FileView v0.1 Install Information
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Okay, here goes!

As this is a pre-alpha super early demonstration release, the bells and whistles not only haven't been implemented, they haven't even been conceived yet...so don't expect miracles ;-)

For a start, there's no installer - so if you have difficulty following instructions and would rather just click on buttons, this isn't for you - wait for the final version.  With that said, the manual install isn't terribly hard.

The first limitation with this version is that you can't choose where you want to install it.  It *must* go in "C:\Program Files\FileView" - it will have to be recompiled to get it to work in another directory, however this shouldn't be a problem for most (it doesn't matter whether you dual boot or have a different version of Windows on C: or whatever.)  The reason for this is that the plugin directory is hard-coded for "C:\Program Files\FileView\plugins"

Procedure
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So, step one is to move everything you extracted into "C:\Program Files\FileView" - you only really need to move the .DLL and the "plugins" folder, but for simplicity's sake and to keep everything together, you might as well just move everything you extracted from the ZIP.

When you've done that, double-click "FileView.reg" to merge it into the registry - and that should be it!  You'll probably find that Windows Explorer won't realise what has happened, so you can double-click on "shrefrsh.exe" which will basically give Explorer a prod and tell it to wake up ;-)

Usage
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Now you can go find some files to open!  Also keep in mind that some (invalid format) files *may* cause Explorer to crash, but I've tried to stop this from happening - but hey, it's a pre-alpha version - what did you expect???  If however, you do find a file that keeps crashing Explorer, please let me know (but please don't e-mail it to me unless it's a very small file!)

If you come across a file that has a supported extension but is an invalid format, it won't have a folder-type icon - and if you try to open it, an error message is supposed to be displayed, but most of the time this doesn't seem to work - I hope to fix it eventually.

Add your own formats! (later)
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Yes, each format is supported by plugins.  Yes, you will be able to write your own plugins (and are encouraged to do so!)  No, I can't tell you how just yet as the plugin interface is going to change a lot as I add some new features and I wouldn't want you to have to scrap your plugin and start again.

Once the plugin interface has been finalised however, I will definately be releasing C++ source code for some of the plugins.  If you don't know C++ and still want to write a plugin in another language, unfortunately I can't help you - it's probably possible, but I wouldn't know where to start.

If you have information on a format and would like someone else to write a plugin (like me) then let me know and I'll see what I can do.  But I probably won't be writing any more plugins until I get the interface finalised.
