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COA32 (VERSION 1.00)
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff Davis Publishing Company by Neil J. Rubenking 
First Published January 7, 1997
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About COA32 . . .
COA32 (Change of Address/32) is a 32-bit Windows version of the popular PC Magazine utility COA, which is for 16-bit Windows. COA32, which runs under Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51or higher, lets you change the drive or directory of a Windows program without having to reinstall the program. It works by searching for all references to the old path and updating them to reflect the new path.

Usage: To install COA32, simply copy the files COA32.EXE, COA32.HLP, and COA32.CNT to a directory (or "folder") on your hard disk. You may wish to place a shortcut to COA32.EXE in one of your Start Menu folders. Or, since this is a utility you'll use only occasionally, you may prefer to run it from the Start Menu's Run option when needed.
If you decide to uninstall COA32, first run COA32.EXE from the Start Menu's Run command, and add the string "CleanRegistry" (no quotes) to the command line. This will clear COA32's own Registry settings without actually running the program (though the main window may appear briefly). To complete the uninstall, delete the three files you originally copied to your hard disk, along with the COA32.GID and COA32.FTS files that WinHelp may have created.
COA32 uses a wizard-like interface that walks you through each step of the process. Start by entering the old and new address strings in the boxes on the first page. Each edit line is followed by buttons for browsing folders and files. You'll have a chance to make changes to the new address after you've seen the items found by COA32 for updating. Note that COA32 ignores upper and lower case when searching for the old address. The button above the address lines will display a green light (no problems), yellow light (warning), or red light (possible problem). Press this button for an explanation.
On the next page, you select which INI files you want COA32 to search. Searching every folder on every drive is the most thorough option, but also the most time-consuming. You'll notice a box titled "Skip this page in the future" at the bottom of the page. If you've decided to always search all folders for INI files, you can make that choice and then check the skip-box. From that point on, COA32 will use the option you selected without showing this page to you. If you change your mind, go back to the first page and check the box titled "Show all pages" and COA32 will show you everything.
If you're running Windows NT 3.51, Program Manager Groups are next. Always tell COA32 to search ProgMan groups unless you're using a shell program that isn't Program Manager. In place of ProgMan groups, Windows 95 and Windows NT 4 use shortcuts. Most of the icons on your desktop are shortcuts, as are almost all of the items in and below your Start Menu. In most cases the option that checks the Desktop and Start Menu will be sufficient. If your system includes multiple User Profiles, tell COA32 to search in and below the Windows directory.
The next page's options control how much of the Registry COA32 will search. Searching the entire Registry can take quite a while, so COA32 lets you restrict the search to the two most commonly used root keys: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (HKCR) and HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU). Under Windows 95, you get the option to add HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG (HKCC) to the mix.
The next page lists all the choices you've made. It's important that you double-check these choices, especially if you've checked some of the skip-boxes. If you find a mistake, just back up using the Prev button and correct it. When you're ready, return to the Search Options Summary page and press Next to begin searching.
As COA32 searches, its cursor changes to an hourglass. When the search is complete, it displays the items found for your review. You can go through this list and select items that COA32 should not change by changing the green-light Y icon to a red-light N icon. Double-click an item to toggle it from Y to N or back; press the space bar to toggle all selected items. Or right-click for a menu that lets you toggle all selected items, or set them all to Y or N. The right-click menu also includes a What's This item that describes the row you right-clicked on.
When you're done making your selections, press Next. This page gives you the opportunity to save the list of references to the old address. Press the Save List button to store the Y-marked items from the list in table form within an RTF (Rich Text Format) file. You can view or edit this file using almost any Windows word processor.
The next page, titled Search Complete, displays the old and new address strings once more, and gives you one last chance to change the new address. If you have entered a new address, pressing Next will begin the process of modifying each Y-marked item. Don't try to interrupt COA32 during this phase.
Once all the replacing action is complete, COA32 displays its Done page, which is dominated by the activity log. It's extremely important that you review the log, since it lists any problems COA32 encountered. You'll want to press the Save Log button to dump the activity log to a text file. This file will be especially handy if you need to reverse COA32's work. In some cases, you can reverse a change by running COA32 again, reversing the old address and new address strings. However, this is only possible if the system contained no references to the new address before COA32 did its work. The safest course is to step through the activity log and reverse each change manually.

Support for COA32:
Support for the free utilities offered by PC Magazine can be obtained electronically in the Utilities section of ZD Net's TIPS forum on CompuServe (GO ZNT:TIPS). The authors of current utilities generally visit this forum every day. You may find an answer to your question simply by reading the messages previously posted in the forum. If the author is not available and you have a question that the sysops in the forum can't answer, the editor of the Utilities column, who also checks this forum each day, will contact the author for you.

Neil J. Rubenking is contributing technical editor of PC Magazine.
