[3331] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
VENDOR: Object Desktop Professional Eval!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brad Wardell)
Sat Aug 30 11:28:12 1997
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 28 Aug 1997 14:03:00 -0400
From: wardell@ibm.net (Brad Wardell)
Reply-To: wardell@ibm.net (Brad Wardell)
Reply-to: wardell@ibm.net (Brad Wardell)
[Followups directed to comp.os.os2.utilities]
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August 24, 1997.
Contact: Alexander Antoniades (313) 762-0687
Stardock releases evaluation version of Object Desktop Professional!
Powerful Business Environment Targets Corporate and Professional OS/2 Users.
Canton MI --Stardock Systems, Inc. a leading software developer for OS/2
announced the availability of Object Desktop Professional Evaluation version.
It is identical to the full version except it does not contain Object Backup
or Object Scheduler and times out automatically after a month and a half of
use.
"Many OS/2 users and administrators have had a hard time deciding whether they
needed the extended features of Object Desktop Professional." said Brad
Wardell, President, Stardock Systems, Inc. "Now they can try out the product
before they buy."
Object Desktop Professional provides all of the features of the best-selling
Object Desktop http://www.stardock.com/object_desktop.html) product, including
Object Navigator, Object Archives, Tab LaunchPad, Control Center and Object
Package, plus:
Object Viewers.
Object Viewer provides the ability to read, print, and work with files from
virtually any file format including the recently released Office95 (Excel95,
Word95, Access95, PowerPoint95, etc.). With Object Desktop Professional
installed, users can simply double click on a file and the Object Viewer
feature quickly identifies the document and views it in a fraction of a
second. End users do not have to know what type of file is being viewed; view
operations are completely transparent.
"I received some spreadsheet documents from a client that I had to import into
documentation I was creating, and none of my applications could import the
files. Even my customer had no idea what format the spreadsheets were in,"
said Patty Dulman, Independent Technical Writer. "The Object Viewer feature
allowed me to open these files, and copy and paste them to my documentation
through the clipboard support. I couldn't have satisfied my customer without
it."
Object Viewer's seamless file support also allows users to drag and drop files
onto their local or network printer objects to automatically print in the
proper format. Without the Object Viewer feature, the Workplace Shell allows
only a few types of files to be dragged onto printer objects for proper print
formatting. With Object Viewer, files can be dragged to the printer for
seamless, fully formatted printing support. IS Managers can significantly
reduce training and support costs with this feature alone.
Object Viewing goes far beyond just viewing files. Object Desktop Professional
has a presentation mode that allows users to give presentation slideshows with
the file in question. For example, a user could give a Lotus Freelance or
Microsoft PowerPoint presentation without having either product installed by
clicking on the file and selecting "Presentation Mode" in the viewer window.
Moreover, Object Viewers also work seamlessly with HTML files allowing users
to copy and paste from .HTM files to their word processor, graphics program,
etc. and keep all the formatting intact.
"Here at Stardock, we've been producing marketing materials with WEB authoring
tools and then copying and pasting from the HTML file into a word processor
such as Ami Pro, Word, or Describe. All the formatting is preserved and we
only have to write the material once." said Eric Reid, Technical Writer,
Stardock Systems, Inc.
Object Viewer doesn't stop at reading common file formats--it even reads
executables and other binary files and displays detailed information on the
binaries such as a description, the name of the module, memory required,
linker version, and pages of other details.
To help users identify their files, Object Desktop Professional can optionally
assign special icons to their files (different icons for documents,
spreadsheets, presentations, databases, etc.).
Object Viewing is also integrated into Object Navigator, Stardock's premiere
file/object manager for OS/2. A view pane can optionally be displayed inside
the Object Navigator, providing integration between file browsing and views of
files. Virtually any file can be displayed in the Object Navigator view
pane--If Object Viewer recognizes the file, it is displayed it in its proper
format.
"On top of all this, Object Viewer has very impressive performance." said
Wardell. "Jumping from file to file from the Object Navigator works about as
fast as you can move the mouse and click on a new file."
Object Security.
Object Desktop Professional provides desktop security (Object Security)
features that allow end users and IS Managers to password protect the desktop,
program objects (such as the command line) and folders.
"Both organizations and end users have use for a certain level of security. I
know that virtually every company I've visited has their own horror stories of
carefully crafted desktop objects being deleted that shouldn't have been, or
IS Managers who have users that get into things they shouldn't and cause all
sorts of pain for themselves and others. Our corporate customers directly
determined the feature set for Object Security." said Wardell
Besides providing password protection on folders and objects, Object Security
can also lock files in place on the desktop, providing a desktop system that
is just as flexible but tamper-proof. For organizations who have users that
move from PC to PC, having a standardized set of features visible on the
desktop is critical--and Object Security facilitates these types of
standardization efforts.
Desktop Backup Advisor.
One of the more anticipated features of Object Desktop Professional is the
Desktop Backup Advisor which can perform two important functions.
First, It allows users to quickly and easily manage, backup, and restore
desktop configuration "snapshots." The Desktop Backup Advisor employs a
"wizard-like" user interface, and is very easy to work with. Users and IS
Managers can easily package and distribute desktops across the enterprise
using the Desktop Backup Advisor, which uses Stardock's advanced Object
Packaging technology. Organizations looking to deploy a standard desktop will
find the Desktop Backup Advisor an essential tool to this end.
"One test site has used the Desktop Backup Advisor to deploy a standardized
desktop with three variations -- one for technical users, one for their end
users, and one for managers. When a new machine goes on the network, they open
the Desktop Backup Advisor, choose the desktop they want and it unpackages
it." said Wardell
Secondly, the Desktop Backup Advisor completely repairs OS/2 INI files. The
most common cause of system instability and performance loss in OS/2 are
damaged INI files (os2.ini, os2sys.ini). Over time, OS/2 INI files collect a
great deal of unused or dormant data that can slow OS/2 down and cause various
undesired behavior. While INI repair programs go far to help the situation,
there is no replacement to being able to totally cleanse the INI files without
losing user customizations. By simply saving and restoring a desktop
configuration with the Desktop Backup Advisor, OS/2's INI files are renewed
without disturbing critical data. The net result is a system that behaves like
a freshly installed OS/2 system without losing any critical customization.
"The Desktop Backup Advisor goes beyond simple backup and restore for desktop
snapshots. The very fact that when you use the tool OS/2 INI files are cleaned
up almost sounds too good to be true." said Pat Ford, Senior Technical Advisor
at Stardock Systems. "I have seen 486 systems that crawled and had strange
errors pop up on a daily basis receive a big performance and stability boost
by simply using the Desktop Backup Advisor. It's a lot easier than
reinstalling OS/2 from scratch and a lot cheaper than buying a new machine."
Object Inspector.
Object Inspector allows OS/2 users to exert greater control over object
properties, as well as browse and edit the system registry of Workplace Shell
classes. Like Object Package from Object Desktop, Object Inspector can turn
objects into a more manageable form such as REXX or RC scripts.
The ability to edit the system Workplace Shell registry is critical to
understanding system performance. Unlike traditional programs, Workplace Shell
objects are handled through a registry of dynamically loaded code, and are
commonly ignored when tuning systems. Many IS Managers and professionals
routinely edit their CONFIG.SYS file to remove device drivers that are no
longer needed; however, Workplace Shell classes are increasingly the place
where system memory is robbed from a system. With Object Inspector,
experienced users can uninstall the modules they do not use and save a great
deal of RAM.
Creating scripts by dragging and dropping objects onto the Object Inspector is
of obvious use for developers and IS Managers who administer OS/2 Desktops
with REXX, saving a lot of time and effort. A whole new world of performance
tuning and customization is opened up with Object Inspector.
"One example use of Object Inspector is to expand the capabilities of our own
Control Center provided with Object Desktop," said Stardock Systems Object
Desktop Product Manager, Kurt Westerfeld. "It is little known that the CPU
graph can be displayed as a line graph instead of an area graph because we
chose not to implement the user interface to change the setting. With Object
Inspector, however, numerous settings for desktop objects are visible and can
be easily modified."
Object Advisors.
Following the general trend of leveraging internet technology on the desktop,
Stardock Systems is leading the industry by tying interactive, internet-based
help with desktop objects. Object Advisor is intended to allow organizations
to blend online help resources with desktop objects, coupled with the ability
to link to internal networks (Intranet) for help desk reporting and
centralized data access. By loading the Object Advisor Trainer, users can be
trained by simply using the Workplace Shell. Help is as simple as clicking an
object on the desktop.
"Imagine you're running the help desk at your company and instead of receiving
panicked phone calls when the printer is having problems, e-mail arrives
transparently from end users when problems arise. Users simply click on the
printer object on their desktop and interact with Object Advisor. After they
fill out a problem report form and press the "Send" button, the help desk
manager receives e-mail from the user." said Wardell.
Because Object Advisor definitions are provided with industry standard
HyperText Markup Language (HTML), a wide variety of authoring tools are
available. Virtually anything that can be represented as a World Wide Web page
(JAVA, forms, graphics, links, etc.) can be presented in an Object Advisor
definition. Whether used as a training tool for internal custom applications
or as an easy way to obtain updates to commercial software off the internet,
Object Advisor has boundless implications.
Stardock Systems provides all the features of Object Desktop Professional with
a completely customizable install process that allows customers to pick and
choose which features best matches their needs. Using the remote
administration capabilities of IBM Netview and OS/2 Warp Server, Object
Desktop Professional can be easily deployed on an organization's desktops
automatically. Stardock has priced Object Desktop Professional at an extremely
attractive price for business professionals and corporate users: $149.00 US
(or $129.95 off of Stardock's commerce server at http://www.stardock.com).
"With so many features, we expect Object Desktop Professional to sell in
volume so we can afford to aggressively price it. Besides, given the immense
number of features in the product, we don't want our customers to feel like
they are paying for features they'll never use," said Wardell.
Stardock can be reached by voice at (313) 762-0687, fax at (313) 762-0690,
e-mail at info@stardock.com, and the World Wide Web at
http://www.stardock.com. Orders will be taken at 1-800-672-2338 or via
commerce server. Most OS/2 resellers carry Object Desktop Professional as
well.
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