PhantomScreen - Version 1.2b (C)1993 NeoSoft Corp. About PhantomScreen PhantomScreen is a DOS-based screen saver utility which not only helps protect against screen "burn-in," but protects your computer from unauthorized access while you are away, displays the time, livens your workplace with scanned images or computer art, leaves messages for those who may visit your desk, etc. A variety of colorful, customizable effects are included. The program supports 2, 16 and 256 color images at up to 1024x768 resolution. Minimum system requirements are: an IBM PC, XT or better; MS-DOS 3.1 or higher; a CGA, Hercules monochrome, EGA, VGA or SuperVGA graphics system; hard disk; Microsoft or Logitech compatible mouse (optional); and 640K RAM (expanded memory also supported). Registering PhantomScreen If you received Phantom from a friend, BBS, catalog or anywhere other than from NeoSoft or an authorized software dealer or distributor, you may try the program for a period of up to 30 days before registering. To obtain a complete package including registration number and typeset manual call NeoSoft at (503) 389-5489. We can process your order with VISA or MasterCard over the phone. The purchase price of Phantom is $25 + $5 ($17.50 Outside United States) shipping and handling. If you prefer, FAX your order to us at (503) 388-8221. If you would like to mail a check or money order make sure it's drawn against a U.S. bank in U.S. funds. Our address is: NeoSoft Corp. 354 NE Greenwood Avenue, Suite 108 Bend, Oregon 97701-4631 You may also purchase Phantom from any one of our many dealers world wide. For a list of dealers see the DEALER.DOC file accompanying this program. If you would like to give a copy of this program to a friend or associate please do so, but you may NOT give anyone your serial number. We hope you enjoy Phantom and share it with your friends. Things You Need To use PhantomScreen, you will need the following: - IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or 100% compatible computer - CGA, MCGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules monochrome or compatible graphics card and monitor - 512K minimum memory - A hard disk - MS-DOS or PC-DOS 3.1 or later - PhantomScreen program disk. - Microsoft, Logitech or compatible mouse (optional) Installing PhantomScreen PhantomScreen includes an easy-to-use installation program. During the installation, a directory of your choice will be created automatically and the appropriate files transferred to your hard drive. To run the INSTALL program: Boot your computer. (Turn the computer on!) Insert the PhantomScreen Program disk into drive A. At the DOS prompt (C:\), type A:\INSTALL and press the Enter key. Follow the instructions on the screen. Note that the installation program will give you the option of placing PhantomScreen into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file for automatic loading. If you do not wish to modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, answer NO. You may always, however, add PhantomScreen to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file later. Customer Service Registered users of PhantomScreen may obtain customer service and technical help from NeoSoft. If you encounter a problem, follow the steps below. - Consult documentation of other programs you are running with PhantomScreen for potential conflicts. - Try to duplicate the problem. - Retrace your steps to identify where, when and how the problem occurs. - Ask your dealer for help. - Contact NeoSoft Corp. You may reach us by: - Mailing your questions to NeoSoft Corp. attn. Customer Service 354 NE Greenwood Ave. Suite 108 Bend, Oregon 97701-4631 U.S.A. - Sending a FAX message to (503) 388-8221. - Calling our support staff at (503) 389-5489 (weekdays 9 AM to 5 PM Pacific Standard Time) Whether you call or write, please provide us with the following information to give us a complete picture of your situation. - Your PhantomScreen version number (this may be quickly located using PhantomScreen's Info button.) - Your registration number. - Computer brand and model. It is also important that we know the amount and type (Extended, Expanded and Disk) of memory on board and what memory manager you are using. - Brand and model of your video adapter, monitor, and mouse. - Operating system (DOS) version number. - A listing of the contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files - Names of other software program(s) which you may be running along with PhantomScreen when you notice this problem. - A description of the problem, how and when it appeared, and how to reproduce it. Using PhantomScreen PhantomScreen not only helps protect against screen burn-in, but can protect your computer from unauthorized access while you are away, display the time, liven your workplace with scanned pictures or computer art, leave messages for those who may visit your desk, etc. For the steps below, we assume that you have already installed PhantomScreen in the directory C:\PHANTOM, which is the default directory used by the install program. If you installed PhantomScreen into a different directory, then substitute that name for C:\PHANTOM below. To start PhantomScreen: If you told the installation program to add PhantomScreen to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file then you need do nothing, PhantomScreen will be loaded each time you switch on or reset your system. You need not follow the instructions below. If you plan to use PhantomScreen with a mouse, your mouse driver (usually MOUSE.COM) must be loaded before accessing the PhantomScreen menu. Please refer to your mouse's user manual for more information. A mouse is not required to use PhantomScreen. From the DOS prompt (C:\), type CD\PHANTOM and press Enter. This will place you in the PhantomScreen directory. Now type PHANTOM and press Enter. Should you desire to customize PhantomScreen, pressing the CTRL and M keys simultaneously will bring up the PhantomScreen main menu. If you want to be sure PhantomScreen will be automatically loaded each time you start your system, you should add the PhantomScreen command to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Operating PhantomScreen Let's take a look at how to use various parts of the menu. Keyboard Operation You should note that a mouse, while convenient, is not required to use PhantomScreen. Everything in the menu is accessible from your computer's keyboard. Note that each command on the menu has one letter in it's description underlined. To select these commands, you simply hold down the ALT key while typing the letter corresponding to the command you wish to activate. You may also move between items on the menu by using the TAB key to move between options. A highlight, appearing as a moving box, surrounds the current item. Once the command you wish to use has been highlighted, press the SPACE bar to select or activate. At other times, you may need to select an item from a list. You may use the ARROW, PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys to scroll through the list. Once the desired item is highlighted, press the ENTER key to select that item. Mouse Operation Using the mouse requires that you load Microsoft or Logitech compatible mouse driver software before starting PhantomScreen. If a mouse is present, a small mouse pointer (arrow) will appear on your screen. You simply move the pointer to the desired command or option and click the left mouse button to select or activate. PhantomScreen works in the background, and is only displayed when you call up its menu, or when actually performing its screen protecting function. Following are descriptions of the major functions found on PhantomScreen's main menu. Note: To avoid key conflicts with other software, you may change the Hot Keys used to call up the menu (CTRL/M) and activate screen protection (CTRL/S). See below. QuikMenu If you plan on using PhantomScreen with QuikMenu then you should disable QuikMenu's screen saver. To turn off QuikMenu's screen saver, enter 0 minutes for the specified time interval. Commands On - Checking this box enables screen protection. Off - If this box is checked, PhantomScreen will not activate after the specified time period. Even though this button is selected, CTRL/M will still work to bring up the PhantomScreen menu, and CTRL/S will still manually start the screen saver. Screen Saver - This box contains the name of the currently selected screen saver type. You may drop down a menu of alternatives by either using the mouse to click anywhere on this option, or depressing ALT/S on the keyboard. Preview - This button allows you to preview the screen saver type selected from the Screen Saver menu. Any mouse movement or keyboard activity will stop the preview. Note: Some screen saver types must complete a short cycle before restoring your original screen. Options - After selecting a particular type of screen saver, you may wish to adjust certain features, such as speed, number of figures, etc. Use this button to bring up the controls available for the current screen saver. Blank After - This field may be used to specify the interval (in minutes) between the last use of your keyboard or mouse and activation of screen protection. You may use any number between 1 and 60 minutes (around 5 minutes is usually sufficient). Info - Using this button displays the PhantomScreen version number, serial number registration and other program information. Password - You may set a password which must be entered before access to your computer screen is released. Using a password will help protect your computer from prying eyes while you are away. There are two levels of password protection: A Master password is usually set by an employer or system administrator so that an employee's system may be accessed when the normal user is ill, on vacation, etc. The Master password will override the individual user's password. The individual user Password should be set by the system user. This Password may be reset or bypassed by anyone having the Master password, however. When a password has been entered, the system will request that anyone trying to interrupt the screen saver first enter the correct password before the screen will display any information. PhantomScreen will continue to ask for a password even if your system is switched off then on again, if you include the PHANTOM command within your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. It is very important that you remember and/or write down the passwords you assign. If you forget your passwords, you will have to reinstall PhantomScreen to reestablish control over your system. Hot Key - PhantomScreen is installed so that, once the program has been started, you may call up its menu at any time by typing CTRL/M and begin the screen protection immediately by typing CTRL/S. As other software you run may already use CTRL/M and CTRL/S for other purposes, you may change the keystrokes used for to access these two options. Use any letter or function key plus either a SHIFT, CTRL, or ALT key. Once you have redefined a hot key, the two keys you have selected must be pressed simultaneously to access the option. Unload - This button will completely unload PhantomScreen from your computer, disabling its screen protection, and exiting the program. You may also do this from the command line in those instances where you wish to remove PhantomScreen from within a batch file. Unload should be used when you either need the small amount of memory used to keep PhantomScreen in the background, or when there is a serious conflict with another program which you need to use. Also note that you cannot use the UNLOAD button if you are running another application. You should only unload PhantomScreen from the DOS prompt. OK - This option saves any changes you've made to PhantomScreen's configuration, then returns you to DOS or to your software application. Display Characteristics PhantomScreen works in monochrome graphics, EGA/VGA 16 color and EGA/VGA 256 color modes. Your monitor and graphics card must be capable of supporting a given resolution in order for PhantomScreen to display in that mode. Some image options are not available on systems which do not support a particular graphical resolution. If your neighbor is displaying screen savers which do not appear on your own computer, most likely your neighbor is using a higher resolution card and/or monitor. Program Conflicts - Since PhantomScreen continues to run in the background while you run your normal programs, they must try to get along. Although PhantomScreen has been tested with a wide variety of applications, the sheer scope of software available under the DOS environment precludes any claim that any screen saver will work flawlessly with all applications. Like most terminate and stay resident (TSR) utilities, PhantomScreen uses standard interrupts to hide itself while other programs are running. This should not cause problems with most applications. However, some programs misbehave and attempt to manipulate areas PhantomScreen is using. This may result in a system crash, in which you must reboot your computer to continue. If you encounter this problem, you should create a batch file which unloads PhantomScreen before running such a program, runs the problem application, then reloads PhantomScreen once you exit from that application. Options Most of PhantomScreen's screen savers may be adjusted. Once you have selected a particular saver, use the OPTIONS button to further individualize your system. The controls you use may fall into a few categories as listed below. File Selection Some OPTIONS allow you to import an outside image file. When selecting a file, you will be presented with a list of files from the current directory. If the file you want is not in the current directory, you may use DRIVES and DIRS fields to move between drives and directories/subdirectories. Note: In the DIRS field, the \ takes you to the drive's root directory. The .. takes you to the directory from which the current directory has branched. Selecting any subdirectory name which appears will take you into that subdirectory. See your DOS documentation for more information on Directory Trees. An even easier way to find a file is to use the SEARCH button. Type the file's name or a mask into the text field. If you have no idea where the file is located on your drive, check the SEARCH ENTIRE DRIVE box. PhantomScreen will search the disk and bring up any file or files present which match the name or file mask you've specified. Messages There are times when you will want to leave a short note on your system while you are away. The Message screen saver allows you to easily type in a message of up to 36 characters, which will move across your screen. Another way to include a message, is to type your message into a paint program, such as NeoSoft's NeoPaint, and display the image using the Color Cycle, Effects, Stack, or Ricochet screen savers. You can also display a series of PCX image messages by using the Slide Show screen saver. Using Your Own Pictures Several of PhantomScreen's screen saver selections allow you to import custom artwork or scanned images as part of the screen protection function. These pictures may be created or modified using most paint/image editing programs, including NeoPaint from NeoSoft. PhantomScreen can, in fact, use files generated by a number of program types which support PCX format files, including scanning utilities, graphing programs, drawing programs, etc. You should, however, take the following into consideration before trying to use a custom image in PhantomScreen. Screen savers which allow you to choose PCX image files are Color Cycle, Video Effects, Ricochet, Slide Show, Slider, and Stack. The image should be the same size, or smaller than, your monitor's display. It is best to keep your images at 640x480 (VGA resolution) or smaller. For example, an EGA display measures 640x350 pixels, so your image should not be larger than 640 pixels wide by 350 pixels high. Images which are smaller than the display will be centered on the display. Your image should also not contain more than 256 colors or shades of gray. If your monitor only displays 2 or 16 colors at any one time, do not attempt to include more colors or gray shades in your picture. It is also very important, in the Color Cycle Screen Saver, that your image's color palette contain a pure black color. PhantomScreen must use black in order to completely blank each pixel. The Ricochet saver moves a rectangle measuring 300 pixels wide by 200 pixels high. If the image is larger that this, a chunk located at the upper left corner of the image is used. So, if you want to bounce a complete picture of your dog around the screen using Ricochet, use your paint program to resize the dog's picture to measure 300x200 pixels. Larger pictures or pictures with more colors may display more slowly or take longer to clear. Again, any good paint program should allow you to resize and/or reduce the number of colors in an image you wish to use in PhantomScreen. Once you have saved the image you want on your disk drive, you should select one of the screen savers which can use custom pictures, then use the OPTIONS button to load that image. Slide Shows Simple Slide Shows may be created to run while the computer is not being used for other purposes. This may be desirable for advertising, promotionals, demonstrations, or just for fun. The Slide Show screen saver may be used to display images (created in a paint program) containing long messages the Message screen saver would not be able to contain. Use the ADD button to select a PCX image file. The images you select appear at the bottom of the list in the Which Image? box (at the left side of the Slide Show dialog). Use the DELETE button to remove the highlighted file from the list. If no file has been highlighted, the last file on the list will be removed. The slide images will be presented in the order shown in the Which Slide? box. You may change the order using the ADD and DELETE keys, or you may use the mouse to drag a file to a new position in the order. To drag, simply click on the file you wish to move and, while holding down the mouse button, move to the position where you prefer the file to appear, then release the mouse button. The amount of time each image is shown is controlled by the SPEED bar at the top right of the Slide Show dialog. The size and number of colors in your images also affect the show's display speed. The Slide Show screen saver will display 2, 16 and 256 color images (depending on your monitor), or combinations of these. The display will be smoother, however, if all slides presented are of the same resolution. Again, any good paint or image editing program will allow you to change the size of and/or convert the number of colors in your images. Graph Labels While the charts used by the Graph screen saver are mock ups which cannot be changed, the labels used in these graphs may be customized to include titles and figures which reflect your company. The customizable information is contained in a text file which may be modified using any ASCII text editor. This file may be found in your PHANTOM subdirectory, under the name GRAPHTXT.DOC. If you modify this file, save your changes as ASCII text. If your text editor asks you if you want to preserve line/paragraph breaks, you should answer yes. [TITLE] - The text under this heading will be displayed as the title for each graph. Do not exceed 30 characters, including spaces and punctuation. [LABEL] - You must follow each [TITLE] with one or more {LABEL} list. The items listed under [LABEL] will be used to designate the vertical increments on the charts. In the sample file included with PhantomScreen, the [LABEL] lists are used to specify months and monetary levels. There should be eight items in the list under each [LABEL] heading in the file. Each item in the list should not exceed eight characters, including punctuation marks, currency signs, and spaces. If you place more than one [LABEL] list under each [TITLE] heading, PhantomScreen will randomly assign these as the charts are displayed. [DATA] - You must also follow each [TITLE] with at least one [DATA] listing. You should provide at least ten items in the list under each [DATA] heading in the file. Each item in the list should not exceed twelve characters, including punctuation marks, currency signs, and spaces. If you place more than one [DATA] list under each [TITLE] heading, PhantomScreen will randomly assign these as the charts are displayed. [ENDREC] - This line should be the last line in the file. Do not move or alter this line. Command Line Options You can specify several options when starting PhantomScreen. An option consists of a normal slash (/) followed by an option letter followed by information about that option. Up to 4 command line options can be used at the same time. Saving and Loading the Background (/B) Using this command tells PhantomScreen to use expanded (EMS) memory for saving and restoring the background screens. Using Virtual Disk Memory (/D) On installation, PhantomScreen tries to determine whether your system has extended memory which it can use to load images. If, for some reason, you do not wish PhantomScreen to use expanded or extended memory then load PhantomScreen with this command. Using Disk memory is slower than using Expanded or Extended RAM. You must have space on your hard drive for this option to work. Example: PHANTOM /D PhantomScreen On (/N) and Off (/F) You may be running programs during which you do not want PhantomScreen to activate. Reasons for this might include: these two programs will not work properly together, because the program has its own screen saver, or because you need to watch the application during extended periods when there will be no mouse or keyboard input. You may construct a simple batch file which turns PhantomScreen off, loads your application, then turns PhantomScreen back on when you exit that application. The example below shows how such a batch file would look, with programname being replaced with the DOS command you use to start the application (in which you do not want PhantomScreen to activate). To completely remove PhantomScreen from memory, see the Unload (/U) option below. Example: PHANTOM /F programname PHANTOM /N Using Expanded Memory (/E) PhantomScreen, in its default mode, will first seek to use any Extended Memory present on your system. If you have Expanded Memory on your system, use the /E option to direct PhantomScreen to use Expanded Memory before using Extended or Virtual Disk Memory. Example: PHANTOM /E Suppress Sign On Message (/M) Normally, PhantomScreen displays a brief message after you type PHANTOM to let you know the program has loaded, and to remind you of how to bring up the menu and start the screen saver. If you do not want to display this message (in a batch file, for instance), follow PHANTOM with a /M. Example: PHANTOM /M Setting Display Speed (/S) You may wish to change the speed of the displayed effects used by PhantomScreen. This command line option allows you to change the speed over the whole system. Displays on speedy 486 and Pentium machines may look better when a slower speed is selected. Change the speed by following the /S with a number from 1 to 9. One is the fastest and nine is the slowest setting. Example: PHANTOM /S2 Unloading PhantomScreen from Memory (/U) You may be running one or more programs during which you do not want PhantomScreen to be present. You may construct a simple batch file which removes PhantomScreen, loads your application, then restarts PhantomScreen when you exit that application. The example below shows how such a batch file would look, with programname being replaced with the DOS command you use to start the application during which you do not want PhantomScreen to be present. This option immediately unloads the program, so any command line options which are listed after the /U will be ignored. E.g., If you want to suppress the PhantomScreen sign-on message during the unloading process, you should place the /M option before the /U option. Example: PHANTOM /U programname PHANTOM Enable VESA mode (/V) Using this switch command will allow PhantomScreen to use a VESA driver for all SVGA calls. The VESA driver must be loaded before PhantomScreen, in order for proper results. Example: PHANTOM /V Using Phantom on networks To allow users to have unique data files, run PhantomScreen with a different filename for each user. If a directory path is not specified, then the data file will appear in the PhantomScreen directory. If a filename is not specified then the default 'PHANTOM.DAT' will be used. Example: PHANTOM C:\PHANTOM\NAME.DAT NOTE: If you specify a data file it must always include the extension '.DAT'. For best results store the data file on the local drive and not on the network drive. This will speed up the transition time for swapping PhantomScreen into and out of memory. EDITPOP and EDITBLNK Accompanying PhantomScreen are two additional programs called EDITPOP.EXE and EDITBLNK.EXE. These programs allow QuikMenu users to modify the POP.DAT and BLANK.DAT files, respectively. The POP.DAT data file consists of a list of programs that you would like PhantomScreen not to come up over. The BLANK.DAT data file consists of a list of programs that you would like PhantomScreen to just blank the screen in. Programs which appear in the BLANK.DAT data file will not be password protected. These files were created to alleviate any conflicts between PhantomScreen and other non-standard programs. NOTE: The EDITPOP and EDITBLNK programs will only work if the application program is run from within QuikMenu. EXAMPLE OF EDITPOP: If you do not want PhantomScreen to pop up over Word Rescue, then you would enter the following line: EDITPOP /A WR1 To remove Word Rescue from the list, just enter: EDITPOP /R WR1 EXAMPLE OF EDITBLNK: If you want PhantomScreen to blank the screen in Word Rescue without changing the current video mode, then you would enter the following line: EDITBLNK /A WR1 To remove Word Rescue from the list, just enter: EDITBLNK /R WR1 The POP.DAT and BLANK.DAT data files do not exist until you run the appropriate programs. In the above examples the /A stands for ADD, /R stands for REMOVE, and the WR1 represents the Word Rescue executable program. NOTE: There are a few programs on the market that grab the keyboard interrupt from PhantomScreen. This causes PhantomScreen to pop up even if keyboard activity is present. These programs should be entered into the POP.DAT data file as presented above. Due to the nature of PhantomScreen and the broad range of products currently on the market, we are unable to take total responsibility for anomalies incurred due to conflicts between those applications and PhantomScreen. We will, however, attempt to solve any situations brought to our attention.