NetWare Application Launcher v3.0 on Windows NT 4.0
It should look pretty much identical on Windows 9x.
Contents
The NAL Window
The NAL Window. Clicking the novell logo tries to go to the Novell website (which these days redirects to a useless page on the Microfocus website which doesn't load because SSL)
About Window
The More button opens this.
Small icons view
List view (not much of a change from small icons)
Details view.
Application Properties: General tab
Application Properites: Help Contacts
Application Properties: Time Schedule
Personal folders created in NAL v1.1 still work the same.
Management Options in NetWare Administrator
Applications can be added at the organisation level (and other containers)
Launcher configuration is a lot different
Edit launcher configuration: User tab
Edit launcher configuration: Launcher tab
Edit launcher configuration: Explorer tab
Edit launcher configuration: Workstation tab
Group applications
User Applications. The Application Object Options I think controls where the application is visible - NAL can put stuff on the desktop or in the start menu too so in this version you don't actually need the NAL window.
Launcher configuration can also be customised per user.
The View objects effective settings drop-down item shows what settings are actually in effect (taking into consideration settings at different levels)
There is also this configuration tree view
NAL v1.1 still works but of course doesn't know anything about Application Folders. Perhaps if the "Backwards compatible" checkbox wasn't checked in some of those Launcher Configuration screens it wouldn't.
Novell Application Explorer
NAL gets a whole lot fancier: the NAL window is optional since 2.0.
Here is my desktop:
Here is the Novell Application Explorer Loader
Splash Screen
And a new icon on the desktop! And a new icon in the system tray!
Lets look at the least interesting first: the system tray icon.
It has a properites window!
The More button opens this familiar window.
Context menu for that Application Explorer icon. The properties option is the same as the properits option on the system tray icon.
This is what you get when you open it!
Inside the NDS view
My personal folder I created in NAL 1.1
All applications
File menu (with an application selected)
Application properties is nothing we haven't seen before. The about tab is new but contains the same about stuff we've seen elsewhere.
Edit menu
View menu
Small icons
List
Details
Options: not much here.
The Go and Favorites menus contain the regular Windows stuff. Help menu is all NAL help and about.
If you miss the tree from the NAL window, there is the Explore option! Open this from the file menu or by right-clicking on the NAL icon on the desktop or a NAL folder icon. Note that once you do this you're stuck in this mode - double clicking on the Application Explorer icon on the desktop will open the regular icon view (with All, Personal and the tree) but opening any of those windows will open a new window in explorer mode. Seems to get back to the regular mode you've got to reboot. A Bug I expect.
You can drag icons to the desktop
Which puts an icon on the desktop!
Not much in its context menu. Verify seems to run the app and properites opens the usual NAL application properties window.
If you delete the icons they go in the recycle bin.
Because they're real files (they have a .NAL extension) and contain binary data.
Over in NetWare Administrator you can make applications appear in more places than just the App Launcher. You can also make them appear in the Start Menu, on the Desktop and in the System Tray. I've ticked these boxes for ndsmgr, nwadmin32 and SnapShot.
For reference, here is my start menu right now:
Right click on application explorer and choose refresh
And I have a pile of icons on my desktop! These are .NAL files as seen before and you can drag them into the trash as before but every time you refresh application explorer (or it auto-refreshs or you restart it), the icon will be recreated. When you exit the application explorer these icons are automatically cleaned up.
The system tray icons have the same menu options as application objects elsewhere and just run the application when you single-click them
And we get a new folder on the Start Menu! This is the folder I created inside the Application Folder object earlier. I guess you don't want to create too many folders in the root level containing applications set to show on the start menu!
Here is the actual start menu folder. The context menu for that NAL folder is the same you get for the folder on the desktop.
Opening it gives you the expected result.
Surprisingly, the Application Explorer isn't some invasive thing thats hard to remove. You can just right-click and choose exit. It doesn't start up with the computer unless you run it from a login script or put it in the startup folder.
When you choose exit it asks for confirmation then cleans up all its stuff. It also deletes any icons you dragged to the desktop yourself. If the computer crashes while you've got NAL stuff all over your desktop it will appear for a few seconds after login then something will automatically clean it all up (I guess once it sees the Application Explorer isn't being started automatically).
Disclaimer & Comments
I'm not a netware expert, don't have any of those fancy novell certifications and have never administred a netware network; I've just played with it at home occasionally since 2004 or so. Email me if you've got any suggestions or corrections for this page or any extra information you think is worth including here. My address is david at this websites domain name (without the www bit of course).