ShellRun Version details
Possible improvements
Retail version
Freeware version
Known problems
Home page
  • Freeware instructions
        Free download
        Example AUTORUN.INF
        Command prompt

  • Retail features
        Retail instructions
        ShRun.INF parameters
        More files - Menu
        Screen options
        Viewer checking
        Example ShRun.INF

  • AutoRun basics
  • HTML CD-ROMs

  • Version details
        Readme

  • Licence and pricing
        This link is online on the Internet Buy now for US$90

  • Email sales/support

    • Possible improvements

    • Produce a ShellRun-Wizard program to put ShellRun into a CD image and set ShRun.INF parameters.
    • Add an option to test the no viewer user interface.

    ShellRun retail

    3.6 March 28, 2007 Playing Enhanced CDs works better in Windows Vista (File association command now supports %ProgramFiles%).
    Menu mode: delay before quitting - keeps Vista Windows Media Player happy
    3.5 December 19, 2006 XP SP2 Active Content option added.
    3.4 September 9, 2005 If retrying show after viewer installed does not work:
  • convert Install viewer button to Re-show file
  • button text set by NoViewerCmdClickRetryText parameter
  • defaults to "Click here when viewer installed".
    Fix bug: crash on first re-show attempt after viewer install if no message
    New icon and phdcc image
    		•
    3.3 August 9, 2005 DoNotRepeat doesn't force popup to show if -nomsg set
    3.2 August 4, 2005 -min option added
    3.1 April 26, 2005 Unicode UTF-8 support
    3.0 March 2, 2005 Menu options added.
    Run programs with parameters.
    xPos, yPos, xSplash, ySplash parameters added and further ShowOptions parameter options added.
    ShellRun exits if CD ejected.
    2.4 September 10, 2003 "Do not show again" option added:
  • DoNotRepeatId, DoNotRepeatText and DoNotRepeatColor parameters added
    ShowTime parameter can be -1 to keep popup window on screen permanently.
    New ShowOptions parameter lets you keep popup window in front of all other windows.
    • 2.3 July 31, 2003 File showing made conditional, ie:
  • to show a specific file for each viewer version
  • to show a file dependent on whether a file exists on the user's system
  • to show a file dependent on a registry value
    NoViewerCmd also tries to display original filename after running installer (unless NoViewerCmdClickRetryShow set to "off")
    ShellRun displays while running installer (but disallows exit)
    • 2.2 April 3, 2003 Play audio options added for Enhanced CDs containing music and data.
    2.1 January 28, 2003 Show more files at startup feature added using FilenameN parameters.
    Stop hang-ups if application takes too long to start.
    If no viewer installed and user opts to install a viewer (ie run NoViewerCmdClick) then ShellRun tries to display the original filename once installation is complete (unless new NoViewerCmdClickRetryShow parameter is set to "off").
    2.0.5 January 24, 2003 If no file association, stop Windows showing a dialog with options to select or find a program to use.
    2.0.4.1 September 5, 2002 By default, failed filename not now passed as parameter to No Viewer command
    Instead command parameter now taken from NoViewerCmdParam, NoViewerCmdClickParam, ViewerCmdParamsN, ViewerCmdClickParamsN parameters.
    If -max specified, ensure that window is maximised
    Delay main timer start until splash loaded.
    2.0.3 August 16 2002 Add SplashOptions parameter with option to keep Splash image topmost
    2.0.2 July 1 2002 Added Title parameter to change popup window title
    2.0.1 May 22 2002 Added Icon image
    Added Splash image
    Added Text position and formatting
    Added Popup size
    Added Timeout
    Added Viewer version/filename checks
    Added Viewer Exit and Install viewer buttons
    HoldOnError made default (so removed parameter); timeout after click
    Topmost windowing sorted
    Click only works on Info
    Screen work area respected
    1.8.1 March 5, 2001 Add ViewerFile1..10 etc parameters
    1.7.1 13-Jul-01 -max option added
    -nomsg option as well as nomsg
    multiple any-case options permitted at start of line (using TokenFound)
    1.7.0 7-Jun-01 shrun.inf found from ShellRun.exe dir, not current directory
    -c option added
    If -c not specified, set current directory to where ShellRun.exe found
    Added "About PHD ShellRun" to system menu
    1.6.1 1-Oct-00 NoViewerCmd always run. Added NoViewerCmdClick
    1.6.0 28-Sep-00 Added ShRun.INF Filename, Message, NoViewerMsg and NoViewerCmd
    Get ShRun.INF using GetPrivateProfileString
    Double quotes permitted around filename
    Any ERROR_NO_ASSOCIATION shows NoViewerMsg and runs NoViewerCmd
    Window extended if WebMsg is long
    Window shown if error occurs when "nomsg" specified
    1.5.1 30-May-00 ShellExecute has SW_SHOWNORMAL as last param again
    1.5.0 21-Jan-00 ShellExecute calls have 0 as last parameter
    If nomsg specified then window shown hidden (helps stops Word97 hanging)
    Window shown for 15s (not 5s) to give app time to start
    1.4.0.1 7-May-99 NoBrowser supported in ShRun.INF
    Error code returned
    1.3.1 9-Apr-99 ShellExecute Params parameter now correct
    1.30 19-Mar-99 Checks ERROR_NO_ASSOCIATION for .htm and .html
    1.2.0 15-Feb-99 nomsg version

    Viewer Browser

    1.0.0 May 23 2002 Created

    ShellRun freeware

    1.1.0.1 September 9, 2005 New icon
    1.1 February 24, 2005 If no parameters specified, try to read from AUTORUN.INF in same directory
    1.0.5 7-Jun-00 -c option added
    If -c not specified, set current directory to where ShellRun.exe found
    1.0.4 30-May-00 ShellExecute has SW_SHOWNORMAL as last param again
    1.0.3 23-Jan-00 ShellExecute last parameter is 0
    Window show time upped to 15s
    1.0.2 13-Apr-99 remove "." as parameter from ShellExecute
    1.0.1 29-Mar-98 minor fixes
    1.0 27-Mar-98 creation

    Known problems

    No file must have a name starting with home (eg home.htm or homepage.pdf) because Windows incorrectly starts the default browser to display a web site, eg http://home.htm/ instead of displaying the file home.htm.  If your initial page name cannot be changed, make another page, say called default.htm, that moves to home.htm straight away using this in the page header:
    <META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="0; URL=home.htm">
    This bug has been fixed in Windows XP, but you need to use a different filename so users with earlier versions of Windows do not see the problem.

    Feb 7, 2001
    If you get an error Access to a specified device, path or file is denied when you try to run ShellRun on your CD, it usually means that you have not put ShellRun.exe in the root directory of your CD. ShellRun.exe is in your installation directory, ie usually C:\Program Files\PHD\ShellRun.
    This is not a ShellRun bug.

    Nov 25, 2000
    ShellRun sometimes will not work exactly as it should if an Internet Explorer window is already open.  It may replace the existing window rather than opening a new window, or even just close the existing window.  "It is inconsistent and seems to happen more frequently in Laptop CD ROM drives than on desktops".  In particular this has been reported for Windows 98 Second Edition, with IE version 5.00.2614.3500 and 5.00.2919.6307.

    Nov 25, 2000
    If the default browser is a Netscape browser, on a handful of computers a message appears saying "unable to locate browser" or similar.  However the browser does open.
    ShellRun Home Last modified: 28 March 2007 ShellRun online