*******************************************************************************
                        Start Menu Changer'97 Readme file.
*******************************************************************************

*******************************************************************************
This program is SHAREWARE. It is provided "AS IS". The authors takes no
responsibility for any damage caused by this program. You can copy it as many 
times as you like. Give it to anyone as long as all the files in the 
distribution are included and no changes are made to any files. If you like it
you can register it.
*******************************************************************************

The files which should be included in the original ZIP file:

   Setup.exe       - The installation.
   StartMC.ex_     - The program.
   Remove.ex_      - The uninstallation.
   Readme.txt      - The program information. (This file).
   ReadmeFr.txt    - French translation of this Readme file.
   ReadmeRu.txt    - Russian translation of this Readme file.
   Register.exe    - Start Menu Changer'97 registration
   Register.hlp    - Registration help
   Sharewre.txt    - The concept of Shareware.
   History.txt     - Start Menu Changer's history.
   File_id.diz     - Small program description.
   End-User.txt    - End user agreement

   Alexey\ - My favourite theme pack    
   Win98\  - Windows 98 theme pack
   Sun\    - Sun theme pack by H.Renouard    
   Sample\ - Sample theme pack of using SMC theme packs

Q: How to register the software and what benefits will I have?
A: Go to Start Menu Changer'97 'About' bookmark. Press there 'Run Register.exe'
   button. Then fill out the form by entering your name, email adress and the
   number of single user license you disere for each program you wish to 
   purchase. After a couple days you'll recieve a registration code.
   Or choose 'Online registration' via secured internet protocol.
   Benefits: 
     1) All registered users will recieve notifications when new version
        of SMC appears.
     2) If you change your operating system (for example, from Windows 95 to
        Windows 98), but SMC doesn't support it, just tell me and required
        corrections will be done in new SMC version.
     3) Your code for registration will be valid on all versions of SMC.

Q: What is the start button icons limit?
A: The Start button icon size has to be 10x10, 12x12, 14x14, 16x16, 22x22 or 
   32x32  with 16 colors. By default, Windows 95/98 uses 16x16 icon. You can 
   change this by resizing the active title bar (click right mouse button on 
   desktop, select properties/appearence).

Q: What does Start Menu Changer modify and how to remove changes?
A: Start Menu Changer modifies Explorer.exe and User.exe files. 
   Backup files are stored as Explorer.sav in your Windows directory and 
   User.sav in your Windows system directory. It also modifies the registry. 
   To restore your original files press the Restore button. To enable your 
   changes you have to restart Windows.

Q: How to restore original Windows icons on start menu?
A: There are two types or doing that: 
   1) Press right mouse button on the start menu icon, which you want to 
      restore and choose in the popup menu 'restore'.
   2) Press restore button and choose 'restore original icons on start menu'.

Q: I'm having trouble with starting Windows 95/98.
A: If you have problems with starting Windows or restoring your original
   settings, boot into command line (DOS) and copy the *.sav files to *.exe 
   files. If you still have problems then 
   1) Extract Explorer.exe and User.exe from your Windows installation. 
      For example, ( EXTRACT /A /L C:\TEMP WIN95_02.CAB EXPLORER.EXE 
      USER.EXE ) for Windows 95 or ( EXTRACT /A /L C:\TEMP WIN98_22.CAB 
      EXPLORER.EXE USER.EXE ) for Windows 98.
   2) If you have Windows 95 + IE4 shell integration installed then change 
      in your C:\Windows\System.ini shell=Explorer.exe to shell=Progman.exe
      When windows start up with Program Manager you have to go to File 
      Manager (winfile.exe) and find the IE4.01 setup. And reinstaling 
      IE4 by dblclick setup. The Internet connection have to be functioning 
      because the problem did not affect that configuration neither IE4.
      When IE4 finish the instalation the changes in system.ini comes to 
      normaly again and the setup restart windows 95 automaticaly with all 
      systems working properly.

Q: How can I change the start menu vertical logo?
A: First of all, you have to create a bitmap file (21x130 for Windows 95 or
   21x223 for Windows 98) with 16 colors. Run Windows Paint, choose apropriate
   size, draw what you like and then save the picture as a 16 color bitmap file 
   (you can also change the palette of the logo). Run Start Menu Changer and 
   then press 'Load logo' button to load picture. Anyway, after rebooting, your
   vertical logo size will be small. To correct this problem you have to 
   compress your picture file using RLE compression. Windows Paint doesn't 
   support RLE compression, so choose another graphic editor, for example, 
   Paint Shop Pro ( http://www.jasc.com/psp.html ). Sometimes, your BMP with 
   RLE file will be longer than without RLE. The best program that compresses 
   BMP I've seen is Borland Resource Workshop. To view whole picture 
   your BMP file has to be =< 1320 bytes for Windows 95 and =< 2917 bytes for
   Windows 98.

Q: My vertical logo has been cuted and there are some incorrect pixels after 
   it.
A: To correct this run Start Menu Changer, load logo and then decrease 
   logo's height. However, the logo will always be cuted because Start Menu 
   Changer rewrites the existing logo in Explorer.exe file with existing size.

Q: How can I create my own Theme Pack?
A: First of all, see Sample Theme Pack. Index.smc is an ini-type file so you 
   can easly modify it in Windows Notepad. If any ICON or BMP file (or sections
   in index.smc) isn't included in your theme then the picture (or options) 
   will not be changed in Windows.

NOTE: Unchecked Favorites, Run, Find, Settings, Logoff, Suspend and Shutdown 
      will not appear in Explorer at all until you've checked them again in 
      Start Menu Changer'97. This happens because Start Menu Changer'97 also 
      modifies registry.

KNOWN BUGS: -> Some versions of Windows will not hide some options when you
               uncheck them in SMC. Microsoft's bug.
            -> Doesn't support Windows NT. 'Read beyond end of file' message 
               occurs. This message also may occur on some unsupported 
               Windows 95/98 versions.
            -> Doesn't hide Settings from start menu in IE4 and in Windows 98.
            -> 256 color icons are saved only as 16 color icons. 
               Bug in Delphi 3.0 VCL.
            -> 'Save as theme' button saves loaded logo's picture in
               true color, not in 16 colors. So it can't be loaded again.

If you have any suggestions or any questions contact me or if you have cool
Theme Packs for Start Menu Changer send them to me or send me a link to your 
page where these Themes pack will be located.

Email -------------------> servent@apollo.lv 
Home page ---------------> http://www.halyava.ru/aaalexey
Start Menu Changer page -> http://www.halyava.ru/aaalexey/StartMenu.html