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RUPL (VERSION 2.00) by Jeff Prosise 
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff Davis Publishing Company 
First Published January 21, 1997 
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About  RUPL...
Purpose:  Version 2 of RUPL (Recently Used Program List) is an upgrade of the utility 
published in the August 1996 Utilities column. The original version of RUPL added a 
recently used program list to the Programs menu under the Start menu. Configuration 
of RUPL was manual, and required the use of RegEdit. RUPL2 lets you put the Recently 
Used menu on either the Programs menu or the Start menu. It also comes with a 
configuration utility that eliminates the need to use RegEdit for configuration.

Usage:  To install RUPL2, simply create a folder for it on your hard disk and copy the 
program files-RUPL.EXE, RUPLLIB.DLL, and RUPLCFG-to that folder. Then create a 
shortcut to RUPL.EXE in your Startup folder and restart your system.

If you're upgrading to RUPL2 from the original version, follow these steps. Temporarily 
move the RUPL shortcut from your Startup folder to some other folder, then restart 
Windows. This removes the RUPL DLL from memory. Next, copy the RUPL2 files to 
the same folder where the original RUPL files were stored, and move the RUPL shortcut 
back into the Startup folder. Finally, double click the shortcut to start RUPL.

Like its predecessor, RUPL2 stores user-configurable program settings in the registry-
the system-wide database that stores user preferences and other non-volatile data for 
the operating system and the applications that it hosts. A new utility called RUPLCFG 
lets you alter configuration settings without having to use RegEdit, which can be a 
dangerous and error-prone process. To run RUPLCFG, double click on RUPLCFG.EXE 
from within Explorer.

Besides changing the location of the Recently Used menu, there are three additional 
configuration changes you can make with RUPLCFG. You can:

   Change the number of program names that appear in the Recently Used menu,
   Assign your own descriptive program names to applications added to the menu, and
   Prevent certain applications from showing up in the Recently Used menu altogether.

To change the maximum number of program names displayed in the Recently Used 
menu, enter a value in the box at the bottom of the RUPLCFG window. The default is 
15, but you can enter any value from 4 to 64.

Before it adds an entry to the Recently Used menu, RUPL2 attempts to convert the 
program's EXE name into a more descriptive program name such as "Microsoft Word" 
or "CompuServe Information Manager." If it can't generate a descriptive name, it adds 
the EXE name to the menu. To assign your own descriptive program name to be used 
in place of an EXE name or a default descriptive program name, add the EXE name and 
the corresponding descriptive name to RUPLCFG's "Descriptive Program Names" box. 
The method for doing so is simple. Click New to create a new entry, then enter the 
requested information in the ensuing dialog box. To edit an existing entry, click once 
to highlight it and then click the Change button. To get rid of an entry altogether, 
highlight it and click Delete.

Sometimes it's useful to exclude a program from the Recently Used menu. Maybe it's 
a program that you don't run very often and don't want taking up valuable real estate 
in the menu. Or maybe it's a "helper" program that shows up in the Recently Used 
menu by mistake. (RUPL2 tries to weed out programs that are launched by other 
programs, but its efforts are not 100 percent successful.) You can tell RUPL2 to 
ignore an application by adding its name to the Excluded Programs list. If you add 
WORD.EXE to the list, for example, Microsoft Word won't be added to the Recently 
Used menu any more.

After you enter configuration changes with RUPLCFG, click the Apply button to 
apply the new settings. You don't have to restart the system to make the changes 
take effect. If you change your mind about some of the changes you've entered, 
you can cancel out by clicking the Close button and answering no when RUPLCFG 
asks if you'd like to apply the changes before closing. Remember: until you apply 
the changes, you can still change your mind.

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

Jeff Prosise is a contributing editor of PC Magazine. 
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