Microtest v3 User's Manual
Contents
1. ae 2 VOULGON tread manuals 4 Whati Vinta GD en ene 4 New 5 6 222 5 6 FISU SIDS aeRO 7 7 EN RUA 13 Using the Virtual CD Management Program cccccssccssessecsecssessseeeseeeseeseseseseecseessseseeeesetesateens 13 Starting the Virtual CD Management 0 13 Deleting 14 Adding Existing Virtual CDs to the Management Program 15 Creating Customized Virtual CD ccccsssssssecssessssssssecssesscnssssecssesseussssesssessensessesstessensseessees 15 GD SCENO ne Rn eee 17 18 3 4 You don t read manuals Are you one of those people whom never bother reading the operating instructions No problem Experienced PC users will find no surprises in2. Network Edition MICROTEST 2 Foreword Thank you for choosing Virtual CD network edition We have incorporated some new features in this third version of our award winning program and are sure it will live up to the expectations of our users Many of the new fun ctions we have integrated were inspired by suggestions that users have made we d like to thank you all for your input This manual provides you with an introduction to Virtual CD but does not contain a full description of the software For detailed information please refer to the on line Help Important note If you use VCD3 with CD ROMs that are under license and you create multiple virtual images of such CDs or if you use a physical CD and a virtual version of the same CD simultaneously on different computers you may be in violation of the software licensing agreement that applies to a given CD Make sure you read the licensing agreements supplied with your original CDs for detailed information Copyright 2000 by Microtest GmbH All rights reserved Copyrights on the software the Virtual CD trademark and all corresponding documentation are owned by Microtest GmbH In the US Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation The names of products mentioned in this manual are used for identification purposes and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their manufacturers Contents FOreWor
3. Search Add Delete Description z 1 Empty drive Telephone Director Empty drive z Empty drive 8 9910071105 41 Data Press F1 for Help The main window has 3 sections The pane on the left shows the virtual drives the upper right hand window pane shows the virtual CDs registered in the Management program and in the lower right pane are the contents of the selected virtual CD Deleting Virtual CDs Virtual CDs are stored on the hard disk in what we call image files which of course take up some amount of disk space If you have a virtual CD that you no longer need you can delete it using the Virtual CD Management program 5 Select the virtual CD you want to delete in the upper right hand window pane and click on the Delete button The following dialog asks you to confirm that you really Delete want to delete the virtual CD irtual CD Delete an image file x Delete the selected image file This operation removes the virtual CD from your Management program and The Delete function removes a virtual CD from your Management program in other words the CD is no longer registered in the VCD program However It will not be deleted from your actual hard disk unless you select the option to Delete the image from the hard disk either case click on OK when you re ready Adding Existing Virtual CDs to the Management Program 15 You might have image files
4. CDs on computers that don t even have physical CD drives e lets you use multiple CDs simultaneously This saves you having to buy an expensive CD changer protects your valuable original CDs from getting lost or damaged conserves precious battery power in your notebook or laptop because you don t need to use the energy hogging CD drive e makes for a quieter workplace because you rarely use the noisy CD ROM drive New Features in Version 3 5 The new version is a completely reworked software suite with an improved user interface and many new features and functions e Compatible with Windows 95 98 2000 and NT 4 e Lets you customise your virtual CDs using the Virtual CD Editor e Improved compression for data CDs e Easier to use thanks to the improved user interface including new Wizards e Expanded CD reading operations using special digital mastering technology e Direct access to CDDB server for music CD information download artist name aloum and track titles e System tray Icon for quick access to the main functions e Hotkeys for quick loading of virtual CDs e Expanded autostart function System Requirements Virtual CD generally works on all systems that run Windows since it is a Windows device driver that requires few resources Your system should meet the following minimum specifications Windows 95 with Microsoft DirectX V 3 or later and at least 32 MB RAM or Windows 98 with at least 32 MB RAM or Wind
5. a list box containing the hard drives on your system The space available on the selected hard disk is shown so you can see whether there is enough room for the new virtual CD If the available space is insufficient the number is shown in red The option to Automatically create a directory for the new image helps you keep your virtual CD 9 data organised This is particularly useful for music CDs because these have separate files for each song track If you collect a lot of virtual music CDs it can be difficult to keep track of which file belongs to which CD This is why we recommend leaving this option selected at all times You can even configure your default Virtual CD settings so that this option is automatically selected for music CDs so you won t have to worry about it again Click on Next to continue Virtual CD Image Wizard Settings and track type 29 Define the type of tracks you wish to write to the virtual CD Create audio track s Create data track s Source CD information CD format Mixed mode CD data audio Number of data tracks 1 Number of audio tracks 3 Space on hard disk Disk space required for the image file 34 Disk space available on drive D 4296 lt Back Cancel In this window you can select the tracks from the source CD to be included on the virtual CD This window also shows technical data pertaining to the
6. of all your vir tual CDs is shown The one you choose here is loaded into the virtual CD drive selected Now you can work with your virtual CD File Edit View Favorites Tools 315 Floppy DT_MAIN 0 Compact Disc 4 Browse with ACDSee Compact Disc Explore Compact Disc 1 Search as though it was a real CD ad Load a virtual CD Route Planner Control Panel GD Add to Zip Telephone EN Eject MixedMusic Paste Create Shortcut Properties OOOOOOOO0 OOOC Using the Virtual CD Management Program The Virtual CD Management program is the main program module of Virtual CD and should be quite familiar to users of earlier VCD versions Pretty much all of the program functions and all set tings can be accessed and configured in the Management program Starting the Virtual CD Management Program One way to start the Virtual CD Management program is from the Windows Start menu Select Start gt Programs gt Virtual CD 3 gt Virtual CD 3 on Tj Programs Deinstallation Wi y Documents virtual CD 3 2 Documentation Eh Settings A Information Start Wizard Search 5 fy Virtual CD 3 Editor gx Help Run 2 Shut Down start This starts the main program Virtual CD Ioj File Edit View CDDB Help AS g Insert Eject
7. on your hard disk or other data media that are not currently registered in your Virtual CD Management program for example after you re install VCD or install a new VCD version These must be added to or registered in your Management program before you can use them If you Know exactly where the image files are stored you can tell the Management program where to look Otherwise you can run a search for existing image files The latter option is described below a Click on the Search button the following dialog box opens Search irtual CD Find existing image files Ht x PEETA Enter the directory that the Manager should Search in art searcnin 21 click on Start searching _ The image files found are PO EACUS _ listed the lower half of the dialog box Select the image files you wish to add and click on Add selected ima ges or simply click on Add all images Cancel Creating a customized Virtual CD This powerful new function lets you combine tracks from different source CDs to create customized virtual CDs The procedure is quite simple You start by creating a definition file in the Virtual CD Editor file name extension VCX that is basically a blueprint for your customized virtual CD One way to start the Virtual CD Editor is by clicking on the Editor button in the E ditor Virtual CD Management program 16 The Virtual CD Editor is actually a separate prog
8. source CD In most cases you will probably want to include the entire CD to do this just click on Next The next window only opens if the source CD is a data CD If the source is purely a music CD this window is not shown so you can skip to the next window also shown in these instructions lt Virtual CD Image Wizard Data track settings 3 E x Define settings for creating the data track Copy method Normal z Data compression method F Ignore defective sectors m disk space for the data track s Disk space required without data compression 4 Estimated hard disk space required with data compression N a Space on hard disk Disk space required for the image file 4 Disk space available on drive 215 lt Back Cancel you can choose from options for creating the data tracks of a virtual CD Some CDs are manufactured using special digital mastering technology These CDs do not work 10 with the Standard copy method used by Virtual CD This is why we have introduced 2 new options called Correction 1 and Correction 2 most cases one of these copy methods will be able to create your virtual CD Unfortunately there is no way to know ahead of time which method you need to use only trial and error will tell you Theoretically Correction 2 is the most advanced method but it also has its disadvantages Overvie
9. ate to start the Image Writer This module completes the process for generating the new virtual CD Create Global Virtual CD Settings To configure your VCD program select View gt Virtual CD settings in the Management program Virtual CD Settings a x Global Drive view Image view System Define your global Virtual CD settings here Default image folder Program Files VirtualCD 3 lmages Close the Virtual CD Image Writer automatically Retrieve audio CD information from CDDB server Always activate the option to Automatically create a directory for audio CDs Use the Start Wizard Show Quick Start icon in system tray CPU gives image creation low priority normal priority high priority The Default image folder defines which directory on your disk is automatically used for image files When you enter only a file name in the Image Wizard without a path the new image file is stored here If you activate the option to Close Image Writer automatically the Image Writer closes as soon as a new custom virtual CD has been written unless an error occurs during writing in which case the Image Writer remains open and an error message is displayed The option to Retrieve audio CD information from CDDB server enables Virtual CD to download album and track titles as well as artists names from the CDDB Service If your computer does have Internet acce
10. e compromise between high sound quality and low number of bytes The best CODECs of course come from other manufacturers MP3 and VQF are two examples These combi ne high compression with a quality of sound approaching that of an original CD 12 Click on Next the following is the second to last page of the Image Wizard Virtual CD Image Wizard Image settings x Enter a brief description of the virtual CD the program used to open the file start program and if desired virtual drive in which the virtual CD is loaded automatically and hotkey combination for loading the virtual CD Description Test CD Load the image automatically into S 6 1 z Start program Change hotkey Space on hard disk Disk space required for the image file 28 Disk space available on drive 186 MB lt Back Cancel Help The description you enter here is the name that will be used internally for the CD If the CD contains a telephone directory for example we d recommend calling the virtual CD Telephone Directory for the sake of clarity If you select the option to Load the image automatically into drive the virtual CD is automatically loaded in the drive you define here as soon as the CD has been created In our example here we ll leave this option de selected and have you load the CD manually when it s finished The Start program option is described in detail in the on line H
11. elp program Click on Finish to begin the actual copying procedure The length of time this takes depends on the volume of data on the source CD and the data compression and or compressed audio formats sel ected it could take anywhere from a just a few minutes to around three quarters of an hour If you selected Correction 1 or Correction 2 as copy method it may take slightly longer And of course the overall time it takes is also influenced by your processor speed When the process has been completed the following information window opens Virtual CD 3 Image Writer Status The virtual CD has been created Current track 22 Time remaining 22 Sectors eee HERRERA SCRR ERE RROD OREO RHR E RRR ROR BER Data track s tracks being writter audio track writter i format PCH 44 100 kHz 16 Bit Stereo 8 Click on Exit to close this window the virtual CD is now finished Once this point has been rea 13 ched the virtual CD is now ready to be inserted into a virtual drive Inserting a virtual CD 2 Double click on the Computer symbol in your Windows Explorer Right click on the virtual CD drive in which you want to insert the virtual CD Computer This opens a context sensitive menu to which Virtual CD has added the command Load a virtual CD When you select this com mand a list
12. he physical drive E In some cases Virtual CD cannot correctly determine the amount of data on the source CD Unfortunately you will not notice the mistake until after the virtual CD has been created A Virtual CD may also become stuck in a loop trying to find the end of a CD In such cases it may help to start over and select the option to Use binary search to determine CD size Click on Next to continue Enter the name and path of the new image file or click on the folder icon to browse Image file D Images test fed pt Automatically create a directory for the new image Space on hard disk Required hard disk space for the virtual CD 34 MB Space available on drive 558 MB Virtual CD creates an exact copy of the CD in the source drive and stores it in an image file on your hard disk In order to do this Virtual CD has to know which directory to store the new image file in and under what name Virtual CD will suggest a path which is actually a default you can configure in the Virtual CD Management program under View gt Settings You must enter a filen ame for the virtual CD The default path in the input field usually has a blue background meaning it is selected When you type a name this path disappears This is not a problem Virtual CD uses the default path and adds the FCD file extension automatically The Space on hard disk section has
13. he virtual drives in Explorer My Computer 4 101 x File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Ei 314 Floppy 4 C 0 Compact Disc Compact Disc Compact Disc Compact Disc Compact Disc 1 Control Panel 9 objectis My Computer In this example drives F through I are virtual drives and drive E is the physical drive First Steps 7 To work with the Virtual CD program you need to begin by creating a virtual CD Then you will insert this new virtual CD into a virtual CD drive All roads lead to Rome There are a number of ways to start Virtual CD which means you can customise your use according to your personal preferences When you want to create or insert a virtual CD you can begin by run ning either the Start Wizard or the Management program by clicking on the quick start icon in the system tray or by selecting a VCD program from a context sensitive menu in Explorer The examples given here use only one method each time a particular function is described See the on line Help for detailed descriptions of the other choices Creating a Virtual CD Insert the original CD from which you want to create a virtual image into your CD drive Make sure the CD is not scratched or dirty Wait a few seconds for Windows to detect the CD Note Make sure the CD is not accessed by any other program while you are making the virtual CD Close the programs such a
14. mat PCM 22 050 kHz 16 Bit Stereo Change audio format Test recording m disk space for the audio track s Disk space required without data compression 4 Estimated hard disk space with data compression 1 Space on hard disk Required hard disk space for the image file 30 MB Disk space available on drive D 4296 This window too only opens if the source CD contains audio tracks Almost all of today s CD ROM drives from about 8 x upward offer you the option of reading the audio tracks digitally We recommend using this option whenever possible as it provides the best possible sound quality In some cases however you may still hear interference If this happens try the analog option With this option the CD is played and then recorded from the computer s sound card Use the Test recording function to check the volume settings Click on Change audio format if you want to change the settings shown The default configuration provides an exact replica of the source in CD quality PCM 44 100Hz 16 bit stereo The better the sound quality the bigger the file Keep this basic rule in mind when selecting the audio format Naturally you want the best possible sound quality but the better the quality the more disk space is used up The MS ADPCM CODEC audio compression decompression module that comes with the Windows operating system repre sents a reasonabl
15. ows NT4 Workstation with Service Pack 5 and at least 64 MB RAM or Windows 2000 Professional with at least 64 MB RAM e Pentium 200 MHz or faster processor e Approximately 10 MB hard disk space for the Virtual CD 3 software e DirectSound compatible sound card Optional Internet access to download music CD information from CDDB You will also need disk space for each virtual CD you create A virtual CD takes up anywhere from 1 to 700 MB of space depending on the content of the original CD and on the type of data compres sion selected 6 Installation If you have an earlier version of Virtual CD you need to uninstall it and restart your computer befo re installing VIRTUAL CD You can still use the virtual CDs created with the older program Insert the Virtual CD program CD in the CD drive and wait a moment for Windows to detect the CD If the autostart function is active installation should start automatically If this is not the case double click My Computer your Explorer and then on the symbol for the drive where you inserted the Virtual CD program CD Computer Now you should see the contents of the program CD Double click on the SETUP files to start installation aoe Setup Follow the instructions as the Wizard guides you through the installation procedure To make the new virtual CD drives available in your system you have to restart the computer After restart you will see t
16. pdate the software If you still have questions please do not hesitate to contact us See the read me file for details on how to reach us
17. ram Its main window looks like this W Untitled Virtual CD 3 Editor 0 x Fie Edit View Help D 5 19 New Open Save Add Delete Create View Help e LJ Directory Files Adds audio tracks 00KB 4 oy Start by clicking on Add and then choose the type of element file directory or Add audio track you want to add to your custom CD Each option opens a dialog box for selecting specific element s In the example below an audio track is added Add audio track xil When you select a physical drive that contains a anor Rehan music CD the CD contents are shown here Select the desired track s Album Untitled The option to Store audio tracks in buffer is ee very useful if for example you want to create a virtual CD with tracks from different source CDs With this function selected the desired tracks are stored in buffer and you won t have to insert the source CD again when it comes time to actually write the virtual CD Store audio tracks in buffer In the next dialog you have to enter a name for the source CD x Enter unique and meaningful name for the CD Name Test CD Cancel This is essential so that the Editor knows which source CD is used at a given point in the writing process when crea ting the custom CD ma Once you have entered all the contents for your custom CD click on Cre
18. s the Windows CD Player in your Autostart group The first time you start Virtual CD by clicking on its icon on your desktop a Wizard starts that offers to help you create a virtual CD See below for details about selecting a source CD La Double click on the My Computer symbol on your desktop to view a list of Kg the available drives Computer Right click on the physical CD drive that contains your source CD File Edit View Favorites Tools i Browse with ACDSee 3 Floppy DT_MAIN C 0 708 Search 4 4 4 i 279 ag Ag mee Create a virtual CD Compact Disc Compact Disc Compact Disc 1 Control Add to Zip Eject Paste Create Shortcut Properties OOOOOOOO0 O0O00000000000wW00 2 This opens context sensitive menu to which Virtual CD has added the command Create a virtual CD Select this option to start the Image Wizard which guides you step by step through the creation of a virtual CD Click Next to select the source CD Choose the CD from which you want to create a virtual CD If the CD is not in the list insert the CD and click on Refresh to update the list Source Refresh Use binary search to determine CD size lt Back Cancel Help Select the source drive from the list box In this example we chose t
19. ss you should deactivate this option When you make a virtual CD the Image Wizard offers to Automatically create a directory for the new image file This is especially practical for music CDs since the image file will contain separate files for each audio track The VCD global settings give you the option of having this function activa ted automatically for all audio CDs lf the Start Wizard is active when you start VCD a window opens listing the main programs and fun ctions so you can choose where to begin The global setting lets you define whether this Wizard is active or not The option to Show Quick Start icon in System Tray lets you define whether this icon is added to your system tray By the way the Quick Start module is also responsible for the hotkey functions that automatically load virtual CDs so if you suppress it in the system tray these hotkeys will not work The Priority referred to in the last of the global settings defines how much processor time VCD is allowed to occupy while creating virtual CDs 17 18 Customer Support If you have any problems with Virtual CD we d like to ask that you check the manual yes the manual the on line Help and the continuously updated read me file under Start gt Programs gt Virtual CD 3 gt read me for assistance Up to date information about the program is posted our Web site at www virtualcd online com where you can also download any Service Packs we offer to u
20. the installation procedure that sets up Virtual CD Not only that the Help program starts automatically the first time you run the new installation Just for you impatient types we have developed the following 3 part Instant User s Guide 1 Install the software and restart your computer 2 Insert a CD from which you wish to create a virtual image 3 Double click on the Virtual CD icon on your Desktop The Virtual CD Wizard takes over from there guiding you through the program from creation to use of a virtual CD That s it Once you ve finished your new virtual CD can be used just like a real CD What is Virtual CD Virtual CD makes your CD ROM applications faster more portable and more convenient to use This is because it stores CDs on hard disks using highly efficient data compression techniques The first step is to create virtual CDs from your original CDs These are stored on your hard disk in container files also called images Then you simply load a virtual CD in a virtual CD drive You can add virtual CDs to your collection at any time or delete them whenever you like for example if you need to free up space on your hard disk Virtual CD significantly speeds up your CD based applications because they now run from your hard disk rather than from the much slower CD drive saves you the trouble of hunting for your CDs and constantly inserting and removing them from your computer e lets you use your
21. tion have already failed With the Correction 1 and Correction 2 copy methods this option has no effect and is automatically de activated Click on Next to continue The next window only opens if the source CD contains audio data the source is purely a data CD this and the next window are not shown so you can skip the next page or two of these instructions lt virtual CD 3 Image Wizard Audio track settings x Define the order of titles and select the audio track s you wish to write in the image file The numbers shown here correspond to the title numbers on the physical CD Artist Unknown Album Unknown Edit Title Time 4 Title_01 00 11 01 02 00 11 02 4 Title_03 00 07 03 This window shows all the songs or audio tracks that are on the source CD If you click on Next 11 now all tracks are included on the virtual CD Fi button You can exclude certain titles by selecting them from the list and clicking on the If you change your mind and want to include title you have excluded simply select it and click on b You can also use the arrow buttons to change the order of the audio tracks Click on Next to continue lt Virtual CD 3 Image Wizard Audio track settings x Define the settings for creating the audio track Audio recording method Digital Analog Store in buffer Audio for
22. w of copy methods Method Advantages Disadvantages Standard Fastest method Does not work with all CDs e Data can be compressed e Relatively fast e Data may be compressible NOL WOK Relatively slow A e Data cannot be compressed Not compatible with all CD drives e Not supported in Windows 2000 To save space on your hard disk select a Data compression method to reduce the size of your vir tual CD It is difficult to say exactly how much space can be saved in a given case Virtual CD gives you a rough estimate when you select a compression method When you use the Correction 2 copy method data cannot be compressed and this option is automatically deactivated With Correction 1 data compression may actually result in the data volume being enlarged rather reduced 50 we recommend de activating the compression for this copy method as well If the estimate given indicates only a slight reduction in data volume it s best not to use data com pression at all select None This is because data compression uses up processor capacity not only when you create the virtual CD but also every time you access it which can slow things down con siderably especially in older systems with processors that operate at lt 150 MHz or slower The option to Ignore defective sectors is useful if your source CD was created with defective sec tors This option should only be activated if attempts to create a virtual CD without this op
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