.
The documentation included with this version is current as of the
release of Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander 2.5.
KNOWN LIMITATIONS
(Please read this section before contacting PCS technical support)
* Moving the mouse rapidly away from the status line when the "mouse activate"
option of the status line (configured in the control panel) may prevent it
from hiding again.
* Some Netscape hangs are not overcome. PCS is working on the problem.
* If DB2 Universal Database Server version 5 is installed, and the
HTTPDL.EXE program isn't properly configured, it will use 60% of the
system's CPU time. This can yield very slow desktop switches. Try
configuring it correctly or killing it with CAD Commander.
* The Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander can be activated at almost any time.
However, some system failures are non-recoverable due to the nature of
the operating system. Trap errors (black text screens with lots of
numbers displayed) are never recoverable. Some PM queue hangups are
not recoverable depending on the type of hangup. Generally these kind
of desktop freezes can be handled by activating the Ctrl-Alt-Del
Commander and then killing the offending application. Sometimes,
however, an application will refuse to die. This is almost always
because a background thread in the application has latched onto the
Presentation Manager and won't let go. The is currently no way to
solve this problem. You can try terminating the application, but
it may not go away. Several possible things can be done at this point -
1) Reboot the PM desktop. This will give you access (for a brief time)
to other running PM applications. Use this time to shut them down
gracefully.
2) Choose "Desktop, Force shutdown of OS/2" to shutdown OS/2.
* Some applications also refuse to let the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander switch
to the foreground. Generally this is because they have locked access
to the physical video buffer used by PM. Currently the only solution
is to try to press Ctrl-Alt-Del 3 times - this will terminate the
current foreground application (usually the one causing the trouble).
However, if the application does not terminate you can press Ctrl-Alt-Del
2 more times (for a total of 5 times) and the OS/2 WPS will be rebooted.
If this still does not allow you to access OS/2 you are left with only
one alternative - pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del five more times and rebooting
your system. PCS is currently working with IBM on a solution to this
problem.
* DOS and Window's sessions that do not have their name displayed in the OS/2
Window List will be shown as a "Dos/Window's Application" in the
Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander's Application Window List. This may be addressed
in future versions of the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander.
* Communications program modem access problems can occur if the communications
program does not open the serial port/modem in the proper sharing mode.
If you receive warnings about the serial/modem port not being available
to your communications program use the Status Line's popup menu, choose
"Status Line lptions, Modem monitor, Disable modem monitor". If you have
an external modem turn off the modem, wait two seconds, then turn it
back on. Then restart your communications program.
* On some systems that have had their CONFIG.SYS modified so that
leading spaces are placed before the PATH, LIBPATH, DPATH, BOOKSHELF,
and HELP statements the INSTALL program may fail to correctly modify
the CONFIG.SYS. The original CONFIG.SYS statement line will still
be there, but a second line will be added at the end of the
CONFIG.SYS containing only the \CADCDEMO directory as the path. You
will need to manually edit your CONFIG.SYS to append the x:\CADCDEMO
directory to the end of the valid PATH, LIBPATH, DPATH, BOOKSHELF,
and HELP statements, and remove the shortened versions the INSTALL
program created.
* Sometimes when Netscape (or other TCP/IP/Internet access program) hangs
the system CAD Commander cannot activate properly due to the design
of OS/2 and TCP/IP under OS/2. This is a known limitation and PCS
is working to overcome it.
* On Touche' Technologies W95 keyboard (and perhaps on other clone W95
keyboards) occassionally when pressing Alt-W95 right Menu key can cause
alphabetic keys to be disabled in any PM entry field. Tapping the
W95 menu key a second time will reenable the alphabetic keys.
If you need more information, please visit www.pcs-soft.com and read the
CAD Commander 2.5 Frequently Asked Questions. This contains the latest
detailed questions and answers about CAD Commander.
A note on purchasing the retail CAD Commander 2.x. After you've purchased
CAD Commander 2.5 from PCS, please be sure to uninstall the demonstration
version before attempting installation of the retail packet so your
installation will go perfectly the first time.
When you want to uninstall the demonstration version from your system
run UNINSTAL.CMD. This program must be run from a temporary directory
or it will be unable to completely remove the demonstration program. To
uninstall do the following:
1. Unzip the CC25DEMO.ZIP to an empty temporary directory.
2. Run UNINSTAL from within that directory.
3. When prompted, shutdown and restart your system.
4. AGain, enter the temporary directory.
5. Run UNINST2 to complete the remove of the demonstration program.
6. Erase the files you unzipped into the temporary directory.
Once uninstalled, the command line utility programs provided with
the demonstration program will not function correctly. Please do not
try to run them without the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander 2.52 Demonstration
program installed properly. Failure to comply with this warning may
result in a loss of data as the programs attempt to access CAD Commander
and are unable to, generating a Trap error.
* If you experience a situation during installation where you are unable to
complete the install routines second phase (where you run the CC WPS Install
utility from the icon placed on your desktop during the first part of the
installation) and you have Warp (red or blue spine) with no fixpacks or
fixpacks less than 10 and Object Desktop installed you will not be able
to install the CAD Commander Control Panel. If you do not have Object
Desktop installed you should not encounter any problems. Updating to
FP 17 fixes this problem. Updating to the latest Object Desktop (1.51
or later) may also fix the problem.
* If you experience a situation where the Status Line does not redraw itself
properly do the following:
- Press the right mouse button on the Status Line.
- Click anywhere else on the display to clear the pop-up menu and the
Status Line should refresh.
* If you are using FP17 or later and experience the situation where the
"Enhanced kill app mode" option is not in the "Options" menu
add the
following to the PROTSHELL=x:\CADCDEMO\CADCDEMO.EXE line in your CONFIG.SYS:
PROTSHELL=x:\CADCDEMO\CADCDEMO.EXE /EKILL
ONLY USE THIS IF YOU ARE SURE YOU ARE USING FP17 OR LATER. IF YOU USE
THIS WITH ANY WARP VERSION BEFORE FP 17 YOU WILL EXPERIENCE A TRAP ERROR
WHEN YOU ATTEMPT TO KILL AN APPLICATION OR RESTART THE WPS DESKTOP.
GENERALLY CTRL-ALT-DEL COMMANDER CORRECTLY RECOGNIZES YOUR OS/2 VERSION
AND ENABLES THIS FEATURE AUTOMATICALLY. OVERRIDING IT CAN BE HAZARDOUS
TO YOUR WARP'S HEALTH!
* If you experience the situation where the CAD Commander Game Boost Option
does not appear in your DOS or WIndow's DOS Settings notebook the
VADCMDR.SYS driver may have been inadvertantly removed from your CONFIG.SYS.
To restore it do the following:
A. Use the E.EXE editor to open your CONFIG.SYS.
B. Go to the end of the file (searching for an existing VCADCMDR.SYS on the way)
C. If the VCADCMDR.SYS isn't in the file, add it using the following syntax:
DEVICE=x:\CADCDEMO\VCADCMDR.SYS.
* If you experience a situation where some DOS or Win games do not seem to
run any faster you may be experiencing a situation where you need to turn
Int During I/O setting off when using the Game Boost option. Some games
work better with it turned on (it's mostly the way the game was written
that affects how this new feature will help it). NON-CD games work
great (Nascar, Indycar II type games that are completely installed to
the hard disk) with the game boost option enabled regardless of how the
INT_DURING_IO settings is set. As with most DOS games under OS/2 you
should enable the HW_TIMER option, and disable the display refresh emulation
option.
* If you have trouble with the screen going black and not redrawing after
choosing the "Return" option on the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander you may be
experiencing a problem with a third-party application (typically a CPU
monitor style program) that has set its PM Queue thread (the primary
thread of an application) to the Time-Critical class. Please try one
of the following:
1. Reactivate the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander. Select your CPU monitor program
(such as DELIGHT.EXE for the Describe Delights CPU monitor). Press
<SHIFT><P> and lower that DELIGHT.EXE priority to a regular class. The
CPU monitor will continue to function and will work with Ctrl-Alt-Del
Commander properly. This will need to be done once per OS/2 session
(i.e. once after you've started OS/2 and the first time you activate
Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander).
2. Add the /NOB option to the PROTSHELL=x:\CADCDEMO\CADCDEMO.EXE line in
your CONFIG.SYS. This has several side affects - it lowers the ability
Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander to activate in certain hung situations, as well
as limits its ability to terminate certain high-priority hung applications.
You can also disable the enhanced activation mode in the Control Panel
to achieve the same results.
The new PROTSHELL statement would look like the following:
PROTSHELL=C:\CADCDEMO\CADCDEMO.EXE /NOB
3. Discontinue use of the CPU monitor.
Generally with version 2.5 and later these CAD Commander automatically
adjusts itself to compensate for these programs.
* If you have trouble with the system hanging during a desktop restart
and you are using Object Desktop or other desktop enhancement products
please try the following:
1. Some extenders such as XIT prevent proper restart of the desktop. Normally
the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander handles this situation by itself because of an
entry in the file CADCAPPS.INI which specifies applications to terminate
during a restart. The CADCAPPS.INI is a text file which you can edit to
add application names that you want to have killed during a restart.
Support for NPS WPS, XIT, and SpellGuard are in the CADCAPPS.INI when
this release was shipped. Newer versions of this file are available from
the PCS Web Site as new problem applications are identified.
To add an entry for a new WPS extender (or any other type of program) do
the following:
A. Open CADCAPPS.INI in the \CADCDEMO directory using a standard text editor.
B. Type in a B: or an A: and then the name of the application to kill during
a restart. Always begin trying the "B:" option first. If the desktop
still doesn't restart edit the file and change it to "A:". The following
shows a typical CADCAPPS.INI with the program MYEXT.EXE added to it:
REM Apps that must die before desktop will restart
REM A capital A: or B: must precede the file name of the program to kill
REM Use A: to kill after desktop restart, B: to kill before restart
REM Changing these values could be detrimental to your systems health!
A:WIPEDEMN.EXE REM Wipeout Demon (after restart)
B:NPSWPS.EXE REM NPS WPS Extender (before restart)
B:XIT.EXE REM XIT Extender (before restart)
B:SPELLGRD.EXE REM Spell Guard (before restart)
B:MYEXT.EXE REM This is MY Extender I added to the list
C. Save the changes and then shutdown and reboot your system. You MAY (but
we do not guarantee it) be able to add both an entry for A:MYEXT.EXE and
B:MYEXT.EXE (placing each on its own line). This might help your system
restart the desktop properly.
As you might have noticed from the comments in the CADCAPPS.INI example
above, the A: indicates that CAD Commander should attempt a restart and then
terminate the application, and B: indicates that it should kill the app and
then restart the desktop. Unfortunately, the only way to tell this is through
trial and error. (Unless you happen to know how the problem application
was written!).
2. Modify the "PROTSHELL=C:\CADCDEMO\CADCDEMO.EXE" line in
the CONFIG.SYS so that it has the following appended to it:
This will cause the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander to use more system resources
but may overcome problems seen when using these products. You may be able
to increase the /PMQ=30 to a higher value and see the problem go away.
3. If, after trying previous options, you continue to experience difficulties,
restore the original PROTSHELL=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE in your CONFIG.SYS and remark
out the "PROTSHELL=C:\CADCDEMO\CADCDEMO.EXE" line.
Now do the following steps:
A. Then reboot your system.
B. Make sure no other applications are running.
C. When the WPS is displayed, enter an OS/2 Window.
D. Enter the CADCMDR directory
E. Type "START /FS /B PKM_DMN.EXE". This will start the Ctrl-Alt-Del
Commander Keyboard Monitoring Daemon.
F. Now look in the OS/2 "Window List" and see if PKM_DMN.EXE is displayed.
Wait until it is displayed (this may take a few seconds, but not more
than 10).
G. Now, press Ctrl-Alt-Del. You should see the Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander
screen. You now have a limited function Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander. Using
it you can Restart the desktop, kill applications, and find out
information on applications. You will not be able to "Force a shutdown
of OS/2" or change application priorities.
H. Visit our Web Site and look at the Common Questions and Answers
section for Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander. This page is updated quite
frequently and contains information from other customers experiences
and solutions to those problems. Odds are someone else has already
discovered the answer to your questions!
I. To gain further support, contact the PCS Web Site and go to the
product support page. There you'll find a handy form which well
help us help you with the problems you've encountered quickly.
- List of desktop enhancement products used (Such as Object Desktop)
- Copy of your CONFIG.SYS
- Version of OS/2 Warp (include Fixpack Level, if any)
- Whether MMOS2 is installed
- Type of network used (if any)
- Name (and manufacturer and version) of applications run that cause
the failure to be exhibited.
Command Line Utilities have been added to let you perform many common
CAD Commander tasks from an OS/2 prompt. This is handy if you are
"telnetting" into a system running OS/2. The target system must have
CAD Commander 2.5 installed.
- Kill Programs (CCKILL.EXE)
- Change program priorities (CCSETPRI.EXE)
- View a list of running processes (CCVIEW.EXE)
- Reboot your PC (just like Ctrl+Alt+Del so file system is
shutdown) (CCREBOOT.EXE)
- Delete a directory and all its subdirectories (CCPRUNE.EXE)
You may wish to customize the full-screen program using any of the
following options by creating a file in the \CADCDEMO directory called
CCDAEMON.INI using your favorite text editor. Then, enter any of these
commands, one per line, to activate or disable the desired feature.
BEEP=0
This disables beeps when pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del. The default is BEEP=1.
EKILL=0
This disables using the enhanced kill mode available in Warp 3 Fixpack
17 or later, and in all versions of Warp 4. The default is EKILL=1.
BUMP=0
This disables the priority boost CAD Commander gives itself when
activating. The default is BUMP=1.
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