WhereIsIt? 2010, shareware edition Copyright (c) 1997-2010 Robert Galle All Rights Reserved Last updated: November 2009 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ================================ 1. Registration and purchase 2. Installation 3. Using the program 4. Troubleshooting 1. Registration and purchase ---------------------------- Q: Why should I register? A: WhereIsIt? is not a free software, a lot of time and effort has been invested in making of this program. WhereIsIt? is released as shareware, allowing you to test it for a limited period of time (14 days). If you plan to continue using the program after that period, you are required to register. Evaluation version also has some limitations that are removed when the program is registered and unlocked. Q: How can I register WhereIsIt? A: The fastest way to register WhereIsIt is to use the online registration form and pay with your credit card or using PayPal, however other options for payment are available as well. Online orders are handled by 2Checkout Inc. via secure SSL connection. Once order is placed, you can usually expect to receive your license by e-mail within the next few hours if not minutes. Physical CD-ROM delivery by regular mail is also available. More details and link to online ordering form can be found on WhereIsIt's home page: http://www.whereisit-soft.com, in the help file, or in the Order.txt file, included in WhereIsIt package. Q: Can I order WhereIsIt on my freemail address? A: Yes, you can, however license delivery to free email addresses is not allowed. A free email address is any address that can be obtained by anybody through actions like registering online somewhere. If all you have available is a freemail address, you can still place your order, however you are required to have your license and program physically delivered by regular mail on a CD-ROM. Q: I don't have a credit card, or don't want to use it. Can I still register? A: Yes, other ways of payment are available. Some of them include sending a bank/wire transfer, a personal check (cheque, in some countries), or cash by regular mail directly to the author's address. The online e-commerce vendor accepting orders for WhereIsIt, 2Checkout Inc., can also accept e-checks and FX Source bank transfers. You can find more details in the Order.txt file, or on the Ordering Questions and Answers page on the web site. Q: Do I need to re-register new versions of WhereIsIt? A: No, you don't have to, your license is valid for all future versions of WhereIsIt as well. If I am in any way forced to change this policy, it will not be done without discussing it with currently registered users first. Please note that you may need updated registration details such as key files in order to be able to unlock a major new release of WhereIsIt (unlikely, licenses were last changed in August 2000). Q: I'm a registered user of previous major WhereIsIt release, how can I unlock the current version. A: Each major Where Is It? version (2.xx, 3.xx) uses its own registration system and a different set of license keys. When a new major version is released, all registered users are e-mailed a new registration package, which includes the appropriate license for the new version as well. This does not happen very often though, licenses were last changed in August 2000 for version 3.xx, the same are still valid for all current versions, and are not expected to change any more. If you need to receive a copy of your current registration details, there is a form available on program's web site where you can place a request. Q: I have lost my license, what can I do? A: A form is available on the web site where you can apply for license to be resent to you. Note that you are required to properly identify yourself as a registered user, by stating a valid license serial number, or other non- public information that proves your purchase and identity. Additionally, freemail addresses are not allowed for resending licenses. Q: I'm working for a company and we would all like to use WhereIsIt. Are there site licenses available? A: Yes, site licenses are available for WhereIsIt. When placing an order, just include the appropriate number of licenses in your purchase. Discounts are available for purchases of 5 or more licenses at once. You can find more details about placing orders and pricing in the Order.txt file, or online on program's web site. Q: Can I be notified about new versions? A: Notifications about new versions and current development news are posted on program's web site. Additionally, PAD file is available and regularly updated for other web sites that monitor available software and new releases, and many of those sites offer personal notifications about software you are interested in. 2. Installation --------------- Q: Should I uninstall previous version of WhereIsIt? before installing a new one? A: This is not necessary if you will install new version in the same folder. Just run the setup program, and program will upgrade itself. If you would like to install program to a different location, or troubleshoot by reinstalling and resetting all settings, then uninstalling first is recommended. Please note that your catalogs will not be deleted while uninstalling, but you will have to configure the program again since old settings will be removed. Q: Can I install and use WhereIsIt? on 64-bit Windows? A: Yes, the program normally installs and runs on any 64-bit version of Windows, including Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista x64, and Windows XP x64. You can download the installer, or use the portable version without installation on any 64-bit system. Q: How can I uninstall WhereIsIt? A: Just open the Control Panel, select "Add/Remove programs" option, and double-click WhereIsIt's entry on the list. If you have created program group for WhereIsIt when installing, you can achieve the same by clicking the "Uninstall WhereIsIt" icon in WhereIsIt's group. 3. Using the program -------------------- Q: What kind of drives and media can I catalog? Can I catalog my remote file server, or external hard drive connected by wireless network? A: WhereIsIt can access and catalog any drive or other media that is capable of presenting itself in Explorer with a drive letter, or can be accessed as a part Windows network with its UNC address. While a vast majority of drives being cataloged will likely be accessed locally on the system itself, using this open and generic approach rather than implementing a number of protocols allows access to any number of current and future devices without the need to add support for them in future versions of WhereIsIt. For example, you can catalog a number of non-Windows remote network drives, like Unix/Linux servers, by using Samba (www.samba.org). You can catalog a remote FTP or WebDAV server, or a remote external hard drive, connected to a network router or a home theater device and accessed via FTP or SMB, by using software driver like NetDrive (www.netdrive.net). And so on... Typically, to access a non-native device you only need some sort of a driver or software that will allow Windows to access the drive, and Windows itself is likely to natively support additional devices and protocols in the future. Q: Is there a size limit on catalogs, or how much data can WhereIsIt handle? Is there a slow down when working with large catalogs? A: The only limit are your system capabilities and some common sense practical usage. The theoretical limit per single catalog file is 2 GB in size, which is the equivalent of about 70 million files and folders with moderate use of descriptions, or about 120 million, if using catalog compression in version 3 (not recommended). Practical limits are lower than that though, operations like searching or saving on such large files are likely to take too long to be still comfortable to use. The usual size of catalog files would be up to a couple hundred MB or so, however that's your call. There are a few customers who have their catalogs over 1.5 GB in size (a disk image of corporate network server), and are still satisfied with performance. That's a bit extreme though, a wouldn't recommend pushing it that far. In any case, no one says that you must have just one catalog - in fact you don't usually work with such large collections. WhereIsIt can have opened multiple catalogs at once and use them as one, for example when searching for something. If a single catalog becomes to large for comfortable usage, you can always break it apart into more catalogs. This also gives you the ability to open only those catalog files in your collection that you actually need at the time, and allows you to better organize your collection from the grounds up. As far as speed against quantity is concerned, it's pretty much linear - twice as much data will take twice as long to search. Largest catalogs also take longer to save changes to and require more free space on the hard disk (at least as much as the size of catalog). Other operations are hardly affected with large catalogs, the program only loads parts of catalogs actually needed at the time and there isn't much difference if the catalog is 1 MB or 1 GB in size. The only thing you would have to look out for when working with large catalogs is not forcing the pr...
crowbme