Net-Burner's AMenu version 1.1
©2002 FrontBack LLC
All Rights Reserved

ReadMe.htm

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Contents
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1. Description
2. Release Notes and System Requirements
3. Installation and Un-installation
4. How to use Net-Burner's AMenu program
5.  Support

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1. Description
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This program should be burned onto a Data CD along with the your other files and folders.  When the resulting CD is loaded on a computer, it will pop up a menu that directs the user to choose from several options.  Prior to burning, you can design the options by simply editing the text file called autorun.inf.  You can use AMenu to launch programs, setup files, web sites, text files, MP3 files, Winamp m3u playlists, and more.  Up to 8 buttons can be customized.

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2. Release Notes and System Requirements
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AMenu supports Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows 95, Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0. A screen resolution of 800*600 or greater is recommended.  For proper operation the computer needs to have Auto Insert Notification enabled, as all Windows computers do by default.

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3. Installation and Uninstallation
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If installing the freeware version, unzip the files to your hard drive.  To uninstall, just delete these files.

If using Data Net-Burner, the files get installed at the same time, to a folder called "AMenu" under the Data Net-Burner folder.  Uninstallation is performed when Data Net-Burner is uninstalled.

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4. How to use Net-Burner's AMenu program
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All you need to do is:
A.  Open the autorun.inf file in Notepad. 
B.  Edit the lines in the autorun.inf file and save it.
C.  Test the file by double clicking AutoRun.exe.
D.  Burn these files to your CD: autorun.inf, AutoRun.exe, and (optionally) Icon.ico.

Here are the details of step "B", editing the autorun.inf file:

The autorun.inf file contains instructions that the program AutoRun.exe reads when the CD is inserted.  It is broken down into sections that start with a name in brackets i.e. [BUTTON1].  The sections are:

[AutoRun]
[CUSTOM CD MENU]
[BUTTON1]
[BUTTON2]
...
[BUTTON8]

Here are the instructions for each section:

[AutoRun]
open=AutoRun.exe
icon=AutoRun.exe, 0

Leave the first line exactly as shown.  The second line is optional, depending on if you are going to use an icon file.  This icon will show up in My Computer to represent the CD.  It does not control the icon used by the Autorun.exe program itself.   The ", 0 " , tells Windows to use the icon embedded in AutoRun.exe.  If you do not want any icon in My Computer, delete it or put a semicolon in front of the icon line.  ;If using your own icon file, use this line instead-   icon=icon.ico

[CUSTOM CD MENU]
titletext=Please pick a button...
buttonqty= 4
buttoncolor= clInfoBk
menucolor= clWhite
;A semicolon at the beginning of the line means the line is ignored by the program.
;Text inside brackets is case sensitive, use Uppercase.
;Text on left side of "=" is case sensitive, use lowercase.
;Your text can be mixed case.
;See the readme.htm file for a list of color codes.

In this section you can control the appearance of the menu.  You can choose the words displayed above the buttons, the number of buttons, and the colors of both the menu and the buttons.  The title text is limited to one line of about 50 characters. 

Here are the standard Windows color codes:

Value Meaning Value Meaning  
clAqua Aqua clBackground Current background color of the Windows desktop
clBlack Black clActiveCaption Current color of the title bar of the active window
clBlue Blue clInactiveCaption Current color of the title bar of inactive windows
clDkGray Dark Gray clMenu Current background color of menus
clFuchsia Fuchsia clWindow Current background color of windows
clGray Gray clWindowFrame Current color of window frames
clGreen Green clMenuText Current color of text on menus
clLime Lime green clWindowText Current color of text in windows
clLtGray Light Gray clCaptionText Current color of the text on the title bar of the active window
clMaroon Maroon clActiveBorder Current border color of the active window
clNavy Navy blue clInactiveBorder Current border color of inactive windows
clOlive Olive green clAppWorkSpace Current color of the application workspace
clPurple Purple clHighlight Current background color of selected text
clRed Red clHightlightText Current color of selected text
clSilver Silver clBtnFace Current color of a button face
clTeal Teal clBtnShadow Current color of a shadow cast by a button
clWhite White clGrayText Current color of text that is dimmed
clYellow Yellow clBtnText Current color of text on a button
    clInactiveCaptionText Current color of the text on the title bar of an inactive window
    clBtnHighlight  

[BUTTON1]
buttontext=Click to Launch the read me file in IE
relativepathandfilename=readme.htm
optionalcommandlineparams=                   *THIS IS NEW IN VERSION 1.1
closemenuonclick=1

Here you can type the name you would like displayed for each button in buttontext=.  The next line is the most important line for the button.  It is the path to the file you want to launch with the button. If the file is in the "root" of the CD (meaning it is not in a folder), then just type the name of the file.  The example shows a file named "readme.htm".  If the file is in a folder on the CD, type the folder name, then a backslash, then the file name.  For example "folder 1\readme.htm".  Path names do not need quotes around them even if they contain spaces.  If the file does not exist as entered, the menu will still show the button but it will be grayed out and disabled.  You cannot be sure what program will open a file on some other users computer.  For example, when launching an htm file, if the user has Netscape as his/her default browser, it will open in Netscape not IE. 

URL's (web sites) There are two ways to make a URL button. 
  1. Create a favorites shortcut in IE, and place it in your Temp-CD. Then you will add a ".url" onto the end of the name when you are typing it into the button's relativepathandfilename= shortcutname.url. Note- do not change the extension on the actual shortcut, just change it in the autorun.inf file.
  2. Create an html file and put a .htm at the end of the name.

Use the "optionalcommandlineparams= " to add parameters to an .exe file.  An example would be when using the freeware picture viewer Irfanview.  Use command line parameters to open a slide show.  Using the Irfanview help file example, the entire command would be 
i_view32.exe /slideshow=c:\mypics.txt  This would translate to the following 2 lines:

    relativepathandfilename=i_view32.exe
    optionalcommandlineparams=/slideshow=c:\mypics.txt

In most cases you will not need to use  "optionalcommandlineparams= " .  You can leave it blank or omit it all together.

The final option called closemenuonclick can be either 0 or 1.  The meaning is what you want the Autorun.exe program to do with itself after the user clicks a button.  "0" means the menu stays open behind the newly started file.  "1" means the menu will close itself when the new file starts up.  If in doubt just leave it at 1.

The remaining button sections can be deleted if they are not used, or they can stay there.  It does not matter.

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5. Support
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For support information, go to http://www.Net-Burner.com/support/ or click the context sensitive Help button on each Wizard Screen. No other support is provided for the freeware version.