Bluecave Winamp Slider!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE TODAY JUST FOR $9 (USD/EUR)!!!

Cardware registration

News

2006-10-12:

I moved some time ago, no cardware registrations have come since (mail has been forwarded to new address anyhow) so no harm done if new address has not been available.

I decided I won't put my address online anymore, but you can request it on email if you want to do cardware registration. My email is mintus .at. bluecave .dot. net.

2004-04-01:

I have moved again, so see the changed address for Cardware registrations. New address is:

address removed

Mail sent to old address will forward to this new address for next month.

2004-01-23: I've raised the online registration price from $5 to $9. This is mostly due the eSellerate check payment limits and low exchange rate from USD into Euros. I'll update the registration information in the Slider documents in next version.

What is it?

Bluecave Winamp Slider! Automatically slides out Winamp from screen after being inactive some time. When taking mouse to screen edge Winamp slides back. Plug-In features advanced hotspots which makes possible to customize the mouse hotedges completely as you want them. Hotspots have sensitivity setting so you won't activate the slider by accident.

Slider features smart plug-in window detector so all plug-in windows are automatically slided along the Winamp's windows. In addition it will detect any dialogs with-in Winamp.

Windows 2000/XP users can have the sliding with or without a fade in/out effect.

To make this Plug-In the ultimate general purpose one it features also System-Wide Hotkey Support and Auto Playback Resume. Of course those can be customized to suit your needs as well.

License

The Software is twin licensed as Cardware/Shareware, which means that You may choose between of Cardware registering and Shareware registering methods the one You prefer.

COMMON CARDWARE/SHAREWARE TERMS

Starting from the first date of install You may use the Software freely for 30 days to evaluate it. If during, or at the end of, the evaluation period You decide that You would like to continue using, please register Your copy, otherwise you are obligated to uninstall and delete all copies of the Software from your system.

Your single-user life-time registration will license You to use Your copy of the Software, will support work on future versions, new features, and bug fixes, and will provide You with technical support via email.

The Software package may be freely distributed subject to, but not limited to, the following terms:

1. The Software may not be sold or resold

2. If You would like to distribute the Software as part of a shareware distribution, magazine, CD-ROM, etc. contact Bluecave Software for written permission.

All commercial use interests in the Software e.g. site licensing, should be directed to Bluecave Software, support@bluecave.net.

The Software may only be distributed in the original distribution install file as distributed by Bluecave Software. The Software distribution install file may not have files added to it or removed from it, and none of its contents may be modified, decompiled, or reverse engineered.

NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND

The Software is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

In no event shall Bluecave Software be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if Bluecave Software has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

You agree to these terms when You install the Software. Any claims will immediately terminate Your right to use the Software. However, you may inform any inconveniencies so they can be fixed to future releases.

How to Register

Cardware Registration

Send postcard from Your local area to the address below to register under Cardware License. Write Your name and email address to the card. Both are required information as You will receive unique registration number for you name via email after the postcard reaches it's destination. Only one registration per postcard is accepted.

Snail-mail:

Jouni Airaksinen
request address by email mintus .at. bluecave .dot. net

Remember to put stamp which value is enough for the postcard. Check the right value from your local post office (especially if you live outside Finland).

If you don't want to buy a postcard and a stamp for it then consider the shareware registration.

You can take a look at the postcards from already registered users from here. Did you find yours... (unfortunately I haven't been able to update the archive; sorry about this!)

Shareware Registration

Pay nominal registration fee of amount 9 USD (8 Euros) through online registration to register under Shareware License. You will receive unique registration number for you name via email when the registration is complete.

Bluecave Winamp Slider! Online registration

If You register more than one copy send the list of names to whom the registrations will be addressed to. Address the list to support@bluecave.net.

Contact Information

Bluecave Software, http://www.bluecave.net/
E-mail: support@bluecave.net

Jouni Airaksinen, http://www.bluecave.net/mintus/
E-mail: mintus@bluecave.net

Sometimes you may find me hanging at IRCnet #delphi channel.

Mailing list

Bluecave Winamp Slider! has general discussion mailing list. You may post questions, feature requests, bug reports or just discuss about Bluecave Winamp Slider! with the other people in the mailing list.

What's new!

If you're using Windows XP, the latest beta is recommended over previous versions.

Things changed/added in version 1.9.97:

2001-11-14: (v1.9.97 build 116)

This is an updated 1.9.9666 to fix few issues with hotkeys and probably with tray icon as well. Also some other fixes which were fairly easy to put into this update. This update has not been extensively tested so.. it works in my Windows 2000 without errors :)

Fix which caused random crashes on Winamp close

Updated Hotfix.exe description on install

Made SliderMenu more compact and dynamic

Fixes few XP issues in configuration screen (I don't know for sure if I did fix all of them. The next major update should fix most of them anyway)

Fixed Installed and Uninstaller

2001-10-18: (v1.9.9666)

I did test the Hotkeys with Multimedia keyboard and noticed that the Multimedia Play/Pause/Stop/Next/Previous, and others work just okay. Only "problem" is that the key name is misinformed in the configuration screen. (I'll fix this later..)

Updated installer a bit. To ask view version history, to uninstall files from Application Data directory and to check for Administrator before asking to remove main configuration files (if system is non NT then user is always "Administrator"). Plus some other small changes/fixes.. Mostly for the uninstaller to uninstall all the stuff what it has installed and files which slider might have created. Note: Admin uninstall works only if the username is "Administrator" (which might not be the case in non English version of Windows)

Fixes to thread synchronization. Should fix bug which caused mouse tracking thread to crash (rarely and no errors shown, it just seized. Crash error was reported in the gen_SliderErrorLog.txt).

Slider thread code made more generic thus allowing *both* slide and fade at the same time. For now use Slider Type to configure this. Later the configuration of Auto-Hide will change a bit.

Added new actions to allow set Repeat and Shuffle separatly to On or Off not just toggle on/off.

When using hotkey to activate slide out it does not slide back instantly anymore.

Added "Play Audio CD" action

Changed the Slide In/Out action captions to generic "Hide Winamp" and "Show Winamp". Also Slide-in is now "Show" and Slide-out is "Hide" in all other strings. Note: the engine is still called "Slider!" even if it would do fading. Weird? yeah.. :)

Added separate Show Winamp and Hide Winamp actions. These were requested. Old Show/Hide Winamp toggler action still present.

Moved "Extra Space To Slide" to Debugging page (visible only in debug build). The option was quite obsolent. If you had use for it let me know..

Changed the Power Suspend feature to use WM_POWERBROADCAST instead of depricated WM_POWER. Notes I've forgot to say of this feature: Power Suspend playback resume works even if playback resume is disabled.

Made About Components about screen to use RTF content with clickable urls to download latest versions of some of the Bluecave component packages for Delphi (clickable urls require system to have RICHED20.DLL).

Now Tab/arrow key navigation works in configuration screen. Also default action from Enter and window closing with ESC (all basic stuff which was broken after a change in 1.9.7).

Now the Administrator checking in the configuration screen works in non-English locale Windows'.

Fixed Inactive detector to reset it's time after Show up. This was an issue if Slider was configured not to set Winamp Active after Show.

Winamp Hooking changed a bit. Allows better control now so it's easier for me to implement new stuff..

Improved error handling. Now almost every error is logged at gen_SliderErrorLog.txt. So, if you are experiencing crashing please attach gen_SliderErrorLog.txt with your error report email.

Version 1.9.9

Added License.txt and Register.txt. PLEASE READ THEM. Shortly said; this plug-in is cardware/shareware. You must register after (or before) 30-day evalution period. Either sending a postcard *OR* paying the nominal shareware free You'll get your own personal registration code.

Updated installer to latest NSIS (1.58). Splash screen, new install icons, DLL version checking and other new stuff added to the installer (if upgrading it will close/restart Winamp automatically, etc..).

CoolTrayIcon component updated to latest version

Splash screen for the plug-in. Shows up on first time after installing the plug-in. You can enable splash to be show on every start from Configuration | Help/Extras. Splash is shown about 3 seconds - just enough to be able to read the text :)

Slider does not run on too old Winamp versions (older than 2.4) anymore. It will gently request you to upgrade your Winamp..

Some fixes with threads. Probably nothing but if someone was experiencing lockups these fixes should help.

Fixed the tray menu. It should work now with the menu bar. So if you were experiencing "Parameter Incorrect" errors and had to disable the menu bar, now you can re-enable it. Though.. tell me if it still spreads all over your face..

Many internal fixes/changes. Many of them reducing resource usage by combining duplicate resources.

Now Slider tries to use first Multimedia timer and after than the old timer. If it can get the multimedia timer the sliding should be smoother. Please tell me if there are any problems e.g. massively increased CPU usage, etc. As far as I noticed the Multimedia timer uses more kernel time.

Now the slider detects Winamp inactive more accurately. It had problems being larger delay than set in the configuration. Now it should use a bit less CPU too.. I think.

Added "Pop up SliderMenu" hotkey action. You can popup the Slider's tray menu at the mouse cursor position. Atleast under Windows 2000 you shouldn't have any application menus/popups open when popuping the menu because the SliderMenu won't close unless you select something from it (this is a bug which I try to fix later). Otherwise it works just okay. Works even if tray icon is not in use.

Version 1.9.85

Now the slider does not use up to 100% of CPU time when Winamp is visible. Thanks for the person (name missing and can't check) who pointed out this bug.

Auto-Shutdown can have custom beep sound (WAV files). Sound shouldn't be more than about one second length at maximum.

Added button to custom tray icon selection dialog to allow set default icon easily.

Fixed Playback Resume to resume playback a bit better

CrashGuardian feature to Playback Resume. It will store the resume data automatically so that the resuming works even if Winamp quits abnormally. Note, by default this is not enabled because this increases CPU/harddisk usage and most of the time you don't need this feature.

Fixed few bugs with Hotkey configuration. Now it should finally work.

Few bug fixes which I don't even remember anymore

Added error reporting to the threads. So, if you find gen_SliderErrorLog.txt from your Winamp and/or user Application Data directory let me know and e-mail the file. This file does *not* exist if everything goes smooth.

Fixed installer once again. There *is* small bug in the installer; it does not handle removing configuration files if the Roaming User Profiles has been used. It only deletes the main configuration files (regardless of user privileges).

Troubleshooting

Here are some questions and answers.

Q: When I try to popup the tray menu Winamp crashes with error message "Parameter Incorrect" (in same language as the Windows).

A1: This bug has been fixed in version 1.9.9.

A2: Disable the tray menu from Configuration | Help/Extras. The error should be gone then, but you won't get the tray menu bar graphics (just some visual stuff, nothing important)

A3: The problem is caused by a bug in the menu component. Bug appears only if you have menu animations enabled in your Windows from Display Properties | Effect page. Disable animations to "fix" the problem.

Q: After installing Bluecave Winamp Slider! my Winamp started crashing when I open it!!

A: This problem has been fixed in versions 1.9.7 and later.

Q: After installing Bluecave Winamp Slider! my Winamp started crashing when I close it!!

A: This problem has been fixed in versions 1.9.6 and later. To fix this in older versions you have to disable Hotkeys manually before you close Winamp. Other solution is not to use Hotkeys at all. Problem is caused by a bug in a procedure which unregisters all Hotkeys.

Q: I click the tray icon and nothing happens! No Winamp, no fun. Bug?

A: This is not a bug. Your Winamp is probably not set as Stay-On-Top. What this means that the Winamp is Shown but it's probably shown behind some of your (e.g. maximized) application window. Fix this thing by setting the Winamp Stay-On-Top by clicking the small "A" letter (might be different on other skins than BaseSkin) in the Winamp main window.

Downloads

Download Latest Version:

Bluecave Winamp Slider! 1.9.97 (2001-11-15)

Translated versions:

Bluecave Winamp Slider! 1.9.97 French Version (by www.winampfr.com)

Bluecave Winamp Slider! 2.0.0 beta build 184 French Version (by www.winampfr.com)

Download Latest Slider! 2 Beta:

The latest beta is highly recommended for Windows XP users.

Bluecave Winamp Slider! 2 beta 9 (2.0.0 build 203)

Download Old Versions:

Bluecave Winamp Slider! 1.1.0 beta

Bluecave Winamp Slider! 1.0.0

Download Ancient Versions:

Bluecave Winamp Slider! 0.8.0 beta 3