The Small Utilities for Windows

CONTACT:  
	Scott McMahan
	30 Clairmont Ave A8
	Asheville, NC 28804
	softbase@mercury.interpath.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Scott McMahan is proud to announce the general
availability of the Small Utilities for Windows 95 and 3.x. These
utilities make Windows easier to use by filling in some of the gaps
between the shipping product, third party extensions, and other
shareware tools. All of the utilities are designed from user feedback
with Windows 95 and 3.x -- so these utilities allow you to take back
control over Windows! Each utility is small and modular, making it easy
to combine the Small Utilities with batch files, macro languages, and
other Windows programs. For anyone who is serious about making the most
out of Windows, these programs are essential additions to your toolbox
of solutions.

These programs are shareware, and have a $7.50 registration fee for
individual users (site licensing and other agreements are available).
Copies of the programs are now available directly from the author
(contact him via e-mail for details), and the programs will be uploaded
to major FTP sites and other Windows software archives. If you would
like to place the distribution on your archive, please contact the
author.

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*** YOU CAN FTP THE DISTRIBUTION   *** 
*** FROM FTP.INTERPATH.NET         ***
*** in the /tmp/ directory.        ***
*** The file name is "sutils.zip"  ***
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The Small Utilities consist of:

SHUTDOWN: Windows 95's Start/Shutdown, and 3.x's File/Exit Windows, are
built into the shell and you can't create a shortcut to them or run them
outside of the shell. SHUTDOWN is a complete, standalone program which
allows you to shut down the system, restart Windows, or exit to DOS
mode. It has a command line interface which allows completely
noninteractive shutdowns.  (This last feature makes it possible to
implement a shutdown procedure, a batch file of tasks to run at system
shutdown time, something Windows has never supported.)

RUN: The origin of RUN is similar to SHUTDOWN. This utility makes up for
a deficiency in the shell for both Windows 95 and 3.x. Like
Start/Shutdown, File/Run is part of the shell and can't be used outside
of it in batch files, shortcuts, or anything. RUN is a complete,
standalone dialog box that allows any program to be run. It has a
persistent command history and a common dialog box-based browser.

QB: A small, fast utility which allows you to walk up and down the file
tree and see what is there, as well as load what you find into their
default programs or other applications.

NOTE: Although Windows comes with two notepads, one is really a
mini-word processor, and the other is a mini-text editor.  Neither is
truly a notepad that allows you to jot things down, or have a quick
place to paste text. NOTE is a small, fast, and specific program that
lets you take notes. It is persistent, and supports the clipboard.

LZX: Until now, if you wanted to uncompress a file off of a distribution
diskette for Windows or any other program that ships itself using the
built-in Windows  compression scheme, you would have to drop to DOS and
issue a command. No longer! LZX is a graphical interface to the
uncompression routines built into Windows. Now you can point and click
your way to restoring files.

XALC: Pronounced "eks-AHLK", XALC is a calculator for people who have to
do arithmetic in whole number decimal and hexadecimal.  Can you believe
most computer users who do this kind of arithmetic still have a handheld
calculator? Windows' calculators are a dime a dozen, but hex calculators
are almost impossible to find. XALC provides what programmers and
troubleshooters need: whole number arithmetic (+, -, *, /, %) in base 10
and base 16, with quick conversions and clipboard support.

More! The Small Utilities comes with a toolbar from which you can access
all of the utilities and the online help. What better way to get to know
all of the utilities? And the programs come with complete documentation
in a Windows help file. It isn't just dry documentation, either, but an
in-depth look at how the programs work, the reasons why they were
written, background tutorial information, sample uses of the programs,
and samples of their use in batch files and macro languages. Did you
know you can shut down Windows 95 from within 1-2-3 for DOS? You will
after reading the online help!

System requirements: The Small Utilities will run on any system which
can run Windows.

Although this is Scott McMahan's first shareware product release, Scott
McMahan has been helping people make the most of computers for over five
years. The Small Utilities are the result of Scott's desire to help
people work easier by increasing productivity and understanding of how
things work.  His tips and notes have been seen in Microsoft Magazine,
PC Magazine, and Maximize among other places. He is active on Usenet
where he wrote the Cyber Reviews.


