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WinTidy 95 (VERSION 1.1)
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
Written by Neil J. Rubenking
First Published in PC Magazine, US Edition, December 2, 1997.
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About WinTidy 95:
WinTidy 95 helps straighten up your desktop and keep it in order.
Use its predefined icon layouts to create an initial arrangement,
then make any fine-tuning changes to the icon positions. 
When you're ready, either save the layout and associate it with the 
current screen resolution, or save it under the name of your choice. 
You can set WinTidy 95 to automatically tidy your desktop when it 
starts up and when the screen resolution changes. In addition, 
you can launch it with a layout name on its command line to restore 
that layout. WinTidy 95 runs only under Windows 95; it does not run 
under Windows NT.

Usage:
WinTidy 95 is supplied as a self-contained INSTALL program. 
Run this program to install WinTidy 95 and all its files in the 
directory of your choice. It will add WinTidy 95, its help file, 
and an uninstall utility to your Start menu. In addition, it will 
put a shortcut to WinTidy 95 in your Startup folder. You can remove 
this shortcut if you prefer not to automatically start WinTidy 95 
each time Windows 95 starts. To do so, right-click the taskbar, 
select Properties, click the Start Menu tab, and press the Remove 
button. Then navigate to the Startup folder and remove the 
WinTidy 95 item.

To use WinTidy, start by putting all the icons on your desktop 
into the arrangement you prefer. This will be easier if you 
first either close all open windows or right-click the taskbar 
and choose "Minimize All". Launch WinTidy 95 and watch for its 
broom icon to appear in the system tray. To open the main 
window, double-click the tray icon or right-click it and 
choose Open from the menu. Click the button with the zig-zag 
design to bring up the Arrange window--a set of twelve 
predefined icon layouts. The zig-zag pattern that is displayed 
represents the currently selected layout.

The predefined layouts give you a starting point for putting 
your icons in the arrangement you prefer. You can then drag 
and drop the icon titles in the list to put them in the order 
you wish. Note that this list auto-scrolls; if you're dragging 
an item and hold the mouse just inside the top or bottom of 
the list, it will scroll so as to bring more items into view 
in that direction. If you prefer, you can use the Up and 
Down buttons to reposition the highlighted item in the 
list. When you press the GO! button, WinTidy 95 will 
communicate with the desktop to reposition all the icons. 
If the resulting arrangement doesn't suit you perfectly, 
try another of the predefined layouts, or adjust the icon 
positions manually.

The next step is to save your icon layout. Press the Save 
button in the top left corner of WinTidy 95's window--the one 
that's contained in a box with a caption like "1024x768 
layout". The actual caption will depend on your current 
screen resolution, and pressing this button associates the 
current icon layout with that screen resolution. If you 
commonly use other screen resolutions, switch to each in 
turn and repeat this process, saving a layout for each 
resolution.

WinTidy 95 saves the icon positions in the file TIDY95.INI, 
using the title of the icon as the INI file key. Under 
certain rare circumstances, you might have a desktop icon 
with no title, or two desktop icons with the same title. 
If that occurs, WinTidy 95 will display a warning message and 
skip the icon with the problematic title.

The Restore button near the top left corner will be enabled 
any time a saved layout for the current screen resolution is 
available; press it to restore that layout. If you check the 
Smart restore box, WinTidy 95 will watch for changes in screen 
resolution and automatically load the layout corresponding to 
the new resolution. Checking the Restore on launch box will 
cause WinTidy 95 to restore the layout for the current 
resolution each time you launch the program. Checking these 
two boxes makes WinTidy 95's operation almost completely 
automatic--you don't even have to look at its main window 
again unless you add or remove icons from the desktop. 
Note, too, that all of WinTidy 95's functions except 
predefined icon layouts can be accessed from the menu that 
appears when you right-click the system tray icon.

If you add, remove, or rename icons on the desktop, your 
existing saved layout will no longer match. You can still 
restore a saved layout, but WinTidy 95 will inform you if 
there are any items present on the desktop that aren't in 
the saved layout or vice versa. Just put any new icons in 
their places and re-save the layout.

You may find that you want different desktop layouts for 
situations. For example, one layout may be appropriate when 
designing a presentation, a different layout when creating 
a spreadsheet. WinTidy 95 lets you save and restore layouts 
under user-defined names using the Save and Restore buttons 
in the Layout By Name box. The layouts are stored in 
TIDY95.INI, along with WinTidy 95's other settings, so any 
name that's a valid INI file section name is permitted except 
"Settings". Note that WinTidy 95 cannot add or remove icons 
from your desktop; it can only rearrange what is there.

If you put the name of an existing layout on WinTidy 95's 
command line, it will load that layout at startup. 
Doing so overrides the Restore on Launch option. 
If WinTidy 95 is already running, "relaunching" it with a 
layout name on its command line will cause the specified 
layout to be loaded (but will not load another instance of 
the program).

Note: The file TIDY_SRC.ZIP contained in TIDY95.ZIP is the 
source code for WinTidy95.  This will only be of interest 
to you if you are a programmer, and can be discarded 
if you choose.

Support for WinTidy 95:
Support for the free utilities offered by PC Magazine can be 
obtained electronically in the discussion area of PC 
Magazine's Web site. Go to the URL 
http://www.pcmag.com/discuss.htm/ and select the Utilities 
area. You can also access the Utilities discussion area from the 
utility's download page. The authors of current utilities 
generally monitor the discussion area every day. You may 
find an answer to your question simply by reading the 
messages previously posted. If the author is not available and 
you have a question that the sysops can't answer, the editor of 
the Utilities column, who also checks the area each day, will 
contact the author for you.

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