Microsoft KB Archive/133056

Scenes 2.0: README.TXT Contents

PSS ID Number: Q133056 Article last modified on 07-09-1998

2.00

WINDOWS

====================================================================== 2.00 WINDOWS kbusage kbreadme kbmm

The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Scenes (all collections) version 2.0

This article contains the complete text of the Microsoft Scenes 2.0 README.TXT file.

Microsoft Scenes Version 2.00

This document contains information that supplements Microsoft Scenes Help and Quick Reference Card.

CONTENTS

1 System Requirements/Overview

2 Troubleshooting Tips

> If there is insufficient disk space to install Scenes
> If not enough memory is available to run Scenes
> If you have problems printing when Scenes is running
> If the screen saver doesn't cancel immediately
> If the screen saver pictures do not appear to change
> Displaying non-standard JPEG files
> If an application's password dialog box loses focus when
  you start Windows
> If you cannot see part of the captions, wallpaper or Picture
  Information window

3 Software Compatibility

> Converting Scenes 1.0 collections to 2.0
> Running multiple screen savers
> Starting the Scenes screen saver from the Windows Control Panel
> MS-DOS, version 6.0 or Central Point Software's PC Tools
  Delete Protection
> DOS sessions
> Communications activity
> Desktop shells
> Wallpaper color quality

4 Hardware Compatibility

> ATI display drivers
> Number 9 GXE video display adapter
> Diamond Stealth 64Bit display adapter
> Laptop computers with desktop docking stations

============================================ 1. System Requirements/Overview ============================================ The minimum requirements for Microsoft Scenes are a 386SX running Windows 3.1 and a VGA display, 3 megabytes (MB) of available disk space and 2 MB of available random-access memory (RAM).

For the best-looking pictures, make sure your display adapter, driver and monitor support 256 colors or more. Scenes will also display on 16-color VGA displays; however, the colors will be noticeably limited and will not match the original colors of the pictures.

To display pictures at full screen size (up to 1024 x 768 pixels), select the Enlarge pictures to full screen size option in the Screen Saver Settings dialog.

Scenes utilizes image compression and palette fitting technology to produce very high quality images–even on systems with relatively modest hardware configurations. Palette fitting is a process that selects the best mix of colors for each image on a 256 color (8Bit) display. Depending on the speed of your computer, these operations can take anywhere from a few seconds to 5 minutes. Enlarging pictures to full screen size in high resolution video modes requires even more time. To display pictures as quickly as possible, set your display to more than 256 colors and disable the Enlarge picture to full screen size option.

Assuming you accepted the default Setup options, the following Scenes 2.0 files can be found in these directories:

FILE DIRECTORY SCENES.EXE C: SCENES.HLP C: MSSWIZ.DLL C: README.TXT C: MSSCMN.DLL C: MSSCENES.SCR C: SCENES2.INI C: PCDLIB.DLL C:(shared resource file) CTL3DV2.DLL C:(shared resource file) COLLECTN.SAC C:<COLLECTION> .JPG C:<COLLECTION> .THM C:<COLLECTION> *.NFO C:<COLLECTION>

NOTE: The PCDLIB.DLL & CTL3D2.DLL files may be required by applications other than Scenes 2.0. Please use discretion when deleting any Windows shared resource file.

============================================= 2. Troubleshooting Tips ============================================= This section supplements the Troubleshooting section of Microsoft Scenes 2.0 Help.

Insufficient disk space to install Scenes

If there is insufficient disk space to install the Scenes software and images, a “Not Enough Space on Drive [drive]:” dialog is displayed. Since Scenes does not support component level setup, selecting the Change Options button simply returns Setup to the main Installation dialog. To solve this problem, free up disk space.

If you are installing multiple Scenes Collections, you can save disk space by specifying the existing Scenes directory when installing a new collection. In this way, you will require just enough disk space to store and display the new images, and only one copy of the Scenes screen saver software will reside on your system.

If not enough memory is available to run Scenes

For proper operation, Scenes requires 2 MB of available memory. You may be able to free up some memory by closing other applications. If you are running Scenes on a system with disk compression and you get a message saying not enough memory is available to run the Scenes screen saver, the About Program Manager dialog box may still indicate that you have more than 2 MB of memory available. Choose the About command from the Scenes Control menu to see the available memory that Scenes can actually use.

Under low memory conditions, Scenes will make every attempt to display images. For example, when there is not enough memory to enlarge an image to full screen size, Scenes will display the image without enlarging it. Scenes adapts dynamically to changes in available memory, so some images may appear enlarged and others may not, depending upon available memory and the memory requirements of a particular image.

Attempting to display very large graphics files will also result in “Out of Memory” errors. Scenes cannot display images larger than 16MB uncompressed.

Running out of memory on a regular basis may be a result of how your system is set up. For more information on potential solutions, see “If not enough memory is available” in the Troubleshooting section of the Microsoft Scenes Help.

If you have problems printing when Scenes is running

If printing appears to stop, the printer you are using may be shared on a network in which the server is running Scenes. To correct this in Windows version 3.1, open Print Manager, and, from the Options menu, choose High Priority. In Windows for Workgroups, open Print Manager, choose Background Printing from the Options menu, and then select High for the Printing Priority.

If the screen saver doesn’t cancel immediately

Running other applications while using Microsoft Scenes can occasionally slow the process of displaying pictures or the time Scenes takes to start and stop the screen saver. Compilers or communications-intensive applications are particularly likely to affect the performance of Scenes.

Increasing the time between picture transitions will reduce the likelihood of a delay when canceling the screen saver and returning to Windows. To increase the transition time, set the Change picture every [n] minutes setting to a larger number.

If the screen-saver pictures do not appear to change

You may have selected a personal picture set that contains just one picture as your screen saver. If this is the case, Microsoft Scenes “changes” from the current picture to the same picture. In this situation, you will not be able to see the transition effects because the image remains unchanged. To avoid this, select a picture set with more than one picture, such as a Microsoft Scenes collection, or select more than one collection for display in the Screen Saver Settings dialog.

Displaying non-standard JPEG files

Certain graphics applications are capable of saving JPEG files that contain extensions to the standard JPEG file format. Some of the products from Adobe, Altimera and Fauve are examples of such applications. These images may not display properly in Scenes. In some cases Scenes will not be able to open the file, in others, the colors in the image will not display properly. If you are having problems displaying a JPEG file, it is likely that the application that generated the file did not conform to the JPEG standard. You may be able to correct this problem by opening the JPEG file in the original application, turning off all non-standard JPEG options, and saving to JPEG again.

If an application’s password dialog box loses focus when you start Windows ————————————————————– Starting Windows automatically starts all applications with icons in the StartUp group, beginning with the icon in the top-left corner of the group. If an application with a password dialog box, such as Microsoft Mail or Microsoft Schedule+, has an icon before the Scenes icon in the StartUp group, you may have to activate the application’s Sign In dialog box before you can type your password. To correct this, move the Scenes icon to the top-left corner of the StartUp group.

If you cannot see part of the captions, wallpaper, or Picture Information window ———————————————————— Check to see that the vertical and horizontal alignment on your monitor are set properly. If you are using a high-resolution “virtual” display, you may need to pan up to see the captions or pan down and right to see the Picture Information window. To display your wallpaper correctly, pan until the wallpaper is centered on your screen.

Converting Scenes 1.0 collections to 2.0

To convert Scenes 1.0 collections, install Scenes 2.0 and use the ‘Add a collection to Scenes’ Wizard. Your 1.0 collection will be converted to the 2.0 format. After conversion, the collection can be viewed with either Scenes 1.0 or Scenes 2.0. Scenes 2.0 collections are not compatible with the Scenes 1.0 software.

Running multiple screen savers

If more than one screen saver is running at a time, unpredictable things can happen. Before starting another screen saver, make sure you exit Scenes.

Starting the Scenes screen saver from the Windows Control Panel

You can run Scenes 2.0 from the Windows Control Panel’s Desktop applet. This is a convenient way to take advantage of many of the screen saver features and at the same time utilize minimum system resources.

To run Scenes from the Control Panel, exit Scenes. Launch the Desktop applet from the Control Panel and select Microsoft Scenes 2.0 as the screen saver. Select the Settings button to change the Scenes screen saver options.

MS-DOS, version 6.0 or Central Point Software’s PC Tools Delete Protection ——————————————————- If you use the MS-DOS version 6.0 or if you use PC Tools Undelete option and the Sentry Tracker option, configure Data Sentry to exclude these files from those that Data Sentry protects: MSSCENES.BMP, .TMP, .BAK, .BKJ, .BKT, .BKN, ~MSS.BMP, and -*.TMP. For details, consult your documentation for MS-DOS version 6.0 or PC Tools for Windows.

DOS sessions

If you are running a DOS session full screen, the Scenes screen saver will not start automatically and the Keyboard QuickStart will not function. If you run a DOS session window only the Mouse QuickStart will function.

Communications activity

If you are downloading files or anticipate other prolonged communications or network-related activities, turn the screen saver option off. This will ensure that your connections are not interrupted unnecessarily when Scenes is running.

Desktop shells

If you are running a Windows desktop shell, do not install Scenes from a virtual screen or run Scenes maximized (i.e., full screen.)

If you are running from a shell, it might hide the Scenes wallpaper title. Minimizing the desktop icon may correct this problem. If you cannot see the title, you can view a picture’s title in the picture description window by choosing Show picture descriptions from the main Scenes dialog.

If you use Central Point PC Tools for Windows, do not run utilities which run on a schedule, such as Anti-Virus, while the Scenes screen saver is active.

If you are running Xerox Tabworks, you may encounter errors when using the Scenes wizards. If this problem persists, use a different shell, such as Windows Program Manager.

Wallpaper color quality

When using any palette-intensive application while in 8Bit display mode, the palette for the Scenes wallpaper may lose some of its colors, degrading the quality of the wallpaper. This may occur when you activate an application dialog or icon that is currently utilizing many colors. For best wallpaper quality, minimize palette-intensive applications and change the focus to a non-palette application or application icon such as Program Manager.

In 8Bit display mode, the active application window will determine the colors needed for optimal display of its graphics. Any other windows (and the wallpaper) will then be forced to use this palette of colors. If you frequently use 256 color applications and this presents a problem for you, turn off the Scenes wallpaper feature while you work.

ATI Display Drivers

The ATI Mach 32 FlexDesk driver build 2.2 may cause intermittent problems while running Scenes. Please contact your video display adapter manufacturer regarding problems with your display driver.

If you are using a Mach 32 driver and you get a message in Setup or the Microsoft Scenes dialog box stating that you may be able to make your pictures look better, open the Mach 32 Control Panel (FlexDesk). Make sure that your screen resolution is set to 256 colors or more and that the 256-color palette has been turned on in the Advanced dialog box.

If you’re using the Mach 32 driver in 640x480 mode, select the Small Font option. This will make the dialog boxes and Microsoft Scenes Online Help easier to read.

If you are using any ATI driver with Crystal fonts, a message will appear in Scenes stating that you could make your pictures look better. To display Scenes with 256 colors, turn off Crystal fonts or select a driver without Crystal fonts.

Number 9 GXE video display adapter

This display adapter may exhibit minor screen artifacts when using the Scenes In & Out Box transition effects.

Diamond Stealth 64Bit display adapter

When running this adapter in 8Bit (256 color) mode, certain Scenes transition effects may be very slow. For optimal performance with this adapter, select a video mode with more than 256 colors.

Laptop computers with desktop docking stations

Some laptop computers that use desktop “docking stations” may be able to use a video card attached to the docking station. However, that card may offer resolutions that are not available when the laptop is used by itself. For example, when docked, your computer may be able to display 256 colors; as a laptop, the same computer may be limited to 16 colors. Before removing the laptop from the docking station, change your display driver to one that the laptop is capable of using.

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Additional reference words: 2.00 doc me msscenes read screen saver screensaver text ====================================================================== Version : 2.00 Platform : WINDOWS ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1998.