Somebody asked me how the BearStart program I wrote should be run, so I've got an online guide here.
- Download the program from BearStart.zip on to your computer. It is a zipped file.
- Unzip the file inside (called BearStart.exe) and put in your BearShare folder (usually C:\Program Files\Bearshare\). (It is not critical to put it there, but it makes it easier to find later)
- Instead of starting BearShare the usual way, double click on the BearStart program and it should start the currently installed version of BearShare for you after setting the system date back to July 1st, 2005 for a few seconds while BearShare is starting up. The system date is put back to todays date automatically after a few seconds and the program ends while BearShare thinks it is July 1st while checking the expiry date and proceeds to run normally. It recognises the correct date after a few seconds and proceeds to work as normal.
- If you want to create a shortcut to BearStart, right click on the program file and select the create shortcut option. If you want that shortcut on your speed bar or desktop, just drag and drop it or copy and paste it there. You can always edit the current BearShare shortcuts and get them to point to BearStart instead of BearShare.
- BearStart is designed to look for the latest installed version of BearShare on your computer and run that, regardless of how many versions you have on your system.
- To uninstall just delete the BearStart program and any shortcuts you have made - no uninstall procedures necessary.
Good luck. Enjoy.
Handy TIP: New users of the recommended version of BearShare and BearStart should run the
BearDiag troubleshooting utility to check for problems with their computer configuration, and update the 'starter' files that BearShare uses to connect to other users to more recent ones that work. Further details on where to find and how to run BearDiag can be found at
http://www.technutopia.com/forum/announcement.php?a=11
(Edit: Vista users should also have a browse at
http://www.technutopia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3484 and
http://www.technutopia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5649 for some necessary changes to make things work smoothly.)