Slideshows. the ini file, and automating CDs

[srdlng]

I may have just missed it somewhere, but I can't find any info on the XnView .ini file. What I was hoping it could do --and if it doesn't yet, could be made to do in an upcoming revision very soon-- is specify the relative path of a .sld file and whether to start it automatically on program start (I'm assuming that XnView checks the .ini file first thing on startup).

That would take care of most of the problems on autorunning CD slide shows (autorun.inf is useless because almost everyone has--or should have--turned it off, so you can't count on it). Likewise, shortcuts won't do because MS omitted relative paths.

You can already name "Xnview.exe" to "ClickMe.exe" and it appears to still work fine-- so with the .ini file working as it should, you could put all the images in (one or more) folders as specified in the 'sld' file, and put just the "ClickMe" file on the CD root directory. Then, the only instructions needed for the user would be to open the CD, and click as indicated.

[helmut]

I may have just missed it somewhere, but I can't find any info on the XnView .ini file.

The .ini file is for storing options which you set in XnView using the GUI. Normally there's no need for manipulating the .ini file manually, this is why there is no description.

What I was hoping it could do --and if it doesn't yet, could be made to do in an upcoming revision very soon-- is specify the relative path of a .sld file and whether to start it automatically on program start (I'm assuming that XnView checks the .ini file first thing on startup).

XnView loads the .ini file at startup, since it holds all the options. In the .ini file only settings, not commands/actions are saved.

That would take care of most of the problems on autorunning CD slide shows (autorun.inf is useless because almost everyone has--or should have--turned it off, so you can't count on it). Likewise, shortcuts won't do because MS omitted relative paths.

Right, most people have auto-running disabled, which is good & correct for security reasons. But users still can manually run the Auto-Run using the context menu (there might be other ways to do this). And I think this is what people normally do and what should appear in your instructions.

You can already name "Xnview.exe" to "ClickMe.exe" and it appears to still work fine-- so with the .ini file working as it should, you could put all the images in (one or more) folders as specified in the 'sld' file, and put just the "ClickMe" file on the CD root directory. Then, the only instructions needed for the user would be to open the CD, and click as indicated.

If you don't like the autorun solution you still could write a batch script named ClickMe.bat and put the line that you would normally put in autorun.ini into the batch script. See menu "Info > Command Line help" for more details"