AveDesk 1.

3
===========
copyright (c) Andreas Verhoeven 2005
This application or parts of this application may not be distributed without exp
licit approval of Andreas Verhoeven.
24 October 2005, Rotterdam - The Netherlands.
CONTENTS
0............ Donations
I............ Description
II........... New Features
III.......... Languages
IV........... Effects And DirectX
V............ Override Settings
VI........... Bugs
VII.......... About
VIII......... Contact Information
0. DONATIONS
AveDesk is not freeware, but DONATIONWARE. This means that you are not free to u
se this application if you wish,
but that you should donate a small amount of money to the AveDesk authors if you
like AveDesk and use it frequently.
Donating is not enforced, it's rather a legal trick to make sure no-one runs awa
y with AveDesk for free :-).
I. DESCRIPTION
AveDesk 1.3 is the fourth major release of AveDesk, an application which makes d
esktop prettier and more usable.
This release changes emphasis from pretty icons to mini-applications (also known
as widgets and desklets).
While previous versions of AveDesk were capable of using desklets as mini-applic
ations (widgets), 1.3 has much
better support for non-iconic desklets. AveDesks internals has been changed to ma
ke desklets much more
interactive. For example, user-input will be much easier to deal with.
AveDesk 1.3 is the successor of AveDesk 1.2, which was released in early 2005.
II. NEW FEATURES
AveDesk 1.3 comes with lots of new features, including:
Better support for mini-applications / widgets / desklet
Several feature-rich new desklets
Hardware accelerated flip and closing effects
New user-interface
Big architecture changes
Unique library of skinned, alpha-blended controls
New scriptable desklet: AveScripter
MultiMonitor Support
III. LANGUAGES
AveDesk 1.2 now supports seperated language files. Language files are DLL files
that
hold the resources seperated from the main executable file. All language files a
re stored
in the <AveDesk>/Languages folder and have the following format:
AVE<LANGID><SUBLANGID>.DLL , with LANGID and SUBLANGID are in hexidecima
l codes
and must be exactly 3 numerics long.
For Example, AVE004002.DLL is Chinese Simplified and AVE004001.DLL is Chinese Tr
aditional.
The approriate language codes can be found on MSDN.
AveDesk will use the language closest to your system's language. E.g., if your s
ystem is
Chinese Simplified, but only the Chinese Traditional AveDesk language file is in
stalled,
AveDesk will fall back on the Chinese Traditional.
NOTE: To force the use of a particular language file, see section V. OVERRIDE SE
TTINGS.
IV. EFFECTS AND DIRECTX
AveDesk 1.3 uses your graphicscard thru DirectX 9 for its hardware accelerated e
ffects,
the flip and closing effect.
Your card needs at least support for ARGB vertices,textures and rendertargets.
Cards tested: Radeon 9600.
V. OVERRIDE SETTINGS
Some settings cannot be configured directly inside AveDesk's UI. To change these
settings, you can
open up settings_override.ini and change them. You will need to restart AveDesk
before the changes
take place.
Note that the settings defined in settings_overrides.ini ARE SET FOR EVERY USER
ON THE MACHINE.
REMARK: the reason for this settings to be available is to give certain power-us
ers the option
to change the settings involved, without disturbing the common user with those s
ettings. For example,
some people don't want to have AveDesk save files in %APPDATA%/AveDesk, so they
can set
NoMultipleUserAwareness=1 to force AveDesk saving the files in the <AveDesk> fol
der.
VI. BUGS
While it's the ultimate goal to deliver bug-free software, this is not realistic
. Every application
has bugs and errors and so does AveDesk have. If you come across a bug, try to r
epeat it.
If you can successfully reproduce the bug several times, please contact me (see
section
VIII. CONTACT INFORMATION). Try to describe the bug carefully and the steps to r
eproduce it.
VII. ABOUT
AveDesk 1.3 is an application created by Andreas Verhoeven. Large amounts of the
code are written,
checked or corrected by Hakan Erduman (mainly the COM and scripting related part
s).
VIII. CONTACT INFORMATION
Andreas Verhoeven - averhoev.2@hccnet.nl
Hakan Erduman - Hakan.Erduman@web.de
AveDesk has a dedicated section on Aqua-Soft Boards with many helpful tips, new
releases
and lots of information: http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/forumdisplay.php?f=47 .
AveDesk also has a dedicated section on gfxOasis Board, http://www.gfxoasis.com/
board/index.php?showforum=149 .
You can also check out http://avedesk.needlemen.com