Quick Start:
Open the .zip
Extract its contents to a suitable directory (usually c:\Blackbox\ )
Open blackbox.rc in the Blackbox root directory
(please note that this file *has* to be named blackbox.rc or blackboxrc)
Edit the session.menuFile value to point to the location of the included menu.rc file
(this file can have any filename)
Edit the session.styleFile value to point to the location of the style file of your choice
(a few included styles can be found in the "styles" subfolder, style files can have any filename)
Download the Blackbox font pack from our website (fonts will default to Verdana if not available)
If you want your styles to be able to set wallpaper automatically, download bsetroot from our website
If you want to use any plugins, add the plugin paths to the plugins.rc file
Start Blackbox.exe
Enjoy!
(...however, we recommend that you read the information below as well!)
Blackbox supports the following commandline options (switches):
-help
Displays command line options and version information, then exits.
-nostartup
Starts Blackbox without running the items in your startup folder
(-nostartup is used automatically if running on top of Explorer).
-rc path
Lets you specify a new blackbox.rc path.
-searchmenu
This will open up a file requester to let you search for a menu file to use.
-searchstyle
This will open up a file requester to let you search for a style file to use.
Blackbox can be run on top of almost any other shell. However, this will usually result in certain features of the underlying shell being de-activated. Blackbox is designed to be run as the single shell on your system, but it will *not* automatically install itself as the default shell. However, we recommend that you run it this way.
To set Blackbox as your default shell, we recommend that you use a shell installer application such as galois' excellent "Installer".
We also recommend that you consult online resources such as docs.litestep.net (replace the word "LiteStep" with "Blackbox" everywhere, and you will be fine! <g>).
On exit or restart, Blackbox will save the running configuration to the file blackbox.rc (or "blackboxrc", depending on which one it finds first) in the Blackbox root directory.
This includes all options from the [config] submenu, the currently selected style file, your workspace names etc.
Usually the blackbox.rc resource file is created and maintained by Blackbox itself. There are, however, a few settings in it that you might want to edit yourself, such as:
session.menuFile:
This tells Blackbox where to look for its menu file.
session.screen0.toolbar.widthPercent:
This determines the width (in % of screen width) of the toolbar. The default value is 66%.
Finally, a short summary of the available mouse commands in Blackbox for Windows:
Desktop / Menu
A right click (button 2) on the desktop will pop up the (configurable) main menu, which is used to launch applications and execute commands.
A mid click (button 3) on the desktop will pop up the Workspaces menu. Using this menu you can add or remove workspaces, view applications running in each available workspace, view minimized applications (ie. not on any workspace), as well as jump directly to any workspace or application.
Left clicking (button 1) on an application in the Workspaces menu will switch to that workspace and raise/focus the application; mid clicking will warp the application to the current workspace and raise/focus it.
Left clicking on the titlebar of any submenu and then dragging it somewhere else will cause the menu to stay visible ("pinned"), ie. not disappear when you click a menu item. Right clicking the titlebar of a menu will make it disappear.
Drag'n'drop of a bitmap (.BMP) onto the desktop will set the bitmap as your wallpaper (tiled mode).
Toolbar
Left clicking: There are four buttons on the taskbar; the two on the left will switch workspaces, the two on the right will cycle through your visible (non-maximized) applications. If the task you're switching to is on another workspace you will automatically be switched to that workspace.
Right clicking the toolbar will pop up the toolbar menu, which lets you control toolbar settings such as placement and if the toolbar should be always on top.
Mid clicking the toolbar does nothing for now... :)
If you happen to have a mouse with more than three buttons, X1 clicking the toolbar will open Date/Time Properties, and X2 clicking will open Display Properties.
Drag'n'drop of a style file onto the toolbar will make Blackbox use that style.
Window Titlebars and Borders
Left clicking anywhere on the window border raises the window, dragging moves the window, and dragging the resize grips will resize the window (ie. the "normal" behaviour).
Mid clicking the titlebar of a window minimizes it.
Double (left) clicking the titlebar of a window will "shade" it -> only the titlebar will stay visible. Another double click will redisplay the window contents ("unshade" the window).
The maximize button on the window can be used in three different ways: Left clicking it toggles the window between maximized and normal view, right clicking it maximizes the window only horizontally, and mid clicking it maximizes the window only vertically.
Oh, btw, there is also a single hotkey: Ctrl+Alt+F1 can be used to quit Blackbox for Windows... (you need to use a plugin if you want to be able to configure your own hotkeys).
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