*** Wintune 97 Release 1.0 (03/25/97) ***

Thank you for trying Wintune 97. This file lists
solutions to common problems you may have. Please
read it before posting questions. Thanks!

Wintune 97 is meant only for the release version
(build 950) of Windows 95 or later, and for 
Windows NT 3.51 or later.

This release fixes some problems encountered in 
the Video and disk tests, identifies newer kinds of processors,
and adds tips for SCSI drives. It also loads much
faster than the earlier version, and, in its Windows 95
version, it has a much smaller download size.

============
INSTALLATION
============
After you have downloaded the file, you must first
unzip it. You cannot double click on Setup.exe
in the Winzip window and have the setup operate
properly, because setup first needs all the files
expanded.
Run SETUP.EXE and follow the prompts. If Setup
determines that some of the files are already on
the system, or if Wintune is installed a second
time, the install progress bar won't always go
to 100%.  This is "normal". Also, after the setup
runs there may be an empty button with no caption
on the task bar. Clicking it will make it go away.
This is "normal" too.

Missing DLLs
------------
If Wintune doesn't start and you get a message 
you're missing MFCxxx.DLL, you do not have some
of the standard Windows support DLL files.

Under Windows 95, this may have happened because
Win95 was installed with Custom or Compact setup
options. You can nudge Win95 to install the needed
DLLs by installing WordPad. From Control Panel,
click Add/Remove Programs. Click the Windows Setup
tab and double-click Accessories. Scroll down to
the bottom of the list and check WordPad. OK your
way out to complete the installation.

Windows NT users should download the version 
of Wintune specifically designed for Windows NT,
which contains the .DLLs you need to run Wintune
97 under NT 3.51 or later. Windows 95 users who 
do not have access to their setup disks should 
download the file WT97NT.ZIP. It includes the 
extra files you need to run WT97 if your Windows 95 
installation does not have them installed. 

Windows NT users can also download WT97NT.ZIP if 
you wish. The files it contains were not
included in our Windows 95 download package
because they more than double the total size of the current
Wintune download, and are often already on your 
system. On Windows 95 these files should be placed 
in the Windows SYSTEM directory; Windows NT needs 
these files in the SYSTEM32 directory.

=======
SUPPORT
=======
Inside Wintune, you can generally get help on any
result or tip by clicking the Tell Me More button,
by double-clicking the item, or by right-clicking
and selecting Tell Me More. We've tried to make it
easy to get to the help file!

We'll be taking feedback and answering questions in
both the America Online and Compuserve WinMag forums
in the Wintune 97 folder/section. Since many people
have the same questions, you may find your questions
already answered there. Or E-mail us at 
WINTUNE@WINMAG.COM.

Making a WTX file
-----------------
If you want to send your results to another user,
or send them to us so we can help diagnose a problem,
you need to produce a Wintune export (.WTX) file:

1) Start Wintune 97.
2) Click the Analyze Now button.
3) Wait until the testing is complete.
4) Select File/Export Current from the menu.
5) Type in a directory and file name.

The file you create is an ASCII (plain text) file in
a special format that Wintune can import into its
database. You can either attach it to a message, or
you can insert the text of the WTX file directly into
an email or forum message.

If you geta WTX file from another user, you can
import it into Wintune 97 by simply using Drag and 
Drop. Either drag the file into the database tab, 
or drag the file onto the Wintune 97 icon.
Note that the file must have the .WTX extension
or Wintune will not import it. You will not get 
a warning, but the import will not work.

===============
System Analyzer
===============
* Wintune is reporting the BIOS information stored
  in the Registry, but this appears to only be set
  by Windows 95 upon installation. If you upgrade
  the BIOS or switch the disk to a new system, the
  new version info will not be reflected. Windows
  NT updates this info each time it boots, so it
  doesn't have this problem. This is a Win95 bug,
  we may bypass them and do our own groping in a
  future release.

============
CPU Analyzer
============
* Some 486DX2 and 486DX4 CPUs are reported simply
  as 486DX. This is because those CPUs do not have
  a way for software to determine internal versus
  external clock rate. Newer models support a CPUID
  instruction which specifies the CPU type.
* Wintune should now accurately report the    
  Cyrix 6x86 processors. It will identify a Cyrix
  5x86, but may not properly report the clock speed
  for these processors.
* Wintune should now properly identify AMD K5 and K6
  processors but may not properly report their 
  clock rates. If you observe this situation, please
  export a WTX file and send it to us, along with the
  true clock speed of your system, at 
  WINTUNE@WINMAG.COM.

===============
Memory Analyzer
===============
* Wintune 97 gets its Installed RAM result from
  Windows (NT or 95). However, Windows 95 does not
  appear to count any memory that is used by DOS
  device drivers or the BIOS itself (e.g. used for
  ROM shadowing). This may cause the Installed RAM
  reported to be lower than the actual amount of
  installed RAM. We may bypass them and do our own
  groping in a future release.

==============
Video Analyzer
==============
* The test used to run in a 640X480 window, but
  it now runs in full-screen mode. 
* The new video analyzer in Wintune 97 will give 
  results that are very different from those in 
  Wintune 95. Improvements in reported speed vary 
  about 50% for slower older systems to as much as
  3x improvement in the newer faster systems. 
  We plan to publish guidance for estimating
  the speed you should expect in Wintune 97 compared 
  to that in Wintune 95.
=============
Disk Analyzer
=============
* Both the cached and uncached tests may vary
  by more than 10 percent on systems with less
  than 10MB of RAM. This is due to swapping.
  The problem will be worse if you have created
  a large Wintune database, (Wtun97.wtd) so keep 
  the database small.
* Some systems give an uncached result that is
  clearly not uncached. For example, the cached
  result on one system was 13MB/s but "uncached"
  was 14MB/s! This seems to occur with systems
  using DOS compatibility (16-bit) drivers and 
  some third-party drivers. We're still checking
  this problem out, and would like reports from
  affected users.
* One user of an Adaptec 2942 SCSI controller
  reported an uncached number of 0.8 MB/s but
  copying a large file yielded a more credible
  3 MB/s. This result comes about because of 
  write-behind caching of SCSI disks. We have
  added a tip to apprise users of the apparent
  inconsistency and possible remedies.
* If you see a change greater than about 10% from
  the uncached disk score you received from
  Wintune 95, please E-mail the .WTX file from
  both programs for the same computer to
  WINTUNE@WINMAG.COM
* You may get an inaccurate block size reported
  in your results if you are running Windows 95
  and if your disk is over 2GB. We use 
  Windows 95's function GedDiskFreeSpaceEx 
  to determine disk information, and the info
  it returns, especially with such large disks,
  is inaccurate. This will be fixed in an upcoming
  release. 

=============
Apps Analyzer
=============
* Instructions for building your own app tests
  are included in the help file. Right-click
  the Apps node in the Details tab and select
  Tell Me More.
* Some times the apps analyzer hangs. There seems 
  to be no apparent pattern that would account for 
  this behavior. There is, however, one cause
  we have been able to identify. 
  If you are running the Prank Fix 
  virus package for Word, you will get a dialog box
  (that will be hidden). Since you don't respond, 
  this looks like the macro is hanging. ALT-TAB to 
  Word to see if this is the case. If the apps
  hang in other places, please let us know.
  

==========
Help Files
==========
* For modularity, the help files are implemented
  as separate files for each analyzer and a main
  help file. Cross-file references have not been
  implemented, so you need to start with an idea
  of what (video, disk, CPU, memory) you want to
  check out. Or you can browse all the help files
  by going to the Details tab; for each analyzer
  right-click the name and select Tell Me More.
* Help files have been updated for this 
  release.
* Right clicking on some tips in the Reports tab
  will not pop up a context menu. If you want to 
  view the help item for that tip, go to the Details
  tab and right click the tip there. That will bring 
  up the proper help item.

*** END OF README ***
