I can't really offer much by way of support other than answering email. I DO answer all email I receive, so please email me at jtheis5@comcast.net if you have any questions not answered below or in the readme file.
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Q: "I can't get Flasher to enforce password security."
A: Flasher versions less then 2.0 do not include screen saver password support.
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Q: "After a while my computer makes the 'critical stop' sound and the pictures stop being displayed."
A: When the Microsoft Visual Basic image control is told to load an image file for display it occasionally locks up instead. I have yet to find or devise a way to trap for this kind of error - if the VB image control doesn't like your file you are out of luck. I don't know for sure, but maybe the VB control chokes when it is given a file that it thinks has corrupt or incomplete file header information. I have succeeded at "fixing" such files by just opening them in some editor and saving to a new file name.
The next time Flasher hangs examine the contents of the flasher.ini file. The value of the key LastFileName should be the name of the "bad" file. From here you can try saving the file to a new name or file format, and then moving or deleting the original file. Run Flasher again to see if this really was your problem.
Flasher will try to save you from too many problems with "bad" files. If such a file is detected Flasher will automatically rename the file by adding a "_" character to the beginning of the file name. This will cause Flasher to skip the display of that file from then on. Whenever Flasher comes across a renamed file the "OM" image will be displayed instead. You can see this in action yourself by creating a text file in some Flasher folder, then replacing the ".txt" file extension with ".jpg", for example. When Flasher tries to load this file it will detect a file format problem, rename the file as described above, and will display the "OM" image instead. Some problem files can be identified in this way, but unfortunately not all.
About video clips: The only way to find out for sure if your video clips are compatible with Flasher is to make sure they work with Windows Media Player. If Windows Media Player can handle your video clips, Flasher should have no problem with them either. Note: Some MOV files run fine using Windows Media Player and some do not - you'll have to check. Also, audio-only MOV files can cause the odd side effect of hiding the Windows Media Player control used in Flasher...so you will probably want to avoid using audio-only MOV files with Flasher.
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Q: "I'm trying to figure out how to add sound, pics to Flasher, I cant understand how." or "I really don't understand how I get my own pictures (jpg) into the Flasher program."
A: Add the folder(s) that contain your files to the Flasher Configuration folder list.
Now, here's the long version:
After installing Flasher, open the Desktop Properties dialog and set Flasher as your screensaver. Click on the Settings button to open the Flasher Configuration dialog. Right-click on the folder list and select "New Folder..." to bring up the Browse For Folder dialog. Browse to your folder, then click on OK to close the Browse For Folder dialog. Repeat as needed until all desired folders have been added.
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Q: "I get a flashing button on the bottom of my screen that says 'Screen Saver Main Form.' (or 'Screensaver: Flasher') Strangely enough, you have to double click on the button in order to start the screen saver."
A: This is due to a bug in Windows 2000 and has been addressed as of Flasher version 3.0.
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Q: "My MIDI files are quite long. Is there no way I can have it display more than one graphic file during the playing of one song?"
A: Not yet, maybe in a future release. As of this writing, Flasher clears the screen whenever a new static image file gets displayed. When sound files and movie clip files are played, Flasher does not first clear the screen. This allows you to add a "soundtrack" to an image file, but there is no way to display several images while a single sound file is played.
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Q: "Flasher seems to skip some of my files "
A: Flasher will only recognize files that have one of the following three-letter file extensions: ASF, ASX, AVI, BMP, GIF, JPG, M3U, MP3, MID, MOV, MPG, WAV, WMA, WMV, RMI. Period.
Due to limitations of Microsoft Visual Basic, Flasher will not recognize filenames that have more than one "." character (e.g. "photo.home.jpg").
Flasher is designed to skip files that have filenames which begin with the "_" character.
Files that do not meet these criteria will have to be renamed in order to be displayed by Flasher.
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