The PC/2 home page
Welcome to the home of PC/2, or Program Commander/2
if you prefer the long name.
This page covers the public release 2.20, which went GA (general
availability) in December, 2000!
As there is of course still room for improvements, you may check the
PC/2 beta page.
The final V2.20 build is now available and uploaded to 3 of the major
OS/2 anonymous-ftp sites!
As PC/2 2.20 is fresh meat you may also want to check the
PC/2 V2.10 page as it contains some information
that applies to V2.10 but is still true - if not enhanced siginificantly -
for V2.20!
Depending on the feedback (reviews are very welcome!) I'll add things here.
However, software can never be perfect and PC/2 is no exception.
You were and still are welcome to tell me your problems, I tried my best to correct them but
there is no guarantee that this worked in each case!
You can download the PC/2 V2.20 from this site or
major anonymous-ftp servers supporting OS/2 software, but first please take a look
at the Highlights and into the more detailed
PC/2 features page, containing
some fancy screen shots and even a downloadable Ultimotion demo video.
Known problems
-
Exiting PC/2 while having activated Titlebar Smarticons may cause PM hangs, requireing
a reboot to gain back control of PM (OS/2 still works under the cover, it's just
keyboard and mouse input that get no response then).
Thus, if you plan to exit and restart PC/2 often I recommend you not to use that
feature and look for some other Titlebar enhancers (there are quite a lot of
nice ones).
-
PC/2 may cause problems when using SmartSuite V1.1 for OS/2 Warp
applications, e.g. not being able to select comboboxes at for example
the text properties have been reported.
Unfortunately I can't reproduce that with V1.0 as e.g. selecting text
properties causes absolutely nothing to happen and V1.1 alway traps
with a division by 0 in that case on my 2 PCs!
From what I've seen I can only recommend to switch to StarOffice, at
least they seem to have a better software development than Lotus (and
I not just mean their OS/2 software, on Windows MS Office or StarOffice
likely are the better choice too).
-
Running Lotus 1-2-3 from SmartSuite for Warp 4 may cause traps in 1-2-3.
Please see the PC/2 hints and tricks for some
items to check with 2.00 which still apply.
-
PC/2 initialization and termination may take a while and may block the
SIQ (Single Input Queue) meanwhile. This is caused by the design of PM,
unfortunately there it no easy way to prevent that (e.g. the larger the
Popup Menu the more likely).
PC/2 lets you become more productive using and maintaining your OS/2 based
workplace because of its:
- PC/2 is a tool for OS/2 Warp Clients:
Tired of phrases like "OS/2 is for servers only", "OS/2
is a strategic part of the network computing strategy", ...?
Sure, you could use PC/2 on OS/2 Warp Server
(e.g. Warp Server Advanced (SMP) or Warp Server for e-Business) too, but
PC/2 is targeted to enhance the operation of an OS/2 Warp based Client
workstation, and despite of the lack of support (and likely also the lack of
a vision to provide an alternative to the monopoly desktop OS almost
all blindly follow like lemmings) OS/2 Warp still is a very powerful Client
operating system you can trust to run your mission critial applications
with!
- Program Launcher as WPS enhancement or replacement:
Tired of launching (detached) OS/2, DOS, WIN-OS2 and WPS
applications from folders and icons that mess up your desktop?
Then PC/2 allows you
to do that from a configurable Popup Menu! In addition to the WPS
you can also specify a hotkey, the position and size, priority,
environment and a scheduled date. No more changes to CONFIG.SYS,
e.g. you could even run 2 Netscape browsers running JAVA 1.02 and
1.1.4 runtime simultaneously!
And you can export and import parts of the Popup Menu to and from files.
It has never been easier to setup your Popup Menu!
Alternatively you can activate the Popup Menu from the keyboard,
including the WIN-95 keys, and launch the applications from there!
And compared to the WPS (PMSHELL), PC/2 saves about 4 MB RAM, even
on 32MB machines!
- Virtual Desktop:
The mess of applications windows on your Desktop
drives you crazy?
Then PC/2 is the management center that gives you
backt control of the windows on a up to 9x9 fold Virtual Desktop, allowing
you to switch with button clicks or simply by moving the pointer onto a
surrounding row/column of your desktop. No more mess on your
desktop!
A powerful control window, the Overview window allows you to manage your
Virtual Desktops and the applications running on them easily!
Switching between Virtual Desktops is as easy as moving the mouse pointer
onto the row and/or column surrounding your Desktop, PC/2 will automagically
scroll into that direction then (you can of course configure that a click
is required). You might even define the to delay that operation.
That is HW Panning Support implemented in software instead of
expensive hardware!
- Sliding focus:
You are among the people hating the need to click
on windows to switch the focus?
Activate the Sliding focus and PC/2 automatically
activates the control or window below the mouse pointer (as
X-windows does), no more clicks to switch between windows!
Optionally you can define
that the Sliding Focus will occur only after a delay.
- Advanced Marking:
You find selection of copy and paste operations
from menubars or systemmenus inconvenient?
Advanced Marking allows you copy and
paste operations for OS/2 and DOS windows, (multiline) entryfields,
E and EPM editor, CM/2, PC/3270, Passport/2, NetScape, Lotus Notes by
just a few mouse
clicks, no more inconvenient interaction with the menubars!
- Hotkeys:
Want to launch or swtich between applications with
user-selectable Hotkeys?
PC/2's Hotkey support allows you to launch and/or
switch between applications with user-selected Hotkeys out of 108
supported combinations.
The Hotkeys will be detected within any PM window, even OS/2 windows,
just ensure that the Hotkey key combination isn't required to operate
an applications.
- Dynamic MenuSelection:
Want menus automatically to cascade when touching them
with the mouse pointer?
Then Dynamic MenuSelection eliminates the need to
click on menuentries to shell into submenus! Optionally you can define
that the Dynamic MenuSelection will occur only after a delay.
- Environment Spaces:
Tired of applications that make modifications to
your CONFIG.SYS before being able to run?
Manage your application environments with
Environment Spaces, which most easily compares to environment
templates! Create and combine them and add them to the applications
of your choice, no more changes will be required in your CONFIG.SYS
(except for device drivers)!
The application launcher from WSOD (WorkSpace On Demand) allows an
administrator to do the same, but from what I've seen PC/2 does that
in a much superior and elegant way!
Additonally you may export and import Environment Spaces to and from
files, making updates easy!
- SessionBar and QuickSwitch:
Want instant access to your applications (even when
distributed around Virtual Desktops)?
PC/2's SessionBar allows you to switch
between applications (and automatically between Virtual Desktops too
if required) from a graphical taskbar or the QuickSwitch window
allows you to switch to the next/previous task!
The SessionBar automatically adjusts other windows not to cover it
(and displays additionally the battery status on APM capable PCs),
no more a messed up desktop and instant access to your applications!
You can even request that the SessionBar pops up only if you leave
the mouse pointer on a hotspot for a configurable time!
The SessionBar not only displays the running applications, but also
a clock, an SMP capable CPU performance tracing window or the APM status
window. You decide what to display!
- HW Panning Support:
Your ThinkPad's LCD display is smaller than the
supported resolution but you're tired that your windows are larger than
your LCD display?
Then HW Panning Support ensures that windows won't
be larger than LCD display, even when maximized!
- TitleBar SmartIcons:
You want instant access to close, rollup, help,
...?
Then PC/2's TitleBar SmartIcons added to windows'
titlebars are what you're looking for!
- Security:
Want to secure access to your PC/2 configuration or
lockup your workspace even when not using the WPS?
Then PC/2's Security options will fit that needs!
- Scheduler:
You need to schedule applications?
Then the Scheduler built into the Popup Menu allows
you to schedule application launches or even when to Shutdown and Reboot
or Power off your PC!
- APM Support:
Missing APM suspend or power off support under OS/2?
Then PC/2 will fit that hole allowing you even to
schedule these events (requires WARP 4, but unfortunately with some combination
of hard- and software you may be out of luck)!
- Spooler Control window:
You are not running the WPS (PMSHELL) as your WorkPlace
Shell process but want to control your local printers?
Then PC/2 Spooler is the management center you need!
- WPS extraction:
You want to migrate your WPS objects into PC/2's
Popup Menu?
Just drag them onto WPS 2 PC/2's icon and from there
into PC/2, and PC/2 will automagically add them to the Popup Menu!
- Online Automatic Update feature:
You want to be kept informed about news in general and
enhancements to PC/2 in detail?
Then the Online Automatic Update feature will help you
to keep you informed.
PC/2 will automagically periodically contact my site (even when you are
behind a proxy) and look for news!
That's how push technology should work!
- DLL Versioning:
You want to be sure PC/2 loads the correct DLLs (after
you have upgraded from an earlier version)?
Then the version check PC/2 does for the DLL it loads
will ensure you don't use outdated DLLs (that may be left over incorrectly from an
older installation).
- Hang protection:
You want to be sure PC/2 recovers from PM SIQ (Single Input
Queue) hangs?
Then PC/2's hang protection ensures that you don't need to
restart PC/2 after some hangs of the SIQ (done by other programs like e.g. Lotus Notes,
Netscape to name the most prominent ones).
PC/2 will automagically detect when one of its threads hangs (IMHO caused by a
PM bug) due to an earlier SIQ hang, it will automatically kill and restart the
hanging thread allowing PC/2 to continue.
Additionally, during the next launch of PC/2 it will automatically check if such
hangs or other traps happened and will inform you to contact the author about
possibly making fixes for that problems.
- Windows keys:
You want to use the Windows keys on your keyboard under OS/2
Then PC/2 allows you to activate its Popup Menu with one or
more of those keys or use it as a Hotkey to launch or switch to applications.
Fixes, changes and enhancements compared to V2.10
Many things have been improved for V2.20.
The following items give you some detail about those changes,
as they are listed in their chronological sequence some may be changes
to something that was introduced by one of the PC/2 2.09 Betas.
-
Fixes
-
Fixed PC2NET.C to compile under Warp Toolkit 4.5 for 16-bit TCP/IP
protocol stack header files (using TCPV40HDRS macro).
-
Fixed that toggling the visibility of the Overview window's Titlebar
and SmartIcons required 2 times activating the Desktop dialog (flags
had been checked after deciding what to (un)hide in Dialog.c).
-
Fixed that PC/2's Hotkey feature worked only for keyboards using the
same physical keys as US and German keyboards. Special thanks to
Istvan Kovacs for hinting me that different keyboards (a Hungarian
in his case) might use different physical keys to represent the same
ASCII values than US and German keyboards (the ones I have/know).
-
Fixed that autostarting >10 items at exactly the same time could cause
PC/2 to run out of stack space. Stack space has been doubled and in
the online documentation a recommendation not to autostart >10 items
has been added.
-
Fixed that thread health supervision displayed an incorrect message.
-
Fixed that SessionBar "No Grid" option was missing.
-
Fixed that PC/2 Online Automatic Update feature (PC2NET.DLL) did not
work when Autorization, either from your Proxy or from PC/2's
Registration page (very unlikely that this will be required in the
future), was required. PC/2 now checks for HTTP Status Codes 401
(WWW-Authenticate) and 407 (Proxy-Authenticate) when receiving
responses and authenticates with your supplied Userid and Password
then. Thanks to Leo Pedone for hinting me that!
-
Fixed that the APM Powerdown/Suspend timer kicks in even if APM support
within PC/2 is disabled. Thanks to Lorne Tyndale and Charles Lassiter
for the bug reports.
-
Fixed a possible bug in the VisualAge C++ 3 CSD8 compiler optimizer
(using /O option, see Makefile) that caused an optimized PC/2 build to
hang during thread startup exception hander registration in Thread.c
(since 2.19c).
-
Fixed to load DosVerifyPidTid() dynamically so that PC/2 will still run
under OS/2 2.x (using DosWaitThread()).
-
Fixed that registration does not file the registration date/version of
the current running PC/2 if sending registration E-mail did not work
(but a "NULL" registration or the last successful one).
-
Fixed that PC2NET.C did return an error writing PC2.NET even when there
is nothing available to write.
-
Fixed that during posting Registration information the wrong Url could
be displayed in the status window.
-
Fixed that SessionBar status text was not reset (to the time display)
correctly when the pointer was moved from a session's icon directly onto
the scroll icons or the Warp button (without prior touching the
background).
-
Fixed that PC/2 sets its current directory to the root of the drive
with the highest drive letter, this will prevent that drive from being
unmounted. PC/2 now sets its current directory to the root of the boot
drive. Thanks to Charles Lasitter for reporting!
-
Fixed that the SessionBar's Bubblehelp could influence the Z-Order when
not being visible at all, due to showing it unwantedly during
SessionBar startup repaint processing in WM_DRAW.
-
Fixed (a typo in the dialog source) causing not being able to change
the SessionBar's Activation Delay. Thanks to Nicholas Saxon for
reporting.
-
Fixed that a dynamically activated SessionBar on the bottom of the
screen will appear on top after the next restart of PC/2. Thanks to
Nicholas Saxon for reporting.
-
Fixed that when the Overview gets unhidden via the Edge Activation
feature, it does not disappear again when clicking on the menubar
Smarticons or activation the Overview Popup Menu (by CTRL+MB1). Thanks
to Kees Bergwerf for that suggestion.
-
Fixed that Overview window's Window Representation did forget to redraw
some colors of the Colorization when switching between different
representations.
-
Fixed that an error (SYS99) occured when launching a program with PC/2
while a music CD-ROM is inserted in a CD-ROM drive. Thanks to Peter
Moylan for reporting (though I could not reproduce the problem, may be
related to certain drives/drivers only)!
-
Fixed that PC/2 could load outdated DLLs (PC2HOOK.DLL, PC2?RES.DLL),
which can be caused by an improper installation (as I've seen during
2.19e Beta testing a few times). PC/2 will now read the signature of
all DLLs, this can cause optional DLLs not to be loaded or that PC/2
exits for mandatory DLLs.
-
Fixed that commandline option -INI was ignored (PC2.INI was always
used to load configuration from).
-
Fixed when clicking on a surrounding row or column of a Virtual Desktop
the frame window below the mouse pointer (usually the WPS if we're
clicking on a Virtual Desktop adjacent to the WPS) will not cause
PC/2 (with the "Follow Focus" option selected) to switch to the Virtual
Desktop that frame window resides on (as the click on the surrounding
row or column would have caused *another* switch afterwards, resulting
in an effect that PC/2 would have switched over 2 Virtual Desktops).
-
Fixed an invalid comparison in WM_QUITTHREAD processing (thread IDs are
not bitmaps but ordinal numbers).
-
Fixed a possible stack corruption when popping up a message box that
PC/2 could not remove all Titlebar Smarticons from other frame windows
that likely had caused a PM hang (probably requireing a reboot).
-
Fixed that the Scroll Percentage now can't be less than 5% (previously
one could set it to 0% and while having selected Autoscroll with a
Scrolling Delay of 0ms resulting in some kind of endless loop bringing
your system to crawl if not to hang). Thanks to Kees Bergwerf for being
eager enough to test that!
-
Fixed that PC/2 (SessionBar, QuickSwitch,...) could not switch to any
session immediately after switching to PM from XFree86/2 with CTRL+ESC
(due to invalidly rejecting to switch when the PM session itself is the
foreground session). Thanks to Michael Taylor for reporting!
-
Fixed that the a Hotkey CTRL+* did only work with the left CTRL-Key but
not the right one too as it was supposed to (caused by the way the left
WIN-Key was handled as a Hotkey).
-
Changes
-
Changed the intervall for Autostart from 30 to 5 seconds upon user
requests.
-
Changed that for newly created Menuentries selecting Autostart does
not cause it to be autostarted automatically. IMHO this is more exactly
what Autostart means, invoking after PC/2 is launched.
-
Changed that Registration can detect changes in the Beta build postfix
(e.g. detects that 2.19b has been installed over 2.19a), preventing
Registration to be posted even without Beta build changes.
-
Changed that when no working directory is specified the current
directory will be the root of the boot drive before launching an
application (previously that was done only for OS/2 and DOS command
processors).
-
Changed that Advanced Marking does not kick in when one of the SHIFT
keys is pressed meanwhile.
-
Changed that WM_NETACCESS now can display a few message boxes (instead
of just 1), while still preventing running out of resources due to that
limit.
-
Changed that error message surfaced in PC2NET.C will also show the line
number and module information from PC2NET.C.
-
Changed references (of my IBM workstation) from stangl.austria.ibm.com
to the new address stangl.vienna.at.ibm.com.
-
Changed INSTALL.CMD to determine the boot drive by looking for the
environment variable OS2_SHELL (instead of SYSTEM_INI which may not be
on the boot drive. Thanks to Richard Gelderblom for his support!
-
Changed that pressing ALT+CTRL+x (where x is any key) does no longer
produce a diagnostics beep.
-
Changed the drawing of the SessionBar when having selected to show
small icons to look a little bit more attractive.
-
Changed INSTALL.CMD to provide detailed installation help and guidance,
trying to detect a previously installed PC/2 and suggesting equivalent
options.
-
Changed that Thread Hang Detection (watchdog timer) silently logs the
hang into PC2.TRP instead of displaying a message box addtionally
(except you are running Debug level 1 or above (activated by
ALT+SYSREQ)).
-
Changed that SessionBar puts itself on top of Z-Order if being clicked
on (when it isn't already set to keep itself on top of Z-Order).
-
Changed that PC/2 exits even when not all frame windows honored the
request to remove PC/2's Titlebar Smarticons (which sometime will
happen due to the PM design). That's a more risky approach and we'll
see if it works.
-
Changed that when PC/2 starts an applications into the foreground the
visible Overview window does no longer automatically become top of
Z-Order while still receiving the input focus (only a window having
the input focus can start another application into the foreground).
-
Additions
-
Added optimization for Autostart feature to prevent unnecessary
enumeration of Popup Menu (NOPENDINGAUTOSTART flag).
-
Added DLL entrypoint location to easy to localize Fixpack independent
trap locations in non PC/2 DLLs (Except.c).
-
Added support to change colors of the CPU Performance Status area of
the SessionBar by dragging colors from the Color Palette onto it.
-
Added an option to hide the grid in the CPU Performance Status area.
-
Added checkpointing support (to allow me to find which PM API sometime
blocks the Working Thread rendering PC/2 unusuable).
-
Added DosKillThread() to kill the Working thread when it gets hanging
(which seem to be at WinQueryWindowText() for just-being-destroyed
windows). Finally there should be a kill-resume feature.
-
Added Advanced Marking support for button and static text controls,
that is dragging the mouse while having mouse button 1 pressed copies
the contol's text into the clipboard (which is useful e.g. when the
URL specified in NetScape's download dialog is too long to be
visible completely and is not directly visible on a Web-page due
to being the result of a http-redirect or cgi-bin).
-
Added that you can now specify Environment Variables as Makros (e.g.
%ENVVAR%) in the Application's Working Directory, for the Application's
Parameter and for the Application's Path. Of course, the Environment
Variables may come from the Environment of the Application itself.
-
Added the commandline option -ReserveDriveLetter Drives to instruct
PC/2 not to change into the root directory of the drives specified
in Drives (to workaround buggy drivers, e.g. the "OAD" parallel port
ZIP driver which does not behave correctly when the drive is empty).
Thanks to Alexander Men'shchikov for testing that option as the
workaround added previously doesn't seem to always work.
-
Added the Hang Protection feature to PC/2 which will allow it to
automatically detect hanging/blocking/looping threads and resume
execution at a known state after seconds of a few minutes later.
This feature should overcome a PM bug or design flaw that causes some
APIs not to return to the caller under some circumstances (e.g. when
using WinQueryWindowText() during frame window destruction or when
applications crash and/or block the SIQ), you will notice that the
Hang Protection kicks in when the PC/2 message "that a thread is no
longer responding" pops up.
-
Added that Lockup dialog does reposition itself regularily on the
screen to prevent screen burn-ins (though today's displays no longer
burn-in that easily and what is much better due to reduction of
power consumption is to put the display into standby by DPMS/APM/...).
-
Added an option to disable PC/2's QuickSwitch (CTRL+TAB) window, thanks
to Andreas Seybold for that suggestion.
-
Added that if the Overview window is visible during Edge Activation, it
is ensured that it will be moved on top of Z-Order.
-
Added the option to display a customized date/time format in the
SessionBar's status area.
-
Added support of the left WIN key for Hotkeys (you may define similar
to the e.g. CTRL+O Hotkey a Left-WIN+O Hotkey). As the WIN keys aren't
used too much under OS/2 (actually it's a shame for our industry that
MS can force hardware vendors to adopt such nonsense) they're likely
free for Hotkey use. Of course, you can still use that key to activate
PC/2's Popup Menu too.
-
Added documentation and code to allow complete testing of Online
Automatic Update locally (using IBM's ICS or Lotus Go webservers).
-
Added a BubbleHelp for PC/2's SessionBar.
-
Added that PC/2 will not start up at all when pressing and holding the
ALT-Key while PC/2 loads. This may be useful to replace parts of PC/2
when PC/2 normally gets started automatically every boot (from
STARTUP.CMD or the Startup-Folder) causing some DLLs to be locked even
when you close PC/2 (this is possible, working as designed and can't
be avoided, e.g. PC2HOOK.DLL very likely will be locked after the first
invocation of PC/2).
-
Added a watchdog mechanism to check new exceptions in PC2.TRP and if
new are found the user is requested to contact me (the author).
-
Added a Popup Menum activated by mouse button 2, for the SessionBar's
Statusarea to allow the date/time text to be displayed left- or
right-justified. Thanks to Kees Bergwerf for that suggestion.
-
Added that when the Icon representation is selected for the Overview
Window Representation the correct icon is displayed more likely.
However as that seemd to have caused hang earlier, you might need to
be careful. The hang recovery will diagnose a hang after checkpoint
0x0080 in that case.
-
Added %CDDRIVE% macro which gets replaced by the first CD-ROM's drive
(e.g. if your first CD-ROM drive is D: that macro will be replaced by
D:).
-
Added that Environment Spaces can exported as Batch files (*.CMD), so
they can be run with an OS/2 command processor (e.g. CMD.EXE) to build
up an Environment from there too.
-
Added to allow the right CTRL-Key (RCTRL) being used as a PC/2 Hotkey.
That allows you to use a Hotkey CTRL+* key for both, in an application
and for PC/2, because the CTRL-Key consists of both the left and the
right CTRL-Key while the RCTRL-Key only consists of the right CTRL-Key.
Thus, to use CTRL+* in an application use the left CTRL-Key, to use it
as a PC/2 Hotkey use the right CTRL-Key.
Once you downloaded the PC/2 V2.20, I recommend you to take a quick look into
the announcement letter PC2.DOC and the additional online
documentation before starting installation.
One thing I'ld like to mention is that from the feedback I think that the concept of
Environment Spaces introduced with PC/2 2.00 is one of the most valuable features
of PC/2, not available in any other application I know of!
If you have some time, please look for it in the online documentation, I think you
can't live without it afterwards!
It's pretty simple hopefully, just download the complete package into a temporary directory
and unzip it with e.g. INFOZIP's UNZIP:
-
If you haven't installed PC/2 currently yet, just start the installation Install.cmd
(extensive help is available during the installation, so I hope it isn't a problem).
-
If you are a PC/2 user, before starting installation of this version, backup your existing
PC/2 configuration.
Then you might need to stop (to ensure that no files are locked) or even deinstall (in case
you want to upgrade WPS 2 PC/2, as the WPS will lock WPS2PC2.DLL otherwise, making
it impossible to replace it) PC/2 (but keep your PC2.INI, PC2.CFG and PC2.ENV as they can
be upgraded by this version) and reboot.
After the next boot, no PC/2 files should be locked and installation by Install.cmd
will work then.
-
Of course, if you're an OS/2 expert user you can install by just copying the modules
(*.DLL, *.EXE, *.HLP) over your existing installation (note, to replace DLLs locked by
the WPS like PC/2's WPS2PC2.DLL you can kill PMSHELL.EXE with a process killer and
while the WPS restarts you can delete that DLL under the covers).
In case of problems then I may not be able to help you as I can't see your
installation.
The PC/2 features page has been updated for PC/2 2.20
also, and the PC/2 hints and tricks are still helpful
(just use pc2v220 as the password to decrypt the source archive.
Well, here is what you are waiting for ;-).
You can download PC/2 V2.20 from this site, hopefully you won't have too
much troubles downloading it, as Geocities sometimes has bandwith problems
(if you have problems, please let me know and I split the archive in multiple
parts).
This download corresponds to the final! V2.20 build, which has just some
very minor changes in the online documentation and INSTALL.CMD compared to build "C"
many of you have downloaded.
Just download the
PC/2 V2.20 GA (1.534 kB)
archive from here in the US or from a mirror in
Austria.
The archive does include the source code!
Now, feel free to upload that archive to any site you think it should be
available!
I'm also goint to upload it to the following anonymous-ftp servers (as I won't
check the Urls you may also try to locate pc2v220.zip with e.g. ftpsearch):
Once you start the installation or run PC/2 for the first time you will notice the request
to fill in the Registration notebook page.
Though this page is called Registration it does not mean PC/2 no longer is
Freeware (PC/2 still is Freeware).
If the text would have fitted, I would have called that page Online Automatic
Update feature.
So what's the reason for a Registration?
Well, with a few words there are 2 main reasons:
- First, I do want to estimate the PC/2 user base and want to know you as a PC/2 user.
- Second, with the information there I'm able to let PC/2 inform you about
news/problems/fixes/... regarding PC/2 and my other programs automatically.
When you launch PC/2 while not having filled out the Registration page, a
dialog will ask you to do so, please select the Help button then to get a really
extensive information why I introduced that feature.
This is the first time I'm supplying such a technology, so if you feel to give me
some comments why you think this is not a good idea, please e-mail
me!
I do know that misusing e-mail addresses for spam mails is a problem nowadays,
but I do not pass on any information I get from you, be it e-mail or the
registration.
What I get when you register is a mail like the following: