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By George, sonic, I think you are right. The original 24 x 24 pixel size is a bit overpowering when compared to something smaller. 16 x 16 was too small, but 20 x 20 looked pretty darned good, IMHO. Sonic, when you say "simple," would you prefer no gloss effect at all, just the same, plain button for all three states (button, button-mouseover, button-mousedown [click])? Hope that makes sense.

Looks very nice. Icons on the left are 24 x 24 pixels, same as the old set. Wonder how they would look at 16 x 16? Hmmm, let me check. And maybe revamp that user manual button in keeping with the other buttons? Somehow? Let me check. Lastly, do we all get those cool lookin' check boxes, or is that specific to your system?

I've seen that resolution screw up my AutoIt message box formatting as well. So it's not just WPI choking on that, but other cool tools as well. And doesn't wpi.cmd take care of it? REM Force resolution to needed size for wpi interface. --start %wpipath%\common\VideoChanger.exe 1280x1024x32@85 -q

I'm working on some graphics sets. 07-24-2005 (UPDATED 07-25): Finished a very basic button set, you can grab it HERE. Just drop them in the default themes folder, overwriting the existing buttons. BACK UP your current set of graphics, please. 07-27-2005: Finished a basic glossy button set (not overpowering), you can grab it HERE. Again, back up your current set before dropping them in the default themes folder to overwrite the existing buttons. 07-27-2005: Here is another glossy button set, you can grab it HERE. At the suggestion of sonic and others, the set is a bit smaller, has a defined edge, and includes a more generic button for the user manual that matches the rest of the set. That's all, PM me if you have any other thoughts.

I was hoping you would say that. I have sent a PM to the original designer of the function to see if he can help adapt it. I have tried my best, but have it functioning correctly only for the first category. Bizarre results appear when used in any other categories and I can't for the life of me wrap my mind around it: the results are different for each and every category, and in no apparent pattern. Truthfully, this will come in handy for only one of my categories. It is a long one I call "Geek Tools," about 14 apps, and only two are selected by default. So when I install for a "geek" who craves the apps, I have to check about 10-12 boxes. But with the category selector I can give it a click and then deselect one or two apps, much easier. And users can always click "default" to set the whole thing back to the original selections. So I am going to stand down on this for now, pursue other things here at home. Was it worth it? Heck yeah!

Thanks, this has been a real puzzler. I'm currently trying to adapt the function to toggle between "All" or "Default" states. The present All/None is OK but less desirable, I think.

Roger that on the Unicorn font. There are some GREAT tutorials to be found at Pixel2Life. Check out the "Adobe Photoshop" Tutorial Category and search "glossy buttons." This Tutorial is a great step-by-step look at how the glossy effect can be created. The effect can be applied to any image, not just buttons. The instructions are accurate (not all tuts are) and you are sure to become a glossy freak after seeing how easy it actually is to create.

I like the current WPI button set (simple arrows, checks, question mark, exit button), but they could be revamped along the lines of the new "glossy" logo. Making them cleanly transparent to meld with any background is problematic, but maybe a .png format would work better than .gif? And how about the header graphic. Anybody have any thoughts other than "What do you want to do?" Is a subtitle even necessary? Lastly, Kel, what font did you use for the "WPI" portion of the logo? Might look good for the title as well.

Wow! That works for me!

That's a lot of love. I'm still using one of the 2.x versions, haven't worked up the guts to move ahead but I may take the plunge with one of these latest releases.

One thing confuses me right away: you have two apparent references under [sCSI] to the iaStor.sys file, but neither is a straight "iaStor=" entry. Instead you have, for example, "iaStor_ICH7DH=" and wouldn't you need a corresponding "iaStor_ICH7DH.SY_" file in I386 for that to work? Where did you come by this info: Also, don't you need references to the .sys files for the "iaAHCI_XXXXX" entries? This looks better: Mine reads simply iaStor = "Intel 82801ER SATA RAID Controller". Other entries: [sourceDisksFiles] iaStor.sys = 1,,,,,,_x,4,1 [HardwareIdsDatabase] PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DF&CC_0104 = "iaStor" [sCSI.Load] iaStor = iaStor.sys,4 Mine installs on an 875P chipset. Also, check me here, but I don't believe you need to modify WINNT.SIF at all to enable SATA drivers. Just modify txtsetup.sif and drop the corresponding .sys file in the I386 directory (maybe CAB it) and you should be good to go. Then, too, I use the "Drivers from CD" method, so there's no need to mess with the WINNT.SIF file at all. Lastly, have you tried getting an answer in the Dell forums? Some pretty experienced characters lurking about in those.

Broad categories may be best: "Accessories," Utilities," Media Players," etc. My WPI has 57 entries divided among nine (9) broad categories.

Yeah, the results of your search will depend entirely upon the search terms, go figure. And some of the search terms you might choose produce some surprising results. For example, a search for "ports" led me to a great series of EA Sports icons I did not know existed and would never have thought to look for. Cool. In your case, "accessories" and "system" will pull up two examples of a hard drive being brushed off, a la Disk Cleanup. "System Tweaks" by DockZone contains the classic 'restart' symbol, and so on. How much do you looooove your WPI? The amount of time you are willing to spend at WinCustomize (and it sounds like you've spent a LOT of time there already) correlates directly.

I'm working on adding a category selection feature. Update: athomsen has reworked this with improved functionality.

In theory, yes. In practice, however, the ProgressOn fuction just produces a neat little graphic. It is not tied to anything. So to have it function as a REAL progress feature you would have to contrive a way to tie it to a running process using AutoIt, probably all from within one script. And that defeats the six (6) cmd= feature of WPI, which in my opinion is WPI's real strength. That's the only way my feeble thinking can envision it working. Hard to explain, sorry. At the end of the day, the running list produced by RunOnceEx is a nice progress indicator anyway, don't you think?

AutoIt v.3 has a "ProgressOn" function that "Creates a customizable progress bar window." The example fro the AutoIt help file: ProgressOn("Progress Meter", "Increments every second", "0 percent") For $i = 10 to 100 step 10 sleep(1000) ProgressSet( $i, $i & " percent") Next ProgressSet(100 , "Done", "Complete") sleep(500) ProgressOff() Trouble is that you have to configure the timings manually in this example. I played with it once to get it working with an actual install, it was pretty messy in my case. You may want to check the AutoIt forum (not associated with MSFN) to see if someone has created a script that runs in conjunction with a running process, or contact MHz or NoLogic for help with this one. I did not enjoy the look and feel of this one and eventually punted, but it is a viable option.

In truth, not much at all. I've been busy with work-related projects, only been checking this forum now and again during the past 10 days or so. I wish it was as easy as the HTML/Javascript example you included, Lost Soul, but I don't think so. As I see it, trouble is the HTML entries are hard-coded, whereas WPI's Javascript features generate the app AND category entries. We don't want to restrict the user from creating their own entries, of course, but maybe the script can be adapted for WPI? As mentioned earlier, the category and app entry variables are already there. Hmmmm.... But I sure hope nobody is waiting on me. For heaven's sake, if anyone has any ideas, go for it. As for me, I hope I actually find some "downtime" this week to take a real close look at this.

You can accomplish all of the above and more with AutoIt: You can completely hide batch files by calling them from within an AutoIt script: AutoItSetOption("TrayIconHide", 1) AutoItSetOption("WinTitleMatchMode", 4) BlockInput(1) Run( @ScriptDir & "\cleanup.cmd", "", @SW_HIDE) This AutoIt script will shut down the machine: AutoItSetOption("TrayIconHide", 1) AutoItSetOption("WinTitleMatchMode", 4) BlockInput(1) Shutdown(1) AutoIt can be used to create installation progress indicators as well. The possibilities are endless. My advice: if you are going to play in the unattended world, get to know AutoIt. It's a great tool in your arsenal.

@ oneless Looks right, but ensure that you remove the entire reference to the tag: <a href="./UserManual/manual.html" target="_blank" ... ... ></a> Everything between and including the "a" tag should be deleted.

Wow. This goes waaaay beyond what the average MSFNer is trying to accomplish, me thinks. Create an info.xml file? Provide a list of APIs? Hahahahaha. I think you just scared the "Idiots." At least, I hope you did. Yeah, how 'bout it, Alanoll? I wrote the script for him and then he had the balls to ask others to test it for him.

A tip of the fedora to you, Lost Soul, that's lookin' pretty good. And CHECK THIS OUT. If you are looking for colors and color values, this has to be the coolest thing I have found to date on the Web. The human animal responds to the color wheel.

Works for me, Lost Soul. I'll be adding that close button--nice touch--and the window sizing features.

@ coucou Have you ever messed with AutoIt? You can create a simple script and compile it, adjusting the sleep timing to your heart's content. A simple script might take this form: AutoItSetOption("TrayIconHide", 1) AutoItSetOption("WinTitleMatchMode", 4) BlockInput(0) Sleep("35000") The script will run for 35 seconds and do nothing while your program finishes up.

OK, the little ones are no longer under foot. Looking now at the possibility of creating a category header check box, I'm thinking in broadest terms: 1. A checkbox is generated and aligned to the right side of the category header. Clearly, checkboxes can be generated (generate.js) and aligned via JavaScript (boxes.js). A Parent/Child relationship could be established keyed to the "cat[pn]=" or an entry similar to it, perhaps similar to the "uid[pn]=" and "deps[pn]=" functionality, all found in config.js. 2. None, some, or all of the category items may already be configured as "default" installs in the config.js file's "dflt[pn]=" entry. The script would need to take this into account. So that if the box is checked, then all entries within the category are selected, but if the box is later unchecked, then all entries return to their default state (none, some, or all). There would be no functionality to select the entire category during setup--although that could probably be built in--and instead the user would continue to rely on the "dflt[pn]=" entry when configuring. It would be nice if this could be modular, but a new entry (or two) might need to be created for each program in the config.js file to account for the category selection action. The generate.js and boxes.js files are also targets for alteration. FYI, I am working with version 2.x of this app, just to confuse things further. I am dusting off my O'Reilly JavaScript manual and will tap some local expertise a bit later if necessary (quite likely!). I don't mean to sound like I'm "taking over" on this and certainly don't want to step on any toes, I just find this interesting and would like to give back to the project if I can. And for goodness sake, if anyone has any ideas on this now would be a great time to chime in. Thanks. Edited for typos.