Fortres, Winselect, Cooler

[CB Lih]

  Actually, I'm only addressing Cooler. 

  I've been working with it for a couple months. Until recently that meant
working with Beta versions. I've gotten to like the program and intend to
use it with WinU on some of our public workstations. Once I got used to
its interface I found it easy enough to use. However, even the public
production package feels very much like Beta software. 

  There are some problems. One of the biggest is that it doesn't work with
Netscape 4.x. They plan to add 4.x compatiblity soon.  In the meantime
we're using v. 3.0.4. Another problem is that in the current release
there's a gaping hole in the security. The use of a common Win95 method of
quitting programs can easily unload Cooler. Cooler unloaded means there is
no protection. They are now aware of the problem and say they will get
back to me next week on how they're going to fix it.

  So why do I like it? I like its total control of menus and clickable
areas within a program. I use it to turn off some of netscape's buttons and
leave others on. I like the way I can compose a message that will notify
the user that a particular feature has been turned off. This should reduce
the amount of "Hey, Netscape is broken!" calls to the support staff.

  Another nice thing about this approach of using third party software
instead of system reconfiguration or command line modifications of
Netscape is that you can turn it off. It's simple to disarm (with a
password, of course) leaving you with a normal Win95 session to do any
necessary maintenance.

Hoping to help,

CB Lih
cblih at comp.uark.edu
Systems - University Libraries
University of Arkansas MULN
Fayetteville, AR  72701