Servant Salamander 1.52

Q: Does Servant Salamander run on Windows 3.x with Win32s?
A: No. Servant Salamander is a native Win32 application and uses API functions which are not supported under Win32s.

Q: Does Servant Salamander run on Windows NT 3.51?
A: No. This old NT system doesn't support functions used in the new version of Servant Salamander. If you have this system, you can use version 1.4, but some new shell features like drag&drop certainly won't work.

Q: Why don't the Compress and Uncompress commands work?
A: These commands provide support for a file-based compression (not ARJ, ZIP, RAR, etc.). The file-based compression must be supported directly by a file system. FAT doesn't support it, NTFS (NT File System) supports it. So these commands will work on NTFS formatted disks.

Q: What's the function of the "Use advanced graphic features" checkbox on the General tab in the Configuration dialog?
A: If you check it, Salamander will use a memory bitmap to draw items displayed on the panels. This means that each item will be completed outside the screen and then moved to the screen. As a result, panels are repainted more smoothly, but at half the speed.

Q: What's the function of the "Set Find in internal viewer to search grepped text from the Find Files dialog" checkbox on the Viewer/Editor tab in the Configuration dialog?
A: When you press the F3 key in the Find Files dialog at a found file, and you are using the internal viewer, do you want to set the Find dialog in the internal viewer to search for the same text as the Find Files dialog (edit control Containing Text)?
In other words, when you turn on this option, you can find the text quickly using the F6 key in the internal viewer.

Q: How can I format or copy floppy disks?
A: Open the menu with available drives (Alt+F1/F2) and open the context menu for the desired floppy disk drive (click the right mouse button or use Shift+F10 key). You can choose "Format..." or "Copy Disk..." from this menu.

Q: Do you plan to make Linux version of Servant Salamander?
A: We'll be glad to make a version of Salamander for this operating system sometime in the future, but in the meantime we have no capacity to do it. You may think that porting to Linux is an easy task, but due to Salamander's close connection to the operating system it seems to be a hard problem (a large part of the source code is platform dependent).

Q: I'm using Samba to access Linux files from Windows NT. Salamander doesn't refresh panels after changes on Samba network drives even if I make changes directly from Salamander. Do you know some solution for this problem?
A: Samba is sending notifications about changes on disk with a considerable delay (the default value is 60 seconds). You may try to change your Samba configuration file: find "change notify timeout" and set it to zero. This change may slow down your file server. Newer versions of Salamander handle this problem without need to change this parameter.

Servant Salamander 1.6 beta 3

Q: When you try to start Servant Salamander an error occurs: "File SALAMAND.EXE is attached to missing export COMCTL32.DLL: InitCommonControlsEx". What's happening?
A: You are using an old version of a system library COMCTL32.DLL. Servant Salamander requires COMCTL32.DLL version 4.71 or later. Download and install 401comupd.exe (425KB) [ftp] [http].

Q: Is it possible to save the configuration into a file and use it later on another computer or on a network?
A: Choose the Option/Export Configuration command. If you save the configuration to a file named config.reg and place this file to a directory containing salamand.exe, that configuration will be loaded first from this file to the registry and then from the registry to Salamander. The configuration file is a simple text document; you can easily edit it with any text editor. Administrators can change this file to suit their needs, then place it in a network installation of Salamander, and Salamander is then ready to use in network environment. The configuration file and registry configuration are joined, so if you delete some variables from the configuration file, you'll avoid overwriting the users' values for these variables (users will have their own values for these variables - it's useful for window positions, and other "not-important-stuf").

Q: What should I do if Servant Salamander freezes up (is hung, becomes not-responding)?
A: First try to press the ESC key several times (it terminates reading of large directory listings, slow network connections, etc.). If there is still no response, run another Salamander, choose the Help/Task List command, use the Highlight button or the start time to find hung Salamander among the other Salamanders and then use the Break button to carry out Bug Report dialog in the hung Salamander. Please send us the prepared text with your comment and we'll try to find out what causes this problem.

Q: Is it possible to select files and directories using the selection window (the selection box) as in Windows Explorer?
A: Yes, check the Options/Configurations/Appearance/Windows Explorer Look checkbox, then choose the Windows Explorer color schema on the Options/Configurations/ Appearance/Colors page.

Q: Save Configuration doesn't work. What's happening?
A: Maybe you have a config.reg file in the Salamander's directory (the directory with salamand.exe), so a configuration is loaded from this file whenever you run Salamander. If you remove this file (or rename it), save will work as expected.

Q: How do I turn on the display of hidden and system files and directories?
A: Uncheck the "Hide files and directories with hidden or system attribute" box on the Appearance page in Options/Configuration. You can do it using the Ctrl+H hotkey too (or Shift+Ctrl+H if Ctrl+H changes drive to H: - it depends on your configuration).

Q: How do I switch to the Command Line?
A: Standard ways are the Ctrl+Tab hotkey and the left mouse button click. If you prefer switching to the Command Line on the first typed letter (as if you are in the Command Line all the time), choose "Alt+letter" or "Ctrl+Alt+letter" for the Quick Search in panels on the Panels page in Options/Configuration. Then direct typing in panels will be freed for the Command Line.

Q: How do I insert short (DOS, 8.3) file names in the Command Line?
A: If you add the Shift key to the hotkeys for inserting in the Command Line (Ctrl+Enter - focused name, Ctrl+[ - left panel path, Ctrl+] - right panel path, and Ctrl+Space - active panel path), they'll work with short names (Shift+Ctrl+Enter inserts the short name of focused file or directory, etc.).

Q: I have WinRar installed on my computer, but Servant Salamander refuses to open RAR archives using Enter key and complains something like "Error: unknown option V" and "Error encountered while parsing list of archived files". What's happening?
A: You have probably instructed Salamander to use wrong rar binary. Salamander expects the rar Win32 console mode application, not the windowing (GUI) one. Go to Options/Configuration/Panel Archivers/Program Locations and change the name of the Win32 RAR executable from winrar.exe to rar.exe. rar.exe is distributed along with winrar.exe and is installed in the same directory by default.

Q: When do you release other language versions (Czech, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, etc.)?
A: After the final English version 1.6 release. We want to prepare a support for language versions (export/import all texts, layout dialogs with translated texts, etc.), but we don't want to delay the English version release.

Q: I can't create Czech (German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, etc.) file names in Windows 2000. What's the reason?
A: Change your regional settings to Czech (German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, etc.). See Control Panel/Regional Settings. Don't forget to check the Set as system default locale checkbox.

Q: Servant Salamander 1.6 beta 3 has the mouse wheel support, but it doesn't work on my computer. What's wrong?
A: Please wait for the version 1.6 beta 4, we have fixed some problems connected with the mouse wheel support in this version (the mouse wheel support is more complicated than we thought).

Q: Are you planning binary file compare function?
A: We want to make a plugin for advanced compare and synchronization of files and directories. It will include binary file compare.

Q: I'm using Samba to access Linux files from Windows NT. Salamander doesn't refresh panels after changes on Samba network drives even if I make changes directly from Salamander. Do you know some solution for this problem?
A: Samba is sending notifications about changes on disk with a considerable delay (the default value is 60 seconds). The solution is quite simple, you can turn off automatic refresh for network drives (includes Samba network drives). Then Salamander will refresh after each change and after each activation, so listings of Samba network drives will be up to date. See Options/Configuration/Drive specific settings, check the Enable specific settings for network drives box and uncheck the following Use automatic refresh box. Or you may try to change your Samba configuration file: find "change notify timeout" and set it to zero. But this change may slow down your file server.

Q: It's not possible to unpack from archives to path ".". What's happening?
A: Unfortunatelly "." was not conceptual, it was rather error than anything else. So we have removed it in the version 1.6 beta 6. Users wrote us they missed this feature, so we have added support for relative paths in archives (behaves as if path into archive were normal disk path). E.g. ".." in archive root is path to archive.

Q: The Enter key and mouse double click on file do nothing. What's wrong?
A: There was bug in salopen.exe, please download the new version of salopen.exe (4KB) [ftp] [http]. Copy new salopen.exe into sub-directory plugins over old version.

Q: The MS Word 97 files (*.DOC) opened from Salamander hangs when I close them. How to solve this problem?
A: There was bug in salopen.exe, please download the new version of salopen.exe (4KB) [ftp] [http]. Copy new salopen.exe into sub-directory plugins over old version.

Q: I need to add prefix to group of files. Rename to mask "prefix_*.*" doesn't work. Is it a bug?
A: Operation masks in Move/Rename (F6) command work different than you expect. The operation you want to do is not possible with them. You can solve your task using system command "ren" (rename) in User Menu:
   -open User Menu configuration - e.g. in panel press F9 / Customize...
   -create new command with:
       Command: ren
       Arguments: "$(Name)" "prefix_$(Name)"
       Initial directory: $(FullPath)
   -then go back to your files, select them, press F9, and choose your new command
To learn more about operation masks, please read carefully Servant Salamander's help (Introduction / File and Directory Concepts / Operation Masks). We plan to make plugin for batch rename. It makes your task very easy.

Q: Why doesn't Servant Salamander show the same icons for files placed on removable drives (floppy disks, ZIP drives, etc.) and fixed drives (harddisks)?
A: Servant Salamander can show simple or system icons in panels. Simple icons are displayed much faster than system icons, because they are never extracted directly from files. Simple icons are used only on removable drives (they are slow) by default. System icons are used on all other drives. You can change these settings on page Drives in menu Options / Configuration (see "Show simple icons" checkboxes).

Q: I have registered PictView plugin. How do I activate registration key? How can I view my picture files (e.g. JPG and GIF) in this plugin?
A: In most cases, you can just focus picture file and use View (F3 hotkey) command. PictView's registration key is imported together with Servant Salamander's registration key. If you have purchased PictView later, you have received file with PictView's registration key. You need to import this file to Servant Salamander (menu Help, command Import Registration Keys). If you are not sure your PictView is registered, open its About dialog (menu Help / About Plugin / PictView). You will find registration information there.

Q: Can I tell Servant Salamander to which panel (source or target) it should pack archives?
A: Yes, see page Archivers in menu Options / Configuration - checkbox "Pack to other panel".

Q: I can't change creation time nor last write time of directories using the Change Attributes command. What is the problem?
A: There is no way to change these times of directories on Windows 95, 98, and Me due to limitation of operating systems. The next version of Servant Salamander will allow you to change these times of directories at least on Windows NT, 2000, and XP.

Q: I'm using Windows XP. When I copy selected text to the clipboard in the internal viewer, the following error message appears: (6) Handle is invalid. When I open Help/About Servant Salamander dialog box and click on www.altap.cz link, the following URL is opened in my web browser: http://"http://www.altap.cz",,-1,0,,,,. I cannot run application or open document from the Servant Salamander panel. I cannot open context menu for file or directory in the panel. What is the problem?
A: You run Servant Salamander in the Windows Application Compatibility Mode. To turn off this mode, do the following actions. Open Properties from right click context menu on the Servant Salamander shortcut. Go to the Compatibility tab a clear "Run this program in compatibility mode" check box. Then close Properties dialog with OK button and run again Servant Salamander using the modified shortcut.

Q: I'm using NVIDIA graphics adapter GeForce or TNT on Windows 95/98/ME with NVIDIA's Detonator graphics driver version 40.72. Servant Salamander 2.0 crashes whole my system when I try to start it. Is there some solution for this problem?
A: This version of NVIDIA's Detonator graphics driver (40.72) contains bug which causes this problem. The only solution is to install corrected version of NVIDIA drivers. We have tested version 41.09 from December 3, 2002 and it seems to work correctly. You can also return to some older version of NVIDIA drivers, we have not received any bug report connected with NVIDIA drivers before version 40.72.

ZIP Plugin

Q: I tried to Pack same files with ZIP. It was not Working. I could not select a Packer my list was emty.
A: Something gone wrong with the plugin installation. To reinstal the plugin manually open the 'Plugins' dialog from 'Options' menu, if the ZIP plugin in present in the list, remove it. Then add 'zip.spl' file, it should be found in the 'plugins\zip' subdirectory of your Servant Salamander directory. If you can't found 'zip.spl' download the latest version from our web site or reinstall Servant Salamander.

Q: When I doubleclick on a .zip file I get my external zip processor invoked instead of ZIP.
A: You haven't associated ZIP with ZIP plugin. The association could be set in Servant Salamander configuration ('Options'/'Configuration...'/ 'Panel Archivers'/'Extensions').
Note: if the ZIP plugin isn't in the archivers list, reinstal the plugin manually. Open the 'Plugins' dialog from 'Options' menu, if the ZIP plugin in present in the list, remove it. Then add 'zip.spl' file, it should be found in the 'plugins\zip' subdirectory of your Servant Salamander directory. If you can't found 'zip.spl' download the latest version from our web site or reinstall Servant Salamander.

Q: Every time I open the self-extractor settings dialog I get error a message 'Self-extractor file is corrupted.'
A: Download the correct SFX file from our web site and install it over the corrupted one.
Or if you don't need it just remove the currupted *.sfx file from 'plugins\zip\sfx' subdirectory of your Servant Salamander directory.

D: Can I set ZIP archiver to make archives with size 1.44 MB or size of free space on floppy disks?
O: At first, check if you have set "Display dialog with extended options before packing" checkbox in menu Plugins / Plugins / ZIP / Configure. Then run Pack command (Alt+F5), choose ZIP packer and archive name on floppy disk (if you want to pack directly to floppy disks - e.g. "A:\archive.zip") or on disk (if you want to create multi-volume archive on disk). When you click on OK button in Pack dialog, you'll see Create New Archive dialog. Check "Create multi-volume archive" checkbox and set required size of volume (here "automatic" stays for free space on target path - e.g. floppy disk).

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