Bob 1.0a Readme.txt Contents

PSS ID Number: Q139520 Article last modified on 07-02-1996

1.0a

WINDOWS

====================================================================== 1.0a WINDOWS kbref

The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Bob, version 1.0a

SUMMARY

The following is the contents of the Readme.txt file for Microsoft Bob version 1.00a

MORE INFORMATION

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 Microsoft Bob Version 1.00a README File
            August 16, 1995
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Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1995

This document provides information about Microsoft Bob, as well as answers to questions you might have.

How to Use This Document

To view README on screen in Windows Notepad, maximize the Notepad window.

To print README, open it in Windows Write, Microsoft Word, or another word processor. Then select the entire document and format the text in 10-point Courier before printing.

Contents

Adding an Icon for a Windows/MS-DOS Program CD-ROM Icons Get “Lost” Changing SmartDrive Cache to Make Bob Run Faster Deleting Files Getting Technical Help Hardware that Is Incompatible with the Bob Disks Letter Writer Printing Using HP DeskJet Making Backup Copies of the Bob Disks Modem Troubleshooting Opening Specific Files When Launching Windows Programs from Bob Print Troubleshooting Running Bob with Windows for Workgroups Version 3.11 Screen/Display Troubleshooting Setup Issues Sound Is Not Loud Enough or Too Loud Sound Quality Is Poor under Win 95 Using E-Mail and Exchange/MSN under Win 95 Using Mailing Lists in E-Mail and Letter Writer Video Problems

Adding an Icon for a Windows/MS-DOS Program

First, make sure that you don’t already have an icon set up for your program. To check this in any room, hold down the F1 key. If you don’t see your program labeled in the room, do the following to add it:

In any room, click Other Options.
Click Add Something.
Click Program.
Scroll through the list of programs and choose the one that you would like to add. Click OK.
If you don’t see your program in the list, click the “Have me search for other programs on your hard disk” button. Your personal guide will find the program and add it to the list.

CD-ROM Icons Get “Lost”

If you add a program starter to a room and then leave the room, the icon representing the program may be replaced by the generic Windows icon. This happens because Bob (and Windows) uses the icon associated with the program executable (EXE). If that program’s executable is stored on a CD and the CD is removed from the CD drive, Bob cannot find the icon so uses the default Windows icon.

You can always press the F1 key to see which programs are associated with the program starters in a room. But to help you recognize the program if its icon is not there, try changing the look of the program starter for each CD:

Right-click on the program starter.
Click Change Look.
Pick a new look for the program starter (click the different home styles until you see one you like) and click OK.

Changing SmartDrive Cache to Make Bob Run Faster

On computers with 8MB of RAM, you may get better performance from Bob using a SmartDrive cache of 1MB. In general, to change your SmartDrive cache do the following:

Click the Windows Notepad (it is part of the Accessories group in the Windows Program Manager) and press Enter.
Click “File,” and then click “Open” in the File menu that drops down.
Type the following (exactly as it appears here):

c:.bat

Click OK and the autoexec.bat file appears.
Scroll down until you find the following line:

c:

Note that there may be text and/or numbers after this text.
Change the SmartDrive line to look like this:

c: 1024
Exit Notepad, clicking “Yes” to save the file.
Exit Windows and turn your computer off and back on. Restart Windows and then start Bob to see if this has improved performance. If this doesn’t help, or you can’t find this line in your autoexec.bat then contact your computer manufacturer directly.

Deleting Files

Don’t remove any files that are in the directory or any of its subdirectories, or you may experience technical problems. If you want to delete anything in Bob, go to the appropriate program and delete it there. For example, you would open the Letter Writer to delete a particular letter.

Getting Technical Help

For technical help, contact your designated support provider. To find out who your designated support provider is, refer to page 30 of the Bob Magazine, which came with your Bob disks.

Hardware that Is Incompatible with the Bob Disks

The Bob disks use Distribution Media Format (DMF). DMF increases the capacity of a 3.5-inch floppy disk, reducing the number of disks needed to install Bob and speeding up the installation process. Most 1.44 MB or 2.88 MB floppy drives should be able to read the Bob DMF disks, EXCEPT:

SCSI floppy drives, including Flopticals
Floppy drives attached via older MicroSolutions Compaticards
Apple Macintosh floppy drives (even via SoftPC)
Early Gateway 2000 Handbook or Colorbook notebooks

If your computer has one of the listed floppy drives and it could not read the Bob disks, please refer to page 30 of the Bob Magazine for information on how to contact your Designated Support Provider for a non-DMF disk set.

Letter Writer Printing Using HP DeskJet

If the borders on your letters look wrong (e.g., they are boxed in by extra lines), and you are printing on an HP DeskJet, you may need an updated printer driver. There is a known problem with printing borders using version 4.10 of the HP DeskJet driver. Please contact HP’s Technical Support directly at 800-858-8867 for an updated printer driver.

Making Backup Copies of the Bob Disks

The Bob disks use Distribution Media Format (DMF). DMF increases the capacity of a 3.5-inch floppy disk, reducing the number of disks needed to install Bob and speeding up the installation process.

But, because DMF is a read-only format, you cannot use MS-DOS DiskCopy, Microsoft Windows Copy Disk (File Manager), or any other method to make backup copies of the Bob disks. Instead, use the original set of Bob disks as your backup; store them in a safe place after installing Bob.

Also, DO NOT do any of the following:

Write or copy anything to a Bob disk when it is in the floppy drive. This will destroy the disk.
Because DMF is a new format, many existing utilities, such as Norton Disk Doctor, Microsoft ScanDisk, MS-DOS DiskCopy, and Microsoft Windows Copy Disk do not recognize DMF. You should NOT use disk utilities to examine a DMF formatted disk, as these utilities can corrupt the DMF disk.

Modem Troubleshooting

If you are having problems connecting to E-Mail, you may not have the correct modem settings. Please try the following:

Choose a lower baud rate by clicking “Other Options,” and “Change Modem Settings.” Click a lower baud rate and try connecting again.

If you are still having problems, please contact your designated support provider. To find out who your designated support provider is, please refer to page 30 of the Bob Magazine that came with your Bob disks.

Opening Specific Files When Launching Windows Programs from Bob

If you want to open a specific file when you launch a Windows program from Bob, do the following:

Click “Other options” in any room.
Click “Add something,” “Program,” and then “Or browse on your own.”
Similar to creating a program item in Program Manager, type a description for what you are launching.
Press TAB key and fill in the pathname for your program executable (.EXE), followed by a space, and then the pathname for your file. For example:

c:.exe c:.doc

If you do not know the pathname for your program executable, click “Browse the file system” to look for it.
Type a path for the working directory (optional) and click OK.

You should now have a program starter with the icon for your Windows program on it. When you click this program starter, it will open the specified program and the specified file.

Print Troubleshooting

If you use the following checklists and you still can’t print, look for a “Troubleshooting” section in your printer’s manual for more help.

If you turn on your printer and nothing happens:

Is your printer plugged firmly into your computer and into a power outlet? If you’re using a power strip, it must be plugged in and turned on, too.
Is your printer on? A button labeled “On Line” should be lit. If the light isn’t on, press the “On Line” button.

Your printer is on, but it won’t print or it takes a long time to print:

Do you need to add paper, or is the paper jammed?
Is the correct printer selected? You can check by finding “Print” in any program (usually under “Other Options”). When you see the printing balloon, click “Set up printer.” The name in the “Default Printer” box should match your printer. If you don’t know which printer to look for, check your printer manual or contact your printer manufacturer for that information.

If the correct printer isn’t on the list, look for printing topics in the index of your Windows manual to find out how to add it.
Do you have a lot of pictures in your document? If so, try printing one page at a time, or take out some of the pictures.

Part of the document is cut off when you print:

Part of your document may have spilled over into the printer’s non-printing area (the part of the paper the printer can’t use). Try making the margins bigger until you solve the problem. Click “Other Options,” and then click “Change Margins.”

Running Bob with Windows for Workgroups Version 3.11

To help improve Bob’s performance when running on Windows for Workgroups version 3.11, try one or more of the following:

If you are running on an 8MB (or lower) computer, starting Windows with “win /n” so that the network drivers do not load, should make Bob run faster.
If you have 32-bit file access turned on under “386 Enhanced” in the Windows Control Panel, try turning it off, or reduce the size of the cache to 512K. To turn it off, do the following:
1. Open the Windows Control Panel, which is in the Main group in Program Manager.
2. Double-click the “386 Enhanced” icon.
3. Click “Virtual Memory” button, and then “Change” button.
4. Click the “Use 32-Bit File Access” checkbox so that it is clear (i.e. deselected).
5. Click OK and then click “Restart Your Computer.” Be sure to close other programs before restarting your computer.

Screen/Display Troubleshooting

If you encounter problems with your screen/display, such as missing pieces of words, incomplete balloons, or anything else that looks strange or incorrect, try the following:

Sign out of Bob and close Bob.
Close Windows and restart your computer by turning it off and back on.
Restart Windows, and then open and sign into Bob.

If your display still looks odd to you, your video driver (which is the software that makes your monitor display your programs) may not work correctly with Bob. Please refer to the Video Driver section below, or contact your designated support provider by referring to page 30 of the Bob Magazine that came with your Bob disks.

Setup Issues

Bob Must Be Running to Install Plus Pack

Note that Bob must be running in order for you to successfully install the Bob 1.0 Plus Pack.

Lucida Handwriting Can’t Be Copied Under Win 95

If you have one of the desktop schemes from the Win 95 Plus Pack installed on your computer, and that scheme uses the Lucida Handwriting font, you may get an error about Setup not being able to copy the Lucida Handwriting font because it is in use. If this happens, just click the Ignore button and Setup will continue.

Plus Pack Setup Takes a Long Time to Start

If you are installing the Bob 1.0 Plus Pack, note that it may be close to 30 seconds before there is any disk drive activity after you click the OK button to start Setup. Your machine may appear “hung,” but Setup is actually working in the background.

Sound Is Not Loud Enough or Too Loud

In any room, click Other Options.
Click Advanced Features.
Click the Change Audio Volume button.
Drag the slider to adjust your volume. Click OK.

Sound Quality Is Poor under Win 95

If you notice poor sound quality (crackling and sounds breaking up) while running Bob under Windows95, try editing the WAVEMIX.INI file (in your Win 95 directory) as follows:

Exit and sign out of Bob.
Copy WAVEMIX.INI and rename the copy WAVEMIX.OLD, so you have a copy of the file.
Open WAVEMIX.INI in Windows Notepad or another text editor.
Change all occurrences of “WaveBlockLen=” to read “WaveBlockLen=1024”
Change all occurrences of “WaveBlocks=” to read “WaveBlocks=5”
Save WAVEMIX.INI.
Restart Bob.

Using E-Mail and Exchange/MSN under Win 95

If you have installed Microsoft Exchange or the Microsoft Network (MSN) and Bob E-Mail, don’t uninstall Exchange or MSN. Bob E-Mail will not work if you uninstall MSN or Exchange. If you did uninstall MSN or Exchange, you will need to reinstall MSN or Exchange in order for Bob E-Mail to work again.

Using Mailing Lists in E-Mail and Letter Writer

When you select a pre-created mailing list in E-Mail or the Letter Writer, all the names in that list are selected by default. If you don’t want to send email or a letter to all the people on the mailing list, make sure you deselect the names you don’t want. And remember to click “More” in the list so that you can see the names on the list that appear beyond the first page. Deselect the names you don’t want on every page of the list.

Video Problems

If you experience crashes when running Bob or a crash directly after starting Bob, the problem is most likely with a video driver. Certain versions of some video drivers contain flaws that will cause Bob to not run correctly. In general, more recent versions of these drivers correct the problems mentioned.

General Points

Some video cards have a “Virtual Desktop” feature. It is best to turn off the Virtual Desktop feature when running Bob. Refer to your video card manual that you received when you bought your video card or computer.
If you are using a “large fonts” video driver, which makes the writing on your screen larger than normal, and you experience any problems with your display/screen when using Bob, you may need to switch to another video driver when using Bob.

ATI Video Driver Incompatibilities

There are many known flaws with the ATI video drivers which in some cases will crash Bob. You should call ATI Customer Support directly at 905-882-2626 for the latest news on the ATI drivers. Potential fixes include:

There are several flaws in all versions of the Mach64 video drivers that will cause Bob to crash. Use the standard 640x480 resolution 256-color SVGA driver to work around these flaws.
There is a flaw in the 24-bit (16.7 million colors) Mach32 video driver on the ATI video card that will crash Bob. Use the 256-color Mach32 video driver to work around this problem.
The Mach8 video driver on the ATI Ultra video card has several problems. Use the standard 640x480 resolution 256-color SVGA driver.
Some ATI drivers have a “Crystal Fonts” option, which will slow the speed at which Bob can run. Turning Crystal Fonts off may alleviate this problem.

Cirrus Logic Video Driver Incompatibilities

Because of a problem in the Cirrus 542x chipset in some older video drivers, the Cirrus company has released new drivers which eliminate some problems. Bob Setup will update the drivers for you automatically if you click “Yes” when it asks you to update your drivers. Microsoft recommends that you choose to update the video drivers during Bob Setup, so Bob will run correctly.

If you choose to update the drivers, Setup will copy the original 256_1280.drv and 64k_1024.drv files to 256_1280.bob and 64k_1024.bob before replacing the originals with the 1.43 version of the drivers. If you need the original drivers back, you can rename 256_1280.bob and 64k_1024.bob to have the .drv extension.
Cirrus drivers before version 1.30 with the 62x5 chipset cause Bob to crash (experience a GP Fault). Contact Cirrus directly at 510-623-8300 to obtain version 1.30 or later of the 256_62x5.drv.

Diamond Stealth Video Driver Incompatibilities

The Diamond Stealth s64 DRAM (864 controller) drivers version 1.30ai and before will cause Bob to crash. Contact Diamond directly at 408-325-7100 for a driver to fix the problem, or use the generic S3 864 chipset drivers.

#9 Video Driver Incompatibilities

Some #9 drivers have “TurboCopy” and “AutoCenter” options, which will cause Bob to not run correctly. Turning TurboCopy and AutoCenter off by using the #9 Control Panel will alleviate this problem.

Phoenix VGA Video Driver Incompatibilities

The Phoenix VGA S3 cards will not display text correctly, and may cause Bob to crash. Contact your video card manufacturer directly to obtain the latest version of their drivers, or use the generic S3 801 chipset drivers.

KBCategory:Kbreadme KBSubcategory:B_Shell KBPriority: 3

Additional reference words: kids, w_bob, Plus Pack

Keywords : b_shell Version : 1.0a Platform : WINDOWS ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1996.

Microsoft KB Archive/139520