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ShutUp (VERSION 1.00)
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
Written by John Deurbrouck
First Published in PC Magazine, US Edition, September 9 1997.
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About  ZDDesk...

ShutUp lets you automate clean-up tasks before shutdown. It can
clean out selected history lists, eject CDs, delete the files in
your TEMP directory, and run the programs you specify before 
shutting down your computer. It also lets you schedule reminders
every day, one day a week, one day a month, or for a specific
date any time in the future.

USAGE:

Install ShutUp by copying its program file to your hard drive. 
You will probably want to place a shortcut to ShutUp into your 
StartUp folder. Uninstalling ShutUp is just as simple: delete 
the program files and ShutUp.ini (found in the same directory).
That's it, because ShutUp makes no Registry entries.

When you run ShutUp, it goes straight to your System Tray. 
When you right-click the ShutUp icon, you get a menu with 
several choices: Shutdown, Configure, Help, About ShutUp, 
and Exit. The Configuration dialog lets you set ShutUp's 
options.

The History Lists page of the Configuration dialog lets you 
delete information retained by Windows and other software. 
The Start Button group is comprised of four items: Documents, 
Find Files, Find Computer and Run. If you click the Start 
button at the bottom left corner of your screen and select 
Documents, you will see a list of documents you have worked 
with recently. If you check this option, the list will be 
erased when you shut down. Checking Find Files or Folders 
removes the history list in the Start Menu's Find Files or 
Folders entry, and Find Computer removes the computer 
history list. The Run checkbox clears the Start Menu's 
Run command.

The Internet section of the History Lists page controls the 
deletion of typed-in URLs from Netscape and Internet 
Explorer. If you check the box for your browser, the next 
person using it will not be able to see the URLs you typed in. 
Select the Last User on Computer checkbox if you have multiple 
users on your computer and do not want the last user to show 
up as a default entry in the Windows 95 login dialog box.

The next page in the Configure ShutUp dialog box is the Launch. 
This page lets you set up a Launch folder of links that will 
be executed at shutdown. You select the folder to use with the 
Browse button, and put actual shortcuts into this folder with 
Windows Explorer. Then, as long as Enable is checked on the 
Launch page, ShutUp will start all shortcuts in this folder 
at each shutdown request.

After the programs are launched, ShutUp will wait a specified 
number of seconds before going ahead and shutting down the 
computer. It is your responsibility give the Launch folder 
programs long enough to run before ShutUp initiates the actual 
shutdown. If ShutUp initiates shutdown while programs are 
still running the behavior is unpredictable, since it depends 
on the application and what it's doing.

The last item on the Launch page lets you specify whether a 
warning appears under a peculiar circumstance. You can shut 
Windows down normally using the Start button's Shut Down entry 
even when ShutUp is loaded, because ShutUp will be asked by 
the system whether the shutdown can occur. If ShutUp has 
programs to launch (because you've enabled the Launch folder) 
ShutUp will cancel the shutdown you have started via the 
Windows interface, launch its programs, and then shut Windows 
down after its delay.

Let's say, though, that you have a document open in Microsoft 
Excel. When you select the Shut Down command, Windows 95 asks 
Excel if it's OK to shutdown. Excel, in turn, asks you whether 
you want to save your modified document. If you say "no" Excel 
remembers that the document is modified, but allows the 
shutdown to proceed. ShutUp, though, cancels the shutdown in 
order to launch its programs. Then, when the time delay has 
expired, ShutUp shuts Windows down. Excel is asked again 
whether a shutdown is allowed, and you are presented with the 
"Save changes to yourwork.xls?" dialog box again.

The "Display warning" option on the Launch page of the 
configuration dialog box allows you to choose whether a 
reminder is shown, so you're not puzzled at seeing two separate 
Save dialog boxes from Excel.

The Reminders page allows you to define messages of up to 256 
characters that will be displayed when your computer is 
shutting down. The Every shutdown option displays a message 
for each shutdown, the Weekly option displays a message when 
you shut down on a particular day of the week (e.g. Monday), 
the Monthly option displays a message on a particular day of 
the month (e.g. first or last), and the Once option lets you 
pick one day in the future to display your message. Reminders 
are handy if, for example, you need to remember to leave your 
machine turned on every Wednesday for backups, or on the 14th 
of November because of a planned network upgrade.

The final bit of configuration information is under the Misc 
page. The check boxes on this page let you eject your CD-ROM 
before shutdown, and delete files from the Windows TEMP 
directory. This directory is generally used for work files 
that are not needed from session to session, and are usually 
deleted when the program using them exits. Programs can leave 
them behind when they exit unexpectedly or the computer is 
turned off without a proper shutdown. The directory Windows 
considers to be its temporary directory is displayed beneath 
the checkbox. This is the only instance in which ShutUp will 
delete actual files, so if you put permanent items into the 
TEMP directory, they will truly and actually be deleted if 
you check this option.

There are two ways to shut your computer down when ShutUp is 
up and running. You can use the normal Windows Start button's 
Shut Down, as you have always done. The preferred alternative 
is to use ShutUp's Shutdown menu item, accessed by right-
clicking the ShutUp icon in the system tray. This will be a 
tiny bit faster, and allows ShutUp to conduct the shutdown in 
a safe and direct manner.

If you have launched any programs through ShutUp, there will 
be a delay before the shutdown actually occurs to give your 
programs time to run. A small dialog box will show you how 
long until the shutdown happens, and give you an opportunity 
to cancel the pending shutdown.

You can use this to your advantage if you simply want a second 
chance before shutdown. To activate the time-delay feature 
when there's nothing you want to run, put a do-nothing program 
into the Launch folder. A zero-length batch file will serve the 
purpose, as will a link to ShutUp itself since launching ShutUp 
twice will do nothing. Then you can set your time delay to, say 
600 seconds (ten minutes), and leave the timer counting down as 
you leave for home, knowing that if you forgot to copy that WAV 
file to take home, you will find the machine ready to go without 
having to reboot. Still it won't stay logged in all night. 
Don't use this ability if your presence at your desk is 
monitored by your network login. You wouldn't want your boss to 
think you were staying 45 minutes later every day, after all.

Note: The file SHUT_SRC.ZIP contained in SHUTUP.ZIP 
is the source code for ShutUp.  This will only be of 
interest to you if you are a programmer, and can be 
discarded if you choose. Unzip this file using the
-d option.

Support for ShutUp:
Support for the free utilities offered by PC Magazine 
can be obtained electronically in the discussion area 
of PC Magazine's Web site and in the Utilities section 
of ZD Net's TIPS Forum on CompuServe.

For PC Magazine's Web site go to the 
URL http://www.pcmag.com/discuss/ 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.

For 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.

John Deurbrouck is a C++ programmer with many years' 
experience writing Windows applications.
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