Dashboard V4.4 Notes

Installing a new Dashboard is easy and painless IF you follow these simple instructions. Let me explain something... Dashboards beginning with V4.3 are designed not to conflict with each other. But earlier Dashboards can be a problem if they are still on your system. Dashboard V4.2 was also designed not to conflict, but I don't think it worked quite like I intended. When the Dashboard is loaded into memory, it copies parts of itself into the ram expansion and will remain there during the entire session. It also stores configuration settings for itself in the ram expansion. This code can vary between different Dashboard versions. Now, if you were to run an application and then exit back to the Dashboard and the operating system found the wrong Dashboard to reload, there could be a problem. Your screen might get messed up or the system might crash. The newer Dashboards are smart enough to realize that it's not their code in the ram expansion memory and they will reset themselves and reload the code. Older Dashboards don't do this and will cause problems.

So, let's continue to install the new Dashboard.

* First, boot up your system with the existing Dashboard.

* Have a floppy drive available and a disk for that drive containing the new Dashboard.

* Next search around your system for any old Dashboards and delete them. Be especially certain you delete them from your ramdisks and RAMLink partitions. The operating system always checks the fast devices first when it reloads the Dashboard. It's OK to keep the old Dashboard stored for nostalgia's sake on your HD partitions or on disks that you don't intend to 'exit back to'.

* Now run an application, any application. When you exit the application, the operating system will prompt you to insert a disk containing the Dashboard because it can't find it. Insert your disk with the new Dashboard and click OK. The new Dashboard will be loaded into memory and it will reset the code in the ram expansion memory and clear the screen of any windows you had opened.

* You may now copy the new Dashboard to any other locations as desired. Be especially certain you copy it to the MASTER disks you intend to use on this system so that when you create additional MASTER or BOOT disks/partitions, the new Dashboard will be installed.

Some of the things that are in the new Dashboard:

You can now pick up a file icon by simply clicking and holding the mouse button on the first click. This method has always worked this way with picking up drive icons. But with file icons you had to first click on the icon to highlight it. Then you could click again to pick up the icon. The new method makes it easier to move files around quickly. Previously, if you got in a hurry, you could accidentally double-click on the icon.

Modify mode will set the file window up properly if it's currently running in text mode. Previously, if the window was in text mode, you had to press the function key more than once to get the window to properly display the files. If it was in icon mode already, this problem didn't happen.

Wheels 128 had a problem when launching an application such as GEOPAINT that is capable of using both 40 and 80 column modes. If the application supports color, the problem wasn't noticed. Here's the scenario: You're in 80 column mode in the Dashboard and you've got 64K of VDC ram so you're in color. Now you switch to 40 column mode and launch GEOPAINT. While in GEOPAINT, you switch to 80 columns. Your screen is now in color but it's the colors from the Dashboard and it looks bad. This is now fixed. The Dashboard now colors the screen in the default colors before switching screenmodes.

The Dashboard no longer allows you to delete a locked file. Before being able to delete it, you have to unlock it by opening the info box for the file. Then when you click on the file's icon in this box, the file will be unlocked. You may then delete the file.

The new Dashboard has an overall better feel to it. Get rid of the older one and use this new one.

Any problems and/or suggestions, feel free to email me at:

support@cmdrkey.com