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Date:	Sun, 28 Dec 2003 14:38:15 PST8
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Something disappears

Content Type: text/plain

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Dr. Jeffrey Race wrote:
>
> Across the top of the desktop is a bar with some
> selection items e.g. printer objects, drive objects.
> What do the cognoscenti call this?

In Warp 4 it's called the WarpCenter (originally SmartCenter, I forget
the details but think it was developed by Lotus at the same time they
developed Smart Suite, then combined into Warp 4).

> through some unintended combination of keystrokes
> it has disappeared and I have to reboot because I
> can find no way to get a command prompt (or other
> goodies) without it.

You lost the "tool bar" (Warp Center) across the top but you still have
your desktop icons, yes? Then you can still get a command prompt --
open the OS/2 System object, then open the Command Prompts object, and
click on whichever type of command prompt you want.

> How could I have gotten it back without rebooting?

I'm not sure, but it *might* be the SMSTART.EXE program in your \OS2\
directory. I've never had to test this but I see that SMSTART.EXE is
started in my CONFIG.SYS and the name looks like it might be the Smart
Center (Warp Center), so just open a command prompt window and run
SMSTART.

Jeff, make *sure* you have several good Desktop backups in case those
files get scrambled at the same time you lose your Warp Center. I
forget everything you're supposed to back up for this, but at *least*
you should back up the entire \Desktop\ tree and all of the
\OS2\DLL\dock*.cfg files -- there are 16 of them (dock0-dock15) and they
are the Warp Center "trays" across the top of your screen. Also back up
your OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI files (both are hidden) and your CONFIG.SYS
file, and then make sure you have a way of booting from a different
partition (or floppy or CD) so you can restore these files if necessary.

I keep about a month's worth of these backups. They have been
lifesavers a number of times. I store the backups in the same directory
as the originals, but with a "-YYYYMMDD-HHMM" extension to the filename
(i.e. OS2.INI becomes OS2.INI-20031228-1438). This way I can always
find them when I need them.

- Peter

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