Answers from e-Zine!

elcome back to "Answers from e-Zine!", your source for answers to all your OS/2 questions! In each issue we bring you tips, tricks, questions and answers from our readers and contributors. If you've got a question or tip you would like to share with us, send it in!

TIP -- For those of you who use NcFTP, the great Unix port reviewed in the last issue of OS/2 e-Zine!, try this cmd file. It's a guaranteed crowd pleaser. <g> Just save the lines below as a file named NcFTP.cmd in the same directory where NcFTP.exe is located.

   @echo off

   REM Fire up NcFTP with a decent sized window

   mode co95,45

   x:\path\ncftp.exe

Substitute the drive letter and directory NcFTP is in for 'x:\path\' above. For example, if NcFTP is in D:\TCPIP\BIN\, use:

   @echo off

   REM Fire up NcFTP with a decent sized window

   mode co95,45

   D:\TCPIP\BIN\ncftp.exe

This is useful on a monitor with 1024x768 resolution. If your monitor is using a smaller resolution, try smaller values instead of '95,45'. (They represent the height and width of the window that will be opened.)
- Alex Newman

Q -- I was looking around on my hard drive for stuff to delete, and I came across the "Personal Communications" software that seems to have been installed with Warp 4 and TCP/IP. Now, I don't know about the rest of the list, but I do NOT have either an S390 or an AS400 sitting beside my desk at home, and I don't think I'll need the software any time soon. The brutal thing is that this stuff takes up almost 9MB of space!

Are there any tips on removing it, or should I just toast the icons themselves, and then delete the PCOMOS2 subdirectory from the \TCPIP directory? Is there a proper uninstaller?

I've tried just about any "Selective Install" or Uninstaller in the list. Nothing will get rid of this (for me) useless software.

Help.

A -- Unfortunately, there is no uninstallation or selective uninstall for Personal Communications. However, you can delete the PCOMOS2 directory and the appropriate icons if you find no use for them in your system. (You will have to remove any references to the PCOMOS2 directory in your CONFIG.SYS and reboot to delete \TCPIP\PCOMOS2.)

Don't forget, though, if you dial in to your office from home using your TCPIP interface, you may need those programs to gain access and have terminal emulation. If you are doing everything through your web browser, then you will not need them.

- Randy Van Heusden

Q -- Some programs on some operating systems allow the menus to be highlighted just by moving the mouse pointer over them. If you move the pointer over a menu item which produces a further list, the list pops up without requiring a mouse click.

Is there some way to make OS/2 programs behave this way?

A -- Probably the best solution for this task is the fantastic NPS WPS Enhancer by TAKASUGI Shinji (his surname is written first here, in the Japanese fashion). NPS WPS has so many great features that you will end up playing with it for hours, and it is almost invisible to your system -- it takes very little RAM and is practically conflict-free with other programs. One of NPS WPS's features is "Automatic Menu Selection" (found in the "Pointer 2" page). Just click the check box and almost all OS/2 pop-up menus and menu bar items will behave as "fly out menus".

One notable exception to this, however, is the WarpCenter. It will not be affected by NPS WPS's magic. If you want to have the WarpCenter's menus fly out, just follow these simple instructions provided by Loren Bandiera:

There's a not-so-well-known feature which seems to have been added to Warp 4 since Warp 4 FixPak 5, so anyone using FP5 or above should be able to use it. If you add the following line to your config.sys file:

   SET MENUSFOLLOWPOINTER=ON

and then reboot, the WarpCenter will now work like the Windows 95/98/NT4 taskbar does.

With both NPS WPS and this FixPak enhancement, you should have most OS/2 menus covered.

- OS/2 e-Zine! Staff

That's it for this month. If you have a tip or question that you don't see covered here, don't forget to send it in!

Copyright © 1998 - Falcon Networking

ISSN 1203-5696