not ready

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Warning The way Geoshell is installed changed with the introduction of WinShellEx in 4.11.10(beta): Some (new) important details didn't make their way in here, so please don't install Geoshell the "ZIP" way for now.

Installing GeoShell from a Zip-file, without using the Installer

preliminary remark This is not the recommended way to install GeoShell. You should only attempt this if you have previous experience editing your registry, and are comfortable working without your start menu or task bar (using just your file manager and task manager). We especially don't recommend this on Windows 95, 98, or ME, where if you set a setting wrong, you will have to boot inot DOS to get your shell back.

Also, if you need to upgrade GeoShell, you will have to exit it first, because you can't overwrite running/loaded files. So, if GeoShell is running, hit win+x (full list of Standard HotKeys) to shut down the shell. Remember, this only exits the shell, your system will be still there, and alt+tab still works .

To restart GeoShell you can start the windows taskmanager (ctrl+alt+del), select New Task and type: ''your path to the geoshell folder''\geoshell.exe -noauto (look for other CommandLineOptions). -noauto will prevent GeoShell from restarting your autostart programs again. You can also create a shortcut to geoshell.exe (e.g. in your GeoShell directory) and use ''your path to the geoshell folder''\geoshell.exe -noauto as the target. Now you just need to doubleclick that link (if you kept your filemanager open)

Here we go...

If you are totally new to the GeoShell scene then you will (should!) use the GeoShellInstaller from the GeoShell release page: http://www.geoshell.com/bins.asp. However, since you're reading this, we'll assume you downloaded the "Zipped Files" file-archive package without any problems.

1. After this has completed downloading, open up the cab (or .zip) file (either of these can be decompressed with e.g. PowerArchiver they simply save you some space). Extract the contents to wherever you want GeoShell installed (we'll assume C:\Shell\GeoShell for the rest of this tutorial).
2. Now, open up Explorer (the file browser, not the shell) and go to C:\Shell\geoShell
   • There should be 5 folders within C:\Shell\geoshell: icons, docs, plugins, skins, utilities
   • There should also be 4 files in C:\Shell\geoShell: geoshell.exe, geolib.dll, shellUI.dll and Language.ini
3. Next, go into the "docs" folder, and run or Clean Install.reg. Double click the file, click yes to add this information into your registry, and then OK when it tells you the information has been added to your registry
4. If this is your first time installing geoshell, or if you've moved it to a different folder, you need to let geoshell tell Windows where it is ...
   • go to C:\Shell\geoshell and execute geoshell.exe – actually, the best thing is to run it from the ''run'' dialog (you'll find ''run'' in the start menu) by typing the full path like this: C:\Shell\geoshell\geoshell.exe -noauto (''-noauto'' will keep geoshell from launching all your startup applications).
   • You may get a few error messages because you are running it on top of explorer, you can ignore these for now (just click "OK" through them).
5. Now that Windows knows where geoshell is, you want to force Windows to run geoshell as the default shell,
   • Navigate to ''C:\Shell\geoshell\Utilities\'' and execute this file: ''Set Shell = GeoShell.bat'' A small command prompt should popup, and then an alert box that tells you the shell is now set to GeoShell.
   • Alternately, if you want to do this step manually, or use a shell manager, instructions can be found here.
     There, we've got the shell set to run!
6. Either log off and log back in again, or restart your system, when you come into Windows, you should find that GeoShell now starts up, opposed to the old windows taskbar and system-tray, don't panic if you can't see your icons, they haven't been deleted - they just aren't used in GeoShell!
7. If you right-click the ends of any of the gray bars, a small menu should popup, the GeoBarMenu. From here you can LoadPlugins, delete plugins from the GeoBar, close the bar, change it's rotation, lock it's position relative to the screenedges and do some more fancy tricks with the GeoBar...

Not all of our plugins are installed by default in either of these .reg files, so the first thing you need to know about GeoShell is that there are some GeoShell Hotkeys (see [default hotkeys]). Pressing the Windows logo key and the "I" key ("win|i") will bring up an install dialog pointed at the plugins directory. Just select a plugin and press OK and it will be added to the GeoBars LoadPlugins list.

In case you don't have a Windows key, or, if you just don't like our GeoShellPlugins ... make your own HotKeys.

Fire up REGEDIT (press "win|g") look in HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Geo\geoshell\Services\Hotkey\szIDs_ and feel free to change the keys. Legal values are in the format: Modifier|key|command ("|" = Pipe = [SHIFT+\ on us keyboards)

• modifiers are any combination of win, ctrl, alt, shift
• keys are just the letter or number
• commands are only needed for HotKeys you add, and they can be either the path\file to an application, or the name of a menu.
  There are also quite a few SPECIAL keys which are listed in StandardHotKeys.

NOTE: if you want to set a HotKey to the menu, you will also need to add the same value in HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Geo\geoshell\Services\Hotkey\uIDs and set it's value to "1" (see the Menu_Tasks hotkey (win|t as an example)

Play around with moving the GeoBar about, get a feel for it. Also, try RightClicking on the desktop (where the wallpaper is) you will see that from there you can access the contents of your start menu, your favorites, even the settings, you should check the settings submenu out, there's some really interesting things there ( like an "install plugin" menu option, so you don't have to remember the win|I hotkey ).
Feel free to ask questions on http://www.GeoShell.com/board or get involved with GeoShell on IRC!