                Letter Assigner v1.1.2
                for Microsoft® Windows® 95/98.
                (C) 2000  Vadim Burtyansky


             FREEWARE STATUS
             ---------------
   Letter Assigner is freeware. You may install and use it free of charge. ( For details see the file "License.txt" ).

             DESCRIPTION
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   Everybody who at least once connected a second hard disk drive to a computer or repartitioned a hard disk, knows how many problems may arise because of the non-customizable letter assignment performed by the operating system.

   Letter Assigner allows to assign any letter to any drive in the system ( with a few non-significant exceptions ). It gives the users of Microsoft® Windows® 95, Windows® 98 ( and probably, the future Windows® Millennium ) the freedom in choosing drive letters. It also includes command line utility that supports letter assignment for the MS-DOS® operating system ( v4.0 and higher ).

   Letter Assigner remebers drives by their serial numbers or by the labels, which provides protection against letter changes after repartitioning or connecting new drives. It also prevents non-bootable situations that may occur when Windows® directory is located on a drive other than C, and the drive changes its letter. ( It contains special mechanism for this purpose, including automatic correction of the files "msdos.sys", "winboot.ini", "config.sys" ).

   The easy, intuitive interface offers simple methods to choose letters, to move them from one drive to another and to view the free letter set. The main application window contains drive list  with detailed description of each drive ( like My Computer in the "details" mode, but with additional information: compression status, file system, serial number ). The special toolbar ( Letter Bar ) shows which letters are free and which are available. The user can simply drag a letter from the Letter Bar and drop on a drive, or drag a letter from one drive to another.

   Letter Assigner also allows to easily view and change device properties for each drive. It provides the direct way to invoke these properties by a simple double-click on the drive letter ( instead of going to the Control Panel / System / Device Manager and searching for the drive among all system devices ).

   There are certain limitations when the system contains compressed drives. The letters of the host drives ( the drives containing compressed volume files ) can not be changed, but the letters of the compressed drives can be changed. On the contrary, if the host drive and the compressed drive are swapped, the letter of the host can be changed, but the letter of the compressed drive can not be changed. You don't need to remember these limitations: the program automatically informs you if the assignment you choose can not be performed.

   Letter Assigner includes command line utility "letassig.exe" for MS-DOS®. It allows to assign drive letters when working in MS-DOS®. One of the possible advantages of this utility is simplification of the bootable diskette creation. Usually it is necessary to create a RAM drive using "ramdrive.sys" and copy "command.com" and some other files to that drive. However, it's impossible to predict the letter that the system assignes to that drive. Letter Assigner allows to assign any desired letter to RAM drive based on its label: "MS-RAMDRIVE".

             SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
             -------------------
   Letter Assigner requires Microsoft® Windows® 95 or Windows® 98. Its command line utility for MS-DOS® may be used with MS-DOS® version 4.0 and higher. 
   Disk space usage is minimal - less than 0.5 M ( not including the space for shared DLLs ).

           INSTALLATION / UINSTALLATION
           --------------------------
   Unpack the downloaded zip archive to a temporary folder of your choice and run "setup.exe". 
After installation you can delete all setup files.
   Uninstallation is also a standard process. You can go to the "Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs", or you can choose "Uninstall" menu item from the "Letter Assigner" submenu in the Programs menu.

           DISTRIBUTION
           ------------
   Letter Assigner may be freely distributed in any way, copied, published on the Internet software archives, public FTP servers etc., provided that it is not modified, and the original files remain intact.

           CONTACT INFORMATION
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To visit Letter Assigner home page, use the following address:
   http://www.bigfoot.com/~vadbrtn
It will redirect you to the most recent location of the home page. Its current location is:
   http://www.v72735.f2s.com/LetAssig/
The author may be contacted via E-mail:   vadbrtn@bigfoot.com

           TRADEMARKS
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Microsoft, Windows and MS-DOS are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
