SMUG Newsletter 12 92 Initpicker 2.02 Gets The Job Done

INITPicker 2.02: Gets the Job Done Author: Aaron Shelley, Mouse Droppings Date: December, 1992 Keywords: software utility review INIT program DA Text: If your System Folder is populated by various start-up files (commonly known as INITs), you may have encountered a wide range of difficulties generally described as ''INIT compatibility problems.'' INITPicker 2.02 is a utility designed to eliminate the problems associated with having a number of start-up files in the system folder. First, let's look at some of the reasons you may want to utilize such a program. INITPicker has a handy control panel device (cdev) interface that allows customizing for ideal INIT organization. INITPicker shows you what INITS you are using. They will all appear columnized in such a manner that allows even the messiest System Folder to shape up. Besides seeing which files are automatically run at startup, INITPicker allows you to choose which files will be run simply by placing a checkmark next to its name. This is a necessity for those who are switching from System 6.0x to 7.0x. Many of your faithful and trusting INITs may suddenly become your worst nightmare. With this handy feature, you can turn your INITs on one at a time to check for compatibility. Or you can just trust Apple's latest compatibility update*maybe! You can also change the order in which all of your favorite INITs are loaded which is important to avoid some conflicts with other items in the System Folder. Some INITs, such as MODE32, should be loaded first upon start-up in order to best avoid conflicts. Customizing is as simple as dragging one INIT from its current position in the list to the ordered position you wish it to load in. Creating multiple sets of INITs is also quite convenient. You might like running all of your INITs at start-up, but if you have a lot of them you may be needlessly wasting memory and possibly setting yourself up for a crash! I recommend creating a minimal set including the INITs that you would die without and maybe a set for your job-specific tasks, say, ''PI'' for photo imaging or ''DTP'' for, you got it, desktop publishing. Also, for you INIT 'junkies', a set including every INIT ever created or at last all the ones Steve Black has. (John Rich told me the two lists were of equal length, give or take a couple!) I call my ''everything'' INIT list 'SB' for obvious reasons. This custom list can be alphabetized by simply clicking a little radio button. The set can be just as easily deleted. INITPicker allows you to clean up your system folder by placing all of your files that are ''Start-up Documents'' or ''INITs'' into a new folder named ''INITs.'' Of course many files must be loose in the System Folder in order to work properly and this will not allow you to subfolder them. Probably the best thing about INITPicker is a feature called BombGuard. If your system crashes at start-up, BombGuard will determine if it is an INIT conflict that causes the crash; furthermore, BombGu…