Introduction

This tutorial was written for use with a program I authored myself DefaultApp.exe Beta . This tutorial is essentially just a copy of the "readme" I wrote.

DefaultApp.exe Beta
for Flash 4 (not tested with Flash 5)

This program is freeware and hence can be distributed wherever and however you like but please, please stop distributing this program once the final is done .... distribute the final instead..

Compatible with:

Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows ME,

Launch time:

Estimated 1 second or less on a 2x speed cdrom drive (if a 2x speed can read data at 300 kb/s then you do the math concerning your drive speed)

About this program:

Due to what seems to be a need for this product I am doing a early launch entitled "Beta" I could have the finished version done the day after I write this or sometime next year.. (Who knows when I'll get around to it :)

What's coming in the official release:

• Small file size I estimate about 30 kb (so far)
  
• \browse command line the ability to Browse the cdrom

Possible additions:

• Print command for printing from default application
  
• Reading the registry for keys and upon not finding one reporting back error message (good for like detecting as a example if Adobe Acrobat is installed :)
  
• There some other possible features but my mind is totally blank when writing this :)

Placing Command

Placing the command line arguments in Flash

To launch a executable under flash you of course need to go the Action command of the Button and Click the + and choose FS Command and then choose EXEC for standalone player

Use:

- Place the application in your root directory or in a root directory where it can launch the files..
- DefaultApp.exe can open any file registered with the Windows Shell
- When launching your file never ever specify a location by drive letter only by somefolder/somefile.txt

Examples of using DefaultApp.exe

defaultapp sometextfile.txt

defaultapp somedocfile.doc

defaultapp somepdf.pdf

defaultapp somemovie.mov

defaultapp somemovie.avi

defaultapp http://www.somewebsite.com/ (of course you really shouldn't need this..)

defaultapp ftp://000.000.000.000

Other Information

Error Messages:

There are only two programmed error messages

Error 1 = That you did not specify a file

Error 2 = That you exceeded a file name of 100 characters

For Programmers:

If you'd like to see what is going on it's pretty simple look at these documents on the Shellexecute API put out by Microsoft
ShellExecute Method
ShellExcute and Launching Applications
My program is currently set to OPEN files only.. (That may change later)

Bug Reports:

If something doesn't work Email me, but this program should be free of defects

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