Did you ever wish someone would figure out how to write a program like Microsoft Plus for OS/2? Well, guess what -- someone has: The TransWarp PlusPak by KrazyDog Software. It's one of those "GEEZ WHIZ" type programs that we really don't need but are fun to play with.

Basically, the program uses "schemes" to spice up your Desktop. There are 20 or so schemes provided and you just have to pick which one you would like to change your Desktop too. There is a preview button with which you can examine the 20 or so schemes that the author, Michael Neice, has come up with (but it does take a while to load the previews as it uses OS/2's Image viewer).

As we all know, messing with your Desktop can be risky business and the author warns you to make a backup of your original Desktop before playing with the program, but me, being crazy, I tried it without backing mine up and it worked flawlessly.

Changing your Desktop background and the icons for several of the universal objects that come with Warp 4 is now much easier. No more having to open each object's properties menu and drag a new icon into its page, no more digging around looking for those icons and no more having play around with background images. TransWarp will do all those things!

The variety of schemes that the author has included is very broad, ranging from Star Trek, to Horror, to (dare I say it) Win'95. There is also an option to go back to the default OS/2 Warp 4 screens. The program is lacking a few things like "Sound Schemes" and a way to add your own themes, and it is slow to change themes, but considering how long it would take you to do it by hand, it's well worth it.

And it's just plain cool!

All in all, it is very well done and even uses customized pointers inside the program (which I personally had not seen done before). And with a little encouragement, I believe the author would be willing to dig deeper into it and put in the few things that could make it a dynamite answer to that other PlusPak.

TransWarp PlusPak

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