During installation, if you choose to add Windows Integration, a Launch! program group will be created. The next time you run Windows, you'll see this group and icons for "Launch! for DOS", "Launch! 16", "Menu Manager" and "Configuration".

At this time, until I resolve some technical hurdles, Launch! 16 and Menu Manager icons will not be installed on Windows 3.0

Launch! for DOS will show your Launch! menu, in a windowed DOS command session. You can run everything from your menu as normal. Screensavers will not run in Windows (windowed or fullscreen).

Launch! 16 is a native Windows (WIN16) version of your DOS Launch! menu. Containing the same items, and everything can be launched as expected.

The Launch! button is always visible at the top of the screen in the titlebar area (by default top left).

It is set-up to load at Windows startup, via the load= statement in WIN.INI. If you do not want the button to appear on startup, edit and remove this line from WIN.INI.

If you hold down ALT and drag the Launch! button with the mouse- you can reposition it anywhere you like; top or bottom of screen (it will snap to the screen edge) — and it will "save" and remember that position.

If you open the properties dialog for the "Launch! 16" icon in Program Manager and append /CLOCK as a parameter to !W3X.EXE, instead of the "Launch!" button label, you will get a live clock (in the format specified by your Windows regional settings).

• The shortcut key CTRL + ALT + \ will also open the Launch! menu. The shortcut key is handled by Program Manager. You can change the shortcut key by opening the properties dialog for the "Launch! 16" icon and setting it there.

 

If !W3X.EXE is invoked when already running, rather than allowing a 2nd instance, it opens/shows the menu. This is exploited to allow the global keyboard shortcut to be handled by Program Manager- and reducing complex technical burden for Launch! to manage it otherwise.

You can add a different .MNU file as a parameter to !W3X.EXE and it will use that menu file. This could allow you to use a separate menu file under Windows if you wanted. Open the Properties dialog for the Launch! 16 icon in Program Manager to add the parameter.

3 different fixed system items are present on the menu under Windows:

• Run - shows a Run dialog to enter or Browse for an executable
• Explore - runs the default file manager WINFILE.EXE
• Exit Windows - exits Windows returning to the DOS prompt

Quick and easy menu management is handled by right-clicking the Launch! button. You will see the button change to "Manage" and a menu with Add, Edit and Remove. You can also open the Menu Manager.

Add will show a dialog to add a new launcher, the same as DOS.

Edit, will show you the menu - but when you choose an item, instead of launching it you'll see the Edit dialog.

An icon will indicate whether this is a DOS or Windows program. DOS specific launch options are disabled when a Windows executable is detected.

Remove works the same way, you will see the menu - choose an item to remove.

Use the graphical Menu Manager to re-order items, or for a more advanced user interface.

You can add Windows programs to your Launch! menu. Launch! will automatically identify Windows executables.

They can be executed in either DOS or Windows Launch! menus. Under DOS, Windows will be started first then the program started directly. Launchers for Windows programs have a small icon next to them on the menu.

Short answer no. Just don't

Launch! remains DOS focussed. As Microsoft Windows was at this time a prominent graphical environment on top of DOS, the Windows extension provides convenience and makes practical sense.

I'm not intending on extending this into a more complex Windows oriented menu program, and its design is superseded by the Start Menu in Windows 95+.

There will not be icons for the menu ever, because it is surprisingly complex to achieve in Win 3.x and not worth the effort - and I want to remain free of library dependencies. Getting the bitmap to display in the menu, especially in Win 3.0 was an apocalyptic nightmare. Shout out to Icon Hear-it! which provided the path forwards to putting bitmaps in menus.