******************************************************************************************** V-BeGone v. 3.5 ******************************************************************************************** V-BeGone is a utility designed to simplify the removal of all the OCXs and related files that Microsoft Visual Basic normally installs in the Windows\System directory, WITHOUT removing any OCXs installed by other Microsoft Products or third party applications. V-BeGone will not touch any OCXs that Visual Basic did not install (See Notes, below). OCXs are moved to a newly created directory on your C: drive, called 'BackOCX'. OCA files are simply deleted, as they will be recreated the next time you use the controls. To use V-BeGone , double-click on the .Exe in File Manager or Windows Explorer, or click the Start button, then Run, and enter the path to the Vbgone.exe. When the splash screen appears, verify that you've read this file and click on Proceed. On the main form, select a Version Option, verify the list of files V-BeGone is going to move, and click on the Move 'Em button. If you change your mind BEFORE clicking on Move 'Em, click the "Let Me Outa Here!" button. Nothing will be moved or deleted. You can also select another Version Option to get a completely new list, or remove individual files from the list by double-clicking on them. If no files are found, verify that the Path settings displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the form are correct. If they aren't, click the Change Path button and select the correct directory. If the Path settings are correct, but no files are found, then there aren't any Visual Basic OCXs installed on this system. If you change your mind AFTER you've moved the OCXs, click on Undo. You won't get your OCAs back (they're recreated as you need them, so don't worry about them), but your OCXs (and/or DLLs, etc.) will be moved back to the Windows\System directory. If you change your mind after clicking on Move 'Em and exiting V-BeGone, you will have to manually copy the files back. You'll find them waiting patiently for you in the BackOCX folder on your C: drive. ********************************************************************************************* INSTALLATION ********************************************************************************************* Because V-BeGone was written in Visual Basic 3, installation couldn't be easier. Copy the VBRUN300.DLL to your Windows\System folder. You're done! When you want to run V-BeGone, simply double-click on the .Exe. (Please be sure this file, ReadMe.txt is in the same folder as the VBegone.exe.) ******************************************************************************************** NOTES ******************************************************************************************** CONFLICTS ************** To avoid conflicts with newer versions of Visual Basic, V-BeGone was written in VB3. Therefore, V-BeGone will run whether you have removed your current version of Visual Basic, or not. V-BeGone does not remove any VB3 components, nor cause any problems with ANY reasonably current version of Visual Basic. You should be aware, though, that some OCXs have now shipped with three different versions of Visual Basic. This can cause some confusion as to the effect running V-BeGone will have. For instance, selecting the VB6 OCXs option will include some OCXs that originally shipped with VB4. For this reason, the VB6 option may find some OCXs to remove, even if VB6 has never been installed on the current machine, if VB4 or VB5 have ever been installed. While this may cause some confusion, it should cause no harm. Simply reinstall the OCXs from the installation CD for the version of Visual Basic you are working with. This can be done by reinstalling Visual Basic or by manually copying the OCX files to your Windows\System directory, registering them using Regsvr32.exe, and double-clicking the VBControls.Reg file found on the CD. In some cases, it is possible that a third party application has installed a newer version of an OCX than the version of Visual Basic you installed shipped with. In this case, you will need to reinstall the third party application, as well as Visual Basic's OCXs. V-BeGone does NOT automate the reinstallation process, as there are usually other steps you will need/want to take before reinstalling the OCXs. VERSION CHECKING ************************* V-BeGone does no version checking. The assumption is that you want to remove the OCXs, regardless of version, in order to clean up your machine. However, on Win95/Win98 machines, V-BeGone will list the version number of the files it intends to remove, so that you may more easily decide if you wish to remove them. The 16 bit subsystems on NT and OSR/2 don't provide this functionality. SCREEN RESOLUTION *************************** V-BeGone was designed with the possibility in mind that some folks might need to run it in Safe Mode (That's a Win95/Win98 term, for you Win 3.X holdouts). All the screens fit on a monitor running 640x480 resolution. It may not look great with 16 colors (what does?), but it's legible. If you're running super-high resolution on a big monitor, get out the magnifying glass or temporarily lower the resolution. Maybe someday a new version will include code to make V-BeGone resolution independent. NAMING CONVENTIONS ***************************** On startup, V-Begone checks for the default Windows and System folders. Because V-BeGone was written in 16 bit VB3, it cannot use Windows API calls to find your Windows\System directory reliably: 16 bit API's never heard of System32, and they don't work on Win98. Therefore, if you decided during installation to change the WinNT folder's name to "Fred" and the System32 folder's name to "Barney", V-BeGone isn't going to be able to find the OCXs without your help. If this is the case, you will need to enter the path to the folder where VB installed your OCXs. DUAL BOOT MACHINES **************************** If you are running a Dual Boot machine, and V-BeGone can't find your OCXs, it is probably because they are installed in the other operating system. If this is your situation, you will need to use the Change Path button to tell V-BeGone where to find your OCXs. You can still remove them, if the other operating system's file allocation table is readable by the operating system you booted into, ie; you booted into NT but the OCXs are in your Win95 installation's System folder. Remember, Win95 can read a FAT16 file allocation table created by NT, but it can't read an NTFS file allocation table. If all else fails, boot into the operating system you installed VB into. WINDOWS REGISTRY *************************** V-BeGone doesn't know about the registry. If you need to register or unregister files, or clean entries out of your registry, this is the wrong utility for the job. Visual Basic 4, 5, and 6 shipped with a utility called regsvr32.exe (or regsvr.exe for 16 bit), which does a great job of (un)registering files. Microsoft also has a nifty little utility called RegClean available for download if you want to clean out registry entries. CRYSTAL REPORTS ************************* V-BeGone does not completely remove Crystal Reports. However, Crystal Reports will be rendered useless, until you reinstall it, if you choose the "VB5 OCXs and DLLs" option. If you are attempting to downgrade Crystal Reports to an earlier version, you will still need to delete the Crystal directory from your hard drive before installing the desired version. If you wish to continue using the SAME version of Crystal Reports, simply reinstall it. ODBC ******* ODBC is also removed when you choose the "VB5 OCXs and DLLs" option. You will need to reinstall ODBC after running V-BeGone with this option. You can do this by either reinstalling your version of Visual Basic, or running the ODBC setup from the ODBC directory on the hard drive or your Visual Basic CD (MDAC_Typ.exe for VB6). MCIWINDX.OCX ****************** For some reason, the same routine that works on every other OCX we've checked misreports the version of Mciwindx.ocx. We don't know why. Call it a bug, and get on with your life. We are. LEGALESE ************* V-BeGone is a free utility, offered 'As Is' with no warranty of performance or suitability, and absolutely no support by Microsoft, BearWare UnLtd., or anyone else in their right minds. However, V-BeGone has been extensively tested, and works quite well on most machines. Your mileage may vary. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS **************************** We'd like to thank our patient and imaginative team of beta testers, Joe Terranova, Tina Cruickshank, Bob Tsiaras, with occasional help from Sherri Rudnick and Mike Campbell. Microsoft and Visual Basic are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All rights to V-BeGone are reserved by BearWare UnLtd.