Now about this Shell program. Viewing it through 1.2 eyes, here are my criticisms: 1) If it's speed you're after, just dump the stuff you want into Ram and be done with it. An improvement would be to make a Ram:c dir, and copy all the c stuff to that, so that the command "Delete Ram:#?", without the "all", would wipe Ram clean but leave all the goodies intact. Or you could Protect each file at some point...SOMEthing! It just seems that if it's mainly command speed and/or lack of disk access that's important, there have to be better ways to do it than with this dead weight. 2) If you're using your Amiga for general purposes, that is, any time you boot it up you might want to run some graphics or audio thing, write a letter, play a game, etc, etc, then you don't automatically want a bunch of memory devoted to CLI work. What they should have done was to use their cute new little non-window-closing IconX program and make turning on the Shell program, meaning loading all the commands into Residence, an option. It just doesn't have any place in the startup-sequence. A basic guideline is that only things you want on ALL the time get fired up in the st-seq. 3) Along the same lines, I'd just as soon not have my startup-sequence take ten minutes to run every time I want to pop up the DU for a sec or play a quick hand of Solitaire. 4) Hopefully I missed something, but the way I see it, if you want to "quit" the program and get all the memory back from the commands that were in Residence, you have to run a scriptfile and "un-Resident" each one. No big deal by itself, just one more thing to have to keep updated, just one more reason why some program might NOT run correctly, because you didn't update the list and some critical memory is still being lost to Residence. 5) While it's extremely nice to have the CLI line editor (the Command Recall and editing features with the arrow keys), Conman already has that. And you've got to have Conman for the F2 key, which pops open whatever CLI window is currently activated to full-screen size, a functional must. 6) You know, if I didn't know anything about computers, just glancing over the upgrade book might be enough to make me a little nervous. Here are some quotes about the Shell program: "PLEASE USE THIS OPTION WITH CAUTION" [Hey, thanks for the tip!] "..you must be extremely careful to only use the command..." [Gee, I don't remember the words "be extremely careful" anywhere in my 1.2 manual..] "If the program appears to be working well, it can probably be used as a resident command..." [Uh, I don't remember the words "appears to" or "probably", either..] "..be alert for file problems and improper behavior.." [What's "be alert" mean, be ready to Guru? And..gasp!..improper behavior?] [And assuming you've gotten THIS far...] "At this point you may feel confident that you can safely use the program." [It doesn't say you can safely use it..just that you can feel CONFIDENT you can!] This is NOT a program for the beginner. And what better computer, I ask you, could there possibly be for the beginner? I think they should have put this whole mess on the Extras disk and put some of the fun tools, like IconEd, FED and PerfMon in the Utilities drawer where they belong. GAD, I'm outspoken! 7) And lastly, with your kind permission, a small list: Newcon-Handler 7,532 Shell-Seg 7,116 NewShell 2,752 Resident 2,692 StartupII 851 Prompt 584 Shell.info 405 Shell-Startup 288 ------ 22,220 I'm sorry, but that's just too many bytes to spend on speed, especially since it's "free" done other ways. And 22Kbytes is a healthy chunk of real estate where byte space may soon be at a premium. If you just can't breathe without a Shell program handy, you could either have a ShellBench or make it a Select option. I applaud Commodore's efforts to update their computer, and you may very well find all kinds of valuable uses for it someday. But like the advanced DOS commands, the thing to do is to have a need for them, then be overjoyed they exist, rather than having them around and trying to invent excuses to use them. Something like that. * Odds 'n Ends: - The reason I like ProWrite is because you can actually take IFF pics and load them onto a page. A feature that few, if any, of the competition can offer. It also just works damn well, except for it not saving in text correctly. I have to admit, I've never called their technical support group, you never can tell, there might be an answer. Their Interlace version is great, with the Shift-Help key combination to "quiet" the screen down. - Update Note: So I'm sittin' here today about ready to write a letter to my buddy Paul up in Oregon, when I think, heck, why not spice up the letter a bit? So I fire up the paint kit, load up an IFF pic of this lovely (blush!) girl, put a word balloon coming out of her mouth with a real nice, personal (double-blush!!) message for Paul, save that honey, pop up ProWrite, load the picture at the top of the page, print it in color, and now Paul has a truly fun, personalized letter. Ho hum. Just another day in the life of the Amiga owner... - Update Note: Just picked up an optical mouse..very nice! Mine's a "BoingMouse", three-button type, which I've come to like. If you're serious at all about artwork, games or precision, an optical mouse is a must. The one hassle I found with it is that the edge of the mouse pad is kind of sharp, and I ended up getting a nasty callous on my wrist. I solved it by gluing a small strip of furry cloth to the bottom of the mouse pad and wrapping it around the edge of the computer bench, tacking it from below. Be the first one on your block to have a fur-lined mouse pad! - There are programs out there that allow you to perform various functions from the (appropriately named) Function Keys, the F1 - F10 keys. "FuncKeys" is one of the more popular, but I don't use it for a couple of reasons. It's a sub-routine thus a memory hog, and I don't like having to look down at the keyboard from the screen. With single or two-letter scriptfiles, and an automatic path to the s dir, who needs Function Keys? - You probably won't be using too many of the c command options, but there are a few that can be handy to know, such as "Dir dirs" will only show you the dirs and "Dir files" only shows you files. The books are reasonably clear, assuming you're fluent in Template. The template is seen by typing a question mark after the command, like "Assign ?". A lot of BBS programs, possibly the majority, give you the proper layout if you type just the program's name without any particulars, or maybe a -?, -h or -help. - The guys down at HT are just in love with this big commercial DU called DiskMaster and wanted me to tell you all about it at the beginning of the tutorial. But, as you can see now, it would have severely stunted your computer evolution if I'd made a big deal over some DU and you started thinking that using the DU was "the way" to operate a computer. As you know now, if you want to be on equal footing with the computer, you have to stand in DOS and speak its language. My dumping you into DOS from the beginning was really what gave you the confidence you have today. 'Nuff said. Anyway, check out a DiskMaster next time you're by the store and see if it's really got anything new to offer. I just glanced at one, so haven't really got any substantial feedback. Oh, the colors they were using were hideous, sure, and I hate where they put the gadgets, and it makes a whole new screen instead of just being a tool up on the Workbench screen, and you can't just select a few files and see the total bytes of the files without a hassle, and the mouse does some kind of weird scrolly thing for reading textfiles, when the space bar does just fine, and it lists all the direc- tories first, then the files names, like that makes sense, but I really don't have any feelings on it one way or the other. I insist you be impartial and unbiased. Also, I don't have any Acknowledgments, as such, but THANKS! to the guys down at HT, specifically Mike and Dave, for their help in answering the odd question or two. Or three. Or four. Or... And no, they don't know how to make List go into sub-dirs either. If you're in the area, they're at HT Electronics, 275 N. Mathilda Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94086, (408) 737-0900. For the absolute best advice and most righteous service, walk up to Mike or Dave and very seriously say "I have been sent by His Excellency, The BenchMaster, to place my computing destiny unto your hands". They shall not fail ye. - The original Less, version 1.1, doesn't show the Alternate characters, but it's still the only Type program that opens its own little window, the others either use the CLI window you entered the command in, or open up a window the size of the entire screen, hardly convenient under most circum- stances. More's screen can be re-sized, but it's still a lousy program. That perfect half-screen-sized window that Less pops up (I'm talking about Interlace mode, of course..) is actually a BUG! He "fixed" it for the 1.3 version so now it hogs the whole screen. Thanks a lot! - Update Note: As I mentioned earlier, Marauder isn't around anymore, but other commercial programs will have similar features to Marauder's "Verbatim" and "Index" modes, so I'm leaving all references to Marauder in, like the following. - If a disk doesn't copy with Marauder in the standard mode, make sure to try some of the other options. FaeryTale and Firepower both need Verbatim mode, and Barbarian needs Verbatim and Index. Hate to say it, buy I've made a copy of a hard-to-copy game with Marauder and had it NOT work the first time or two, then suddenly I get a copy that does! This is worrisome, al- though I don't know enough about computers to know why. What it does mean, however, is that you might try making another try if the first one doesn't run, as well as using all the different options. There are also some good diskcopy programs running around the BBS's. X-Copy and Nibble have nabbed a few that Marauder didn't. Marauder did, however, remove the purchase guar- antees from both Silent Service and DPaintII, bless its little heart. - Update Note: Add Turbo to the list of good BBS diskcopiers. - You also might have to try a hard-to-copy disk three or four times before it'll "catch". And I KNOW this shouldn't make any difference, but it SEEMS like some disks catch better if you first reboot, wait a few secs, then insert the disk, rather than the other way around. Later Thought: Actually, I've kinda gotten in the habit of almost always waiting for the Kickstart thing to appear before kicking in a new disk. Also, I've found that some of the non-DOS format games, like Beyond Dark Castle and Shadow of the Beast, leave the computer in kind of a weird state after rebooting, where it won't even recognize faithful ol' Workbench. Rebooting once or twice more takes care of the problem. - Commercial Discopy Update: My absolute latest favorite commercial disk- copier is Maverick. At this writing, I have v3.0, and it's "cracked" a few games that were well copy-protected, so now I can run them straight from the hard drive, very nice. - I finally found an arp command that I needed, the Rename command. It accepts wildcards, unlike the original command. - I don't claim to be a "virus expert", but I'll tell ya what I do know: First off, the ol' "virus-inside-of-a-program-set-to-go-off-like-a-time- bomb" isn't the kind of thing we're concerned about. We're mainly worried about "boot blocks"; the little part of the disk that the Install program writes to, to make the disk bootable. That's usually where the little rascals hang out...and they move from there into Ram and hang out there, even though you reboot. Then they move back to the boot block of the next unsuspecting disk you put into one or both of the drives, and the circle grows. That's the basic rundown on your average garden variety virus..some embed themselves in ROM, some get into the hard drive, etc, etc. The docs that come with the virus programs are, obviously, laden with information. A cold boot, that is, turning off the power for half a minute, will zap any virus residing in Ram..but that won't help the boot block. For that, you use a virus tool. There are basically three ways you can come into contact with foreign boot blocks. First, of course, are disks that just kinda drift on in... either from a friend, club, mail order, store..just suddenly, there they are. The prudent thing to do with any such disk would be to slap it into df1 and fire up the latest virus checkers. That should do it. Another way to catch a virus would be to slap one of your own disks into a strange computer somewhere and voila!, instant system buddy. Lastly, you can get them from any compressed file that contains a boot sector, such as any "warped" file. Warped filenames end with the tag of the warp type of compressor: .wrp for the original Warp, .lhw for the LHWarp format, and .dms for the DMS commpression method. I downloaded a warped file from a local BBS just the other day and sure enough, it had a "Disk- doktor" virus in it. Grrrrr... Anyway, treat any freshly-dewarped disk as the enemy until proven okay. Aside from the above three methods, there are a few oddball warpers running around, but you'll pick them up on your rounds. Follow all the above and you most likely won't ever have a problem. If you need further help, there are always a few boards around that specialize in virus control. - As far as the different compressors go, I've recently converted my umpteen megs of archives over to the LHarc format, it clearly being the way to go. Zip is a whole-screen utility where you have to enter destinations into the little boxes, use the mouse to click on the right files, etc, so when it comes down to the actual doing of the thing, Zip's fairly imprac- tical. The CLI version of it I tested was about the slowest thing around. As of this update, mid-ninety-two, LHA v.1.22 is the hottest ticket in town, and I have board members clammoring for me to go LHA, so maybe that's the way you should go. My only question is, of course, "What's it going to be NEXT year...?!" - You might run into a program that wants you to enter a bunch of options in a Project icon's Tool Types box, and you may have hassles getting things to save correctly. If there's one overt bug in the Amiga system, this box is it. Keep trying and with a little luck it'll eventually save correctly. - Y'know, I haven't said anything about the importance of constantly backing up various things, but with the example above perhaps now might be a good time to dwell on it. If you haven't accidentally deleted some 10,000- byte textfile you've thrown your heart into, and you're wondering if "crushing" is the word that befits the occasion, you have only to wait. The laws of Inverse Proportion and Biometa Recourse decree that eventually it'll happen. And then the only question SHOULD be: "How many small re- visions, if any, have I lost?" That the Project icons have trouble saving things correctly in the Tool Types box is actually an acknowledged bug, recognized by the books (Amiga Handbook by Marcus Breuer) and must be dealt with. If you're trying to save, say, six different boxes, and suddenly five save right, make a copy of the icon immediately, and then continue trying to make it save all six correctly. Who knows, the next time you try, it might save none of them correctly, and then you'll be glad for the backup. Maybe this isn't really a very good example of backing up material, but it illustrates that backing things up, even while you're in the process of working on them, should be strictly standard operating procedure. Especially textfiles. - When you Delete a file it doesn't really delete the material, it just erases its "file markers" or whatever. That's why DiskDoctor or a BBS prog called UnDelete work; try it and see. You can actually delete everything on a disk, make a regular copy of it with a diskcopier and STILL DiskDoctor the files off the copied disk! They're only gone for good if you write over them or re-format the disk. That's why a formatted disk writes so smooth and a completely deleted disk scratches all over the place. - Did you check out the difference between the CLI and NewCLI commands? NewCLI runs and returns the cursor to you. OR, ahem, allows the script- file to continue. CLI acts more in the traditional manner of tools, freezing, double-ahem, the scriptfile until it's closed. You'll use both in your scriptfiles for various purposes. - I wantonly file-zap anything I see fit, and I encourage you to do the same. Just be forewarned that if you file-zap a program and suddenly it won't run correctly, well, that's why. Some programs just can't handle the smallest change. Silent Service messes right up, probably something to do with the code it's written in. But by far and away most programs file-zap just fine. So if you want a "df0" to be a "dh0", want a different error message, want to play a dirty trick on your buddy's Bench, hey, have at it. Sometimes it's the little changes that make for that customized feel. I didn't like the "RAM DISK" name in all caps, so I file-zapped the Ram-handler in the l dir and changed it to "Ram Disk". Got a new game the other day, and when I Quit the program, it pops up a requester asking "Save this game?", with the two options being SAVE and CANCEL. I see that CANCEL and I start thinking "Now is that Cancel the Save, or Cancel the Quit, or Cancel the Quit but not the Save, or...", so I file-zapped the sucker to read NO and it works just fine. We should be up front about all this, by the way, and admit openly that we're just playing at file-zapping; that those in the know can actually do things with all those hieroglyphics. That doesn't make it any less fun, though. It's hilarious seeing my big fancy MicroProse Gunship program screen..instead of saying, in big block letters, "PROCEEDING TO HELIBASE", mine says "LET'S KICK SOME BUTT!!". - Another nice feature are the "recoverable Ram" devices, RAD: and VD0:. They're about the same, one might work better than the other on your system. It's just like working in Ram, but if you go through a melt-down, the stuff will still be there after you boot back up. If you turn off the computer, it's gone. - I really don't have anything to say about this ENVS: and CLIPS: business on my 1.3 disk. "Clutter" is what I'd call it. You find a reason for them, the smallest one will do, you know just where to find them. - I downloaded a couple of fonts to use with FastFonts, agreeing that a computer font shouldn't have all those little serifs that the topaz font does; those unnecessary "cute" parts of the letters. The trouble is that the Alternate keys weren't the same and everybody, especially the printer, got very unhappy. What I did was just haul out Fed off the Basic/Extras disk and slice up the default font. A good computer lesson: First I try the topaz 11, the only topaz in my fonts/topaz directory, but it's too big for the DU boxes (everything uses the new font, not just the CLI), so I'm going through the disks trying to dig up a smaller topaz, having the feeling that somewhere I'd seen one, but to no avail. But surprise of surprises, if you make Fed the FIRST thing you use after booting up, it has both topaz 8 and topaz 9 listed! Use the computer a bit, pop open Fed and the topaz 8 & 9 are gone! Yes, just another one of Amazing Computer Things that keeps it all so fascinating. I'm including my clean fonts with the tutorial just to save you the hassle. If, on the other hand, I saved you the fun...by all means throw them away. If some new hack you're trying spits something rude out at you like "Can't find Bubble font..", load up a font (pick one) in the Fed and SaveAs it as "Bubble". You can't just rename the .font file, you have to have Fed make one for you as you SaveAs the font. A fun prank to play on your buddy's Bench might be to use the font editor on whatever font he's using with FastFonts and turn just ONE letter around. You could also, slowly, over the weeks, remove tiny pieces from a few fonts here and there...looks like glasses time! If he's ALREADY wearing glasses, he'll think his fonts are breaking and it's time to use FixFonts! - If you run some program and get a "Stack Overflow" box, try running NoFastMem first or jacking the Stack way up, like to 32K, 100K or 200K. - Make sure to use the Capture Buffer when you're on a BBS to capture all the file descriptions so you can review them at your leisure, as well as have them for reference. Have a little space ready, though. My buffer for JC-BBS's Utilities is 92,217 bytes. My buffers from GEnie total 300K+. - When you first glance over the files of a freshly decompressed download, also make sure to check the Default Tool in the Info window of the icon, as if the file's a project (anim, pic, etc), the default tool will usually be in the box. Make sure to READ any execute.me files before executing them! - Give the computer a little slack. Multi-tasking means two programs can run concurrently, not that you can wantonly overlap functions like crazy. When you close a program, give the computer a few seconds to recover itself, ditto opening windows, hitting a DU button, etc. * Of the c commands we left on the master Workbench, probably the next ones you'll want to try will be Skip, Lab and Ask. Skip and Lab are if you want to skip over or down to a certain part of a scriptfile, and Ask gets input from you (yes/no) before continuing on with the scriptfile. Skip and Lab are very straightforward; put a "Skip xx" in the scriptfile and when the computer gets to that command it will skip down the scriptfile 'til it gets to the command "Lab xx". Skip now has an option, "back", that skips back through the the scriptfile to the previous Execute command. All things considered, this skip-back feature may be the most important upgrade on the 1.3 disk. It means if you want to write a semi-elaborate scriptfile, you don't have to learn Basic to do it. Any 100-byte upgrade that saves you thousands of dollars and a year of school gets my vote. Ask works fairly easily. If you want the scriptfile to do something when you answer "y" (yes), the format is: Ask "Do you want the clock?" If warn df0:Clock Else Echo "Maybe next time!" EndIf If you don't want to do anything if you answer "n", you don't need the "Else". If you want to NOT do something unless you answer "n", add a "not" after the word "warn". When you see the word "warn", think "yes" and it'll make semi-sense. Here are three ways I use Ask: - Asking me if I want to "Delete stuff in Ram?" before running the paint kit. Usually I do (for the memory), but now and then I've got something stored in there temporarily and want it to stay there. - Some games, like Gunship, actually have the audacity to assume that when you die, you're dead, costing you all the points you've so very painstakingly accumulated so far...if that isn't the tackiest thing you've ever heard of. In my Gunship scriptfile, I first copy the game's saved scores to a backup file, then after the game's through I ask me if I want to save the game, and if I died and answer "no", it copies the backup file over to the saved scores file and it's as if the whole, ugly encounter never took place. - In certain cases, I like asking me if I want to see a program's docs, or my own notes, before loading it up. Sometimes it's just a little reminder how to quit the program or whatever, like something in a Demos or MiscGames drawer that you don't run very often. If you play with enough hacks and things you'll eventually have a mental list of some ten-odd ways games and hacks turn off. My absolute all-time favorite was Tank (78,880), a terrific little tank game if ever there was. The only problem...how to turn it off? Naturally I tried everything imaginable. Then I notice that as it's loading up, the screen isn't really black, there's some kind of mottled lines on it or something, so I turn up the brightness control on the monitor..and all this writing appears! I'm tellin' ya, this is the computer's version of "invisible ink". So the simple, efficient, plainly obvious way to quit the game is to pull the mouse sharply down and to the right while simultaneously clicking on the left mouse button. "Of COURSE!", I cried. * - Other BBS programs I like: ShoWiz - displays pics in fun ways Slideshow - ditto MakeAnim - the next step after LMV; might be in the ShowAnim package Friends - cute pointer hack Target - ditto VacBench - want to remove a window or icon? This is the tool for you BenchQuake - a classic, right up there with Melt RainBench - some people might vote this Best Hack Random - runs random tool or scriptfile Dissolve - nice pic displayer Sand - I don't know why I like this little fella so much Startle - Honorable Mention for hack of the year Trails - your pointer's broken! WaveBench - another good hack Zonx - a mini-PacMan, kind of fun Cycles - arcade game like in the movie Tron Icefont - definitely font of the year, for paint & processor AreaCode - gives you location of area code Keylock - locks up your keyboard and mouse until you type in your secret word. I protect my nude pics with it, just for giggles FM - File allocation map, shows where the file bytes are on the disk. No real practical use for us, but fun to pretend IFF2PCS - Makes a puzzle out of your IFF pics..very creative Tetrix - Extremely addictive. I've seen many variations, take your pick EVO - a graphic portrayal of how the skull has evolved over the ages Earth - shows Earth orbiting on any axis, x, y and z DrawMap - the next step after Earth Tank - mentioned above. Simple, but the play is excellent TrainKit - make your own train track layouts, lets you operate two huffing, puffing trains, switch tracks, etc FishTank - simulates a live aquarium..absolutely terrific animation. As an added bonus, you can draw up new fish and tank backgrounds if you have a paint kit that'll take HAM pics Killer - the best of the Ami vs. them animations..really well done Update Note: If you like Tetrix, you've GOT to get Obsess-o-Matic. Abso- lutely Top Honors for Adaptation of the Year. I mean, Tertis was cute, and Tetrix was a panic, but THIS is just nuts! And talk about customizing your system..how about letting the computer do it for you? The first project I had for FutureSound was to make recordings of me saying just all kinds of terrible things for when I made an error. so now, in my st-seq, Random picks out one of the messages for PlayBeep to use. I also let it pick a pointer out for me. I haven't put Random through its paces, but I bet some real crazy stuff could be done with it...like used in conjunction with If, Ask, Skip and Say. If you do something really neat, definitely upload it to the boards (with the Random program)..I think people would really get a kick out of it. * When you run the Keylock program, like in a scriptfile, it freezes the pointer and makes the keyboard useless until you type in your magic word. The question is...just HOW do I protect my nude pics with it, without running it in a scriptfile for each individual picture? I only run it ONCE, when I double-click the drawer icon. But...how do you run a program with a drawer icon?? The answer's in a few paragraphs...so either download it soon and give it a try, or skip over the answer until you can take a stab at it. If you want a clue, there's one in the above paragraph, and has to do with a word that -should- have been capitalized... * I urge you to support the ShareWare concept, and don't forget the BBS's; they're doing a lot for us with no thought of compensation. If they ask for a little something, I guess it would be considerate to give, although for my own board I gladly spent the money for the equipment, and certainly don't begrudge Ma Bell her small pittance a month for the phone line. Also, the software most BBS's use don't like it if people just hang up without exiting the BBS properly, so we should be courteous enough to follow proper protocol and take the few extra seconds to do it right. * What to try if you're getting a lot of corrupt downloads: My own experience says phone line interference is a major culprit, and this can be an old phone cord that suddenly gets moved a little bit, something elec- trical getting turned on or off, maybe a slight power surge, and even good ol' out-of-your-control interference, what we used to call "static". Try replacing the phone cord, and if you're serious, wire up the modem directly to the house's main junction box with twisted, solid-core wire. There might also be the occasional thing you do with the computer while downloading that your terminal program finds slightly disagreeable. I have to admit, though, I've put this thing through some real loops while downloading (usually because I forgot I was online at the time, heh heh..) and don't remember a program not de-arc'ing properly because of it. I GURU'D a few times while downloading, but that's different. * And the Keylock answer: The tough part about this one is that we're dealing with a drawer icon, which doesn't have any Default Tool box we can put Keylock or IconX in..but wait a minute! It just LOOKS like a Drawer icon..how could it really be a Drawer icon if I didn't capitalize it?? That's because it's not, of course, it's a Project icon in disguise. When you click on the "drawer" icon, it runs a scriptfile that starts off with Keylock. If you know the magic word, the scriptfile then continues with: Copy MyFiles/R-Rated.info Graphics/Pics Wait 5 Delete Graphics/Pics/R-Rated.info That copies the (real) drawer icon to Graphics/Pics, and gives me five seconds to close and reopen the Pics window so I can see and use it. Wait any longer, or close and reopen the Pics drawer again, and it's gone! Heh heh heh... * Now the answer for the great Ram icon poser: First take the icon you want for Ram and change it to a Disk icon with IconLab or IconEd. Next copy it to df1, named "disk.info". Pop out df1, re-insert it and you should see your Ram icon. Pop open the DU, move the icon in between the windows and Snapshot the sucker. Open its window, get it configured where you want the Ram window to be and Snapshot. Close the window, remove and re-insert the disk and make sure everything works correctly. Copy the icon to some private drawer, like MyFiles, naming it "Ramicon.info". In your st-seq, BEFORE LoadWb, put in the command Copy MyFiles/Ramicon.info Ram:disk.info That copies it to Ram and renames it "disk.info". A few commands AFTER LoadWb, put in the command "Delete Ram:disk.info". After LoadWb does its thing, the Ram icon is "set" so the disk.info file can then be deleted, leaving things neat and tidy. As you can tell, I DID have Mrs. Stolberg for fourth grade English. * - If you liked Noah's.arc, and think it could benefit others, please feel free to upload it far and wide. If I missed something vital, made a terrible error, please feel obligated to change or add to it. This is an evolution, not a process. *